PLM Cost reduction, closing the loops & PLM Vision
2PLM Newsletter
John Stark Associates
Welcome to 2PLM, an e-zine distributed about every two weeks.
May 25, 2009 - Vol12 #5
- PLM Cost Reduction: the Art of the Possible
- Linking the Phases, Closing the Loops
- PLM Vision
- PLM PhD positions
- PLM News
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PLM Cost Reduction: the Art of the Possibleby Roger Tempest Business people are deluged with advice about the importance of innovation, "thinking out of the box", and using new ideas to create new opportunities. In the PLM world, this deluge seems to wash over everyone without the slightest effect. PLM, like politics, can be said to be the 'Art of the Possible', but in the case of PLM the expectation of what is possible is very low. Right now, everyone wants to focus on minimising costs, even if only in parallel with their other PLM activities. This exposes the fact that PLM has always been weak in the area of cost justification. Standard, agreed, fast-acting tools or methodologies are just not available. The current expectation is that this is something we have to live with. The innovative expectation is that it is time we did something about it. If the PLM industry formed a temporary, cross-platform task force to do some rapid work on PLM-based cost reduction, then a short series of workshops could be held at distributed locations around the USA and Europe. The workshops would focus exclusively on how to reduce or avoid costs through PLM: how to identify costs, how to measure them, how to measure the PLM improvement, and what immediate steps the PLM team should take to achieve them. The workshops would be free for user delegates, so that participants from recession-hit companies are not prevented from attending. They would build on each other in sequence, so everyone gets the combined results. This would create new cost-saving material for everyone involved, and generate a much bigger opportunity. The task force workshop series will mean that some of the best PLM practitioners from two continents are working exclusively on PLM cost reduction for 15-18 days. This level of expertise has never been brought to bear on the subject before. If 2-day User Forum meetings in Reading and Cleveland can define a neutral PLM cost metric framework, then 18 days of workshops could generate a complete metrics set that everyone could use. A metrics set that everyone can use would transform the PLM industry. All that is needed is for users, vendors and service providers to realise that it is possible and to decide to act. The PLMIG can organise the rest. Send your feedback, or request information, via marketsupport@plmig.com. Roger Tempest is co-founder of the PLMIG.
Linking the Phases, Closing the Loopsby David Potter PROMISE proved that the collection of detailed information about products at individual serial number level, and its transformation into product knowledge, can also significantly impact beginning of life (BOL), and therefore the traditional PLM processes and applications. Now, established PLM software vendors, consultants and service providers should be examining how CL2M can increase their opportunities and competitive edge. Meanwhile, newcomers to this market can seize the opportunity to be first with offerings developed from the outset to exploit CL2M and PROMISE technologies and methodologies. The scope of opportunity is enormous. Each one of the diverse set of commercial demonstrators developed during the PROMISE Project focused on a single lifecycle phase, beginning, middle or end of life, as its primary target for innovation. So we saw, for example, applications as diverse as adaptive production and Design for X (DfX) at BOL; dynamic, adaptive or preventive maintenance in MOL; and re-use of motor parts, plastics recycling and engine remanufacturing at EOL. Also in the course of the project it became clear that the results could be applied beyond PLM to a much wider variety of lifecycles including asset management, healthcare, logistics, pedigree and supply chain integrity to name but a few. It has already been noted that PLM applications at BOL are mature, and have well established data and interchange standards. The exciting challenge - and huge opportunity - of linking the lifecycle phases comes from the quite different application needs in each of these phases. First of all, the types of applications are specific to each phase, and then the data needs are quite different. For example, the applications in the automotive industry that support BOL are quite different from those needed in MOL (e.g. CRM, parts and service management) and different again at EOL (dismantling, re-use, recycling and disposal). "Linking the phases" depends upon the ability to bridge different application types, and the PROMISE Messaging Interface (PMI) can be used as a common exchange interface between those different application types and different information sources. Closing the loops was achieved for each demonstrator by identifying the actors in each phase, and using process flow and information flow modelling to identify exactly when and what data needed to flow between each phase and in what direction. This, of course, turned out to be quite application specific, and could involve many items of data or just a few. The versatility of the PMI links the phases, and closes the loops, by addressing the wide range of requirements demanded of it. Its web-based services subscription approach makes it easy to limit information to only that which is needed and that which is permitted. It flexibly supports many different usage models such as point-to-point; multiple objects to base and vice versa; object to object; database to database; plus both intranet and internet configurations. Linking the phases and closing the loops inevitably implies different organizations, whether intra- or inter-enterprise. The latter of course raises important issues of information security and confidentiality which I will address in a later article. In the next article, we will take a brief look into how the PROMISE PDKM/DSS systems influence the transformation of lifecycle information into knowledge and its subsequent exploitation. If you have any comments or questions related to this article, please post them on my blog at cl2m.com. David Potter is Chief Technical Officer, Promise Innovation International Oy., and former Chairman of the Project Steering Board of the EU PROMISE Project. "Linking the Phases, Closing the Loops" was written as part four of a series of articles on:
The Importance of PLM Visionby John Stark In a recent issue of 2PLM, Roger Tempest mentioned that one of the early answers to the PLMIG's Vendor Support Survey question, If you imagine a 'fairy godmother' who could grant you one PLM wish, what would that be? was:- A coherent PLM Vision, Strategy and Plan that are understood and supported by all levels of management. We were pleasantly surprised to see this as, in our consulting activities, we always stress the need for a PLM Vision. In our experience, without a Vision, a PLM project is likely to go round and round in circles for a long time. A PLM Vision is a high-level description of a company's product lifecycle activities at some future time - often five years ahead. Nobody knows what the situation will be in the future, so a Vision is only a forecast of desired future activities, and, like weather forecasts and economist's forecasts, may not be 100% correct. Even so, it helps make good decisions about the resources, priorities, capabilities, budgets, and activities of PLM. A PLM Vision will be company-specific. It must be understandable and make sense to everybody. It must be believable and realistic, although it may appear to be at the limits of possibility. It must relate to the world of its readers, so that they can find, within it, their place in the future environment. The Vision has to be communicated to everybody likely to be involved in the future product lifecycle activities or impacted by them. It wouldn't make sense to have a Vision that is only accepted or understood by its inventor. A PLM Vision is the starting point for developing a PLM Strategy, and for developing and implementing improvement plans. There has to be consensus about the Vision. A shared Vision helps everybody to move forward along the same road towards new and effective activities. In the absence of a shared Vision, people won't have a common picture of the future to work towards, so plans and activities are likely to be unconnected or even in conflict. A PLM Vision isn't an independent stand-alone entity. It has to fit with the company's overall vision of its future, its mission and its objectives. Upstream of the PLM Vision are the company's objectives, vision, strategies and plans. The PLM objectives result from the requirements of the company. They express at a high level what is expected from PLM. In some companies, PLM objectives may not be provided by top management, so PLM management should develop them and get them confirmed by top management. One objective could be "we want total control of our products across the lifecycle from cradle to grave". Another could be "we want a common product development and support process worldwide". A Vision should be built by the PLM team over a few months, as one of their working activities. (This is where we come in. Having been involved in PLM Vision development several times, we bring experience absent in most PLM teams.) Developing the Vision doesn't involve the acquisition of any equipment or the implementation of any software. It's a relatively low-cost activity, much less expensive than real-life implementation. And, once the Vision exists, it can be used to simulate various options, again at much lower cost than real-life implementation. One of the first steps towards the PLM Vision is to understand the scope, range and content of product lifecycle activities. Then, the internal and external influences on PLM need to be clarified. Then the vision of the future PLM environment can be developed, giving a picture of the environment, performance and behavior of the product lifecycle activities that are expected in the future. This will help everyone in the organization who is involved in taking decisions about the future. It will set the scene for all the improvement initiatives that will follow. Once the PLM Vision has been agreed, a suitable PLM Strategy has to be developed to achieve it. This will defined how PLM resources will be organized. It defines policies for the management and use of PLM resources. Once the strategy has been defined, it's possible to start planning detailed activities. These will address applications, lifecycle processes, information, object lifecycles, organizational structures, etc. Individual projects will have to be identified, and their objectives, steps, timing and financial requirements defined. The relative priorities of projects will have to be understood. The projects will have to be organized in such a way that they result in the strategy succeeding within the allowed overall budget and time scale. When planning has been completed in this way, PLM implementation can take place. In practice, though, the world is full of companies that are several years into their PLM implementations, but have not yet defined their PLM Vision or Strategy. Without these, their PLM plans are incomplete and poorly focused, and it is not surprising that the PLM project makes little progress, going round in circles, wasting the company's time and money. The overall process of developing a PLM Vision, Strategy and Plan is easier to describe than to implement. In practice, the process requires a lot of work with, initially, little to show for the effort. When all the work has been carried out, there should be a very clear and simple link between Vision and implementation. In fact, it should look so simple that people who have not participated in the overall process will see it as no big deal.
PLM PhD positionsThanks to Bela Patkai for telling us of two recent advertisements of PhD positions posted on The Information Exchange for Closed Loop Lifecycle Management:
CL2M.com welcomes information about PLM courses and positions. PLM education is an important aspect of further PLM progress.
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