March 31, 2003

2PLM John Stark Associates

Volume 5 Number 17

Page 1 - Welcome Page 2 - Update Page 3 - News Page 4 - Brief lines

* Welcome * Welcome to this issue of 2PLM, an e-zine distributed every two weeks on a free subscription basis. This week's article "The Need for Clean Data" is from Dana Nickerson of Convergence Data Services LLC. * The Need for Clean Data * If you have implemented a Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) system in your company or your company provides PLM software, you probably already know this: most PLM implementations have not lived up to their promises. They have not delivered on the predicted Return on Investment (ROI). There is however, a way for your PLM to provide a substantial ROI. It does require some work, but the benefits can be outstanding. Most PLM implementations are justified based on return on investment, yet when you look at the numbers, the return isn't there. We are pretty familiar with the typical ROI calculations based on design reuse, increased productivity and fewer errors. Design reuse occurs when engineers and designers can find previously used components and reuse these components in a new design. The reuse savings come from reductions in design and engineering costs, reductions in prototype and testing costs and reductions in field service costs by using a proven component. Increased productivity comes from saving time searching for or learning about existing designs or by sharing information. The savings from fewer errors occur when errors are avoided by sharing both good and bad product information. For example, when design teams share information early in the design process they avoid having to rework designs when they find out late in the process that something won't work, yet a colleague knew it all along. PLM implementations haven't lived up to expectations because we fail to load them with legacy data and we don't put enough information in a searchable database. Therefore, people can't locate the required information and end up recreating designs, producing errors and creating rework. People in the organization can also spend significant unproductive time, looking for information. Unproductive time is time people aren't working at their primary activities such as designing. PLM was supposed to fix these problems. To make PLM systems meet their promised ROIs, they need to be loaded with legacy data. It is not sufficient to use legacy descriptions or part numbers to identify legacy data. For search purposes, most descriptions are woefully insufficient and inaccurate. For example, in most manufacturing companies if you search for a "bearing" in a PLM system you will get hundreds if not thousands of hits. Not only is the number of hits a problem but the description does not contain any useful information about the component. What is it used for? What is the outside diameter? What is the inside diameter? What is the material? The user is forced to bring up and view hundreds of drawings, locate the characteristics and determine what component meets the specification. Typically, most users won't do this. They just create or specify a new component. As for using legacy part numbers for locating components, what if a person doesn't know the part number? They can't find it. Not only does that legacy data need to be loaded but key product characteristics that are typically not on drawings - such as dimensions, connections, materials, strengths, specifications, etc. need to be exposed so that they can be searched. These characteristics or attributes need to be put into a hierarchical structure or classification that is unique for each product class. This classification structure allows similar products to have the same attributes. Otherwise you end up with a database of thousands of unrelated attributes, of which only a few actually contain data for a particular product. Another problem is that even if attribute values for a product are populated in a classification structure, the data must be consistent or "cleansed". In other words, for every product with an attribute of "connection size" the format must be the same. You can't have some products with connection size values of "1-1/2" and some with "1.5". Search engines cannot compensate for inconsistent data. If you searched on "1-1/2" you would miss all the products containing the values of "1.5". Collecting legacy data, putting critical product characteristics in a structured classification, cleansing the data and making it available throughout the enterprise can lead to huge benefits by finally enabling employees, suppliers and customers to find critical product information quickly - the first time. The reason so few PLM systems have structured legacy data is because it is hard to do without the proper tools and methods. Fortunately, these tools and methods exist today. Being able to find and use product information addresses the current issues with PLM systems and makes the promises into reality. For more information Dana Nickerson is the Managing Partner for Convergence Data Services, LLC, a company that specializes in helping multinational enterprises realize the return on their engineering IT investments by providing tools and methods for collecting, organizing and cleansing product data. Mr. Nickerson can be reached at dnickerson@ConvergenceDS.com.

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Universal Viewing and Mark Up from Spicer Corporation Reference Section Follow the link for books in the Product Development Library DFA . FDA . FEA . Six Sigma EDM/PDM/PLM World Follow the links for : Vendors in the EDM/PDM/PLM World. Latest additions/modifications : PTC, Thetis Technologies, Inc. EDM/PDM/PLM service providers. Latest additions/modifications : DSA, iSoft Technologies Ltd. EDM/PDM/PLM Conference and seminar organizations Conferences and Seminars in the EDM/PDM/PLM world CE2003 : 10th ISPE International Conference on Concurrent Engineering Madeira, Portugal. July 26-30, 2003 International Symposium on Product Lifecycle Management Bangalore, India. July 16-18, 2003 PTC/USER World Event Orlando, FL. June 8-11, 2003 AMT 2003 - Advanced Manufacturing Technologies for the Automotive Industry London, Canada. May 13-14, 2003 ProSTEP Symposium 2003 Ruesselsheim, Germany. May 7-8, 2003 PLM World 2003 Anaheim, CA. April 28 - May 2, 2003 Cambashi Seminar 2003 Cambridge, England. April 9, 2003 CATIA Operators Exchange (COE) Spring 2003 Conference and TechniFair New Orleans, LA. March 30 - April 1, 2003 CAD case studies, CAD user stories DW Product Development, Inc. : Moldflow Adviser PocketSpec Technologies Inc. : ColorQA Color Comparison Device British Telecommunications (BT) : GTX Bose Corporation : Ansoft Corporation Others General Interest Innovation Management Engineering Change Management Managing PDM in a changing environment Principles of Good Product Development Newsletter : EDM, PLM, CPC Engineering Data Management Newsletter - February 2003 issue Table Of Contents 2PLM Media Sheet Advertisers of CAD, CAM, CAE, EDM, PCM, PDM, PIM, PLM, CPC, CPC/PLM and related systems and solutions. Read the 2PLM Media Sheet. Find out how to reach more than 30,000 customers.

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* Corporate * Hummingbird Ltd. announced the acquisition of Key Automation Nederland B.V. and its affiliate Dispro B.V. Details * Financial * Manugistics Group, Inc. reported fourth quarter and annual results for its fiscal year ended February 28, 2003. Fourth quarter total revenue increased 5 percent sequentially from the third quarter of fiscal 2003 to $65.5 million from $62.4 million, and decreased 21 percent from the prior year quarter. Details Download AutoVue from Cimmetry Systems * People * ABAQUS, Inc. announced the appointment of Bruce Engelmann to the position of chief technology officer (CTO). Details Elysium Inc. announced the addition of Peter Heath as director of product management. Details * Implementation * ABAQUS, Inc. announced that Northrop Grumman Newport News has significantly expanded its adoption and commitment to ABAQUS advanced finite element software. Details Autodesk, Inc. announced that Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia-based manufacturer Coil Master Sdn Bhd, has reported that using Autodesk Inventor 3D mechanical design software has decreased by half the time-to-market for its new machines. Details Centric Software announced that PSA Peugeot Citroen has chosen to implement Centric Software's PLM solutions. Details Commerce One announced the general availability of Commerce One Conductor, its new composite application platform. Details Delmia Corp. announced the creation of an educational partnership with Mississippi State University through which it will provide the university's Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems (CAVS) with 100 seats of DELMIA Solutions. Details EDS announced Suzuki has selected its Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) software and services as the corporate standard for global product development throughout Suzuki and its entire supply chain. Details Endeca announced that Cabot Corporation, a leading global manufacturer of specialty chemicals, recently reported significant increases in online business since implementing Endeca ProFind for advanced search and Guided Navigation. Details MSC.Software Corp. announced the signing of a contract with The Boeing Company for software and services including the MSC.Enterprise Mvision product line. Details Selectica, Inc. announced that its Interactive Selling Solution (ISS) Configuration Platform will be used by IBM to generate configuration and manufacturing information for IBM's systems hardware products. Details SolidWorks announced that KeyMed has standardized on SolidWorks 3D design software to design its life-saving endoscope equipment and workstations. Details * Developments * Ariba, Inc. announced general availability of Ariba Category Management 1.0 and Ariba Analysis 2.1, two key components of the Ariba Sourcing Solution. Details EDS announced the new releases of its industry solutions built on the flagship product lifecycle management (PLM) portfolio, Teamcenter, including enhanced versions of Teamcenter Aerospace and Defense, Teamcenter Automotive Supplier and Teamcenter High Tech Electronics, and the launch of a new industry solution, Teamcenter Consumer and Packaged Goods. Details Framework Technologies announced its Project Execution Template suite. Details ITI TranscenData, the Product Data Interoperability business of International TechneGroup Incorporated (ITI), announced the release of CADIQ Version 4.0. Details i2 Technologies, Inc. unveiled i2 Six, its most comprehensive and advanced family of supply chain management solutions. Details Selectica Inc. unveiled the newest version of Selectica's flagship Configuration Platform Release 6.0. Details * Relationships * Alibre announced that the upcoming Alibre Design Professional application from Alibre Inc. will include technology for finite element analysis (FEA) from ALGOR, Inc. Details Covisint, the global independent e-business service provider for the automotive industry, announced the selection of Webb Negocios Online as its e-commerce service provider in Latin America. Details EDS and Ellison Manufacturing Technologies announced an agreement which will enable Ellison to become a certified reseller of Unigraphics NX. Details GlobalSpec, Inc. announced a strategic partnership with PARTsolutions LLC. Details PROCAD and AGS-gruppen, Horten/Norway announced the signature of a partner contract. AGS-gruppen will now offer the trademark PRO.FILE on the whole Scandinavian market. Details * Other * Centric Software, Inc. announced that it has been recognized as one of KMWorld's 100 Companies that Matter in Knowledge Management 2003. Details Dassault Systemes announced that IBM and Dassault Systemes have been listed in the leader category of the Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) Magic Quadrant study prepared by Gartner, a leading technology research and advisory firm. Details Documentum announced that it has established a new customer support center in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Details Gibbs and Associates, developer of GibbsCAM, computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) software for programming computer numerically controlled (CNC) machine tools, announced that they have formed a Custom Solutions Group (CSG) to respond to the specialized needs of customers by building custom add-ons for GibbsCAM. Details MatrixOne, Inc. announced that it has been positioned in the leader quadrant in Gartner Inc.'s March 2003 "Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) Magic Quadrant" report. According to Gartner, "PLM is a process that guides products from concept through retirement to deliver the greatest business value to an enterprise and its trading partners." Details PTC announced that Gartner Inc. has documented PTC's leadership status in the PLM market. Details

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