What I learned this week … is based on a post in Vuuch Voice. The post, People Centric PLM – A New PLM Age Is Born, really made me think. I don’t know where Chris Williams got the picture, but I don’t think it looks like him at all. Well, maybe a little. After recovering from the shock of the picture, I really started thinking about whether social computing in PLM requires a reinvention of PLM, or whether we are talking about augmenting the capabilities that PLM already provides?
Product Development
Should You “Exnovate” your Product Portfolio?
What I learned this week … came from a blog entry by Paul Hobcraft on Innovation Tools asking “What is ‘exnovation’ and where does it fit in the innovatin life cycle?” I found “exnovation” an intriguing term and an interesting concept. And then, as usual, I tried to think about how manufacturers could apply it to their product lifecycles to enhance product profitability.
Why is Implementing PLM Hard?
What I learned this week … is that there are still some technical challenges that make implementing PLM challenging, but that is not what this post is about. The technical challenges include customization, data migration, and integration among others. See Oleg’s post on the “3 main factors of mainstream PLM adoption” for more detail on each of these, and his views on why these three factors impact the adoption rate of PLM. I accept Oleg’s premise on these factors (although we will likely continue to debate the relative priority of ERP integration) from a technical perspective. But I think any technical conversation about PLM implementation has to be complemented with a view on why PLM is really hard – you have to change the way people work in order to improve your product development performance and your product profitability.
What can PLM Learn from Social Computing on TV?
What I learned this week … was sparked by a small article by Jennifer LeClaire at newsfactor.com. The article was short and sweet, and announced that Verizon Adds Social Networking To FiOS TV Service. So other than the fact that I like FIOS and this points to further consolidation between TV and multi-media computing (which I think is both cool and invetible), why did I care? It reminded me that social computing is a capability, and that how you apply it – and in what context – can turn it into something very unique. That is what Verizon is starting to do with their TV service, and exactly what the PLM community needs to do with social computing in product development.
Research Rap: Are Engineers Social? Online They Are!
A quick peek into some research on … how active engineers are with social networks. While attending the PROuser conference, I heard Robin Saitz of PTC talk about a study that they commissioned Forrester Research to develop. The goal of the study was to better understand how active PTC’s customers are in social networks. The results surprised me and they didn’t, it turns out that engineers and product developers are very active with social computing!
