Page 1 - Welcome Page 2 - Update Page 3 - News Page 4 - Brief lines |
* Welcome * Welcome to 2PLM, an e-zine distributed about every two weeks. This issue includes :
PLMIG's London Workshop The Product Lifecycle Management Interest Group (PLMIG) announced results of the initial Workshop in the PLM Benefits Reference Model (BRM) Project. The Workshop, held in London, England on March 21-22, was organized with the help of UGS, one of the Founder Members of the project. The two main deliverables were :
PLM Benefits Boston Workshop The next Workshop in the series will be held on April 6-7, 2006 in Boston, MA. It is being organized with the help of PTC, another of the Founder Members of the project. The objectives of the PLM Benefits Workshop in Boston are:- to bring together PLM practitioners and enable them to examine and evaluate their experiences in defining and measuring PLM benefits; to work through the whole scope of what an industry-standard Benefits Reference Model should be; and to generate all of the draft material to create a workshop view of a PLM Benefits Framework. The Boston PLM Benefits Workshop will enable participants to:
PLM Benefits Survey In connection with the BRM Project, the PLMIG will be carrying out a series of short focused surveys addressing PLM benefits. Those who participate will received a copy of the collated results. If you would like to participate, please contact PLM BRM Survey. PLM Benefits : 1 Day Workshop To help companies understand how the PLM Benefits Reference Model applies to them, the PLMIG will run a series of 1 Day Workshops on company sites. More information is available on the PLMIG's web site and from 1 Day Workshop. PLM Benefits : Research Opportunities Creation and validation of the PLM Benefits Reference Model is expected to require sigificant involvement from academic and other research organizations. For more information, please contact BRM Research. 
* PLM Stage and Gate Webinar * Bringing products to market faster is essential to maintaining competitive advantage. Adopting a Stage-Gate process not only helps to speed the identification, development and launch of profitable products, but also provides a framework for the continuous monitoring, measurement and assessment of new product innovations. This enables product developers to innovate faster, more profitably and at lower cost and risk over time. Oracle invites you to attend a webcast on Thursday 30 March at 2pm (UK time), which will look at the issues caused by shorter product lifecycles, more dynamic markets and traditional versus emerging NPD models. Julian Benson from Thorntons will discuss the challenges presented by ever-shortening product lifecycles and the pressure to consistently develop 'hit' products, along with the need to reformulate products through their development lifecycle. Dr John Stark, internationally recognised thought leader and writer on product lifecycle management, will identify the fundamental principles that need to be in place for product developers to gain benefit from a Stage-Gate process. He will talk about how companies can make a successful transition from their existing methods to consistent, information-based approval of new product development and launch processes. By adopting an IS-supported Stage-Gate approach, customers of John Stark Associates have achieved benefits such as reducing product development time by 20-30% and increasing the number of highly innovative product development projects by 400%. 
* PLM Progress Program in Beta Test * Building on the success of the Making Progress With PLM Manual and the Understanding, Justifying and Realizing PLM Web Series, John Stark Associates announced the PLM Progress Program is in beta test. This support service is designed to help manufacturing companies looking to progress beyond their current environments towards PLM. As shown in the January 2006 PLM State of the Art Report, there are six levels of PLM:
For more information, please contact PLM Progress Program. 
* Optional 2PLM Subscription Fee * In January 2006, an optional annual subscription fee was introduced for 2PLM. Payment of the fee is voluntary. The fee helps achieve 2PLM's objectives of providing readers with a deep, broad, concise overview of the PLM market. Since initial publication in August 1998, 2PLM coverage has grown by a factor of more than five, and the 32 issues published in the 2005 calendar year contained 2,075 PLM-related citations from 319 sources. Payment of the fee helps us to keep in touch with readers and be sure we have their current e-mail address. If you've ever sent an e-mail to someone and received a reply indicating that they are no longer at that e-mail address - but you know that they are - then you can imagine what happens when we send nearly 10,000 mails informing readers of the availability of a new issue of 2PLM. If a mail is returned, it's difficult for us to know if that's just because a server is down, or if someone is on holiday, or if there's a database problem, or if, as happened once, the IS department has decided to filter out all mails containing the name of a particular product, or if someone has moved to a different site. This year we've created a priority mailing list for those readers who do pay the subscription fee, and we follow up with them individually if any problems occur. The subscription fee for 2PLM in 2006 is US$ 45 for subscribers from manufacturing and engineering companies, companies providing PLM products and services, research organizations, and government departments. The fee is US$ 36 for subscribers at academic organizations, such as universities, colleges, schools, etc. Payment is optional and voluntary. Many thanks to those readers who have paid the subscription fee. Subscription and payment details can be found at www.johnstark.com/plm.html. Payment can be made by corporate credit card. 
* Feedback on EOL * by Don Frank The following citation is from 2PLM ezine 13 March 2006 : Have you thought about the following? If an average company has a total of 50,000 active components, each with an average lifetime of 5 years, it would mean that each working day about 40 components reach EOL. Of course this means as well that every working day 40 new components are selected or designed. Methinks we have to be a bit wary of the term EOL (end of life). One should look beyond just the 'active' life and recognize that parts and assemblies may have to be maintained, repaired or overhauled for as much as 5 times the average 5 year EOL point. The upcoming RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) implementation as of 01 July 2006 adds just another layer to the challenges (opportunities?) faced by PLM people and toolkits and their ability to be able to document products and their components throughout a much longer lifecycle. Another opportunity for PLM folk is to think of the part numbers of these 50,000 active parts, and particularly the 40 new ones entering the system each day and examine them to see how many of these part numbers represent duplicate parts or "look-alike" parts that could be combined into the set of active 'standard' parts. Since a goodly portion of the PLM user community are engineers, we should stop rewarding them for creating new part numbers, but measure them on how many existing 'standard' parts they were able to incorporate into their designs. 
* Product Development Innovation Summit * Goldense Group, Inc. (GGI) announced that its June 2006 R&D -- Product Development Innovation Summit in metro Boston will include eight comprehensive modules that surround the subject of Innovation in R&D and Product Development. The Innovation Modules that will be offered are: Module 1 - Innovation vs. The Innovation Process Module 2 - Strategic Drivers Of Innovation Module 3 - Inventory Of Innovation Tools & Techniques Module 4 - Three Key Innovation Techniques Module 5 - Innovation and Intellectual Property Module 6 - Software For Innovation Module 7 - Measuring, Rewarding, and Recognizing Innovation Module 8 - Outsourcing Innovation All modules feature some level of case study discussion and examples from a range of industries. There will be three group exercises where attendees will "try out" well regarded innovation methodologies to achieve some level of "hands-on." Details |
