IBM sees massive future in product lifecycle management

Big Blue says it now runs 10 PLM Centres of Excellence around the world, as well as a Dassault Systèmes- and IBM-focused International Competency Centre. And those are no top of its 2,000 PLM service consultants and technology experts and the 60 PLM specialists in its R&D organisation. Focus of attention will continue to be Dassault’s PLM software offerings with the new V6 platform comprising Enovia, Catia, Delmia and 3Dvia across the product design, development, production engineering and documentation cycle. Why the big push now? IBM is predicting that PLM will expand beyond the current focus on engineering design to what it always should have been – a multi-disciplinary enterprise-wide endeavour. The belief then is that manufactures will realise they need a common platform, covering everything from authoring and simulation to CAM and ERP, instead of the current 20 to 40 application silos. “Today’s product development process requires careful orchestration of mechanical, software and electrical components into an integrated system often referred to as mechatronics,” intones the company’s PR machine. “This orchestration takes place across a supply chain of hundreds of partners and suppliers who require a service orientated architecture (SOA) or common platform to make information sharing easy. “With Websphere Process Server, companies can build an SOA foundation to help integrate PLM applications with legacy and enterprise business systems.” Add to that the emerging prominence of social networking and business intelligence tools, which IBM believes will also become part of the PLM process, and it’s not hard to see that even IBM Lotus Sametime IM (instant messaging) within the Dassault V6 user interface could be appealing to engineering teams hell bent on collaboration. And there you have it.