How far have manufacturers come in connecting the product digital thread from design through manufacturing? How mature is the integration of data in the two primary systems supporting engineering and production? We interviewed over 200 large manufacturers to answer those questions and many more.
Please enjoy an overview of our findings, below. For the full research, please visit our sponsor, Kalypso.
Table of Contents
- Mixed Maturity and Room for Improvement
- Integrating Product Lifecycle Data is Critical
- Why Integrate PLM and MES Data?
- The Business Value of PLM-MES Integration
- Business Value Achieved
- Poor Integration Impacts Operations
- Poor Integration Erodes Business Value
- Integrating PLM and MES is Challenging
- PLM-MES Integration Maturity
- PLM-MES Integration Approach
- PLM-MES Integrating Timing
- Time for Manufacturing to Access PLM Data
- Providing Access to PLM Data
- Process Planning Access to Product and Process Data
- Data Integrated from PLM to MES
- Data Integrated from MES to PLM
- Integration Ground Zero: Change Management
- Data Governance Maturity
- Key Takeaways
- About the Research
- Acknowledgments
Mixed Maturity and Room for Improvement
Investing in PLM-MES Integration
Today’s manufacturers need to rapidly bring high-quality products to market despite rising product complexity. One way they can do this is by improving the quality and timeliness of their digital thread data and enabling better collaboration between engineering and manufacturing. The challenges and impacts of a disconnected product digital thread caused by poor PLM – MES integration hampers that ability.
Mixed Messages on the Status Quo
Our survey of over 200 complex, discrete manufacturers with revenues greater than $500 million that have implemented both Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) systems shows relatively low integration maturity. Only about one in five companies in our study demonstrates truly mature PLM-MES integration across the areas assessed. Very few have adopted the advanced practices needed to fully connect the digital thread from engineering through manufacturing.
The results, however, suggest that “average” respondents have adopted more advanced processes than one might expect. We believe this is because the survey participants reflect larger, more advanced companies based on the targeted industries, company size, and level of system adoption. Based on our experience, this audience is more likely to have adopted advanced practices than the average manufacturer.
Clear Opportunity for Improvement
Despite the somewhat optimistic state of the average respondents, the survey points to clear room for improvement. Manufacturers that have integrated MES are achieving the product quality and time-to-market advantages they seek, among other valuable benefits. PLM – MES integration yields benefits even when companies don’t achieve the highest level of maturity. But manufacturers still have a long way to go to create a closed-loop, model-based digital thread between engineering and manufacturing.
Why Integrate PLM and MES Data?
Improve Data
Researchers asked participants about their objectives for PLM – MES integration. The top reasons primarily reflect the value of data. About two-thirds say they target higher quality data. In addition to data quality, over one-half are seeking more timely information. Better, more timely data leads to better decisions and better performance in the plant. It also improves efficiency, because people who have access to trusted information don’t have to spend time gathering and validating information from others.
Improve Collaboration
Manufacturers are also turning to PLM – MES integration to enable better collaboration. The third most commonly reported goal is better collaboration and DFX (design for excellence). DFX helps engineers design for manufacturing, cost, quality, reliability, and other product performance metrics by working better together across disciplines to get products right up front.
Another 41% say they want to be able to work in parallel or adopt concurrent design. This allows manufacturers to develop and collaborate on manufacturing processes based on early product design data. This can help improve speed, with the added benefit of allowing engineering to receive early, collaborative feedback on the downstream impacts of their decisions.
Fuel Analytics and AI
Another way better data supports improved performance and decision-making is by enabling better product and production intelligence. About one-half of respondents are pursuing this, reporting they aim to support their analytics and AI initiatives through PLM – MES integration. This value is highly strategic given the current high priority of AI initiatives.
Key Takeaways
Maturity Varies
PLM – MES integration maturity varies. About one in five has highly mature integration, including:
- Seamless integration
- Synchronizing data
- Flagging changes automatically
- Integration of more advanced design data from PLM
- Integration of manufacturing process data from MES
- Data governance by a committee of interested parties
Beyond these companies, about one-half reported somewhat mature processes. The industry has made progress in integrating the digital thread.
Digital Thread Integration Drives Business Values
Companies report significant business challenges from poor PLM – MES connection and turn to integration for a variety of important business goals. Despite the broad range of integration maturity, success rates for digital thread integration are high. Most businesses are achieving their goals, and almost all those that have not yet achieved them believe they will still achieve them.
Room for Improvement
Despite sharing optimistic levels of maturity and integration across the different aspects of PLM – MES integration, manufacturers reported relatively low maturity in the one process examined in more detail, engineering change management. Although most companies say they have at least somewhat integrated engineering and manufacturing data, over three-quarters still need to run reports or manually look up information for change impact analysis.
This example shows that the vast majority of manufacturers can continue to improve value by adopting more mature practices. PLM – MES data integration should continue to be a high-priority investment for manufacturers.
Further, this report focused on complex, discrete manufacturers with over $500 million in annual revenue. This sample likely represents an advanced set of manufacturers, and smaller companies likely have less mature practices. These companies can follow the examples and best practices adopted by these larger manufacturers.
*This summary is an abbreviated version of the ebook and does not contain the full content. For the full research, please visit our sponsor, Kalypso.
If you have difficulty obtaining a copy of the research, please contact us.
