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* Welcome * Welcome to this issue of 2PLM, an e-zine distributed every two weeks on a free subscription basis. This week's issue looks at 3 important initiatives in the PLM area : - Developing the PLM Benefits Reference Model - Crossing the Foggy PLM Chasm - John Stark PLM Web Seminars * Developing the PLM Benefits Reference Model * The PLM Interest Group (PLMIG) is preparing a project to develop the PLM Benefits Reference Model. The need for such a model is well-illustrated by the following experience of a manufacturing company that wanted to implement PLM. The company asked two vendors of PLM applications and two PLM System Integrators to make proposals for their future PLM application environment, including estimates of costs and benefits. The company was surprised to see that, although the four proposals for costs were in the same ballpark, the proposed benefits differed by a factor of ten. The company's CFO asked the vendors to explain and justify their benefits calculations in more detail, and to accept a penalty clause in the contract addressing failure to achieve the promised benefits. The vendors replied that their benefits calculations were their Intellectual Property and their competitive advantage, and they could not disclose the details. They also replied that their responsibility was limited to delivering software and services, and attainment of the business benefits was not their responsibility. The CFO created an in-house team to understand the potential benefits of PLM and the actions that would be needed to achieve them. Six months later, two other vendors were asked to make proposals, and one of these was later accepted. According to the CFO, there was a delay of about 12 months in PLM implementation due to the lack of a common understanding of PLM benefits. 
The above example is not unique. Many readers of 2PLM contact us about their experience and problems in a PLM initiative. Understanding and agreeing the benefits of PLM implementation is one of the most frequently cited problems. The PLM Benefits Reference Model project will develop an industry-agreed standard PLM Benefits Model to help everyone involved in PLM move forward faster. It will enable manufacturing companies to implement PLM faster, and reduce sales cycles for vendors of PLM products. A Group of Founder Members, representing the different constituencies in the world of PLM, is being assembled to drive forward this international, collaborative project. 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. * Crossing the Foggy PLM Chasm * by John Stark 2PLM has tens of thousands of readers in more than 60 countries, and many contact us with feedback on a particular article, or to share their thoughts on a PLM topic, or to ask for advice. As a result we have a relatively good view of PLM around the world. This does not lead to a single picture of PLM, but many pictures - the status and content of PLM differ greatly from one country to another and from one industry to another. One of the pictures that can illustrate PLM in 2005 shows a PLM team standing in the rain on one side of a chasm, looking across - through a cloud of fog - to a pleasant sun-lit land where PLM has been implemented. An avalanche is coming towards the PLM team, and the ground on which they are standing is subsiding. The PLM team members would like to get away from their current unpleasant situation as soon as possible. They would like to be in the sunny situation as soon as possible. But there are so many questions, so many unknowns. How deep is the chasm? How wide is it? Is there fog everywhere in the chasm? Are there dangerous wild animals in the chasm? Is there a bridge? Is there a deep river in the chasm? Is their rope long enough to reach the bottom? Should they try to go round the chasm? How long is it? Is that really a pleasant sun-lit land on the other side of the chasm, or is it just a mirage? Over the last year, many 2PLM readers have told us that they are involved in projects to define and implement PLM solutions. Often, they've mentioned that they are preparing a report for company management. They've asked us nearly 80 questions about PLM. To help them with their questions, projects and reports, we've put the answers to their questions in a Word Manual that is now 90 pages long, and illustrated the answers with a PowerPoint presentation that is now 159 slides long. Delivery of the two files (.doc and .ppt) is electronic, making for easy cut-and-paste into reports and easy inclusion in management presentations. You can read the Table of Contents of the "Making Progress with PLM" Manual here (pdf), and learn more about it and order here. It provides valuable input for PLM projects, adding knowledge and experience, reducing time and effort. * PLM Web Seminars hosted by John Stark * The live Understanding, Justifying and Realizing PLM Web Series provides an opportunity to participate in three presentations hosted by John Stark and complemented with presentations by guest speakers from a variety of industries who have implemented and achieved benefits with PLM. John Stark is a PLM thought and practice leader, and a sought-after speaker at PLM events. He wrote Product Lifecycle Management: Paradigm for 21st Century Product Realisation, the first book identifying PLM as the business activity of managing products across their lifecycle - from cradle to grave. He has defined the objective of PLM as increasing product revenues and maximizing the value of a company's product portfolio. This view of PLM positions it on the corporate agenda as the primary business activity for growth, and a necessary complement to cost-cutting approaches such as Lean Manufacturing. John Stark consults with manufacturing companies around the world, helping them develop PLM strategies, implement new processes, applications, methodologies and organizational structures, and manage cultural change. He works with companies either on their sites or off-site, using collaborative technologies. The PLM Web series starts with Part I - PLM Introduction/Overview at 11.00 AM EST on November 29, 2005 (8.00 AM PST ; 17.00 Central Europe ; 5am for participants in New Zealand). Content includes : - Introduction to PLM - 5 Key Features of The New Paradigm of PLM - The PLM Grid - Main Functions of PLM There's more detail and you can register - whether it's just to listen, or if you also want to ask questions - at www.softech.com/webseries/. |
