Continuous technology advances, increased customer demands, growing compliance standards, global outsourcing, and economic pressures are just some of the reasons that today’s manufacturers need to implement controlled product design and development processes. Developing more complex, higher quality products, in less time leaves little to no room for inefficiencies if a company wants to meet product delivery goals and maintain a competitive standing in the market.
Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is becoming the technology of choice for manufacturers looking to improve overall product development. PLM software provides a system to centralize product data, standardize business processes and streamline communication of information across distributed product development teams. PLM helps manufacturers meet today’s market demands and maintain a competitive advantage by helping to improve design efficiencies, shorten development cycles, increase product quality, meet compliance, and speed time-to-market.
If you are realizing any of these market pressures, you may want to consider implementing a PLM initiative for your organization.
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Reality No 1: Technology Advances and Complex Product Designs
Product content information is constantly changing throughout the design-to-manufacturing process. Keeping up with this continual change is critical for effective design and on-time delivery of quality products. Is your company able to keep up with your current environment?
Many companies manage product information via manual processes with information stored in various locations and formats (Excel spreadsheets, Access databases, home grown systems, file cabinets, etc.). Without a centralized location to retrieve and manage product information, engineering resources are wasted on searching for information, data is shared and documented manually which opens up a greater opportunity for errors, and there is no synchronization of information between engineering and manufacturing so what is designed is not always what is built.
PLM software is designed to manage product data throughout the product life cycle from concept through design to manufacture and support, by means of an automated process. PLM provides a central location to track and manage product information such as component data, Bill of Materials (BOMs), product documentation, engineering changes and revisions, quality issues, and compliance data, enabling easy and secure access to information by all appropriate team members.
PLM technology eliminates issues related to the disconnect between engineering and manufacturing where manufacturing is often not aware of new product releases and revisions and engineering is unaware of design issues impacting manufacturing and procurement processes. By facilitating the direct sharing of data between engineering tools (CAD/CAE) and business systems (ERP/MRP/CRM), engineers gain visibility into business-level information that they typically would not have access to such as vendor status, lead times, and costs, which helps them to make better design choices. In addition, automatically sharing data with business systems, such as product changes, ensures manufacturing receives the most current design information for more efficient production processes.
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As product designs become even more complex and the pace of technology advancements accelerates, time-consuming and error-prone manual processes will not suffice in bringing competitive products to market. Looking at ways to automate and streamline processes is critical for success.
Reality No 2: Increased Customer Demands
Customer demands are higher than ever. There is a precedent that the products they purchase are to be of the highest quality, leverage the latest technology, meet their specific requirements, and are affordably priced.
How can manufacturers meet their customers’ demands while maintaining product quality and low cost?
As the demand for custom products delivered in a much faster timeframe increases, processes need to be in place to manage information and ensure customer needs are met without sacrificing product quality. Implementing efficient and controlled product development processes with PLM software helps manufacturers get quality products to market faster by reducing time spent searching for information, decreasing design cycles, and ensuring accurate product information is available to design and manufacturing teams.
PLM also shortens the gap between the design engineer and the customer by providing direct access to quality information. Visibility into product issues and direct customer feedback offers key product information to help engineers design higher quality products that meet customers’ actual needs and keeps manufacturers ahead of the curve on new product designs.
Reality No 3: Growing Compliance Requirements and Industry Standards
Regulatory requirements such as Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS), Regulation on Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH), the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) 21 CFR Part-11 and 21 CFR Part-820 regulations, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standards create additional pressures for manufacturers. Companies are faced with challenges on how to handle their product design and development to meet existing and impending guidelines.
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In order to meet and maintain compliance, manufacturing companies need collaborative software solutions to ensure that information sharing and data classification is completely accurate and accessible to all product development parties. PLM can alleviate the costs and pains of compliance by automating the data management process, enabling manufacturers to easily identify, track, store and report pertinent compliance information.
Reality No 4: Outsourcing
With the increase in outsourcing both locally and offshore, companies must implement processes to effectively communicate constantly changing product information with their outsource partners.
PLM technology is built on the concept of sharing data with the extended enterprise, helping manufacturers meet challenges they face with outsourcing. PLM facilitates the secure sharing of product information among internal and external design and development teams, streamlining communication of information such as new products, changes, revisions, and configurations. With a PLM system in place, manufacturers can be assured that accurate product information is available securely and in real-time so that external partners can truly function as a seamless extension of their product development team.
Reality No 5: Economic Pressures
How will your organization stand up during economic uncertainty? Economic pressures have companies analyzing product development practices and making necessary improvements to create a lean and efficient environment. Are your current practices sufficient?
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PLM technology supports greater efficiencies by streamlining the communication of information across the enterprise ensuring data is accurate across all internal and external teams and instills controlled processes. Manufacturers that have best practices in place with PLM realize many benefits that impact the bottom-line and help endure a tough economy such as: reduced scrap and re-work, better resource allocation, improved product quality and innovation, shortened product development cycles, and decreased time-to-market.
Closing Thoughts
It is quite clear that today’s market requires manufacturers to look at ways to improve their overall product development processes. Often, companies delay investing in enterprise technology such as PLM due to perceived cost and time issues. Today’s PLM technology is changing that landscape with more cost-effective solutions that can be easily implemented and deployed, often without an interruption in current processes. There is some planning involved in selecting and implementing a solution, but the benefits far outweigh the investment by helping manufacturers meet product development goals and maintain a competitive edge in the market.
About the author: Alaine Portnoy, Omnify Software provides Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions helping OEMs streamline development cycles and accelerate product innovation, improving profitability with bi-directional integration with ERP, CAD and/or CRM systems. Omnify Software
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