Product lifecycle management (PLM) is not so much a solution as a business strategy or approach for managing the process flow from the design and engineering of a product through production control, supply-chain management and distribution, and on to after-sales service, spare-part logistics, overhaul and feedback reporting. It spans the entire product lifecycle, integrating people, processes, business systems and information.
The goal is to lower the cost of developing new products, improve product quality, bring them to market faster and so ensure they meet customer needs better, cut the cost of managing suppliers, and reduce project overruns, workarounds and failures.
One of PLM`s strongest selling points is enhanced collaboration.
Paul Whalley, MD, IFS South Africa
For the most part, PLM is used by manufacturers such as those in the automotive, aviation, hi-tech and apparel industries, but the solution can also be useful for construction firms and other companies that deal with complex designs.
In addition to delivering a seamless flow of all the information produced throughout all phases of a product`s lifecycle to everyone in an organisation, PLM also holds the promise of extending that flow to key suppliers and customers, though initial implementations tend to be internally focused.
For example, a car manufacturer can reduce the time it takes to introduce new models in a number of ways. Product engineers can shorten the cycle of implementing and approving engineering changes across an extended design chain. It can also save money in the product-development process by encouraging engineers to make smarter decisions about which parts should be "standard" and which should be custom designed.
It also enables buyers to work more effectively with suppliers to reuse parts. And executives can take a high-level view of all important product information, from details of the manufacturing line, to parts failure rates from information generated from warranty data and other information collected in the field.
ERP embraces PLM functionality
New generation enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions, particularly those focused on the manufacturing sectors, are now embracing PLM functionality whereas previously they have been predominately best-of-breed products requiring extensive integration with ERP systems and a siloed database. But as PLM has evolved to include the entire enterprise, coexistence and ease of integration with other point solutions and enterprise applications for product information and operations is so important.
One of PLM`s strongest selling points is enhanced collaboration. Applications need to support total product configuration management - that is, knowing what is delivered to whom and when - as well as collaboration throughout the enterprise, enabling you to reuse and share information and do everything right from the beginning.
Product information has to be automatically managed and updated for each product phase. For example, creating a manufacturing bill of material (BOM) automatically based on the engineering BOM.
As an extension of ERP, which was initially designed to handle primarily transactional data, PLM, comprising a set of interconnected modules, each of which addresses a specific function, takes extended ERP into the management of all the unstructured data associated with product design and manufacture.
Because the foundation of most products today is the computer-aided design (CAD) data, that typically is the starting point for PLM, but the concept goes way beyond drawings to provide, for example, a digital, collaborative project environment that allows computer-based design to extend well beyond one person`s desktop to those of suppliers and customers so that post-design input can be considered.
Similarly, PLM software can also facilitate the optimal manufacturing process with mechanical designers and engineers undertaking virtual manufacturing workflows to determine the most efficient process to implement.
It also impacts finance, sales, manufacturing and service groups, all of whom can use product information such as unit cost and service history as part of a future decision-making process by pinpointing waste or excessive spending on aspects such as research and development.
Obviously the financial constraints most manufacturers currently operate under preclude any Big Bang multimillion-rand PLM project. Rather focus needs to be directed at getting rapid results from incremental point solutions. This is where extended ERP with its componentised modular implementation approach is typically a better road to take than implementing different best-of-breed solutions with all their associated integration problems and the risk of dead-end technologies.
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