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2011. According to the company, the new Autodesk 360 for PLM system could transform how manufacturers manage the entire product lifecycle - from its conception, through design and manufacture, partner and supplier management, procurement, quality, compliance, service and more. By using the processing power available through cloud computing, Autodesk says it is taking a new approach to PLM, making it more affordable for SMEs (Fig. 1). At the same time, Autodesk 360 for PLM is equally applicable to large enterprises that have become disenchanted with traditional PLM due to its complexities and high costs. Robert ‘Buzz’ Kross, the senior vice president of the
manufacturing industry group at Autodesk, stated: “Our approach to PLM is a sharp contrast to the decades-old technology in the market today. Autodesk 360 for PLM will enable customers of all sizes to achieve the full promise of PLM with a scalable, configurable and intuitive solution. We believe it will help our customers achieve a measurable competitive advantage through better, more accessible collaboration and business information management.” Autodesk already has a good track record for cloud-based
software, and Autodesk 360 for PLM comprises three main elements: Autodesk 360 Nexus, Autodesk Vault and Autodesk Buzzsaw. Autodesk 360 Nexus is new, cloud-based software that will anchor Autodesk 360 for PLM with affordable, easy- to-use and simple-to-deploy software-as-a-service that helps make the benefits of PLM business applications available to users anytime, anywhere - and with reduced cost and risk. Autodesk Vault is already available; this on-site product data management software enables engineering workgroups to organise, manage and track their entire designs, engineering bills-of-materials and change processes. Autodesk 360 Nexus has been developed to work seamlessly with Autodesk Vault. Autodesk Buzzsaw is existing cloud-based supplier
collaboration software that enables users to exchange designs and documents with external partners and distributed teams, regardless of their location, while maintaining data security. Autodesk Buzzsaw Mobile provides access to users who only have access to smartphones and tablet computers. According to Autodesk, the new Autodesk 360 Nexus
software is more readily and easily configurable to meet customer-specific product lifecycle process needs - unlike the current PLM offerings from other suppliers, which Autodesk describes as expensive, complicated, engineering-centric and difficult to deploy. Autodesk 360 Nexus aims to give users better access to data and an enhanced ability to eliminate process bottlenecks, whether they are working in planning, product development, supplier management, quality and compliance, service or many other areas.
The market for PLM
Global research firm IDC believes that the processes required to commercialise and maintain products are increasingly complex and dispersed, so the analysts estimate that the PLM software applications market will grow to €15.5 billion (US$20.5 billion) by 2015. In an IDC Manufacturing Insights report released in June 2011, the authors revealed that manufacturers identified the top three business benefits of cloud-based systems as: reducing total hardware spend; improving IT staff productivity and end
Fig. 2. Windchill 10.0 part information pages provide easy access to important information and have tabs that can be configured to meet the needs of individual users.
Analysts at Frost & Sullivan have been looking at both PLM and PAM (plant asset management). In a report published in early 2012, Frost & Sullivan described PLM and PAM as indispensable advanced management solutions, particularly for competitive European industrial markets. The analysts forecast that the European market value for PLM and PAM will reach €4331.4 million and €506.6 million, respectively, in 2017. This compares with figures from 2010 of €2640.7 million and €300.9 million. Regarding PLM, Frost & Sullivan says that the market
will be driven by growing competition and the need for innovation. Success will depend on suppliers’ ability to offer flexibility, scalability and security, as well as software systems’ ability to integrate seamlessly with other enterprise applications - particularly enterprise resource planning (ERP) and management execution systems (MES).
Social networking
Autodesk believes it is addressing the market needs with its new approach to PLM. Meanwhile, the existing suppliers are continuing to develop their systems. For example, PTC announced further enhancements to its Windchill family at the end of 2011. Windchill Service Information Manager and Windchill Service Parts enable users to repurpose product structures for product-centric information and change management of configuration-specific service and parts information. Associativity with engineering CAD data is maintained throughout the product lifecycle, resulting in more accurate service and parts information (Fig. 2). In turn, this enables greater efficiencies in product and customer support organisations. Furthermore, new capabilities within Windchill Product Analytics help manufacturers comply with the European Reach (registration, evaluation, authorisation
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user service levels; and reducing total spend on software licensing and maintenance. IDC also said that Autodesk 360 Nexus will better enable customers to start with small PLM implementations and scale these up to become larger systems rapidly when it is necessary to meet demand; at all stages, the PLM should fit easily within the user’s existing business environment.
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