Opinion
company’s R&D process via the cloud has enabled Mevion Medical Systems to create a more collaborative environment for innovation, but also importantly made the content sharing available from any device. Mevion sees its collaborative environment- extending past the integration of social networking capabilities and encompassing data sharing from all devices the company utilises. “All employees in the company
utilise Omnify Empower on a daily basis from their computers, smartphones, and tablets; both within the company network and through remote secured VPN connections,” said Edward Quinn, Mevion Medical Systems IT Manager.
Social networking tools
“In reality, the use of social media in product design still has a long way to go in terms of adoption. Companies are using social media as a low cost way to broadcast a message but not necessarily as a means of collecting customer input that can be turned into valuable information.”
ISG proposes a collaboration model that generates intellectual capital gathered from all of a company’s relevant constituents including pertinent social networks that tap into the final customer’s insight where they air their views about products. Today there is even more sharing and shifting
Marlee Rosen, Rosen Associates
Managing security and compliance continues to be one of main struggles. There are real risks to using social media, ranging from damaging the brand to exposing proprietary information to inviting lawsuits. Even the most responsible
employees have lapses in judgment, make mistakes or behave emotionally. Dealing with a confidential
design comment in the office is one thing; if the comment or slip up on providing confidential product design details is made on a work-related social media account, then it’s out there, and it most likely can’t be retrieved. Most industry experts agree that without putting in place a social media policy for your enterprise, you may be inviting disaster. Companies need to spell out and be up front with the goals and parameters of its social media initiative. Otherwise they are not properly mitigating risk. It is
of power from marketers to customers where the manufacturer can’t afford to ignore customer sentiments that are presented through the conversations going on in the social media sphere. According to ARC Advisory Group, soliciting
these conversations, paying attention to the advices and integrating them into the Product Lifecycle Management, will save manufacturers several marketing dollars. The speed of product design into a life-cycle process is hastened through the addition of social technologies and the impact they can bring. According to Michael Fauscette, group vice
president, Software Business Solutions at IDC: “Building a collaborative enterprise is about a lot more than just some new software tools, it’s about fundamental changes to culture and behaviour.” There are four phases of innovation management:
idea-source, develop, produce and feedback, built on new social technologies that are integrated across a business. Such an approach will help companies compete more effectively in the rapidly changing global, hyper-connected business environment we have today. It’s not a revelation to see PLM slowly adopting
social habits, just like some other enterprise processes and tools. Manufacturing industries and engineers have been slower in adoption than marketers and media.
8
www.engineerlive.com
important to predetermine who is allowed to use social media on behalf of the organisation and what they’re allowed to share. Bertrand Sicot, CEO of SolidWorks, understands
that while people still have some insecurity about data sharing in the cloud, the general belief is that more and more people are growing more comfortable about using it: “Regardless of the platform, our customers are always ensuring their IP is protected.” Social media and collaboration tools are changing
how product development was once regarded. Gone are the days of the closed-door, experts-only approach to designing and engineering products. There is a new force in town made up of social-
savvy mobile employees that internet-enabled and always connected. PLM users have to expand, rethink implementation strategies, plans, and embrace the fundamental shifts in PLM enabling technologies and their use for collaboration. Experts are concluding that the enterprises that
seize the opportunities offered by these shifts in PLM software models enabled by social business tools – in particular, leveraging their mobile connected workforce will be in a better position to utilise new collaborative skills being brought to the workplace and will result in better engineered products. ●
Marlee Rosen is Principal Analyst and Writer, Rosen Associates, Tampa/St Petersburg, Florida, USA
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52