Business frameworks to guide industries’ product development

It consists of industry-specific process modules aimed at helping manufacturers in different industries understand the linkage between product development process improvements, PLM technology investments, and value to their businesses. PTC says that its experience demonstrates that in addition to technology investments, the most successful organisations have also developed best practices and sound business processes in critical product development areas. So the company has developed a tool that helps customers achieve the same from their PLM systems. PTC says it will help companies align and prioritise business and product development goals with industry-specific process improvements. It promises a rational technology adoption path tailored to each organisation’s objectives. Central to its approach is PTC’s Value Roadmap, which is configurable, interactive software that matches goals to industry best practices, and delivers a bespoke customer report. So far, PTC has created seven industry -specific process ‘landscapes’, and has plans for two more in the coming months. Each incorporates between 11 and 24 detailed development processes, including a model used to indicate a company’s current level of maturity for a given process as well as the targeted maturity level. “Manufacturing companies are increasingly pressured to bring products to market faster, at lower cost and with higher quality,” explains Joe Barkai, partner at analyst Manufacturing Insights, IDC. “As companies improve their product development processes to address these pressures, they must invest wisely, as tools and methods that do not address the entire product lifecycle can result in frustration and inability to achieve business goals. “Organisations need to be able to determine when to add incremental investments in technology in order to achieve specific business initiatives and true competitive differentiation.” “Aligning technology investments to best practices and process improvements is a key strategic focus for our customers,” says Jim Heppelmann, executive vice president and chief product officer at PTC. “We have developed this set of process-orientated information, inter-relational value drivers and a complex configuration tool as the result of years of research. Technology investments represent potential value to a customer: however, we have found that customers who properly align process and technology optimisation can more readily realise that value and achieve significant competitive differentiation and industry leadership.”