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* Welcome * Welcome to 2PLM, an e-zine distributed about every two weeks. This issue includes :
Menno Huijben When trying to answer this question, my first observation was that readers of this newsletter would probably agree that "ERP" and "SAP" are far better acronyms for job security and career advancement than our dear PLM. But, for the moment, let's stick with PLM and take a closer look. There are 2 basic options when landing the PLM Program Manager job (that is, if you do not refuse the offer):
Option 2 is chosen by most PLM Managers. They believe in the PLM vision, they want to realize it, and they see that plenty of work still needs to be done. In the hope of selling more licenses and services, PLM application vendors like to nurture their champions and make them feel important. This is something the "Number Twos" like, but need to be wary of. It is something the "Number Ones" are able to use to advance their careers. Networking via the vendor with other companies using the same PLM application can pay big dividends when it is time to move on. My guess is that a typical Number Two starts their career in an engineering department, and, during all the PLM activities, moves slowly towards the Information Management (IM) department - leaving their company's core-business / process. They get caught up in the day-to-day routine of maintaining a large Information System, with all the hassles of managing upgrades, providing user support, and endless scaling and network issues. In parallel, they try to be PLM Evangelists, spreading the PLM word to encourage other business units to join their PLM. Sadly, their missions are not always supported from above. And then the moment comes when PLM stops being a strategic investment, and becomes just another cost of doing business for the company; keeping the PLM system running becomes just another line-item in the IT budget. This is the time when the Number Twos have to think hard about their career:
Menno Huijben is a senior advisor at Sofigate Oy. Sofigate is dedicated to improve the performance of Information Management in organizations, hands-on and down-to-earth. Menno can be contacted at an address of the type firstname.secondname@sofigate.com * 1.3 Why are Global Products Important? * (1.1 Global Products and You) Global Products provide huge opportunities. They allow billions of people to benefit from products to which they previously had no access. They allow companies to offer products to a global market of more than 6 billion customers and users. The resulting opportunities for sales and profits are enormous. So are the potential risks. For most companies it's only recently that such opportunities have been available. In the 1990s, although many companies were international, or multi-national, only a few were able to offer a product throughout the world. Others were limited, for one reason or another, to smaller markets. There are several reasons for the changed situation, including the end of the Soviet Union in 1991, economic reforms in China that started in 1978, economic reforms in India that started in the 1980s, reduced trade barriers, and improved travel, transport and telecommunications. As a result of the changes, the potential market for most companies is no longer a few hundred million customers for the product in a local regional market, but over 6 billion customers worldwide. Which means that, for many companies, the potential market is already more than 20 times larger than before. And the market is expected to grow to 7 billion by 2012, 8 billion by 2025, and 9 billion by 2040. The unit of measure for use of consumer products is now the billion. There are more than a billion PCs in use. There are billions of mobile phones in use. There are more than a billion Internet connections. In 2006, the world's airlines carried more than 2 billion passengers. Billions of items of clothing and footwear are sold each year. There are more than a billion vehicles (cars, trucks, buses, motorcycles, and bicycles) on the world's roads. More than a billion people wear a watch. There are more than a billion copies of word processing software. One Laptop per Child, a non-profit association, developed a $100, robust, low-power-consumption computer that connects to the Internet. There are billions of potential users throughout the world. There are more than 10 billion embedded systems in products. These are the very small devices - usually with computing, control and communication capability - that are built into more and more products, such as mobile phones, cameras, elevators, cars, medical devices and robots to provide new functionality. There's nothing to stop your company taking a slice of the billion-customer market. For example, in the early 1980s, US manufacturers dominated the world market for large civil aircraft. Yet 20 years later, Airbus, which is part of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS N.V.), had taken a 50% share. The most successful Airbus product family is the A320 family (which includes the A318, A319, A320 and A321). By the end of 2006, nearly 5000 aircraft of the A320 family had been ordered, and nearly 3000 delivered. With a catalogue price of about $50 million, that's trillions of dollars of sales. In 2006, sales of the BMW brand, at nearly 1.2 million vehicles, were close to double the figure of about 700,000 recorded in 1998. BMW's home is in Munich, Germany. It only started producing vehicles in the US in 1992. By 2006 it manufactured at 22 sites in 12 countries on 4 continents. Toyota's annual vehicle sales in the 1970s were about 3 million. They grew to 4 million in the 1980s, and 5 million in the 1990s. Production is planned to rise to over 9 million vehicles in 2007. Toyota began exporting to the US in 1957. In 2006, Toyota had manufacturing companies in 28 countries, design and R&D centres in 5 market regions (North America, Europe, Australia, Asia and Japan), and marketed its vehicles in more than 170 countries and regions of the world. There are similar examples from other industry sectors. In 2005, sales of The Coca-Cola Company reached 20.6 billion unit cases - nearly 500 billion servings. The Coca-Cola Company sells more than 400 brands in over 200 countries. The geographical sales split in 2005 was 28% North America; 6% Africa; 9% East, South Asia and Pacific Rim; 16% European Union; 25% Latin America; 16% North Asia, Eurasia and Middle East. The opportunities of Global Products aren't limited to just a few large companies with thousands of employees. The opportunities are also there for small and medium companies, with tens or hundreds of employees, of which there are millions throughout the world. The smaller company may sell its product direct to end users and consumers worldwide. Alternatively it may supply its product to a larger company, operating worldwide, that will include it in the products it offers to its customers. * 1.4 The Challenge of Global Products - Customer View * Global Product: Strategy, Product Lifecycle Management and the Billion Customer Question 
* PLM for the SME - Not a Problem, but an Opportunity * PLM is sometimes thought of as a huge and difficult undertaking only of interest to large companies. In reality, PLM is often a huge problem for large companies. However this is not because of PLM, but because large companies often have complex or frequently changing organisations, and very different applications and processes on different sites. Also, the responsibility for PLM in a large company is often unclear, or divided between different organisational entities. PLM should not be a problem for the SME, but an opportunity. In the globalized world, there is an opportunity for an SME to sell its products throughout the world, and not just to local customers. PLM is an enabler for this opportunity. It allows the SME to find many new customers, understand their needs, and then sell its products and services worldwide. The typical SME doesn't have the barriers to PLM that a large company faces. The environment is much clearer and there is less complexity. It is easier to develop a PLM Strategy, and to identify and implement the best components for a PLM solution. Find out more. PLM Strategi & Vision 07, Stockhom, 18 October 2007, Agenda * Developing PLM Strategy 2008 * As we move further into the last quarter of 2007, many companies are deep in the planning and budgetary processes for 2008. Having understood the need for PLM, their business executives are now looking for action and results from their PLM teams. They expect to see a coherent, business-oriented PLM initiative in the corporate plans for 2008. They want to see that money-making innovative products will be brought to market rapidly and to schedule. Has your company thought through the details of PLM and its development during the next few years? What will the PLM Team be proposing in the PLM Strategy? How will the PLM Initiative be presented to the CEO and the CFO? What will they be told about the status of PLM in 2007 and the vision for 2012? Are you looking for assistance with definition of a PLM strategy or a PLM plan? Or for presenting PLM to the CEO or CFO? If so, John Stark Associates can help. On-site support and phone/Internet support available. Contact * 1.1 Talking to a VP * Early in 2003, a VP of Product Development was telling me how his life kept getting harder. The environment for his products was so competitive, the customers so demanding, the rules and regulations ever-changing, the pressure to cut costs never-ending. His products were getting more and more complex, and took longer to develop, but the market wanted a wider range to choose from, and wanted them sooner and sooner. Everything he heard about would make his job more difficult in the future - ongoing globalisation, more outsourcing of product development, mass customisation to meet specific customer needs, more requirements for product traceability, enterprise applications of mobile telephony, end of life issues, support of products with very long lifetimes, government directives about disposal and recycling, and so on. His most competent people were due to retire soon, and he was worried about losing their knowledge. The people he'd have to replace them with didn't really understand the products. When customers complained about problems with old products, there wouldn't be anyone left with the answers. The education system wasn't producing good engineers anymore. Students were being taught the way that things were done ten years in the past. New hires didn't seem to understand how a company worked, they almost expected him to do their work. The Purchasing Department frequently changed suppliers as it looked for the lowest prices. Each time, his engineers lost precious days in discussions with the new supplier. The company itself was in play, and had been passed from one global corporation to another. Each new owner wanted its policies implemented, and that created even more work. Years ago, he'd been proud to join the company. Back then, the whole town had a culture of manufacturing, but that had gone. Over the years, local hotels had closed because customers no longer visited the plants. His kids had moved away to find good jobs. His boss kept prodding him for faster innovation, reduced time-to-market, and expanded use of knowledge management, the Internet and the Web. To help improve performance he'd tried everything from ABC (Activity Based Costing) through DFSS (Design for Six Sigma) and QFD (Quality Function Deployment) to XML (Extensible Markup Language). He'd managed to double the rate of new product introduction, but more products were failing in the market than before. One product had been recalled, something that had never happened in the past. Recently he'd been at a meeting where the President had said the next round of cost-cutting would have to take out another 20% of costs. The President said that having moved Manufacturing to China, and Support to the Philippines, the company would now move Engineering to India. Meanwhile the Logistics organisation would be expanded to proactively search for even lower sourcing costs. He'd heard that to cut Information Systems (IS) costs, product development computer systems would be melded into the company's Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems. And that he was charged with implementing Product Lifecycle Management (PLM). It was a new subject for him, and he needed to get up to speed quickly. He asked me, "What is PLM?, Why is it important?, How do we implement it?" * 1.2 Short Answers* Product Lifecycle Management: Paradigm for 21st Century Product Realisation |
