2plm
2PLM NewsletterJohn Stark Associates May 7, 2012 - Vol15 #3 |
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Welcome to the 2PLM e-zine This issue includes :
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| Geneva PLM Group: PLM Training by John Stark |
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The April 26 meeting of the Geneva International PLM Group included workshops on two of the Group's focal areas: "PLM Training" and "PLM and Business Management".
Following on from the PLM Training Workshop, the Group is preparing a questionnaire to better understand companies' PLM Training experience and needs. Membership of the Geneva International PLM Group is open to those working for a discrete or process manufacturing company in a PLM role (e.g. PLM Director, PLM Manager, PLM Project Manager, PLM Team Member, PLM Business Analyst, etc.). |
Membership of the Group is free of charge. You can join here on LinkedIn. The Group is independent of PLM product and service providers, and focuses on the business, management and organisational issues of Product Lifecycle Management.
The questionnaire will be developed by June. Results should be available by September. |
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| Capturing PLM Managers' Expertise by Roger Tempest |
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For all of the detailed levels of analysis within the PLM Governance Benchmark (see 2PLM Apr 23), perhaps the most interesting is Level 1 - the interactive, discussion-level pass that gives the first comparative information.
The PLM Benchmarking Handbook specifies a generalised set of questions for Level 1, covering the overall scope of PLM. The answers to these are an excellent basis for moving forward to the detailed analysis and drill-down, but following this route would mean that the Benchmark results do not start to appear until the end of the project timeframe. The group of companies in Paris decided that they would like to get information from Level 1 that they could report to the Board, and so they will replace the general questions with specific comparisons about the PLM Governance areas that are of most interest and importance. This simple change has created a tantalising opportunity. The fact that this group of PLM managers will decide which are their primary issues, and will then compare their techniques and successes within the framework of the Benchmark, will mean that the Governance Benchmark will capture many of the characteristics of current expertise of PLM Teams. |
The presentation and reporting mechanism within the Benchmark will process these findings into a written, structured format. This will create the first formalised body of material about the roles, skills and techniques that PLM managers have learned over the past ten years.
The opportunity does not end there. The Governance Benchmark will not only run in 2012 - some companies cannot start this year, but want to benchmark in 2013. As one PLM manager said: "Our PLM implementation is a ten-year programme. Not only do we need to know the answers now, but we will want to come back in future years to refresh our comparisons with the growing body of Benchmark data." As the Benchmark grows, so do the Level 1 results. We are now on a path that will capture the combined expertise of PLM managers in a way that has never been possible before.
Roger Tempest is co-founder of the PLMIG. Membership of the PLMIG is available via membership@plmig.com |
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| What makes a good PLM System? by Scott Cleveland |
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PLM is about managing the whole lifecycle of a product. Product information and the processes that allow it to be created, approved and disseminated are key to PLM. Product information includes items, parts, documents, files, BOMs and many other kinds of information. Some key processes for manufacturers include: the engineering change process; new part number requests; a supplier approval process; etc.
A typical product lifecycle includes many more processes than those cited above. Processes like new product introduction, and the creation of: marketing requirements documents; work instruction packages; customer support plans; and many different kinds of compliance documents. His Thoughts.... My Thoughts.... |
Another key role of a good PLM system is to provide a robust business process management component. This will allow a company to define how and when something is created, changed or managed. It should allow you to 'run' a program so that you can automate tasks where possible. Programmed correctly, this BPM component can make sure that the right information gets to the right person at the right time.
Also, a good PLM system understands a configuration. This functionality allows you to create, change and manage a bill of materials. And, that bill of materials can consist of more than just parts. A work instruction package should appear on a bill of materials. The PLM system should be able to gather a BOM from your CAD solution when a design is checked in. Final thought. A good PLM system should be about configuration vs. coding. It should allow you to customize the user interface so that users only see the fields/actions that pertain to their job. And, if the world were perfect - you could implement a solution in weeks vs. months/years. Your Thoughts....
Scott Cleveland can be contacted on +1 408-464-6387
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