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* Welcome * Welcome to this issue of 2PLM, an e-zine distributed every two weeks on a free subscription basis. * PLM Benefits Reference Model - an International, Collaborative Project * The PLM Benefits Reference Model project, led by the PLM Interest Group (PLMIG), will develop an industry-agreed standard PLM Benefits Model to help everyone involved in PLM move forward faster. A Group of Founder Members, representing the different constituencies in the world of PLM, is being assembled to drive the project forward. For a copy of the proposal to participate as a Founder Member in the PLM Benefits Reference Model project, and for participation details, contact Roger Tempest of the PLMIG. * Understanding, Justifying and Realizing PLM * The Live Understanding, Justifying and Realizing PLM Web Series is designed to help educate, eliminate excuses, and overcome the roadblocks to a successful PLM Initiative. Each session of the 3-part PLM Series will be presented by John Stark, and complemented with presentations by guest speakers from a variety of industries who have implemented and achieved benefits with PLM. The series starts with Part I - PLM Introduction/Overview on November 29, 2005 (11:00 AM - 12:00 PM EST / 8:00 - 9:00 AM PST) There's more detail and you can register at www.softech.com/webseries/. 
* What's the relationship between PLM and Knowledge Management? * by John Stark Among the many questions that have been asked, and answered, in the Making Progress with PLM in 2005 Manual is "What's the relationship between PLM and Knowledge Management?" As always, when such a question is asked, it's important to understand what is meant by 'PLM' and 'KM'. For some people, PLM is a key element of business strategy, for others it's just a CAD data management application. For some people, Knowledge Management is a valuable tool for mining corporate know-how and know-why in today's knowledge economy, for others it's just a subject for academic research. Somewhere in the middle ground is a view that PLM can be considered as 'Knowledge Management for product-related knowledge'. In today's manufacturing industry, knowledge is all-important. As the complexity and variety of products has increased, so has the need for the knowledge and expertise to develop and support them. To avoid long, costly development and support cycles, collaboration between multidisciplinary, distributed team members has become necessary. Effective exchange of knowledge about the product between people in many locations is needed over the entire product lifecycle, 'from cradle to grave'. There's a wide range of knowledge. It may be about customers or previous designs. It may be about product installation, or product operating conditions, or field experience. There can be knowledge data bases with experience of best practices across the lifecycle, and knowledge retention applications conserving knowledge of how people work in different activities. This knowledge-intensive product-related environment requires a controlled, structured IS framework that enables effective capture, representation, retrieval and reuse of product knowledge. Product Lifecycle Management provides this framework. PLM connects technology and business strategy. Seen as a technology solution, it includes a set of methods and tools that creates a platform and knowledge base for collaboration among product lifecycle participants, and streamlines the flow of knowledge across all phases of the lifecycle. Seen as a business strategy, it manages products across their lifecycles with the objective of increasing product revenues and increasing the value of the product portfolio. 
PLM emerged in the early years of this century. It had its roots in several technologies and management strategies. One of these was Product Data Management (PDM), which was focused on managing the data and information created during product development. In one dimension, PLM enables PDM to be extended to provide a platform for the creation, organization and dissemination of product-related information across the Extended Enterprise. But PLM is not just 'extended data management' - it is also Knowledge Management. Just as Knowledge Management can be seen as all the activities that govern the creation, dissemination, and use of knowledge, PLM can be seen to include all the activities that govern the creation, dissemination and use of product-related knowledge during all the business processes along the product lifecycle. PLM includes activities such as: creating knowledge ; capturing knowledge ; analyzing knowledge ; storing knowledge ; indexing / classifying / validating knowledge ; structuring knowledge ; synthesizing useful / usable knowledge ; searching for / finding relevant knowledge ; making knowledge available ; making value-adding use of knowledge. The generation of structured knowledge is a key step in Knowledge Management. It's important to structure knowledge because unstructured knowledge is difficult to mine and use for decision-making. In the area of product-related Knowledge Management, the structuring step is simplified because of the existence of the product structure in PLM. The structure of product portfolio, product family, product, assembly, part, component that exists in PLM provides the basis for generating and managing structured, usable knowledge about the product. The product structure enables knowledge at each phase of the product lifecycle - such as design knowledge, production knowledge, operating condition knowledge, knowledge about rules and regulations, customer feedback knowledge, knowledge about experience with production equipment - to be structured in the PLM knowledge base. PLM, as a Knowledge Management system, boosts a company's learning ability and accelerates knowledge accumulation. With PLM in place, product-related knowledge can be systematically shared among knowledge users, and lifecycle knowledge used to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the lifecycle processes. In the new product development phase this can lead to faster time to profit and a longer product life. In the production phase it helps eliminate waste due to hunting for data, translating data, and working with wrong data. In the support phase, knowledge from customers can be captured, stored and analyzed. Throughout the lifecycle, PLM provides an environment of systematic capture, management and dissemination of knowledge that helps reduce waste, add value, and achieve Lean Manufacturing. |
