plm – business benefits · chapter 2 plm – business benefits plm info series catching. after an...

Chapter 2 PLM – Business Benefits PLM Info Series

PLM–BusinessBenefits

PLM INFO SERIES , CHAPTER 2

December 2014

ROCKWELL CONSULTS , LLC

Brian A. Rockwell, PMP

PLM Solutions Architect


Table of Contents

I. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................................... 3

II. BENEFITS ................................................................................................................................................ 3

A. PERFORMANCE/PRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................... 3

1. Reduced time to market ................................................................................................................................ 4

2. Reduced prototyping costs............................................................................................................................. 7

3. Reduced Waste .............................................................................................................................................. 8

B. STABILITY/INTEGRITY ............................................................................................................................................... 9

1. Improved product quality and reliability ........................................................................................................ 9

2. Data Integrity ............................................................................................................................................... 10

3. System Integration ....................................................................................................................................... 10

C. ACCESSIBILITY ...................................................................................................................................................... 11

1. Savings through the complete integration of engineering workflows ......................................................... 11

2. Cross-company Collaboration ...................................................................................................................... 12

D. SECURITY ............................................................................................................................................................ 12

E. COMPLIANCE ....................................................................................................................................................... 13

1. Standards Assist in Product Quality ............................................................................................................. 13

2. Documentation that can assist in proving compliance for ISO9001 ............................................................ 15

III. RESISTANCE TO CHANGE ....................................................................................................................... 15

A. MANAGEMENT..................................................................................................................................................... 15

B. ENGINEERING....................................................................................................................................................... 15

C. PRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................................... 15

D. USERS ................................................................................................................................................................ 16

IV. FINAL WORDS ....................................................................................................................................... 16

Table of Figures FIGURE 1 ........................................................................................................................................................................ 4

FIGURE 2 ........................................................................................................................................................................ 5

FIGURE 3 ........................................................................................................................................................................ 7

FIGURE 4 ...................................................................................................................................................................... 10

Chapter 2 PLM – BUSINESS BENEFITS of 16

I. INTRODUCTION

In this, the second article of the PLM information series, the business benefits of PLM are explored. These

may have a range for some that might be critical whereas for others may only be of passing interest. It all

depends on such aspects as business requirements, environmental factors, regulatory

requirements/compliance, and market sector, to name a few. Each company has unique challenges,

however through this article we hope to identify a common thread that may be pertinent to most.

PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) and its cousin, PDM (Product Data Management) are two strategic

systems that assist companies in managing engineering data, although each is significant in some of the

differences. Most companies will have some form of data management, but more often than not, it is

some shared network drive with either no security or bare security for the data it contains. This is a

nightmare for the engineering manager and the quality controller, as almost no data control is possible

and engineering changes run rampant with barely a thought to tracking those changes. Engineering

Change Orders (ECO’s) are usually paper based, or a home-grown solution such as an Access database, or

some quality system that is more designed for Product Non-conformance Procedure (NCP’s) in a

production environment than for the engineering department.

Companies unfamiliar with PLM may ask, ‘Why do I need it?’ The strategy may be vaguely understood,

but only when specific examples and situations are explained can the true benefits begin to shine and the

savings become apparent. It is well understood that the tool that is designed for a specific task is the one

most appropriate to employ. The following discussion points will illustrate how PLM handles engineering

data and some metrics of cost and time savings coupled with reduced waste to be realized through

correct PLM implementations.

II. BENEFITS

Most benefits can be classified in general areas of business objectives or business requirements and

regulatory or compliance requirements. If a company wants information faster, that is considered part of

the Performance section; multi-site access is considered part of the Access section. Many could argue

that most will fall into several categories, but the author attempted to find the most beneficial aspect and

use that for determining the grouping.

A. Performance/Production Since performance equates to faster production metrics and speedier design turnaround times,

businesses can move forward with confidence knowing they are on the cutting edge of innovation.

Promises for product can be made with greater certainty with fewer delays and design flaws. CIMdata

explains the benefit of integrating PLM to ERP and the benefits to be seen:

Shortening time – time to design, time to first production, time to volume production,

time to incorporate a change, time to market – is a major benefit of integrating PLM and


ERP. Integration can provide early availability of design and change information to

downstream users, i.e., manufacturing engineering or service and maintenance

personnel who review designs and provide feedback and to “work ahead” to prepare

the production facilities and processes that will be needed to manufacture the

products.1

Further discussion about the benefits of integration will be discussed later. Below are several

performance advantages that PLM can provide for the competitive company.

1. Reduced time to market

According to a study by the Aberdeen Group2 (see Fig. 1), the greatest pressure on Product

Development is to launch a product quickly. Probably one of the major benefits of PLM is the

reduction of time from product

inception to full production.

This is realized through a few of

the following steps or methods:

a) Data Collaboration

Management is constantly

scrutinizing internal

processes and engineering

is no exception. By sharing

data with the company,

what was once considered

only engineering data now

becomes available to other

departments. This allows a

more proactive design that

not only allows engineering

to receive feedback at

earlier stages, but allows others to understand what product design is being proposed. By

permitting departments such as management, production, finance, procurement/advanced

planning, etc. to see what the new or modified product will look like will reduce the design

iterations and hone in on what is really wanted or needed in less time. This cannot truly be

quantified as each product and each company is different, but by using a hypothetical situation,

we can better understand how the process works:

CASE STUDY 1:

The fictitious ACME Company (used throughout this article), headed by Mr. Wile E.

Coyote, has a fantastic product that will revolutionize the industry of roadrunner

1 CIMdata, “PLM and ERP Integration: Business Efficiency and Value.” Feb 2005 www.cimdata.com

2 Aberdeen Group, “Product Development Single Source of Truth: Integrating PLM and ERP.” April 2012,

http://www.aberdeen.com/research/7801/rb-product-development-engineering/content.aspx

Figure 1

Top Pressures Driving Improvements to Product Development Process


catching. After an initial product concept review, they identify the basic layout,

discover other products that are similar, cost out the manufacturing process, and

analyze the market impact. Since this is a new product ACME and the world have

never seen, there are many unknowns. Engineering

begins the work of selecting existing parts,

designing custom parts, determining assemblies,

and lastly coming up with the full product. In the

typical scenario, engineering would do most of the

work independently. Once they had finished with

what they believe the new product would be like, it

is sent either to production or for prototyping,

depending on the scenario. Since we already know this is a new product never seen

before, we will assume a prototype of the product is made. Initially, engineering

would work closely with production to create a prototype of this new product until

something that they feel is a working model is established (we will ignore the fact

that the product may fail in the prototype stage). They now proudly announce to

Mr. Coyote they have the working model and are looking to move into production.

At this moment, Elmer Fudd, the financial guru at ACME realizes the cost of one of

the critical parts will be 30% of the total cost of the product, rendering it too

expensive based on the original analysis. Engineering now has to return to the

design stage and identify some workaround or substitute part that will make the

new product more economical. This may require a rework of the entire product to

accommodate the change, essentially returning the product back to the point of

design that started weeks ago. Mr. Coyote is upset that he is seeing deadlines slip

and costs mount, not to mention Pack-o-Wolves, Inc. is about to launch their own

trap, all the while his stakeholders are wondering if he can deliver on previous

promises.

Pitfalls like this light-hearted and simplistic scenario could have been avoided had information

been communicated to Financial and they had been involved at an earlier stage, eliminating an

unnecessary amount of design time on something that was based on a premise. There are many

other situations similar to this that can be studied and analyzed, but suffice it to say that if the

design process is streamlined by allowing collaboration, the time to market is reduced and

money is saved.

b) Single Source of Truth

According to a Tech-Clarity survey3, the number one improvement reason with the biggest

impact on business performance was fast and accurate data searching. Although this may seem

a little obvious, the author has seen folder structures that are simply breath-taking in the

complexity and scope. Usually they are based off a product number, using a folder with

3 Tech-Clarity, “Tech-Clarity Perspective: Best Practices for Managing Design Data.” 2012, http://www.tech-

clarity.com/documents/Tech-Clarity_Perspective_Design_Data_Best_Practice_Overview.pdf

Figure 2

The ultimate calling card.


subsequent folders in a structure similar to the product BOM to hold component drawings,

schematics, spec sheets, test results, artwork, and a myriad of other documents that sometimes

are relevant to the design and many that are not. There were always some exceptions to the

rule in the design, as the design for one product was rarely the same structure across the board.

Sometimes a product line would provide some higher control, but no matter what solution was

selected, the customer was forced to include all parts in every folder to avoid any misses with

respect to components. This equates to an enormous waste of disk space and forced the

engineer to find every permutation of the part and make changes to all of them to keep them up-

to-date.

With the advent of PLM or PDM, the entire product inventory is maintained in one location,

therefore any ancillary documents or files can be attached as the structure dictates, and not

based on some folder policy. Furthermore, if one part needs to be changed, all the products

associated with that part can be evaluated for change impact with relative ease, unlike the case-

by-case nightmare that ensues with a folder structure approach. Antiquated drive repositories

almost guarantee part versions fall through the cracks and become out-of-synch with other

products of the same part.

c) Multi-site Collaboration

Another example of data collaboration and the effect that the lack of collaboration can have is

when dealing with multiple sites. In order to effectively share and manipulate data in what is

now a global economy increasingly requires those who need access to see exactly what the other

is looking at real-time. Manufacturing sites may not necessarily be the same location for

engineering, therefore the speed at which interested parties are aware of changes and product

design data dramatically decreases hold-ups and boosts response times.

CASE STUDY 2:

Returning to our intrepid ACME Company, we could equate the traditional data

collaboration in this way. Mr. Coyote has three sites: Site A is the Engineering powerhouse

while Site B is the Manufacturing headquarters. Site C sometimes works both depending on

the product and demand. If we assume the Roadrunner trap made it to production before

the error was uncovered and the trap was designed in Site A and is being manufactured in

both Site B and Site C, all three sites would need to be aware of the ECO that was raised by

Mr. Fudd. If a change were to be made known to anyone using traditional means, an email

is sent with the new ECO number and some form that described the change, its impact, and

the changes that are required to be made to what parts. If everyone is not completely aware

(and with the increasing demand on employees to perform), the process deteriorates and

data is lost, not to mention the chaos that results. Bugs Bunny, the Engineering Manager, is

so overworked by chasing down loose threads that his health suffers and Mr. Coyote is

constantly on the phone with him trying to work out the mess. Bugs constantly bickers with

Daffy Duck, the Production Manager at Site B, as to who could pin the blame on whom for

manufacturing errors. Foghorn Leghorn, the Production Manager at Site C is never around

and the pile of paperwork on his desk has been cited as a health hazard to any who entered

his office.


Again, this case study is done tongue-in-cheek, but the reality may strike a little closer to home.

The benefits of PLM can alleviate all the symptoms noted above, but only when correctly

implemented and integrated. Please remember, the best software cannot replace poorly crafted

or missing policies and procedures.

d) The BOM Starts in PLM

With PLM connecting to ERP, the tendency is to assume ERP will continue to handle the BOM.

This is usually not the case as far as product design is concerned, as the engineer will be working

in CAD and PLM to create the new product structure. PLM also will generate new part numbers

and will be the gatekeeper for any changes that may occur to the design. This helps clarify the

data stream as it progresses through the design process as clear roles are defined. ERP can now

do what it is designed for – manage supply chain processes and inventory and not engineering

requirements.

You will note that PDM is not mentioned here – this is because most PDM systems do not

interface with ERP and even if they do, the release process is normally ignored or very basic at

best. This is also a good reason to review PLM as the design solution of choice if an ERP system

is involved.

2. Reduced prototyping costs

As product development is in full swing, there are several steps that are required to determine if a

product is viable and will perform according to the desired parameters and specifications. The

Production Part Approval Process (PPAP) is considered a transition from Engineering to Production to

do just that. In the author’s opinion, this is the most critical time Engineering and Production should

collaborate. With PLM, a process can be initialized that will allow both sides to track tasks and

actions as the prototype is developed. This iterative process needs to be streamlined to reduce

downtime and delays due to miscommunication.

CASE STUDY 3:

Returning to our scenario, we left Bugs and Daffy hard at it and trying to track down Foghorn.

Let’s assume a PLM solution is identified as required, is implemented, and policy is put into place

to control processes. As personnel begin to adopt and adapt to the new process (which rarely

occurs overnight) the differences in engineering design and production requirements begin to

ease. Daffy and Foghorn are both now aware of changes being emitted by Engineering and Bugs

is gaining confidence in the release process. They even go as far as creating a PPAP process in

Figure 3

Simplified PPAP Process


PLM to dovetail into the release process and allow production a hand in reviewing the proposed

changes and control their own process. The designs and products in both Site B and Site C are

the same, which is bringing smiles to Mr. Coyote’s face. He is beginning to track the status of

each ECO/PPAP and does not need to call Bugs every ten minutes. Furthermore, by executing

reports he is able to tell exactly where things stand for each and every change and can determine

bottlenecks in the process for quality assurance and process improvement.

This “nirvana” of peace and harmony obviously will not occur immediately, nor will it occur with

personnel entrenched with old-fashioned paper-based or ad hoc processes. This requires a drastic

shift in mentality to accept a better, more optimized strategy. It all depends on what your company

can withstand and how long it takes to transition. Regardless, the results as noted in Study Case 3 are

feasible if management and users commit.

3. Reduced Waste

Excess, unneeded, or incorrect parts are all symptoms of a sluggish inventory and supply chain. With

today’s fast-paced approach to manufacturing, you cannot afford to have the shelves filled with dead

stock – it must be an integral part of what it is you make to truly improve competitiveness. This is

partly due to the healthy procurement/planning process and the ability to anticipate what is needed,

especially for long-lead parts. Some planners would like to have a crystal ball to allow them to see

into the future and better plan for what is needed. Say hello to the PLM crystal ball!

By allowing procurement and other members of production access to the engineering release

process, your company has a greater ability to anticipate engineering changes and adjust supply chain

processes and requests accordingly.

According to the white paper by Dave Hadfield, PLM can help companies reduce scrap, excess, and

rework ranging from a more modest 8% to upwards of 60% by:

• Ensuring manufacturing personnel, buyers/planners and suppliers are working from the right

revision of a specification, avoiding development of parts that must be scrapped or

reworked

• Reducing data errors through the design process. For example, cutting manual data

translation errors between CAD/CAE tools, PLM, ERP and MES. Incorrect unit of measure

data entry into ERP is cited as a problem by clients. One client had ordered an expensive

material in meters instead of feet resulting in significant waste. Upon investigation the

approved engineering change had the correct information and the issue related to manual

data entry into ERP.

• Providing better data, enabling a move to preventive actions over corrective actions. For

example, now it is possible to see trends of common Nonconformance’s across plants.4

CIMdata claims a 15% reduction in inventory simply by having the engineers know what parts are on

hand and utilizing them in new product or revisions.5

4 Dave Hadfield, “How PLM Can Cut Manufacturing Costs.” 2013,

http://www.onlinetmd.com/FileUploads/file/HowPLMCanCutManufacturingCostsWhitePaperUPDATED.pdf


B. Stability/Integrity Data stability and integrity are also critical to any system and PLM provides added value in not only

providing a repository for design documentation, but any documentation that requires version control or

some added security not provided through traditional means. Some of the strategies for document

management will be handled in Chapter 3 of the PLM Info Series.

1. Improved product quality and reliability

Product quality and reliability are obvious desires for any business, and any improvement, if merited

financially will play heavily in management decisions. Since this is a given, how does PDM/PLM help

out? Let’s take PDM for now. PDM is an engineering tool that controls the checkout/check-in

process, forcing the engineer to manage their parts through revision. This is the most basic

application function, but even this simple benefit can save the company an enormous amount of

money by controlling the way changes are made. I once had a customer tell me they would only

maintain a single version of the drawing. If they needed to make changes, they would copy to a

working folder, work on the changes until they were satisfied with the changes, then at the time of

release, would simply copy it back to the original folder and delete the old version. My jaw dropped,

but only because I knew better. Here are some of the benefits to revision-controlled engineering

data:

a) Eliminate Duplicate or Conflicting Changes

If Engineer A is working on Part 1234 and Engineer B wishes to make changes to that same part,

the PDM system will inform Engineer B that Engineer A has the part checked out. This gives

Engineer B an option: wait until Engineer A completes their changes or speak with Engineer A

and see if they can collaborate on their changes. They might even realize they are both working

on the same change (saving Engineer B a lot of work) or realize that Engineer B’s changes will

conflict with Engineer A’s changes. Regardless of the situation, communication is established

and both engineers can proceed with a little more confidence that they are both contributing to

the correct changes that Part 1234 needs.

Impact: Engineer B may overwrite the changes to Engineer A or vice versa. If both are working

on the part, whoever is last to save will win. Even if both knew that each was working on Part

1234, the release of the part to production may cause confusion with two separate ECO

processes, assuming an ECO process is being used. It is possible two distinct prints hit the floor

simultaneously and production will have to figure out who is right.

b) Version/Revision Control

By maintaining a history of revisions, engineering can now review changes between one revision

and another. At times a new release does not work and the rollback to a previous revision is

desired, or it is possible one customer wishes to use one revision while another uses a separate

revision of the same part.

Impact: by systematically maintaining revisions in a single repository, revision control is easier to

manage



c) BOM Complexity

As Bills of Materials become more and more complex with more sophisticated products and 3D

CAD modelling now the staple in product development, the next stage in design is to effectively

manage those products with an equally complex management system and process. This requires

significant review and control to ascertain each component is correctly identified, categorized,

and accounted for as the product is sent to Production. As complexity increases, so does the

chance a problem will surface. In

the Aberdeen study noted earlier,

of over 200 companies 33%

responded that product

complexity was a top product

development challenge.6

Impact: by allowing PDM/PLM

control of the product structure,

product errors are reduced and

time to market is enhanced.

2. Data Integrity

Critical to any information system is

the knowledge that those data being

reviewed are accurate and precise. PLM can increase the confidence that what is being seen is in fact

clean and up-to-date. This is a significant improvement over printed documents. As the common

tech adage states, “the minute you print a paper, it is made obsolete.” Why then, would you feel the

need to print documents only to be unsure of the validity of the data printed? For this reason it is a

wise practice to provide access to the plant floor to the data as it sits in the system, thereby allowing

any changes that may be last second to be identified and implemented in the actual design and build

of a product.

3. System Integration

In the same study performed by the Aberdeen Group, only 15% of companies reported integration of

engineering and downstream departments as satisfactory and only 8% of those participants reported

that coordination with the supply chain worked well.7

Here also is where PDM and PLM diverge. PDM concentrates on the engineering aspect of the data,

while PLM will continue by integrating to ERP and allowing others access to what was once privileged

information. This point will be discussed further in the following section as we move into

collaboration. The improvement caused by the integration of PLM and ERP allows significant

6 Aberdeen Group, “Responding to Growing Product Complexity: Improving BOM Management in Product

Development and Beyond.” May 2012, http://www.aberdeen.com/research/7993/rb-product-development-

engineering/content.aspx 7 Aberdeen Group, “Responding to Growing Product Complexity: Improving BOM Management in Product

Development and Beyond.” May 2012, http://www.aberdeen.com/research/7993/rb-product-development-

engineering/content.aspx

Figure 4

Development Process Challenges


reduction in time as well as eliminating, if not all, most of the issues resulting from data entry and

manual processes of passing information from CAD to PDM/PLM and PLM to ERP.

CIMdata classifies the benefits of integration as the following:

• Ensuring consistency and use of product/plant related information by personnel in

organizations throughout the enterprise

• Reducing the time to bring new and better products to market at a lower cost while

improving quality

• Creating and using common product-related terminology and processes throughout the

business

They go even further and state that there is a 75% reduction in the time, cost, and errors associated

with the re-keying of data from one system to another. They also report that there is a 75%

reduction in BOM error cost as BOMs are maintained in a consistent manner across both systems.8

C. Accessibility

1. Savings through the complete integration of engineering workflows

One of the most obvious and quick returns on value is the ability to connect many systems to each

other. But PLM is not designed to simply be a relay between engineering and production, but

controls the release process itself.

Traditional data transfer from Engineering to Production is performed when the Bill of Material

(BOM) has been completed to Engineering’s satisfaction and the engineering drawings and

schematics are printed out and handed to the Production Manager. The Production Manager will

then review the prints, disassemble the drawings, etc. and manually enter the data into some ERP

system. As most users know, any time manual data entry occurs mistakes creep in and changes are

made to the product without anyone’s knowledge. Unless the company has an employee with the

eye of a hawk and the memory of an elephant, this will take place. As time goes on, additional errors

creep in, and although the information is there in the system, errors have caused data to be changed

or lost, necessitating Production to request new parts because they now cannot find the originals.

This forces Engineering to create a new part, even though it is a copy of one that exists, to preserve

BOM integrity. This, then, inflates the inventory with multiple redundant parts, which is simply

accepted as a necessary evil of maintaining an ERP system.

Now let’s look at the flip side. Engineering has an inventory of parts at their disposal when creating

new products and typically will use some previous product with a similar structure. They tweak the

product, save it, and for the most part will be happy with what they have created. However, if a

central repository of production parts is not available, and I have seen this occur, they may simply

start a new product from scratch to avoid any missteps or conflicts. This method is even more

damaging as instead of having a couple duplicate parts, there may be dozens or even hundreds of the



same parts in the system. This may be an extreme case; however it does happen and can only cause

more grief later as the process snowballs.

By bringing PLM into the picture you now have a system that will control CAD data and store them in

an organized, central location accessible to all. Once data are stored there, the release process can

be defined and information shared with others. Eventually, once the approval has been made, the

change is systematically sent to ERP, with all the pertinent BOM information collected during the ECO

process. There is one caveat – PLM will not have all the answers, therefore some data will need to be

entered in ERP. After all, PLM is a great system but it can’t do everything.

2. Cross-company Collaboration

As products become more complex certain companies are becoming increasingly aware of the need

to collaborate with suppliers and vendors to cleanly and efficiently develop a product. Industrial

analysts Peter Bilello from CIMdata and Marc Halpern from Gartner claim:

“… we are entering a new paradigm for product development. They say it has

already changed not only the way engineers and product designers work, but also the

product content and the related business models. This is most evident in large

assemblies like airplanes, cars, military vehicles, and missile systems… in every direction

you look this trend towards increased complexity and the requirement for systems

engineering is crystal clear.”9

With all of this, many companies can see the benefit of sharing data outside the company, but are

afraid to divulge company trade secrets or simply do not know how to do so without sending an

email. Here we can explore the ability to create vendor portals and allow access to privileged

information, but only as dictated by the PLM system. More of this will be discussed in Chapter 3 of

the PLM Info Series.

D. Security As with most software systems, secure data is a must when dealing with design data, PLM not being the

exception. Although secure data will not increase profits directly, the ability to control how data is

accessed can significantly impact the way business performs when issues arise or changes are made that

are not authorized or properly distributed to the appropriate personnel. Unfortunately, old paradigms

can cause people to feel certain liberties with data are being eliminated, which is true to an extent.

However, the risk of exposing data to the wrong personnel, or wrong external partner far exceeds any

limitation caused by controlling data access to those who actually do need it.

As an example, most PLM systems can generate PDF documents from drawings or MS Office documents.

Role-based security can control the way a marketing user accesses data differently from a

9 Verdi Ogewell, “Can PLM Systems Manage Highly Complex Products? – TV Report, Nov 26, 2013.

http://www.engineering.com/PLMERP/ArticleID/6717/categoryId/40/Can-PLM-Systems-Manage-Highly-Complex-Products-TV-

Report.aspx


designer/engineer. Each can access the system, but not in the same way. This discussion is more

appropriate for Chapter 3 of the Info Series as we will discuss PLM strategies and how to leverage PLM to

your benefit.

Due to the fact PLM manages a file repository, design data are not the only documents to be handled by

PLM. Many customers find that quality documentation, spec sheets, assembly instructions, Material

Safety Data Sheets (MSDSs), and other items can also be stored in PLM for safekeeping. This is something

that is a business decision as to what level PLM handles company documents and data and also will be

discussed in Chapter 3.

E. Compliance

1. Standards Assist in Product Quality

Many companies tout their qualifications and certifications to instill confidence in the customer that

they have performed certain steps in complying with a set of standards or regulations. How

standards are met is still at the discretion of the company as long as the regulatory body approves the

requirements. PLM Info, a website dedicated to providing more information about PLM lists the

regulatory, standards, and compliance organizations that PLM supports:10

Name/Acronym Description

APQP Advanced Product Quality Planning is a framework of procedures and

techniques used to develop products in industry, particularly the

automotive industry.

CAPA The Certified Automotive Parts Association (CAPA) is a non-profit

organization that creates quality standards for automotive parts. Their

standards are currently applied to parts made from three materials:

metal, plastic, and lighting. The organization is based in Washington D.C.

and was founded in 1987.

CMII Configuration Management II (CMII) is a management approach that

starts the process with the project's requirements and ensures that the

product or service developed follows from the demands and

requirements of the customers. CMII is authorized and developed by The

Institute of Configuration Management.

CMMI

Capability Maturity Model Integration is an approach to process

improvement in software engineering and organizational development.

Design For Six Sigma

(DFSS)

Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) is the application of Six Sigma principles to

the design of products and their manufacturing and support processes.

DFSS incorporates advanced Voice of the Customer and systems

engineering techniques to anticipate and avoid process problems.

Design For X (DFX) Encompasses a wide collection of specific design guidelines, each

addressing a particular issue that is caused by, or affects the

characteristics of a product.

10 PLM Info, “Standards, Requirements & Initiatives.” http://www.product-lifecycle-management.info/plm-

resources/standards-and-compliance.html


Name/Acronym Description

Food and Drug

Administration

The U.S. FDA requirements are designed to protect the public health by

assuring the safety, effectiveness and security of human and veterinary

drugs, vaccines and other biological products, medical devices, our

nation's food supply, cosmetics, dietary supplements, and products that

give off radiation.

FMEA

Failure Modes and Effects Analysis is a procedure for analysis of any

errors or defects in a process, design, or item.

ISO The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is an

international organization, based in Geneva, Switzerland, that unifies

proprietary industrial and commercial standards.

Lean, Lean

Manufacturing or

Lean Production

Lean is a production practice based on the Toyota Production System

that focuses on the creation of value for the end customer and the

elimination of waste.

NPDI

New Product Development and Introduction (NPDI) is the process of

bringing a new product or service to market. NPDI is typically the first

phase in the PLM process.

PDM

Product Data Management (PDM) is the practice of using software

and/or other tools to organize, track, and control data related to a

product. PDM is the predecessor to PLM.

Project Management

Institute (PMI)

PMI is a professional membership organization that provides training,

education, products and other services to project managers. Products

and services range from world-class standards for project, program and

portfolio management to five professional credentials, including the gold

standard Project Management Professional (PMP).

Regulation on

Registration,

Evaluation,

Authorization and

Registration of

Chemicals (REACH)

A chemical safety standard that requires manufacturers and importers in

the EU to ensure chemicals used in excess of one ton annually are

registered with the central chemical agency. Registration includes data

such as chemical types and uses, volumes per annum and test data

results.

RoHS

Restriction of Hazardous Substances directive - a European Union

directive that restricts the use of six hazardous substances: Lead (Pb),

Mercury (Hg), Cadmium (Cd), Hexavalent chromium (Cr6+),

Polybrominated biphenyls (PBB), and Polybrominated diphenyl ether

(PBDE), in the manufacture of certain kinds of electronic and electrical

equipment. The RoHS came into effect on July 1st 2006.

Standard for the

Exchange of Product

(STEP)

Model Data is a comprehensive ISO standard (ISO 10303) that describes

how to represent and exchange digital product information.

A couple others that the author identified as also to be included in the list:

• AS9100C – The Aerospace equivalent to ISO9001 and governed by the SAE International

• TS16949 – The Automotive equivalent to ISO9001 and prepared by the International

Automotive Task Force (IATF), which is a branch of ISO


2. Documentation that can assist in proving compliance for ISO9001

Considered the gold standard for quality process management in a manufacturing environment, ISO

9001 is arguably the most sought after certification. The author did a study on the ability for PLM to

improve conformance and has made it available on the company blog.11

III. RESISTANCE TO CHANGE

There are many reasons why a certain company may not wish to adopt PLM as a business strategy.

Without excessively denigrating the reasons, the following identified business groups have influence in

the adoption and utilization of PLM as a business benefit and as a software product.

A. Management As probably the most critical aspect of PLM acceptance and implementation, if management does not

recognize the benefits there is rarely any attempt by engineering, production, or other users to require

PLM. Since PLM is designed to increase the bottom line, only those with direct access to the overall

business profitability statistics have any real idea if revenue is lost due to engineering design foul-ups or

production catastrophes. Usually the engineering problem is multiplied when reaching the shop floor and

a rather simple design mistake can cost hundreds, thousands, or even millions of dollars in lost revenue.

This is where management needs to take the initiative and identify the breakdowns in communication

and/or policy and correct.

B. Engineering Engineers are notoriously slow or even stubborn to adopt new processes. They see PLM as too controlling

and inhibiting the design process, which in their eyes needs to be a free-for-all to release creative juices.

This may be true to an extent, but without correctly controlling the design and release processes chaos

ensues.

Another major hurdle is engineers like to be somewhat secretive. They feel they need to complete all

work and produce a masterpiece so management can be wowed by their ingenuity. If they come under

fire too early, they feel the design process will falter and fade. This is usually not the case, however

perceptions need to be identified, quantified, and addressed. This is not a place for egos, but true

collaboration. Visibility will help the engineer in the long run, but at times feathers will be ruffled and the

good of the company must prevail with tact and decorum.

C. Production Production feels they are the ultimate profit center and need to control everything. There is an age-old

debate who will control the BOM, but as paradigms shift, PLM becomes the logical choice once the true

11 Rockwell Consults, “PLM and ISO9001: What Does it Mean?” Nov 2014,

http://rockwellconsults.wordpress.com/2014/11/05/3-plm-and-iso-9001-what-does-it-mean/


power and influence can be felt. Again, this is a shift away from traditional “we have always done it that

way” and looking at how processes can improve that concept.

D. Users Users may not have a lot of say in the way things are done, however they do play a critical role in seeing

PLM for what it’s worth – a collaboration tool to streamline processes. Once this is understood and

adopted, the business will run smoother and costs will drop.

IV. FINAL WORDS

No matter what type of manufacturing business you run, PLM can assist in the day-to-day operations and

process that will provide integration, cohesion, and stability to your product line. Rockwell Consults is

there to help. Contact us to allow us to review your business needs, identify process issues, collaborate

with you to create a PLM strategy, and bring your bottom line to the next level.

www.rockwellconsults.com

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