Product Lifecycle Management (PLM)

Purposes of this session

To obtain a definition of PLM To place PLM in context with other technologies and systems To discuss the future of Design Data Management

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PLM definitions
PLM is much more than data management and CAD. It is a strategic approach that applies a consistent set of business solutions in support of the collaborative creation, management, dissemination, and use of product definition information.
Product Lifecycle Management Empowering the Future of Business. CIMdata, 2003.

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PLM aims to provide a: Complete view of All the data associated with a given product From concept to decommissioning, To all who require the information:

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Design Engineers, Manufacturing Engineers, Purchasing, Marketing, Top Executives, Suppliers, Partners.
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The ideal PLM strategy has: a layer of information and applications for executives, a layer for resource management and budgets, a layer for overseeing projects, and a layer for tracking work as it gets done.

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PLM has roots in PDMS

There is no complete PLM software yet. Many PLM products started as PDM software and now have additional functions and features that get them closer to PLM.

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The core functionality of early PDM systems was: to provide the users with their required data through a single data repository, and to maintain the validity and integrity of data by continual data updating as well as controlling the way people create and modify the data.

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PDM solutions expanded to include some new functionalities, including: change management, document management, workflow management, and project management, with the promise of enabling concurrent engineering, and streamlining business processes within the enterprise.

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The product information managed by early PDM systems was limited to engineering information, designed to support & supplement CAD/CAM/CAE systems. PDMSs were typically internal installations available for design and manufacturing engineers. External agents (e.g. suppliers & customers) were not usually provided with the access to PDM services and databases. Working with PDMS usually required professional skills and engineering background.
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With the emergence of the concept of the Extended Enterprise, which extended the scope of the manufacturing-centered business beyond the traditional organizational boundaries, PDM systems failed in extending their coverage to the whole Extended Enterprise.

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Almost concurrent with evolution of PDM systems, the first wave of enterprise applications such as: Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Supply Chain Management (SCM) introduced a variety of products to the market which were aimed at further streamlining and improving the manufacturer business practice.

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 Applications like ERP were traditionally focused on control of business transactions rather than supporting innovation and creativity in New Product Development (NPD) process. ERP-like applications heavily depend on structured data models (like BOM) in activities like procurement, process monitoring, cost reporting and resource planning whereas product development environment, with current information modeling approach, is always overwhelmed with unstructured data with different levels of complexity and granularity.
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Internal drivers for PLM: need for product innovation, customer intimacy, and operations excellence.

External drivers: globalization, mass customization, product complexity, shrinkage in product life cycle, push into the supply chain and environmental issues.
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PLM is supposed to fill the gap between enterprise business processes and product development processes . In other terms, PLM works as glue which adhere all the processes that have something to do with product and connects all functional silos to make them horizontally integrated.

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PLM is not peer to enterprise applications like ERP, CRM and SCM. It provides a foundation on which other applications can operate in a more integrated fashion.

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Scope of PLM

http://plmtechnologyguide.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/plm-scope1.gif Accessed 31/01/2012

PLM Sub-systems
Electronic Design Automation Technical Document Management Digital/Virtual Mock-up Release Authorisation & ECC Systems MCAD Maintenance, Repair & operations Project & Programme Management Systems CAPE

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Electronic Design Automation (EDA). Electronics are an increasing proportion of many products such as cars. These systems allow engineers to model the requirements of the system, then generate manufacturing instructions to realise the design in a variety of technologies.

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Technical Document Management. Products don't only have drawings but also spec sheets, process plans, and work instructions. These systems provide a vault for all drawings and documents, as well as mechanisms to index and access them.

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Digital Mock Up (DMU) or Virtual Product Mock Up (VMU) Provides a system to visualise an assembly of parts from various sources and check for fitness for purpose, interference etc. They also offer cross-variant configurations of a single product line (sometimes referred to as Configuration Management).

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Release Authorisation and Engineering Change Control Systems Maintain information about the design status of various parts, who has approved their fitness for purpose, and what other parts are affected by changes in design. They also track the status of changes requested and those parts impacted.

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Mechanical Computer Aided Engineering A range of disciplines that allow the digital modelling of a part or assembly, often in approximate terms, then the simulation of its behaviour in operation. This can include stress analysis, kinematics, vibration and failure analysis, fluid dynamics etc.

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Maintenance, Repair and Operations (MRO) Tracks the status of finished products, records maintenance carried out, as-built and as-maintained configurations, repair processes, and alternatives, including product upgrades.

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Project and Program Management Systems Monitor the resources used to perform the development tasks, their relationships and progress against deadlines. Tends to consider risks and contingency plans, and the case where a fixed resource has to be shared over several projects.

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Computer Aided Production Engineering (CAPE) Models the factory, production line or work cell layout to
simulate production processes generate efficient operations plans train operators.

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Within a comprehensive PLM solution, PDM is a set of technologies and capabilities that support information management throughout the product/plant lifecycle and provides many of the critical core functions and foundation technologies.

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PDM includes the following basic elements of PLM solutions: Information and document vaulting Content and document management Workflow and process management Product structure management Configuration management Classification management Program and project management
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PDM is an organized source for information and manages: Viewable versions of product/plant information Reviews, markups and decisions Provides data and process management Product configurations Release of product information to manufacturing or construction

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 PDM enforces data access control, defines and executes workflow, and coordinates and integrates with other applications PDM provides an application neutral environment for visualization and collaboration that enable personnel without access to, or knowledge of, authoring tools to view, comment on, and use product information created by those tools thus expanding the use and value of core product information.

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 The core of PLM is universal, secure, managed access to the definition of a product or plant and maintaining the integrity of the product definition and related information throughout the life of the product or plant. PDM is fundamental to PLM because PDM has always focused on data and configuration management.

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PDM provides the infrastructure required to deliver the two fundamental characteristics of PLM: Providing universal, managed access to product and plant definition information (the intellectual assets via the "data vault" and role, organization user based security Maintaining product and plant information definition integrity through product structure management, configuration management, and workflow-enabled change management
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Summary
PDM evolved into PLM solutions that have become broader in scope and that affect more functional areas within a business. As they have expanded beyond PDM systems that originally were constrained within the walls of the engineering and design departments, PLM solutions are helping many more users from across more functions to easily create, capture, access, share, and use their extended enterprise's intellectual assets, and enabled businesses in multiple industry sectors to respond to market pressures in new and innovative ways.
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Summary
The vision of PLM is to transform the way companies manage their product through all phases of its lifecycle: initial ideation, concept design, product design, manufacturing design, production, delivery to the customer, in-service support, and retirement from use. The scope of the product lifecycle that must be considered is continuously expanding. In many industries, the end of the product lifecycle is not just when the customer ceases to use it more regulations than ever dictate how companies must now address disposal or recycling. In todays world these issues are no longer optional, they are mandatory.
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Summary
It is important to understand this broad scope of PLM; the breadth of the product lifecycle and the value that managing the digital, or virtual, product can have on your organizations success. But this breadth challenges companies. Who in the organization has this broad responsibility? Who has that span of control? Clearly, PLM demands that the executive office be actively involved and this demands that the message of PLM and its value must be effectively communicated to and by the executive team.
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Thank you for your interest

Any questions?

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