Enterprises of all sizes can benefit from PLM

Product lifecycle management (PLM) systems and tools are set to see increasing application among mid-size manufacturers, according to PLM consultancy and analyst CIMdata. The firm says PLM will “grow at a fast pace” as companies increasingly understand the need to improve management of their ‘intellectual assets’ for product and process innovation, and strive for integration with customers and suppliers to improve cost, quality and delivery. It also notes that available solutions have already also fallen in cost and – with spreading experience, templates and the rest – are now easier to deploy and support. Both statements are true, but CIMdata also asserts that, “over the last several years, PLM has emerged as the common term used to describe the creation, management and use of product and plant-related information and processes.” That’s very questionable. Two recent studies conducted by Benchmark Research show that in the UK ‘PLM’ is still not recognised or well understood. Indeed, 44% of Benchmark’s engineering design manager respondents were in the ‘I’m not really familiar with PLM’ bracket. Nevertheless, Peter Bilello, CIMdata senior consultant says: “Historically, product data management (PDM) and now PLM solutions were practical primarily for large, distributed enterprises that had the extensive resources required to deploy and maintain them. “Today’s PLM solutions are designed not only for large companies, but also for mid-sized enterprises in multiple industrial sectors. Increasingly, companies of all sizes are recognising the need for PLM solutions. At the same time, the capabilities of the solutions being offered have improved significantly.” Bilello agrees that acceptance has been slow coming: “Until recently PLM solutions have not delivered enough pre-packaged functionality that is easy to acquire and implement at a reasonable price point for mid-size enterprises,” he says. However, he believes PLM’s ability to enable companies to manage their product and plant-related information and processes better is now proven. And he expects the message to go out as the market realises what can now be done. “A complete PLM solution includes a combination of the right technology, appropriate features, best practices approaches and focused implementation methodologies. To truly address the requirements of mid-sized enterprises the solution must also be easily tailored to fit the specific needs of the organisation, which facilitates implementation and gets the solution into production as quickly as possible, at a reasonable price point.”