I had the chance to talk with … Siemens PLM a couple of times in response to my post on Quality Lifecycle Management titled Expanding PLM’s Pervue – Quality and Risk Management. I had a good conversation with the Siemens team about their offering. It is interesting, takes a bit of a unique approach, and I think it is worth talking about
Manufacturing
Unlock My Product Data! Business Intelligence in PLM
A quick peek into some research on … the use of business intelligence in PLM provides insight on taking advantage of the tremendous amount of product data accumulating in today’s PLM systems. The research discusses how the maturation of manufacturers’ PLM implementations has created a tremendous volume of untapped information that can be leveraged to improve product innovation, product development, and engineering performance. As it has in previous enterprise applications (ERP, CRM, SCM, others), the time has come for manufacturers to tap into their growing information goldmines through the use of business intelligence (BI) tools.
Single Bill of Material – Holy Grail or Pipe Dream?
What I learned this week … is a thought sparked by a post in the Daily PLM Think Tank on Engineering and Manufacturing Data Management back in 1992. The post isn’t from 1992, but Oleg was re-reading some books from that time and commented on some issues that the manufacturing industry is still struggling with after 17 years of progress. I know there are strong proponents of the single bill of material (BOM) concept, but I wonder if we will every really get there and whether we haven’t made some really good progress managing bills of material with different perspectives. And maybe, just maybe, there is an easier way.
Digital Prototypes – Yes. But for a Manufacturing Plant?
A quick peek into some research on … the use of digital prototyping techniques and technologies to design (and redesign) efficient manufacturing plants. Most of the times I discuss “digital prototyping” it regards products. But the same concepts apply when using digital prototyping in the plant – namely using digital models to increase design efficiency and get designs right the first time. Today I am happy to share my new report with you, Digital Prototyping in the Plant: Improving Manufacturing Agility with the Digital Factory.
A Compliance Wake Up Call for Manufacturers
What I learned this week … came from a post that I found in a Consumer Reports blog. The article, Tailgating Alert: Gasoline-powered blender banned by California Air Resources Board could have come out of the Onion because it is pretty over the top (who needs a blender with handlebars!?). But the punch line is not funny for the manufacturer in Phoenix, who probably had no idea that they were violating a California law and got slapped with a $240,00 fine.
