plm pros cons final white paper

© 2007, HCL Technologies. Reproduction Prohibited. This document is protected under Copyright by the Author, all rights reserved.

AB

ST

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CT Today, organizations want accelerated time to market at the same time

products are getting more complex in terms of structure, design & regulatory compliances and product development occurring in different divisions that are geographically spread. Added to this is the complexity that arises with mergers or acquisitions. All the above results in increased product data and information to be managed and shared in a real-time manner

This white paper attempts to detail out the how PLM addresses the above mentioned specific pain points while factoring out the drawbacks in PLM system which need careful consideration from our PLM implementation and customization experience

PLM Pros & Cons

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=Pros of a PLM system..............................................................................................Page 3, Engineering Data, PLM Solution, Project Collaboration, PLM Solution, Generation of Reports, PLM Solution, Integration to legacy/ERP systems,PLM Solution,Integration to CAD/CAM/CAE (CAx) Tools,PLM Solution

=Cons of a PLM system.............................................................................................Page 5

=HCLT PLM Business Summary .............................................................................. Page 5

Pros of a PLM system

PLM applications track comprehensive product information and history—including items, bills of material, suppliers, costs, quotes, specs, drawings, files, compliance records and much more—in a centralized, version-controlled repository. Because authorized users have persistent access to current product details in context of design and collaboration history, manufacturers, suppliers, and their outsourced partners make better, faster design decisions, develop superior products and more quickly bring them to market.It also provides functionality for compliance reporting by utilizing a common framework and centralized information repository to support multiple compliance standards.

How do PLM systems address the above?

Sections below looks at the typical areas where organizations face challenges in terms of trying to streamlines processes, reduce efforts and costs, improve time to market ,etc,. and how PLM addresses these specific pain points

Engineering Data

Engineering data here refers to the data generated by Design department like CAD data, Test Plans, etc,. Data generated by other departments like marketing, sales, service and production will also need to be referred along-with the engineering data. Usually this data is managed by paper or using electronic files (excel files, word files) and stored separately in files servers or managed by the CAD systems themselves.

The important categories of data for products are -

Product Data/Information (Product Model)

The data includes part attributes (part number, name, material data, etc,.) relation of a part with other reference data or data that further defines the part (E.g. CAD file).

Product Configuration data

This information pertains to a product assembly information – the parts and sub-assemblies that make up this product, the state of the parts/sub-assemblies (released, WIP, etc,.) configurations and options

Engineering workflow data

This data provides information on the status of a product, configuration, users (engineers, reviewers, etc,) who are currently working on the product.

Change Management

This category of data captures the changes – revisions, that a product has undergone thorough out its life from inception to obsolescence.

Due multiple product changes, product configurations, data types and usages manual/semi-automated method of managing the product information (and sharing) lead to several challenges in terms of –

=Product data not easily traceable=Data duplication=Loss of data=Wrong entries in BOM=Difficulty in managing product configuration=Sharing data cannot be controlled=Tracking and updating product changes=Data integrity and availability=Part Data re-use


Figure below depicts a typical Product model

Part/Product

Process Plan

Operations

State Data

Reference Data

CAD Data

Change Data Components

PLM Pros & Cons

Define

Produce

Product 1 Product 3

Product 2

Wiring

Sheet Metal Assembly

Suppliers

Manage & Share Information

Support transactions across multiple systems

=Multiple build - package components=Multiple data types=Multiple usages=Multiple delivery mechanisms


The effects of the above mentioned challenges are –

Lower Productivity – As a leading US based toy manufacturer (HCL client) had stated that on an average 1000 hours of time is spent in searching per year

Duplication of work - One of HCL clients had stated that based on an initial estimate about 40% of parts are recreated or duplicated due to the inability to search and re-use a part.

Higher product costs/Lower Quality – As a leading Hi-Tech company (HCL client) had often faced the issue of having wrong entries in the BOM (old version of parts) which lead to re-manufacturing the products. About 30% of the product cost had to be re-spent.

PLM applications capture all the product related information in a centralized location – = Part unique attributes and other attributes= BOMs= Product configurations= Change to parts/products

They also allow custom search, reports, workflow functionalities in addition to provisions for project management, collaboration, etc.

It also provides functionality for compliance reporting by utilizing a common framework and centralized information repository to support multiple compliance standards.

Benefits

Improved Productivity=Increased parts re-use=Quick search results for right part information=Availability of right data at right time to all stake holders

(with right access control)=Streamlines processes (workflows)=Allow concurrent development of products

Improved quality=No room for wrong revisions if parts in BOM=No room for un-approved parts to be released=Knowledge re-use

Project Collaboration

In organizations where different parts are designed by various suppliers and divisions of the organization, the need

to collaborate effectively with the right information on a real time basis becomes important. Collaboration is to –= Ability to share right data with appropriate access=Ability to read the data appropriately (E.g. see a model in a

CAD native file using a generic viewer). All participants able to view the files simultaneously.

=Ability to capture the discussion points, action points and decision and relate it to product.

In organizations where the engineering data is not managed centrally by a dedicated system collaboration can lead to challenges like –=Product data sharing can be difficult=Due to multiple file types viewing/reading the files can be an

issue=Capturing the collaboration artefacts and relating to product

PLM Solution

PLM applications, along-with the ability to centrally manageproduct data, have collaboration modules that allows following functions –=Ability to set up discussion forums, meeting, project teams,

etc,.=Ability to share project information (product data) to

participants=Collaborate with product data viewers (similar to webex

meetings)=Capture the discussion points and relate to product data=Collaboration at specific points in a workflow

Benefits

Shorter development cycle for products=Ideas can be exchanged more easily – Quick design

decisions=Allow concurrent design since data sharing is easier and

controlled=Tractability of the development progress

Generation of Reports

Reports can be either technical reports (e.g. BOM reports) or management reports (e.g. ECO status reports)In a manual/semi-automated system for managing product information, report generation is usually done using exhaustive process of collating the data and preparing the reports. Data is generally not available in a central location but is spread across different systems.The effects of the above mentioned challenges are –Substantial effort to prepare reports – As a leading Automotive

PLM Pros & Cons

supplier in Japan (HCL client) had state that currently 4-5 days are spent in preparing a custom BOM comparison report.

Inability in preparing progress reports – As a leading Apparels manufacturer (HCL client) has stated that currently data from a lot of excel documents are to be collated to prepare a work loading chart for the management reviews.

PLM Solution

PLM applications have OOTB functionality to generate above such reports and also can be customized to generate specific reports. Since PLM application centrally manage all the product data they have access the right information and can be rendered as required.

Benefits

Quickly Generate Reports – Custom reports or OOTB reports can be quickly configured and prepared (by click of a button) since PLM systems provide all the functionality of report and also since PLM systems manage and can access the part data.Moreover executives and designers who access to PLM systems can generate the reports from any location (as long as they have access to the PLM system).

Integrations to Legacy/ ERP systems

ERP systems centrally manage the BOM and product data in an organization. However they do not provide and engineering view of the data and are generally not tightly integrated with engineering data authoring tools like CAD, CAM, etc, since ERP systems primarily focus on financials, HR, production, etc.Hence, when engineering data is manually managed then updating and synchronizing engineering data with ERPsystems can be challenging and can lead to errors.

The effects of not having a integrated environment is as follows –

Wrong versions of parts are produced

BOM entries in Engineering department do not synchronize with BOM entries in production (ERP system). This leads to substantial manual effort to update and to ensure both BOMs are identical which can be error prone.

PLM Solution

Most PLM applications have OOTB integrations with ERP systems to perform the following in an automated manner (either based on user action or an event in either of the systems) –=BOM exchange

,To update BOM in ERP system,To update BOM in PLM system

=Exchange Product data=Extract and generate BOM reports containing engineering

data from PLM and production/finance data from ERP system

Benefits

=Production has latest and correct BOM=Better productivity – Designers spend less time in

updating the ERP BOM=Better Quality – PLM systems take care of making the

correct updates in the ERP BOM

Integrations to CAD/ CAM /CAE (CAx) tools

CAx systems are used to develop product models, assemblies and other information that is related to the product. Some CAD systems (e.g. Ideas) provide a limited functionality of managing the data in terms of sharing the data within a team and providing a simple access control.However to effectively manage information of complex and large products in a semi-automated data management systems (assemblies and the data related to it, revisions, changes, etc,.) pose several challenges. Even with PLM system (but with no CAx integrations) users need to manually upload the CAx data to the PLM systems. The challenges posed due lack of such integrations are –=Substantial efforts spent in uploading the CAx data in the

data management system.=Changes in CAx will manually have to be updated in the

data management system

PLM Solution

PLM applications come with add-on CAx integrators that allow the user to perform the following in a CAD-PLM integrated environment –=Create/Update Parts in CAx and publish in PLM system

(automatically)=Create/Update Product structures in CAx and publish in

PLM system (automatically) – BOM is automatically updated in PLM system

Benefits

Improved Productivity=Designers now need not spend effort in manually updating

the PLM systems for the data created in CAD systems=Data can be automatically opened in the authoring CAx

system without manually downloading it

Improved Quality=With automatic upadation of the PLM system with the data

(content and structure information) manual errors are eliminated.

Though a PLM system can bring many benefits to an organization in terms of improved productivity, quality, time to market, etc, PLM systems have some drawbacks which need careful consideration. Sections below list some of the typical drawbacks in PLM systems.

Implementation challengesPLM implementation needs careful planning and is time consuming. Typical challenges that rise due to bad implementation are –

Cons of a PLM system


PLM Pros & Cons

User resistance=PLM system not used effectively and ends up as a data silo=Duplication of data and effort=Data in PLM system is incorrect or not sufficient=PLM system too slow – no proper planning for the network

bandwidth, server configurations, system configuration, etc.

Product limitationsLimitations can be in terms of limited OOTB functionality, ability to be configured for organization’s business processes, ability to be customized, etc.

Product performanceApart from bad system planning (e.g. network, servers, etc,.) product themselves many have limitation in terms of handling simultaneous users, requests, etc.

HCL Technologies (HCLT) is one of India’s leading global IT Services companies, employing 36,452 professionals, had posted revenue (TTM) of US $ 1.058 billion for the quarter ended in September, 2006.HCL Technologies (HCLT) is a subsidiary of HCL Enterprise, which is a leading Global Technology and IT enterprise encompassing HCLT and HCL Infosystems.

HCL Technologies, leveraging on an extensive global offshore infrastructure and its global network of offices in 16 countries focuses on select verticals including Financial Services, Retail & Consumer, Life Sciences Aerospace, Automotive, Semiconductors, Telecom and MPE (Media Publishing & Entertainment) to deliver solutions.

Under its Technology Led Services line of business, Engineering Services Group (ESG) having more than 650+ qualified engineers and technology professionals are working on PLM/PDM/CAD/CAM/CAE technologies for various verticals like Aero, Auto, Life Sciences, Semi, Hi-Tech.

Based out of Bangalore, India, PLM division as part of Engineering Services Group (ESG) is aimed at providing quality solutions to customers in leading PLM technologies like Windchill, Teamcenter, eMatrix etc, Focussing on areas including Implementation, Customizations, Integrations with ERP systems as well as CAD systems and other systems.

The various service offerings from HCLT PLM is as follows –New Implementations=Requirement Definition, Analysis and Specifications

,Business Processes,Software Requirements,Integrations and Data Migrations

=PLM Solution Architecting,Data Schema Design,GUI Customizations,Integrations and custom functionalities,Development, Testing Plans and Production Roll-Out

Plans

HCLT PLM Business Summary

=Test Plans,UT,System Integration

=Development and Testing=User Training & roll-out

Migrations and upgrades=Version Upgrades=Migration to New PDM/PLM Product=Data Migrations & Extensions =Global roll-out

Integrations and Visualization=Integrations with Enterprise Systems

Build Interfaces to:,CAD/CAEERP,Manufacturing Systems (Shop Floor Control),B-2-B Interfaces,Content Search to ease Document Management,Supply Chain Integrations,Web based collaboration & 3-D view tools

Support and Sustenance=Based on SLA=New Functionality Development=Enhancements=Bug Fixing & Testing

Other Capabilities of HCL-PLM groupCAD Customization=Customization of package CAD Applications like

Unigraphics, ProE, Solidworks, AutoCAD, etc=Interfaces between CAD/CAM/CAE and PDM packages

,Custom CAD Application development=Sound knowledge in standard CAD exchange

specifications like DXF, IGES, STEP, etc

3D Graphics Solutions=Extensive experience in web based graphics like VRML,

Open inventor, SVG, etc,=Sound knowledge of graphics engines like DirectX,

OpenGL, Java3D, etc,=Custom 3D graphics application developmentCapability in Geometry, Simulation & Imaging

PLM TechnologiesThe various PLM technologies that HCL is involved in are as follows –=Team center Enterprise=Team center Community=Team center Engineering=Windchill=Ematrix=SmarTeam


PLM Pros & Cons


PLM Pros & Cons

About the Author

World Class Partnerships/Alliances

Domain Expertise

10,000 + person years of Retail experience

Strong 2500 + resource base – Domain experts and technical consultants

JV with Jones Apparel Group

Prime Implementation Partner of JDA

Partnerships with IBM, Microsoft Retail, Infor, Escalate Retail (GERS) & Shipcom

Focused R&D in New Technologies

& Standards

Clearly defined strategy for products/frameworks

COEs for JDA, SAP, Demand Driven Supply Chain, DW, POS & RFID

Delivery Efficiency

Mature Processes (CMM 5)

Integrated Global Delivery

ITIL Compliant Processes

COPC CSP 2000 Process Certification

Memberships

AMR rates HCL a Leader in RetailHCL ranked higher than other Indian offshoring companies in Retail capability scope, with leadership status in Supply ChainHCL ranked as a leader across areas like warehouse management, product sourcing, ecommerce, advanced retail planning and replenishment AMR ResearchAMR Research

"We see HCL as an important Long Term Strategic Partner with whom we can build a relationship to the benefit of both parties."

- Sr. VP/CTO, Jones Apparel Group

HCL Retail & CPG Practice - Highlights


PLM Pros & Cons

plm pros cons final white paper

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