Computer Solutions
Product Lifecycle Management is now more accessible for all organisations
4 Product Lifecycle Management offers many benefits for manufacturing companies. Jon Severn reports on some recent developments that could create new opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises wanting to implement PLM.
4 La PLM offre de nombreux avantages pour les entreprises de fabrication de production. Jon Severn liste certains développements récents qui pourraient offrir de nouvelles possibilités aux petites et moyennes entreprises qui souhaitent intégrer la PLM.
4 Das Produkt-Lebenszyklus- Management bietet Produktionsunternehmen viele Vorteile. Jon Severn stellt die jüngsten Entwicklungen vor, die kleinen und mittleren Unternehmen, die das PLM implementieren möchten, neue Möglichkeiten eröffnen.
A
s design offices have migrated from paper drawings to 2D CAD and 3D modelling, there has been a parallel move towards more sophisticated document management. While this
helps to keep track of drawings and other product- related documents such as specifications and bills of materials, its benefits fall far short of what can be achieved with a comprehensive product lifecycle management (PLM) philosophy. While some PLM software systems have evolved out of document management systems, this is not always the case; given the complexity of the current generation of PLM, it is easy to understand why a ‘clean sheet of paper’ approach might be better than trying to over-develop a far simpler software package. Because the entire PLM concept has evolved,
the definition of PLM varies somewhat between different suppliers, consultants and analysts. In essence, however, PLM should be viewed as a business process, rather than a software package, and PLM is applied to the entire product lifecycle, from conceptual design through to detailed design, manufacture, support and end-of-life disposal. All aspects of the product should be included - such as hardware, software and regulatory certification - and the ‘product’ may be anything from a car to a mobile telephone, building or software package. Importantly, PLM brings together people, data, processes and business systems, both within the ‘owner’ organisation and, where appropriate, suppliers and customers.
Given the vast scope covered by the PLM philosophy, it is the norm for PLM to be implemented in phases. The benefits achieved, therefore, depend on the aspects of the PLM system that have been implemented, but PLM offers the potential to reduce time to market, reduce prototyping and development costs, improve quality (both the quality of the design and the quality level achieved in manufacturing), save costs by repurposing data, reduce waste, assist with regulatory compliance (thereby saving time and costs), and enhance collaboration with suppliers. Not surprisingly, PLM has tended to be
restricted to large manufacturing companies, as the complexity and costs involved can only be withstood by large organisations, and large organisations stand to gain most from the potential benefits. Although PLM should be thought of more as a business approach than a software system, software plays a crucial role. And the licensing structures for PLM software have generally been prohibitively expensive for all but the larger manufacturing companies or smaller companies that can justify it on grounds of, for example, regulatory compliance.
PLM for all
In an attempt to make PLM accessible to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and thereby create an entirely new market for PLM in which the existing software suppliers might find it difficult to compete, Autodesk unveiled a cloud-based PLM system at Autodesk University
Fig.1. Autodesk is taking a new cloud- based approach to PLM, making it affordable for SMEs as well as large organisations.
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