business technology june 2011

8/6/2019 Business Technology June 2011

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Building the uture Page 7

Managing products from inception to markethas got tougher. Find out how it’s done in thisreport on product life-cycle management

Circle o li e

Made to measure Green machinesPage 5 Pag

PLM is helpingmanufacturers managetheir eco reputation

June

BusinessTechnology Distributed within the Daily Telegraph,produced and published by Lyonsdown whtakes sole responsibility or the contents

The fashion world issharing data and design toget goods to market faster

Product life-cyclemanagementtechnology has much tooffer building design



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John Pullin Pro eneering ,Construction News The

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Business Technology J 2011 an independent report rom lyonsdown, distributed with the daily telegrap

Foreword2

using the knowledge rom the whole com-pany, its suppliers and customers to drive therequirement or product development.”

In ormation about products – not just designdata, but about how they’re made and used, andwhat customers really think o them – has o entended to be stored in many places and manysystems, and not to be integrated. PLM is theway to achieve this in line with business goals.

“As a consultancy, we think that it is impor-tant to look rst at what is needed or thebusiness as a whole and at how systems andprocesses can be integrated, rather thantrying to replace everything with a ‘PLM solu-tion’ that imposes it own demands,” Hehl says.

Karer Consulting is an i ndependent consul-tancy and its expertise lies in designing andunderstanding existing processes, systems,data ows and inter aces within a business

For Christian Hehl, managing director oKarer Consulting in the UK, product li e-cyclemanagement (PLM) is more than just a set oso ware and a business tool: it’s a philosophy.

“It’s one o the thr ee major processeswithin a company, alongside supply chainmanagement and customer relationshipmanagement,” he says. “When a businessuses PLM ully it has to understand all theprocesses that are connected to the product.”

This ocus on the processes surround-ing the product is not always what t he PLMsuppliers themselves are o ering, Hehl says.Early adopters in industries such as aerospaceand automotive, he believes, o en oundthat the PLM solution they bought drove theprocesses – rather than the business processes

driving the way the PLM was brought in.In these cases, product ocus tended o en to

be limited to the design and development phaseand was not suited to handling inputs rom otherkey people, such as procurement, manu actur-ing and service departments, or even rom thecustomers or the product or service.

“I you have the philosophy that PLMis one o the major processes within t hecompany and you take the time to design theinter aces with the customers and with thesupply chain properly, then you can get realcustomer and service data eedback into R&D,design and engineering,” Hehl says. “You are

The heart of the matter

PLM is not an added extra.It is an essential elemento product developmentbecause it ties everyother process together

Product li e-cycle management should become a way

o li e across the business argues Karer Consulting

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the manu acturing community, even at boardlevel. Nevertheless, it is now moving rom bigplayers to smaller rms along the supply chain.

Some say: “PLM is not actually so warebut a philosophy or business process re-engineering.” Actual ly it’s a way o sorting thevast amounts o in ormation shared along thesupply chain throughout the product or processli e-cycle.

Though pioneered by the automotive in-dustry, aerospace and de ence, PLM has majorimplications or the development o everyth ing

rom Crossrail , the new railway or London andthe south-east, to the latest pharmaceuticals,consumer packaged goods and much else

By Brian Davis

Design engineers have come a long way romthe drawing board, through computer-aideddesign and manu acture, to product datamanagement and now product li e-cyclemanagement (PLM).

PLM helps turn chaos into order or han-dling the in ormation avalanche involved increating new products and processes, manu ac-ture, support and disposal. PLM increasinglyplays a vital role in creating the latest cars,gizmos, aircra carriers, energy in rastructureand even the clothes we wear.

The concept is still little understood outside

Order out o chaosPioneered by the car and aerospace industries, product li e-cycle management is now in uencing the development o everything rom pharmaceuticals to the clothes we wear

besides. PLM is a big vision but requires majorculture change and board level commitmentto avoid costly mistakes. As we increasinglyoutsource design and manu acture to partnersacross the world, PLM is vital or sharingproduct and process in ormat ion with “a singleversion o the truth”.

The vendors promise that PLM wil l get newproducts aster-to-market, improve qualityand compliance, and give competitive edge.The big success is in the auto-industry wherecompanies like Nissan have slashed the cycle

or new model introduction rom years to 10.5months using PLM.

However, most companies admit PLM is notan easy journey and there is a steep learningcurve. The trick is to have a clear vision othe goal and take small steps. PLM is aboutbusiness trans ormation – but we all know howmost people resist change!

Product li e-cycle management – in th

and how PLM ideas can improve them: gettingunder the skin o its clients to identi y their

individual needs.Karer Consulting’s customers include some

o the biggest names in European business,such as Siemens, the SICK group and Zumto-bel, whose UK brand is Thorn Lighting, as wellas smaller companies. Over the past 15 years,it has helped its clients to design and imple-ment PLM solutions such as Siemens PLMTeamcenter, PTC Windchill and SAP.

“The client’s input and experience arecentre-stage, and we can look at how thesecompanies are doing their business nowand provide our expertise in best practiceto help them,” says Hehl.

“They are the important peoplehave to do what is right or them an

products. But because we are indepand rom outside the company, webroader view and help them do whthat serves their business process b

Supporting and enhancing the bprocess is the important di erencecan make, Hehl believes. And thatphilosophy or success that appliemanu acturing, but much wider.

“I can see the ideas PLM bringsinto service areas,” Hehl says. “Anwould bene t.”

www.karer.com

Karer Consulting’s Process Re erence Model

Sponsors



Business TechnologyJ 2011an independent report rom lyonsdown, distributed with the daily telegraph

E fcie

By Brian Davis

PLM is like that c lassic elephant and the blindmen joke. Some eel around and th ink it’sabout ast product design and sexy. Anotherswears it’s about competitive edge. Somethink it’s hard and another swears it makesthem greener or more in ormed with partners.Some think it smells bad – but they probablydidn’t plan it properly.

“We understood what 3D design coulddo or the business and wanted to expandthe scope, as PLM records every aspec t o aproduct and process with detailed documen-tation or its entire li e-cycle,” says RichardParker, engineering manager at SPP Pumps.“PLM helped stitch the whole picture togetherwhere previously we had used a combination

o di erent computer-aided design (CAD)systems and email. As a long establishedcompany, we’d got over 300,000 drawings,some going back 40 years.”

SPP invested £250,000 in a PLM systemrom PTC, based on Windchill and Pro/E

(now Creo Elements Pro) so ware. As with

any business, resistance to change could beenormous. “So I ocused on areas under mycontrol, then rolled it out once I could showthe bene ts and give others the con denceto engage with it,” says Parker.

He won over the board by showing thecon usion created by the old system in whichmasses o email les with multiple attach-ments clogged people’s inboxes. Now there’sone central vault o in ormation or ast, easyaccess, and excellent documentation at everystage.

In 2006 Bentley Motors began discussions

No one size fts all

on how to deploy PLM.“We asked over 160 people across the

business whether PLM was the digital monsterit was reputed to be,” says CAD strategy man-ager John Unsworth. “PLM is not somethingyou buy o -the-shel but a care ul balancebetween people, processes and requirements.”

They mapped out 11 key initiatives orPLM, covering everything rom stylingdata integration, supply chain optimisation,visualisation, improved data, manu actur-ing integration, dimensional and tolerancemanagement to re-using knowledge. The aimwas to eliminate vast amounts o waste romstyling to manu acture with everything inone database “so decisions could be madewhen they matter”.

Bentley clearly understood the recipe

or success. “We realigned all our businessprocesses,” says Unsworth. “Th is tookmassive re-education and 18 months ohard work.”

Deploying Dassault Systèmes’ Catia V5and Delmia solutions produced a signi cantreduction in late engineering changes andPLM now integrates styling with supply chainplanning and a er-sales.

Volvo sees an opportunity to make signi -cant reductions in a product’s time to marketby using PLM. PLM director Johan Svedbergemphasises the need or a clear strategybe ore executing PLM. “It is vital to nd theright balance between local needs and whatyou need to have in common with the overallgroup,” he says.

Using a PTC solution with in-house dataarchitectu re, PDMLink and ProjectLink,

Volvo will be able to optimise how it usesresources with a common architecture acrossthe group, driving down production costs,increasing exibility and accelerating newproduct introduction.

Kevin Ison, EMEA manu acturing market-ing director at Autodesk, maintains that:“You don’t have to embrace PLM al l at one go.”In act, he says, Autodesk was very wary othe term PLM until recently.

“We pre er to ocus on the bene ts odigital prototyping and associated solutionslike Vault Collaboration, which can link multi-ple sites to a single database or small businessenterprises, connecting to an ERP [enterpriseresource planning] system.”

Portakabin uses Autodesk 3D Inventor andVault to look a er product data and mult iplerevisions with ull t raceability over the

li e-cycle o bespoke construction projects.Director o engineering Ian MacKenzie says:“We needed a single re erence point romconcept, through con guration to disposal,whether supplying modules or schools,hospitals or whatever.”

PLM gives more design exibility, betterinteraction with clients and competitiveadvantage, he says, but admits: “We don’tactually use t he term PLM as labels aren’timportant and many have never heard o it.”

Like the blind men and the elephant. It’snot the name that matters but t he bene tsyou get rom dealing with it.

every part based on its shape, rather thanits description. In act , some users begin bycreating a Shape-Space and realise that thedon’t need to go or ull-blown PLM solut– ShapeSpace o ers such e ciencies that itcould be all you need.

We are con dent that ShapeSpace’s untionality and analytical results will impresyou. So much so that – or a limited time –

will come to your site, create a partsanalysis o your inventory using

ShapeSpace, and produce a report demonstrating the valuo a permanent installation.

To arrange a ree ShapeSpparts analysis call 0800 988 55or visit the website.

www.shapespace.com

Imagine an organisation with thousands oproducts broken down into tens o thou-sands o parts. Now consider their drawingsrepository, all tagged with non-uni ormdescriptions and part numbers, o en sharedacross several departments and o ces.

What a nightmare! How do they nd aspeci c part in a hurry? Hope the descriptionwas entered intuitively? Rely on the accuracyo the part number? What about duplicates –aren’t they costly and con using?

ShapeSpace solves the problem. Shape-Space is a unique 3D search engine whichenables you to re-organise, re-catalogue anderadicate duplicates in your massive draw-ings archive in hours. A task that could have

taken months i per ormedmanually will allow ration-alisation, reduce search timeto seconds and enable youto cross-re erence duplicateparts. The e ciencies andsavings produced mean thatthe return on investmentcan be achieved in days.

ShapeSpace is a greatrst step in success ul PLM

implementation. It ensuresyou will know, and can easily locate,

Do your detective work in 3DThe 3D technology o ShapeSpace reduces search

time in your archive to seconds by locating any partbased on its shape, rather than description

Some users begin bycreating a ShapeSpaceand realise that theydon’t need to go or ull-blown PLM solutions

PLM helped stitch thewhole picture togetherwhere previously we hadused a combination o di erent computer-aideddesign systems and email

It looks di erent rom company to company but, properly deployed,PLM can save time, money and e ort in a variety o business contexts

Portakabin uses PLM or bespoke projects

Using PLM reduces late engineering changes

Industry vi




Industry view4

rom an entirely manual creative processand embrace so ware that can help themcontrol garment development rom design toproduction.

Managing changeToday’s extensive supply chains pose sig-ni cant communication problems. Garmentsand collections are designed in one countryand made in another, in places as ar apart asChina, Romania and India that don’t neces-sarily share the same language, methodologyor work patterns. “PLM so ware can signi -cantly impact th is level o the developmentprocess,” Harari points out. “It allows globalcompanies to work in multiple languages,while at the same time imposing standardisa-

tion across the supply chain, to reduce errorand acilitate communication.”Lectra Fashion PLM was developed to

support brands, retailers and manu acturersin the twenty- rst century. “The PLM processencompasses the whole development cycle,

rom raw materials to design and engineeringto production. Lectra Fashion PLM is col-laborative and spans all the phases necessaryto product development,” says Gnaedig.“Integrated CAD application so waremakes product design, pattern-making, andprototyping, rom the initia l creative idea toproduction, a smoother process.”

anticipate trends; ever-shorter seasons. PLMprovides the ramework that supplies both thedata or in ormed decision-making and thetools or strategic change.

Collection development, speed-to-marketand variety, and the challenges o a globalmarket must be balanced to deliver productsas ast as possible. PLM reduces administra-tive work, leaving designers ree to do whatthey do best – design.

However, the apparel industry still st rug-gles to accept technology in design. Manymajor companies are reluctant to move away

PLM constitutes a power ul strcollaboration. “Data exists in a sinthat can be instantly accessed by evmatter where changes are made,” sdig. This single database is exibleto apply changes at any time througremaining phases o production dwithout danger o anyone workingdated speci cations.

Lectra’s ashion experience beFrench couture houses working wmakers at Chanel, Yves Saint LaurDior. They built on this exper tise t

ull PLM suite t hat not only acilidevelopment, but also serves as an asset database. The database contaentire memory o a brand, the touc

and eel. It can be used to guide bunew direction without harming thecore values.

Lectra Fashion PLM is currentby global brands such as Mango inand Country Road in Australia. Pa power ul tool or strategic busidirect ion as well as or day-to-dament. It provides a solid oundatiimplementing change in an industevolving at a bewildering pace. “Pabout change management,” Hara“It is a very e cient way to adapt aand share.”

A big di erence exists between making a carand making a garment, but today’s apparelindustry bene ts rom technology honedin the automotive sector. Product li e-cyclemanagement (PLM) is trans orming the waysome ashion companies manage their devel-opment process. It can help companies o allsizes and specialities con ront the challengeso a market in constant evolution.

Daniel Harari, CEO o Lectra, the ashionsolutions specialist, explains how the apparelindustry’s tendency toward more ashion,

aster, orces companies to innovate morequickly. Consumers want the latest ashionwhen it is most ashionable, but this impliesmore than good timing: clothes also have to bethe right colour, size, t, and cut.

And it is not just how ast new models

are introduced or in how many variationsthat counts. Today the idea o co-ordinationreigns. Individual pieces exist in relation tothe greater vision o a collection. Companiesmust there ore o er a range o options withan astonishing number o combinations.Everything i s designed to t together, romcolours to sizes to accessories, thus generatingthe need to buy multiple items.

Anticipating trendsAs global brands acquire new markets, theoptions they must o er increase in bothquantity and complexity; new customer basesmean more diverse body shapes. “Fitting isvery complex – bodies throughout the worldvary in shape, so one size de nitely does not

t all,” says Judy Gnaedig, head o PLM busi-ness development at Lectra.

As companies con ront the unique needso their new global markets, they must alsorespond to local concerns. Fit and colourstandards can vary as much within a singlecountry as they do internationally. Stayingup-to-date and being able to integrate thisin ormation into new designs determines abrand’s pertinence.

The ashion industry is no stranger tochanging design trends. It copes well with

uctuating hemlines and shoulder pads thatare chic one minute and laughable the next.But now ashion must con ront change onmany timescales: a development processspread across hemispheres; the urgency to

For ashion companies, speed and agility are not easy to maintain across extensive supplychains. Product li e-cycle management helps them handle complexity in a demanding market

When ashion goes high-tech

A single database enables changes throughout production

Fashion is embracing technology in design




Fash

to maintain quality and to reduce cost:“Basically, you have less time to do somethingthat’s a lot more complicated,” says SusanOlivier, apparel industry specialist at PLMsupplier Dassault Systèmes.

Some complexities are inherent in ashion.Clothes have to look and eel right on a rangeo human anatomies, as well as ul lling theirspeci c unct ion. Even airly basic items havea lot o individual components, probably madeby di erent suppliers and all needing to beco-ordinated in colour and avai lability. Thereare lots o di erent sizes, matching items tobring together and a complex distributionoperation involving retail outlets in everytown and every country.

What PLM o ers ashion companies, sayall the vendors, is the ability to handle thesevariables and impose control over the many

people involved in the process worldwide.For each garment – or shoe or that matter,

because the same th ings apply in ootwear too– the central concept is o “a single version othe truth”. This means having a central

le that contains up-to-date detailsboth o the product itsel and othe project to bring everythingtogether on a retailer’s rail. PLM, thevendors say, is t he only system thatcan do this.

But what kind o PLM? Gnaedigat Lectra insists that ashion and ap-parel goods are di erent rom carsand planes. “The principles are thesame but what we are constructingis so di erent. Each season we’reconstructing hundreds o t-shirtsand trousers and they’re all

di erent and in di erent coloursand sizes too. We have to approachPLM rom a abric point o view.”

King at Gerber identi es di er-ences in the design phase, wherecreative tools ar removed romthose used in engineering are the rule.“It’s very di erent the speed with whichyou take a sketched-out concept and then getdown to the nitty-gritt y o how many but-tons, what size and where,” she says.

But i specialist suppliers are strong, thenthe PLM companies with a background inmanu acturing such as Dassault Systèmes,Siemens and PTC are there too. Fashion isvery much the chic area o PLM to be in.Who wouldn’t want to be ashionable?

By John Pullin

We’re all ashionistas these days, and keepingus a la mode is a complex business.

Typically we want new clothes in our size,our shape, our style, in the latest colours, tomatch or mix, and we want t hem now. Andnext week or next month, we’ll want some-thing else, new and di erent.

The business is complex, competitive andcut-throat. I the ashion chains get it wrong,the customers go elsewhere, probably just a

ew minutes later, to somewhere else alongthe high st reet or to another website.

This combination o complexity andcompetitiveness is why PLM vendors see the

ashion and apparel sector as one o today’sbig growth targets. They reckon their systemscan handle it.

Insiders date big changes in the ashionbusiness to around 10 years ago when globalbrands using the internet to manage world-wide supply chains developed the concept

o ast ashion. “Traditionally, there used tobe two, maybe our, ashion seasons a year:summer, winter, maybe spring and autumntoo,” says Elizabeth King, executive directoro so ware products at ashion PLM specialistGerber. “Now there are at least 12.”

Alongside this came an explosion inretailing opportunities and greater consumerexpectation. “Consumers said they wantedmore newness on the high street and thatthey wanted to be able to buy a bikini atChristmas,” says Judy Gnaedig, head o PLMbusiness development or another ashionindustry specialist, Lectra.

The changes had the e ect o squeezingtimescales while stretching supply chains in asector where there were continual pressures

In a ast-paced ashion industry using PLMto get products to market is the new chic

Systems that are dressed to kill

The business is complex,competitive and cut-throat.I the ashion chains getit wrong, the customersgo elsewhere, probably just a ew minutes later

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Medal winning technology




Industry view6

at an executive level – rom a vendor who isuent in ashion.

They have chosen to see their businessclearly with Visual PLM.Net.

Deploying the latest technology and theunparalleled insights o a team o industry

experts, Visua l PLM.Net is a u ser- riendly,end-to-end solution speci cal ly engineered

or the clothing industry.Whether it’s providing a granular manage-

ment overview o worldwide business or anintuitive, exible day-to-day developmentenvironment, Visual PLM.Net works seam-lessly and transparently at every stage o theproduct li e-cycle.

A broad range o capabilities means that

users to see every part o their data stream.It gives garment makers the power to turnmountains o raw in ormation into rel iable,concise data – the kind o data you need tomake the right decisions about design,production and marketing o your products.

Above all, VerTex PLM creates a com-munications ramework bringing the entirework orce together to collaborate e ectively.Unresolved issues are agged in real-time soaction can be t aken be ore a problem becomesa crisis. In short, VerTex eliminates t he moststress ul and costly data control problems inthe ashion supply chain.

VerTex was created speci cally or t heashion industry, so it is Mac-compatible and

In a competitive market product developmentis inevitably tied to pro tability. Fashiondemands the rapid delivery o new productsand the realities o business dictate t hatthey are designed, sourced and sold in moremarkets than ever be ore.

When it comes to managing this globalin ormation and supply network, insightis everything. To remain competitive in adi cult climate, companies o every stripehave come to consider product li e-cyclemanagement (PLM) as a vital tool or criticallyexamining and streamlining their business.

Properly chosen, a PLM solution can sup-

port collaborative working and data sharingacross distributed teams, speeding up thedesign iterations and complex processes thatare vital to creating the best possible productsand simultaneously reducing cost and time tomarket.

The right PLM solution is internet-based,intuitive and interoperable. The right vendoris one who understands your business.

This year, major European retailersand brands have ollowed more than 400companies in the North American marketin choosing a solution that marr ies peerlesspower and accessibility – on the ground and

Management Systems (BMS). “Fashion brandsno longer have the luxury o time – a typicalproduct li e-cycle used to be 12 months. Nowit is less than a year and it will soon be just sixmonths.

“Our VerTex product l i e-cycle manage-ment so ware brings the whole process undercontrol rom the initial concept, to market-ing,” Kogan explains. “It takes the pain out oplanning and orecasting. It tracks every ele-ment, rom linings to buttons. It manages the

t process, creates a range o sizes, stream-lines production and handles shipping.”

Bringing a ashion product to market can bea logistical struggle. Most manu acturers relyon a diverse supply chain that o en involvesseveral countries. They must adhere tovarious labour, material, and environmental

regulations at every step in the process.Without a concise way to deal with themountains o data that are created in theprocess, it is easy to slide into pure c haosalong the way.

Fortunately, a well-implemented PLMsystem like VerTex can relieve the stress,hassle and rustration inherent in the ashionindustry. With scalable and customisabledigital toolboxes, the VerTex system enables

the solution can be deployed as a stand-alonesystem, ready to optimise your ways oworking, or be integrated with a wide range oexpanded so ware suites and libraries.

From inception on the drawing board toarrival on store shelves, Visual PLM.Net’sweb-based in rastructure and broad sup-

port or industry standard processes providethe power and strategic insight to deliveroptimum business value rom your productdevelopment.

At every level, too, our growing customerbase has praised the user- riendly nature andday-to-day experience o working with VisualPLM.Net. With a ully customisable inter ace,batch processing unctionality, a robust andpower ul search engine, version control andan intuitive tab structu re, Visual PLM.Netcan accommodate the unique requirements odesigners and executives alike.

The Visual PLM.Net brand is built on

ready to use across multiple plat oeasy to implement and is backed byperts at BMS, who have decades oexperience in the ashion technolo

It is this expertise that has madeso ware o choice or leading a

around the globe including CelebrDonna Karen International, Ellen THelmut Lang, and Elie Tahari, amo

So, the next time a global ashisparks an overnight demand, makecompany is ready to reac t. With thesystem in place, you can conquer thand bring complete control to your

www.bmsystems.com

Just weeks a er the royal nuptials, copies oKate Middleton’s gown were on display i n thewindows o bridal shops around the world.

Designers were rantically scribbling downthe details as she walked up the aisle o West-minster Abbey. Initial drawings were on theirway to workshops in India and China be oreshe said “I do.”

But getting nimble- ngered seamstressesto knock o a copy o the royal gown is one

thing – putt ing a complex design into volumeproduction, in a range o sizes and with all theaccessories, is quite another. For that youneed computer assistance.

“Speed is vital in today’s ashion trade,”says Karina Kogan, CEO o Business

Conquer the chaos

Fluent in fashion

The right PLM solution isinternet-based, intuitiveand interoperable. Theright vendor is one whounderstands your business

Using the latest technology and drawing on the expertiseo industry veterans, Visual PLM.Net is designed tomeet the unique needs o the ashion industry – allowingfrms to see their business clearly

VerTex rom BMS covers all bases, rom conception tomarketing, to planning and tracking buttons, bringing themtogether into one coherent system

proven oundations o technical eprocess knowledge and an absoluteusability. A success ul debut in theEuropean markets this spring brinit our industry-leading global trainproduct support networks.

Some o the biggest names in

world over now rely on us to improaccessibility, compatibility and quvital in ormation that drives t heir product li e-cycles.

For them, Visual PLM.Net delivthe central promise o PLM, allowto streamline every stage o their bcollaborate smoothly and securelyquanti able di erence to their bott

T W k E V 2000

+44 (0)161 408 5553www.visual-2000.com

A la mode: success in the ashion business requires increasing speed and ag

It is easy to implement andis backed by the experts atBMS, who have decades o hands-on experience in the

ashion technology sector




Constructio

agreed cost through collaborative rameworkarrangements. It’s a radical cultu re changewhich many in the industry ear taking on.

As a result, UK adoption o BIM is in t heearly stages. Merely 10 per cent o UK buildingprojects today have used the technology.Current champions include architects HOKand AEDAS, interdisciplinary practices such asBDP, and engineering and construction rmslike Mott McDonald and Laing O’Rourke.

“BIM is a better, more e cient way oworking ,” says David Light, BIM specialist orHOK London. “Clients understand a 3D modelbetter than 2D drawings and the design workis all co-ordinated, leading to ewer errors andless wastage.”

However, Light also recognises that adopt-

ing BIM brings its own challenges. “Our CADoperators had to be up-skilled and there wereincreased hardware requirements to run BIMso ware. It’s important that new commonworking standards are established, and it’s stillhard to nd partner s that have adopted BIM.”

The government’s chie constructionadviser, Paul Morrell, wants to accelerate UKadoption o BIM as recent research concludedthat it could improve the return on investmento taxpayer money. Moreover, BIM couldhelp cut the UK CO 2 emissions by 29 per centby 2022 and by 80 per cent by 2050. Morrellsuggests that in the utu re, all bidders andcontractors to government will be required touse BIM. Indeed, there are already Scandina-vian and US government mandates to use BIMon all public projects.

relatively new so ware tools coming onstream that use 3D modelling, analysis andcollaborative technologies to o er bene tssimilar to those that PLM technology hasa orded the aerospace and the automotiveindustries.

Under the label Building In ormationModelling (BIM), architects and construc-tion engineers can collaborate to develop a3D database which contains all elements othe building, structurally, mechanically andelectrically. This single model can be used oranalysis such as clash detection, lighting andpower consumption, and to derive construc-tion drawings, bill o materials, l i e-cyclemaintenance and ultimately demolition o thestructure. With such a wide ranging change,

Peter Wickens, chairman o Mott MacDonaldGroup describes BIM as “possibly the greatestrevolution in t he construction industry orover 200 years”.

Culture changeMoving rom producing thousands o indi-vidual 2D drawings to creating a common BIMdataset requires a considerable change in howpeople work together and inevitably a ects theentire value chain. These changes also renderstandard industry contracts redundant andrequire new levels o trust and collaboration.Typically, structural engineers will redrawthe architect’s drawings to ensure accuracybe ore starting their own work, and chargeaccordingly. With BIM all rms share the riskin delivering the building on time and at the

By Martyn Day

Manu acturers have been using 3D modelling,simulation and complex management systemsto de ne and assemble products or decades,but construction has been dragging its heels.The sector still lags behind in the drive to usedigital work ow, 3D modelling and collabora-tion to improve e ciency.

A succession o government reports haveidenti ed the systematic ailings within theUK construction industry. For example, therewas Sir Michael Latham’s report in 1994

ollowed in 1998 by Rethinking Constructionrom Sir John Egan, ormer chie executive o

Jaguar. Nonetheless, progress to address theproblems has been incredibly slow. Faced with

additional challenges such as carbon emissiontargets, the industry is now looking towards aradical solution.

PLM is not a term commonly used in theconstruction market. However, there are

Architects and construction engineers love uturistic projects, but most

lag behind manu acturers when it comes to 3D modelling and PLM

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Business Technology J 2011 an independent report from lyonsdown, distributed with the daily telegraph

Industry view8

These actors combine with external driverssuch as competitive pressure, regulatory andlegislative compliance, market trends andcustomer infuences, to highlight the need

or PLM.“PLM optimises the whole business cycle,

not simply discrete unctions,” says Magill.“It’s a moving target as technology moves

orward, globalisation increases and people

have to connect and share in ormation in moreand more ways.”

By establishing a single data source or col-laboration, PLM makes it possible to compare,balance and optimise product requirements,linking per ormance and manu acturingconsiderations with design intent. It digitallyconnects customer, marketing and regulatoryrequirements to designs, documents, speci -cations, models, test results and other typeso product in ormation required at di erentstages o the li e-cycle.

“PLM is about adapting the mindset withinbusiness, and ensuring that everyone buysinto the vision,” says Magill.

The right approach“A good way not to succeed is to give £5m toyour IT department and tell t hem to get on

with it!” says Magill. “PLM is not an IT prob-lem but about business trans ormation. Youneed to sketch out where the journey wi ll takeyou in high-level terms, with a ull li e-cyclevision or the whole business.

“I you simply replicate processes that arealready in place, the outcome won’t be anydi erent,” warns Magill. The organisationmust also be aligned with the new processand in ormation backbone, or the system willrevert quickly to where it was.

PLM initiatives should not be kept secret,says Magill. “Senior management buy-inis vital. Agents o change must be identi-

ed in all key areas o t he business and beclosely involved. Keep the big picture inmind, designing PLM implementation so thatapplications, processes and organisations arecomplementary. Then take incremental steps

in six to nine month phases, with some quickwins that move you orward to the next step.”

“PLM is about outcomes,” says DavidMarsh, partner manager at Siemens IT Solu-tions and Services. “It’s a way o thinking andworking that connects people in an increas-ingly wide variety o organisations.”

With increased innovation and productiv-ity, optimised resources and reduced costs,the bene ts are clear to see. PLM can helpyou to shape, infuence and innovate in yourmarket with the right product at the right timeat the right price.

What’s not to like?

As consumers demand more new and in-novative products, pressure is growing ormanu acturers to deliver them to t he market

aster and more cheaply. Since business is alsoincreasingly global, fuid and complex, organi-sations must become more adept at managingtheir businesses, particularly their productli e-cycles, to create sustainable competitiveadvantage.

Siemens argues that product li e-cyclemanagement (PLM) o ers a business modelthat can boost the introduction o newproducts and halve time-to-market. Throughits PLM so ware division, it has establisheda power ul track record with leading com-panies such as Aston Martin, BAE Systems,

Rolls-Royce, Proctor & Gamble, Unileverand JCB. PLM has become a key businessenabler that supports top-line growth andcost-containment.

Dr William Magill, the PLM principal con-sultant at Siemens IT Solutions and ServicesLtd, says: “PLM is about business trans or-mation rather than only so ware. Thoughenabled by the underlying technology, PLMis about adapting the way a business operatesand a ects the whole li e-cycle.”

Why use PLM?A need or more product innovation, reducedtime-to-market and control o costs drivebusinesses to look or increased e ciency andbetter integration with partners and suppliers.

Transformationnot tinkeringProduct life-cycle management lets businessesmake wholesale changes to structures, costs,products and productivity. But it requiresvision and determination

manu acturers (OEMs) are exteinvolvement in the product li e-helps to acilitate this process cycle products,” he says.

PLM can help manu acturerlong-term support by continuingproduct knowledge o each phythroughout its li e. Faced with smargins at the point-o -sale, OEa urther revenue stream over a lby o ering MRO support in-hou

“PLM o ers detailed knowlesupport and service, which allowmanu acturer to quote w ith con

“Power-by-the-hour” contracts - in whichthe customer pays or the time that a productis in service - are reshaping aerospace andde ence deals. This per ormance-basedlogistics (PBL) trend is likely to have a grow-ing impact in other areas o complex, long-li eequipment.

PBL makes strong commercial sense romthe manu acturer’s perspective: researchshows that up to 70 per cent o a customer’sthrough-li e costs are spent on services. In astudy o the US auto-sector, Accenture oundthat support and maintenance services cangenerate “up to seven times as much pro t asdo sales o original products over the l i etimeo products’ u se”.

The message has not been lost on theResource Group, a leading Siemens PLM

So ware partner, which is ocused on thebene ts o using PLM or maintenance, repairand overhaul (MRO) o the aerospace sectorand other complex products.

“The li e-cycle o an aircra is upwardso 30 years,” says Colin Rudd, PLM servicesmanager. “Though a new aircra may cost asigni cant sum, most o t he money is spentlater on. Typically, once the aero-engines ar esold to the airlines, they become responsible

or MRO and subsequently outsource tomaintenance organisations.”

But, says Rudd, with “power-by-the-hour” contracts, the original equipment

Service you canIf you are buying a product with a long life-cycle, suchissues are critical. Who better to look after the aircraft t

Guess how much? PLM helps frmHappiness is e fciency



Business TechnologyJ 2011an independent report from lyonsdown, distributed with the daily telegraph

Industry view

through-li e support very e ectively”.PLM encourages collaboration and

produces comprehensive in ormation and

3D model visualisation that can be ed backinto new product design. It also provides anestablished knowledge bank as the systemscontinue to operate long a er service engi-neers and design teams have moved on.

Siemens Teamcenter so ware o ersstate-o -the-art capability or MRO and assettracking, recording all the product con gu-rations that have been designed and bui lt.Teamcenter can handle large, complex designchanges with concurrent engineering andmanu acture in mind, “so design changes arerefected by the way you manu acture andbuild new product,” says Rudd. As con gura-tion changes are made during maintenance,Teamcenter also ensures that accurate detailsare recorded.

PLM can eliminate the guesswork inservice quotation and decrease service

time and costs by delivering better productknowledge to technicians. The use o PBL withPLM ensures a good price or the customer

or long-service products, and gives thesupplier the con dence to make a reasonableestimate o uture service and support costsunder “power- by-the-hour” contracts. Stocklevels also become leaner with detailed MROin ormation to hand.

Better knowledge-sharing improves thequality o products and encourages newproduct innovation. Nevertheless, Ruddemphasises, “PLM is not just a design tool butenables through-li e support”.

Rudd. This approach is well aligned with themove towards predictive and condition-basedmaintenance. These trends generate more in-

ormation to manage with PLM, so that crit icalparts stay in serv ice or longer, reducing wasteand costs.

Feeding back knowledgeAerospace system suppliers o en need tocommit to long-term, power-by-the-hoursupport contracts, which carry high riskwith real costs that are di cult to predict.But, says Rudd, “PLM presents technicianswith the knowledge to hand to provide

y ontenance and repaire who built it?

in the car industry. As consumer tastes shimanu acturers are under pressure to reducetime-to-market, align production to demandand increase customisation. This is a chal lewhen so ware, electronics and regulatorycompliance continue to i ncrease complexity

No need to compromiseThe old approach to design required aphysical buck (prototype) or which everydesign change was costly, time-consumingand painstaking. Today, designers can makemultiple iterations on a digital prototype,sharing ideas and best practice globally andthroughout the supply chain.

PLM enables design changes early inthe design cycle, which allows or digital

packaging and tolerance analysis, virtualcommissioning and simulation.

“Digital prototyping allows you to opti-mise rather than compromise,” says Staplet

New programmes, products and manu-acturing projects can be jump-started by

reusing knowledge and proven methodsacross the enterprise. Many companies usinPLM are achieving double-digit productiviimprovements by gaining access to productdesigns, manu acturing processes and othecontent that can be reused in uture vehicleprogrammes.

“PLM also o ers a ountain o knowledor young engineers to get up to speed quick

with best engineering practice,” says Parry.Majenta ensures that suppliers have acce

to best practice and processes in a controlledenvironment, either by implementing PLMor using a hosted PLM solution. This ensurethat even the smallest supplier can service tOEM to the most exacting st andards o des

and engineering.“PLM is a journey,” says Parry. “You

have to think seriously about your businesstrans ormation requirements, rather than

ocusing on the so ware implementationalone. For success ul implementation andlasting change, these projects requi re buy-i

rom the whole business and a good commucation plan. PLM is as much applicable to smbusiness as the major OEMs – the bene ts cbe enormous.”

Indeed, o the 68 mill ion vehicles produworldwide in 2008, Siemens PLM so warewas used on more than 64 million.

Motor manu acturers and suppliers aceincreasing complexity on all sides bringingvehicles to market. There are t housands ocomponents, multiple new models and a con-stant need to innovate in a highly globalisedsupply chain. There is also the need to cut thecarbon ootprint, to improve sa ety and sus-tainability, and to increase per ormance whilegiving consumers more or their money.

A tall order? All o these tasks can beachieved with product l i e-cycle management(PLM).

The motor industry has helped to shapePLM, moving rom the drawing board tocomputer-aided design, and rom productdata management to PLM in only a couple odecades. “PLM is a phi losophy and business

change engine, not simply a set o so waretools,” says Mark Parry, director o MajentaPLM, the leading Siemens UK PLM So warepartner.

Now PLM is reshaping the automotivebusiness too.

Digital backbone“PLM provides a digital backbone with oneversion o the truth ,” says Parry. “When a newcomponent iteration comes along, everybodyis better in ormed and knowledge and bestpractice can be shared and reused.”

Globalisation has increased complexityexponentially. “Today, manu acturing is o enon the other side o the world. PLM real-timecollaboration o ers seamless communicationbetween continents, on a 24/7 basis, remov-ing the complexity o language and timebarriers,” he says.

Majenta enables digital collaboration withmore than 750 automotive suppliers, han-

dling about 2,200 le exchange transactionsa month. “PLM ensures that product datatrans er is seamless and always up to date, andthus everyone is making decisions using themost up-to-date in ormation,” explains TrevorStapleton, a Majenta direc tor.

Improving the fow o knowledge also ac-celerates the time to market. Red Bull Racing,

or example, states that be ore it used PLM upto 75 per cent o a designer’s time was spentdoing mundane, repetitive tasks. These wereautomated with PLM.

The same savings can be applied to majororiginal equipment manu acturers (OEMs)

A driving forceThe motor industry, at the forefront of shapingPLM, has been instrumental in driving downcosts and spreading best practice

It’s one thing to buy the kit – quite another keeping it airborne

Where it all started.



Industry wake-up callRecent incidents such as the Fukushimanuclear accident and BP’s Maconodo disasterhighlight the problem in stark terms. Bothdemonstrated the need or detailed data onevery aspect o a major project rom concept,through design, build and operation to main-tenance and li e-cycle per ormance.

In the ace o increasing global demand ornew energy resources, Summers says: “PLMcan manage the con guration o energy andutility assets to track all components duringlong-term asset li e-cycles, as well as todetermine the impact o changes to plant andmaintenance, and why dec isions were made.”

Culture changeSiemens Teamcenter PLM solution o ers thecapability to increase revenue while keep-ing costs in line; to extend and maintain thesa e use o long-li e assets; to ensure sa e andsecure delivery o products a long the supplychain; to connect global teams; to optimiserisk management in volatile markets; to

acilitate worker sa ety; to ensure quality andregulatory compliance; and to capture andprotect intellectual property. A major French


Industry view10

When it comes to using product li e-cyclemanagement (PLM) data, the energy and utili-ties sector lags behind most others. There hasbeen a culture o con rontation and secrecybetween operators, contractors and the supplychain. But things are changing.

“PLM is the missing link in the uti litiessector,” says Adam Summers, energy andutilities director or Siemens PLM So ware.The aerospace and de ence industries, on theother hand, have embedded PLM strategi-cally or 20 years to capture data at source orlarge-scale product and project t raceability,knowledge management, in-service supportand regulatory compliance.

Summers says that reliance on enterpriseresource planning (ERP) and enterprise assetmanagement systems or nancial li e-cyclemanagement, “simply don’t give ut ilities the

ull scope o bene ts o ered by PLM”.By using PLM, the utility sector can rely on

a single source o plant, product and processin ormation or long project and productli e-cycles, which can be used to manageinnovation across all stages, or better sa ety,e ciency, productivity and increased top-line revenue.

The energy sector has been slow to appreciatethe potential o product li e-cycle management,but disasters such as the Fukushima nuclearaccident have prompted a change o heart

Be the frst to market

nuclear power company has been deployingTeamcenter or a decade to manage genericnuclear reactor design.

Regulatory sa ety compliance is para-mount. “One o the key things which keepsdirectors awake at night is sa ety and compli-ance,” remarks Summers. PLM also o erssigni cant bene ts in terms o culture change,as it captures and embeds processes and newways o working to enable e ective business

re-engineering. Faced with an ageing work-orce, PLM also helps to capture knowledge

be ore vital skills are lost.

Ensuring e fciencyRisk management is vital in ensuring thatinvestment is cost e ect ive and deployed orsa e and e cient high per ormance.

Neil Dunsmuir, vice-president o EMEAmarketing, Siemens PLM So ware, says thatAtomic Energy Canada uses PLM to simulaterobotic operations in a virtual environment,

to ensure the adoption o the astesa est procedures. “PLM helped thto reduce costs using a virtual enviwhile also producing documentati

or sa ety purposes.”PLM o ers considerable bene t

collaboration, and it is undamentaing e cient energy projects, such aso shore wind- arms, to time and co

Leading contractors such as Ba

are using Teamcenter to improve ction, to add more value, and to workclosely with energy operators and oparties. The aim is to ensure that evis on track with the right in ormatiright time, working as team.

PLM optimises con guration mthroughout the li e-cycle o a plandesigned, as planned, as built and atained – providing a clear understawhy certain decisions were made apotential impact o any uture cha

Power to change

chain partners. Synchronising new productdevelopment in such a disparate value chaincan be very di cult.

But PLM helps to identi y best practiceor every partner so that it c an be repeated

elsewhere. With complex task management ona high level dashboard, brand managers cancheck that products are on time and budget,and identi y potential bottlenecks acrossthe globe. A leading retailer reduced its newproduct development (NPD) li e-cycle by 30per cent by using PLM in th is way.

Fashion items, or example, must be resh,so processes start as late as possible. “Predict-

ability and con dence in the critical path isundamental to success in the ashion busi-

ness. To meet demanding store deadlines, theback-end process o en has huge additionalcosts in terms o air reight, sta ng, andlabour time,” says Kelleher.

4. Design or sustainabilityMajor organisations such as Unilever have setthemselves a target to double turnover by 2020while maintaining their existing carbon oot-print across the value chain. This undamentalchange is aimed at reducing waste, and improv-ing the scope or recycling and energy e ciency.

“Then it’s a matter o ‘cut and paste’ o keyelements to match the needs o new markets,”says Kelleher.

Although the product ormulation mayremain the same, ingredients may change tomeet regional, religious or dietary needs, orthe language, graphics or images on packsmay have to be adapted. But t he brand ownercan keep most o the established productcon guration. Do it right, and the brand gainsthe edge in the race or rst-to-market.

2. Value chain synchronisationWhen companies target global markets, it is

a challenge to hook the value chain into thebrand owner’s product development processas seamlessly as possible. Involve the supplychain in product development as early aspossible to leverage the best advantage roma sourcing and cost perspective.

“PLM o ers value chain synchronisationthat enables more in ormed discussion anddecision-making,” says Kelleher.

3. Critical path managementPLM plays a vital role in crit ical path manage-ment o new products. Take a major retailerworking with 25 own brands and 500 supply

PLM is use ul or ensuring co

REACH, RoHS, WEEE and othertal directives, as well as applying bto port olio management, productment and manu acturing integrati

“There’s no one piece that drivebility,” says Kelleher. PLM enablesto examine the sustainability o althe product li e-cycle and to i nvesimpact on economic, environmentvalues.

Product development has to be dby innovation, market demands, emanu acture, pro t and sustainabPLM can help to achieve all t hese g

These days, brand and private label manu-acturers and retailers have to streamline

operations to squeeze every bit o margin outo sales. Continuous e ciency improvement,increased collaboration along the value chainand reduced complexity go hand-in-handwith accelerated innovation.

Product li e-cycle management (PLM)o ers “ our key value propositions” orcompanies operating in retail and consumer-packaged goods (CPG) markets, according toJohn Kelleher, the UK consumer industriesmanager or Siemens PLM So ware.

1. Global brand portabilityThe main issue or CPG companies such as PZCussons, maker o Carex and Imperial Leather,is to be rst to trade in new and emergingmarkets such as China, South America andEastern Europe. CPG companies want to takeexisting brands, and convert and repackagethem or sale as rapidly and cost-e ectivelyas possible.

PLM supports brand portability byproviding a “single version o the truth” orall product in ormation. This helps branddevelopment in terms o the rec ipe, packag-ing, artwork and manu acturing speci cation.

When retailers try to break into emerging markets, they don’t wantto have to reinvent the wheel. With PLM, they don’t have to

Exporting success

Entre nous: PLM works in the energy sec




Sustainabilit

By John Pullin

Everyone wants to be green – or at least seento be green. At one time, a corporate ocuson the environment could be viewed as a“nice-to-do” public relations gambit. Now it’sinescapable. Consumers want to know, andregulators want to know too: what exactlyis inside that product? How is it made, bywhom and under what conditions? What’sthe carbon ootprint, energy signature and itsrecyclability?

PLM and related systems can help manu-acturers and service companies comply with

ever-increasing regulation and legislation.There are also spin-o bene ts. Much o thework is on systems that identi y and certi ywhat materials are being used in a product

and can demonstrate what e ects a change omaterials might produce.

“This is t he right target to attack,” saysTom Shoemaker, vice-president o productmarketing at PLM so ware group PTC. “I acompany is interested in where they can makea di erence, and then ocuses on productmaterials rather than housekeeping items,like switching out the lights, t hey can hit 80per cent o possible bene ts.”

PTC is building environmental data intothe latest version o its Windchill PLM system

Under pressure rom governments andconsumers, manu acturers are turning toPLM to prove their eco credentials

Motorola is using PLM so twarraise environmental standards

By John Pullin

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environmental data which means wealways say that di erences o plus or minus20 per cent are not necessarily signi cant,”says Jamie O’Hare rom Granta Design,the Cambridge-based company behindAutodesk’s new system. Rather, these systemso er design engineers pointers to potentialenvironmental problems and encourage themto try substitute materials.

“We see this as the start o a discussion,”says Sarah Krasley, Autodesk product man-ager or environmental systems. “The aim isto make it easy or non-experts and expertsto communicate the choices in terms peoplecan understand.” But these systems can also

ag up where there might be a problem withenvironmental regulations. What’s more,by early deployment in the design process,be ore much o the development cost hasbeen incurred, they can stop some expensivemistakes at least.

By Brian Davis

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Blowing in the wind

PLM technology is kicking up a storm in the renewable energy sectorenabling frms to develop state-o -the-art wind turbines

The uture is green

under the name “product analytics”.The analytics system attaches detailedenvironmental in ormation to the bill omaterials that accompanies each componentor product th rough its development phase,and on into its service li e. This in orma-tion can be updated at any time and is a lsomatched to the regulatory requirements.Environmental compliance on hazardoussubstances demands loads o orm- lling.The system automates this process and alsohelps manu acturers keep their suppliersin line.

For a complex product such as a majorsub-assembly or a car, there could behundreds o components and many suppliers.The amount o in ormation is huge andkeeping track o it is tough, let alone ensuring

environmental compliance.SolidWorks and Autodesk have both

also brought materials expertise into theirmainstream design technology. SW Sustain-ability rom SolidWorks and the Eco MaterialsAdviser in the 2012 edition o AutodeskInventor both give designers a view o theenvironmental impact o their designs on arange o measures including carbon ootprint,energy usage, water and air pollution.

This isn’t precision data, nor is it meantto be. “There’s a lack o precision about



con orm with the Crossrail Act 2008.However, the complexity o today’s

integrated rail systems means it has becomealmost impossible to manage all the assur-ance and compliance tasks using ‘manual’spreadsheet-based methods – and st ill deliverthe overall assurance evidence on time, saysRolison.

This is because “there are o en hundredso sub-projects in a large and dispersed supplychain in rastructure with programmes thatinvolve complex integrated systems,” he says.

The key is to track project r equirementsprogressively through the design and buildphases ensuring that compliance keeps pacewith project delivery. Rolison calls this pro-

gressive assurance – designed to deliver theevidence that a sa e and e ective system canbe handed over to the rail system operator, inaccordance with all requirements, on time.

In the past, this was a huge and chaotictask, involving hundreds o contractors allworking independently. Keeping it all incheck purely through contractual boundariesinvolved major compromise to speci cations.

And over time, “the squeeze on time andmoney tended to overwhelm issues o qualityand con ormance,” says Rolison.

Faced with project creep, this turmoil hasa detrimental impact on quality as time runsover and costs climb.

Furthermore, compromises during deliverystages have an impact on maintenanceper ormance throughout the li etime o thein rastructure.

Comply Serve recognised the scale o theproblem and Rolison led a team to tackle thecompliance challenge head on.

“ComplyPro has been developed spe-

ci cally to ensure that major in rastructureprojects stay on track, not just in terms o timeand budget but also to speci cation,” he says.

Design and build compliance is provedelectronically with real-time reporting, sooutstanding issues can be viewed across thesupply chain and recti ed qu ickly. The systemmanages the complexities o project hierarchywith a power ul work ow capability, makingthe process o compliance easy or designersand build contractors alike.

Conventional document managementsystems don’t allow all o t hose involved to seecompliance issues in real time, says Rolison.

Achieving assurance and complianceobjectives is a major headache in complex,large-scale projects like Crossrail or HS2, theplanned high-speed rail link rom London tothe West Midlands.

Transport projects can tend to overrunon time and cost. Project c reep is a commonnightmare. These projects eature large supplychains and involve numerous, o en combat-ive, independent contractors. Project costscan climb quick ly i work has to be repeatedand large penalties can also be incu rred whendeadlines are missed.

The traditional means o recording compli-ance on spreadsheets or paper-based manualsystems are time-consuming and error-proneand can lead to substantial delays. Further-more, project teams o en work on di erentsystems and are geographically dispersed.

UK-based rm Comply Serve has designedan innovative solution called ComplyPro tohandle this thorny issue. In the rst ins tance,it addresses compliance and assurance o railand transport projects, including Crossrail,the new rail link or London and the SouthEast due in 2018. But it promises to have a arwider impact.

In 2005, Comply Serve spun out o Swedishso ware company Telelogic to develop anautomated compliance solution that couldmanage complexity in major in rastructu reprojects. At the time Chris Rolison, now CEOo Comply Serve, was running a div ision atTelelogic, delivering solutions or managing“engineering requirements” across a numbero rail companies, including Transport orLondon (T L) and Network Rail.

ComplyPro captures the project speci ca-

tion at the early stages and manages it througha ormal engineering process.Then more detail is added during design.

“That’s where complexity comes in, asthousands o project requirements are cre-ated,” says Rolison. Compliance o design anddelivery has to be demonstrated in line withcontracts, planning and consents, technicalcases, assurance, environment, architecturaldesign, standards and regulations.

Comply Serve rst provided its web-basedsolution or the Crossrail programme in 2006.One o Crossrail’s rst tasks was to captureand manage the project sponsor speci ca-tions, which include the Department orTransport, T L and environmental bodies, to

Compliance without tearsWeb-based ComplyPro helps bring clarity to complex projects, enabling managers tokeep track o myriad requirements, rom contracts and planning to architectural design

We saw the problemand have evolveda solution which isdriven through a deepunderstanding oproject needs – it’s not just about technology


Industry view12

“We saw the problem and have evolved asolution which is driven through a deepunderstanding o project needs – it’s not justabout technology.”

He recognises that compliance and assur-ance, though mandatory, is cumbersome.The audit trail, or example, means tacklingmyriad complex spreadsheets so the client

nds it di cult to see issues as they occur.“Traditional compliance and assurance

systems are ofine, and are not treated as anintrinsic part o design and delivery pro-cesses,” says Rolison.

ComplyPro changes all that. “We provide acollaborative, easy-to-use, web-based systemwhich joins up everybody across the projectorganisation, rom the programme directorthrough to the second tier supplier.”

The system gives the parties a single viewo the project speci cation. There is alwayslots o change in big in rastructure projects,and estimating the impact and cost o changeis resource-intensive and expensive.

ComplyPro can identi y issues quickly andshares the in ormation across a wide collabo-rative environment.

“This can reduce the assessment o the

impact o change rom weeks to hconcert with more accurate cost assays Rolison.

Early adoption o ComplyPro oLondon Line rail upgrade main wogave the project’s commercial teamedented overview o when and whwere required as they arose, resultidramatic reduction in the manpowThe complex project was brought iwithin budget and with signi cantin terms o change management anreduction – where previously proje

su ered rom a culture o “claim Crossrail is now in the latter st a

detailed design and construct ion isOthers are ollowing its examp

tionally. Danish Rail is using Compthe Banedanmark re-signalling pro

urther projects are under way in Svia, France and the Middle East.

Comply Serve also plans to movmarkets to handle compliance in lain aerospace, oil and gas, energy anwhere the same issues apply.

www.complyserve.comPlan early to avoid the pit alls

On track: getting the trains to run on time is more complicated than it look



By John Stark

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By Charles Clarke

Sharing data between d i erent elements othe production process has been a dilemmasince the early days o computer-aided design(CAD). Until recently, it was a problem largelycon ned to the machine shop or analyst’so ce. It reared its head among designers onlywhen an existing CAD system was dumped in

avour o a newer, better model and legacydata became an issue.

However, with the advent o globalised,collaborative manu acturing and productli e-cycle management (PLM) systems, data-sharing has become a massive challenge.

The data solutions company TrancenDataEurope has ound that 20 per cent o a t ypicalnumerical control programming job is spentpreparing data or processing. The gurerises to 70 per cent or stress testing; highlyquali ed engineers are spending two-thirds

o their t ime second-guessing design intent.One major issue is that there is no shared

view o how PLM should work. Someorganisations simply want to share datawithin the enterprise, while others want toshare in ormation at every stage with suppli-ers, customers and so on.

Do or dieIn today’s manu acturing world, collabora-tion is more than a competitive di erentiator,it’s a business must, says Marc Halpern, the

In the modern, global marketplace, companies that ail to share production data accurately will struggle to survive


Complian

Who owns the data?Collaborative engineering tends to happen intwo distinct ways. When major corporationssuch as Boeing have control o all t he engi-neering, they can usually view everythingand intellectual property issues are rare.

However, it is common or di erent peoplein the value chain to make individual partso a product so they need di erent rights oaccess to view the data. This results in thethorny issue o digital rights management.

Chinese whispers create design dilemma

research vice-president o the Gartner Group.

“Demographic and economic trends makecollaborative design a requirement or globalmanu acturing enterprises that expect tosurvive and remain competitive over the next10 years. They have to be able to work acrossdiverse applications that share data.”

Over the years, there have been a mult i-tude o approaches to data-sharing. One o the

rst e orts was IGES, which used common leormats that could be read by everyone. This

was essentially the industry standard or 30years and, i you were lucky, it worked 95 percent o the time. However, IGES tends to ailunder pressure – that is, when users hadn’tthe spare capacity to x it.

The e ectiveness o STEP, the moderncommon le ormat or 3D data, is patchy atbest. What is more, IGES and STEP are basicgeometry translations that o er none o the

model intelligence characteristics o a modernPLM system.

Mike Evans, o the Cambridge-based researchconsultancy Cambashi, points to the trend

or globalised 24/7 engineering where asingle project is developed around the clockand around the world. From a data manage-ment perspective, this means passing around

a single copy o the master geometry o aproduct between global collaborators. Thisnarrows the room or misunderstanding andhuman error as everyone receives the samein ormation.

Sophisticated PLM systems rom vendorssuch as IBM, PTC and Siemens o er this kindo global unctionality. Industries such asaerospace and cars have used PLM to sort outtheir data-sharing issues.

However, PLM requires signi cant invest-ment and, according to the PLM user group,some data management problems are stillunresolved.

Ten keys to success

Industries such asaerospace and cars haveused PLM to sort out theirdata-sharing issues

Companies need to be aware o this when

considering investment in PLM.There are numerous data translators on

the market and companies that will conveone proprietary data ormat into another.These systems are not, however, 100 per creliable. And un ortunately, Murphy’s Ladictates that a general purpose data conversions utility wi ll let you down when yousimply don’t have time to tackle t he job inany other way.

Companies race to match design data




Industry view14

What are the benefts that investment in PLMcan bring to companies you deal with?We specialise in the ashion and apparel industries and thekey bene t is a reduction in the time it takes to bring products

or services to market while maintaining the right level oquality. I you look at business systems such as ERP (enterpriseresource planning), you’re o en shaving o jus t a ew secondsin generating a bill or other paperwork. With PLM, you’repotentially saving hours, days or even weeks. And when youextend that across the whole international supply chain, youbegin to see compounded bene ts accumulating over time,and then it becomes a really huge advantage.

Are businesses in ashion and apparel wellin ormed about PLM?It varies, which is why our consulting arm, PDP Limited, wasestablished – to help companies get the best return on theirinvestment. That impartial service involves not only ndingsystems, but implementing them, and it’s something we havedone or some o the biggest names in our industry. There aresome 45 to 50 vendors o ering systems that can be used byour industry today. Larger enterprises may be well-in ormedabout the potential bene ts o PLM because solutions have

historically been marketed to that demographic. Now we arebeginning to see more solutions pitched at the SME sec toralongside a reduction in their total cost o ownership. Morea ordable out-o -the-box solutions can generate substantialreturn on investment or those smaller businesses.

Your company o ers a PLM benchmarkingservice. How does that work?We’ve been in this business or more than 20 years, and we sawa gul between the promise o PLM and consumers’ under-standing o the true capabilities o the various ashion-speci csolutions. It works both ways, though; some o the larger PLMvendors don’t necessarily know a lot about processes unique tothe apparel industry, and retail and ashion- ocused suppliersaren’t always up to speed on how big PLM rms worked.So we built a bespoke so ware “comparison engine” and putit on our industry news and tools site, to enable companies inthe industry to cut t hrough the marketing bluster and comparewhat was actually on o er in terms they can understand.

Where will benchmarking now lead to?We’ve developed a ull benchmarking service and so ar 13 PLMsuppliers have participated demonstrating real aith in theirsolutions. We share the high-level results o those benchmarks,enabling prospective customers to get real, in-depth knowledgebased on independently veri ed and objective acts. We’ve alsoconducted an in-depth customer survey, and recently we havebegun providing executive recruitment services or both PLMsuppliers and retail and ashion businesses. Our newest venturesare in PLM certi cation and training, and in providing corere erence data on the web.

www.whichplm.com

What do you see as the biggest benefts thatPLM can help businesses to achieve?We see it as one o the three main processes w ithin a company,being the ocus o the product in ormation. We see it

working alongside the other major processes o supply chainmanagement and customer relationship management. Withits ocus on products, PLM can help to deliver products asterto the market, to get them right rst time, and to ensurethey comply with regulations. A lot o products t hese daysrequire ull t raceability, so that last point is increasinglyimportant.

What is the best way to implement PLM withina company?Our view is that there is o en with PLM projects too muchemphasis on designing unctionalities and not enough onunderstanding the processes that already exist within thebusiness, and integrating and improving them using the PLMtools. The key is to understand the products and services thatare at the heart o t he company and the people and businessprocesses at work.

How does that approach di er rom the way

that PLM has been tackled in some companiesin the past?At Karer Consulting we believe that all companies aredi erent and there is never likely to be a “one size ts all”PLM system. Our job as consultants is to understand ourclients’ business processes and to use the elements o PLM toenhance the business as a whole, throughout the entire li e-cycle o the products. Making business processes t the PLMsystem is wrong; we should use t he PLM system to improveand augment the processes. Our rst question to our customersalways is: “What is it t hat you want to achieve?”

PLM had a airly chequered history in its earlyyears. Is PLM now here to stay?I believe very rmly that it is, but I think you have to regardPLM as a series o processes that surround the product, itscreation, its deployment and through its entire li e-cyc le.In the past, maybe it was too centred on the design anddevelopment side. Now we can see the bene ts are much wider.

And I can see it will spread to new sectors, such as consumergoods and even nancial services. They have products: PLMcan work or them too.

www.karer.com

E fciency drive

Mark Harrop c ,

W c PLM

Christian Hehl c ,

K C (UK)

‘Making business processes ftthe PLM system is wrong’

‘With PLM, you’re potentiallysaving hours, days or even weeks’

Faster to market and right frst time – product li e-cycle managementis bringing enduring benefts to businesses o all size and shape

What are the business drivers that encouragcompanies to adopt PLM?The top ones are the time pressures to get new produmarket without adding a lot o extra resources, and t

time o products actually is constantly being reducemore widely in the developed economies we have lothe production and that means we have to be more innall round. We have to be world class in innovation. Ais a driver too.

So does that mean that PLM is essentially adesign and development tool or innovatioNo, in act I believe there has been too much ocus aPLM vendors on research and development. O courimportant, but you also need to bring in colleagues procurement, you need to know about environmentaregulations and many other things. What PLM shoulabout is bringing products to market aster and how collaborate with all the people involved internally asas externally, not just the blue sky thinkers and not jumechanical design people.

How well served has the PLM market been

the current systems developed by the majorPLM vendors?There are several issues here. One is t hat smaller comstill have the same challenges as bigger ones; they alcomplex products and they have pressures to get themmarket quickly. But the PLM systems rom the big vhave a cost structure geared to the big companies andproblem. And there are lots o di erent modules, anthe bit you want isn’t in the package you bought, so thmore cost. Then there are problems in t he culture anstanding. A lot o these systems originated in enginebuilt up rom original computer-aided design packaProcurement people and marketing don’t think the sa

At Minerva you have been pioneering a dibusiness model or PLM. What is di ereabout it?We were working with t he major PLM vendors and wsmaller as well as larger companies were having a di

We could see that the PLM business was dr iven by venarrow competition and that prices weren’t really codown. And then we discovered this PLM so ware caIt is open source and what that means i s that it is reedownload: ully unctioning, based on modern techbut ree. It’s really starting to rock the boat now.

www.minerva-plm.com

Leon Lauritc

M v G

‘Smaller companies still havsame challenges as bigger o




Industry vie

o ered by CIMPA ensure the required in or-mation is available at the right time and in t heright place. Airbus and other companies usethese services to maximize thei r processes atoptimal cost, without compromising on sa ety.

Integrating MES into PLM has proved to be

a vital tool or eeding shop- oor experienceback into the design process and ensuring thatlessons learned in the service li e o previousproducts are not lost when new products go tomanu acture, says Clint Bird, senior consu lt-ant at CIMPA.

“Our experience has shown these bene tsare applicable to all manu acturing industries,and not only those with complex systems,”he says. “Having PLM puts the product atthe centre, and MES eeds data up rom theshop oor.”

PLM works with data rom all stages o aproduct’s li e, rom design to disposal, but thisgoldmine o production data may not reachthe engineers who build the next model i theMES is not closely coupled with PLM, Birdsays.

“The long-term bene t o combining PLM

and MES is in collecting and analysing allthe real-time data and getting it ed straightthrough to the system so engineers canimprove best practice. It is easy to rememberthat things went wrong in the last model, butthe detail can get lost in t he next li e-cycle.”

The PLM system helps remove the barriersbetween silos o data, so waste ul and costlyduplication can be el iminated, over-process-ing cut out and redundant testing prevented.

vice-president, Centre o Competence, at

CIMPA. “PLM bene ts by i nput o real-worldtolerances, timescales and working practices,and the MES bene ts rom early visibilit y othe design.”

As a subsidiary o Airbus, CIMPA hasdeveloped its expertise in the most demand-ing manu acturing environment o European

aerospace. Bu ilding a complex product in aglobal, multi-company environment withsevere consequences or technical ailurerequires total control over all in ormation inthe product li e-cycle. PLM services like those

But the main bene t o the c lose coupo PLM and MES is that it results in a bettproduct, and in a sa ety-conscious era whrelatively small de ects in design or manu

acturing can lead to a major product recathat is likely to be a very signi cant reducin risk.

www.cimpa.com

It is well known that product li e-cycle

management (PLM) shortens time to market,improves product per ormance and drivesdown production costs, but what is less appre-ciated is that it also multiplies the power o theso ware systems that work under it, notablymanu acturing execution systems (MES).

PLM operates almost entirely in the digitaldomain. Engineers create the product, visu-alise it and test it using power ul simulationso ware. When the product is industrialisedand released to manu acturing, eedback anddata are used to sort out design issues andimprove product li e. But however sophisti-cated the so ware is, it is never such an exactmatch with reality as to make manu acturingsimply a question o loading the machines andswitching them on.

Materials display unexpected properties,manu acturing tolerances do not match the

speci cations and real-world timings can bevery di erent rom the uni orm, controlledand predictable universe o cyberspace. LinkPLM to MES, however, and the whole systembecomes much more power ul than the sum oits parts.

“Product design and industrialisation canproceed in parallel to the design in the digitalspace, eeding in ormation to the MES in thereal world,” explains Christophe Cochard,

Bringing virtual product data into manu acturing reality

PLM ocuses a consistentin ormation-driven approachthroughout all phases o a product li e-cycle andputs the product into thecentre o all activities, a

basis or innovation, leandevelopment and production

Coupling PLM to manu acturing execution systemsinvigorates your entire operation, reduces the risk o errorand results in better products, as CIMPA has shown

PLM: almost entirely in the digital domain

Leon Lauritsen is keen to be provocativeabout PLM. “We can be ex tremely annoying,”he says.

And the people he is particularly happy toirritate are the major PLM vendors who arenow his competitors.

It wasn’t always so. Lauritsen is a directorand partner o Minerva, the Danish-owned ITand business consultancy Group and he andhis company worked or many years alongsidethe big names o PLM, installi ng and support-ing systems in some o the biggest companiesin Europe as well as in small rms.

It was the smaller rms that initially chal-

lenged Lauritsen and Minerva Group. PLMsystems rom the big vendors, he says, werecomplicated, expensive and o en di cult

or people outside the product design andengineering parts o a business to understand.Yet small companies need PLM: they havecomplex products, di cult supply chains toco-ordinate, demanding customers and highlevels o risk.

“But the big issue is cost ,” he says.Then Minerva came across Aras, a airly

small-scale PLM developer – until, in 2008, itchanged its business model. While other PLMvendors were maintaining their high prices,

Free and highly effectiveMaking its PLM so tware open source is

paying dividends or one developer and theconsultancy working with them

Aras went in the opposite direct ion and madeits system open source. Essentially, it meansthat you get it or ree: no capital cost, no salespeople. You go to the website, click on thelinks and download it ree o charge. All thedocumentation is ree too.

“You can imagine the react ion,” says Laurit-sen. “People said i it was ree it couldn’t beany good. But they were wrong. It was good: a

ully unctioning out-o -the-box PLM systemthat you could use as much o or as little o asyou wanted. It is ully integrated into otherpeople’s systems, computer-aided designsystems, and ERP (enterprise resource plan-ning) business systems or you can do your

own customised con guration and your owncustomised links.”

Aras is a very di erent business model

rom the PLM norm and at its heart is a di er-ent system architecture too: in simple terms,what you want to do with t he system drivesthe way it operates, rather than the xedneeds o a hierarchical database. It is, saysLauritsen, typically 30 to 50 per cent asterthan conventional PLM systems.

There are other di erences, and moneydoes come into it at times. I you want regularsupport, you pay or that, and breakdownsupport and training too, all o which Minervaprovides to Aras users.

But you can do it entirely or ree and youcan do it your way.

It is ully integrated intoother people’s systems or youcan do your own customisedconfguration and yourown customised links

So who has been taking advantage oAras? It’s not the smallest businesses,Lauritsen says.

“It’s mostly been bigger companies whknow what they want, who’ve been using mainstream PLM rom the bigger vendorpeople who spent a lot o money and oundidn’t solve their problems.”

From 100 new customers a month in 20it’s now up to 900 and still growing in a pewhen the big PLM rms have str uggled tonew leads.

“This is really t he only new thing in PLsays Lauritsen. “All the rest is same-old, sold.” Provocative, indeed.

www.minerva-plm.com

Small frms beneft rom open source PLM so tware




Industry view16

than textual basis or these planninginstruct ions, you can also solve the problemo language translation i you decide torelocate your production acilities.

The customer experienceI we look beyond production and into t hearea o customer services, which usuallyattracts litt le ocus or improvement rombusinesses and PLM vendors alike, urthersigni cant contributions can be made.

Surprisingly, or many people, a typicalway o producing technical publications,

such as the in ormation diagrams or assembly

instruct ions you nd in your sel -assemblyurniture, is to t race a photograph o the

product with illustration so ware to producethe nal artwork.

This obviously requires signi cant skill andknowledge in techniques and product and, aswith the manu actur ing example, it dependson there being a physical product to re erence.

Similarly, it involves signi cant up ronte ort and may require considerable extrawork as changes and di erent productcon gurations eed through. Added to this isthe risk that the resulti ng illustrations may beincorrect or missing some key eatures.

I , as with manu acturing, we use oursource digital in ormation to produce thetechnical in ormation direc tly, and earlierin the development phase, we can produce

is that it assumes the design is mature,nished or maybe even manu actured so it

can be t rial assembled and photographed,making the planning act ivity dependent onthe design o ce.

Even when ready, the e ort required toproduce the planning in ormation can be con-siderable, or design as well as manu actur ing,and any subsequent change to the product orprocesses can mean signi cant reworking.

The issue o translation and interpretationo instruct ions in a di erent language mayalso be a consideration i you are thinkingabout o -shoring some or all o your manu-

acturing and assembly.So how can the re-purposing o your digital

asset with new tools drive bene ts?For manu acturing, it can allow the

planning activity to start much earlier in thedevelopment process, well be ore the designhas been nalised, providing opportunities toimprove quality, costs and manu actu rability.

This is done by using the design datadirectly to produce not 2D drawings but 3Dsimulations o the product assembly.

By basing this on the actual design data,the planning in ormation can be synchronisedwith changes, dramatically reducing the rstrun production and rework e ort.

Through providing a graphical rather

much richer customer documentataster, or less cost, in a more reac

and with the con dence that it is anrepresentation o the product.

Why stop there? Expand the cuexperience to include interactive plogues, service and maintenance gtraining materials, all serv ing to deyour commitment to customer sup

Quantifable beneft

The ar-reaching impact and extentimescales involved in most PLM itations o en mean that it is di cultquanti y the bene ts in terms o aon investment, so it is viewed as a mstrategic activity.

However, the re-purposing o ydigital capital or areas such as t hodiscussed here provides a tangibleeasily quanti able bene t.

When you include the other arecould gain rom this approach, suketing, training and product ma intbecomes one o those “Why didn’that be ore?” moments.

So, whatever your drivers or bprocess improvement, it’s worth tao what digital capital you have inness and looking at where this can

to support those laudable aims behPLM st rategy.

Altran Xype are part o the Altcompanies, with 17,000 employeeswide. We are a leading supplier o PLM consulting services, so waring and engineering in ormation straining to many blue chip compansupply and implement the product tation so ware 3DVia Composer tthem as part o an e cient PLM so

A Xwww.altran-xype.com

You may be involved in, or about to embark ona PLM implementation. It might be your rstor you might be i nto your second or maybeeven third generation deployment, buildingon and learning rom the sometimes pain ulexperience o earlier activities.

Chances are, you have already cast an eyeover the technology and so ware vendorswho will be cour ting your interest and budg-ets. And with the economy slowly recovering

rom the downturn, now might seem like theright time to invest in r enewing your businessprocesses and in ormation systems, which is

essentially what PLM o ers you.But be ore you part with your cash, have

you stopped to think whether at least some othe business aims behind your PLM strategy,such as improved product quality, cheaperproduction or aster market introduction, canbe achieved by viewing your existing data(and not your systems) as a digital capitalresource? One that can be used more e ec-tively in your organisation?

You own it, use itBy digital capital, we mean the wealth odata produced during your product de ni-tion phases, such as CAD models, assemblies,attribute in ormation and so on, which is usedto produce the design but typically remainsunder-utilised elsewhere in organisations.

With businesses beginning to recognise

this asset, PLM vendors are now respondingwith tools which ocus on the re-purposingo your digital asset with some compellingpropositions.

Making it better, soonerLet’s take manu acturing as an example.There, one o the key activities is developingwork instructions to explain how to physi-cally make your product. Depending on itscomplexity, this explanation can run rom asmall number o job cards th rough to severalhundred page documents containing detaileddescriptions, illustrations and photographs othe product being assembled.

A undamental problem with this approach

Liberate your untapped potential

By providing a graphicalrather than textual basis orplanning instructions, youcan also solve the problem o language translation i youdecide to relocate production

In implementing PLM,it can be easy to missopportunities to reuseexisting resources. So howcan you make the mosto your digital capital?

Compelling return on investment

Product Development ProcessCAD/CAM/PDM/PLM

ProductDocumentation

Rework

Product Development ProcessCAD/CAM/PDM/PLM

Finalise

InteractiveDocumentation

Savings/Return on Investment

Opportunity with Re-PurposingRelease

Typical Serial ProcessRelease

Expand your digital assetacross your business

business technology june 2011

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