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* Welcome * Welcome to 2PLM, an e-zine distributed about every two weeks. This issue includes :
A new Technology White Paper, "Standards-based PLM: Re-engineering the Aftermarket with PLCS", prepared by Eurostep and John Stark Associates, addresses recent changes in the business environment that have opened up new opportunities in the Aftermarket. Increasingly, product owner/operators, keen to cuts costs and improve utilization, are focusing on core activities, while outsourcing less strategic activities, such as product support, to specialist partners. Meanwhile, Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) are seeking to maximize the return from their products by going beyond the initial product sale, and providing customers with product upgrades and other value-added services throughout the product lifecycle. These trends are leading to new "win-win" business models in which owner/operators achieve cost reductions and improved asset availability by contracting for support from OEMs. The OEMs are able to increase both turnover and profits by exploiting the technical knowledge of their products to deliver an ever-wider range of Aftermarket products and services. Some OEMs are even using the term "Product Support" instead of "Aftermarket", since product support has become a more important revenue and profit generator than the initial sale of the product. Successfully exploiting these trends presents many challenges: new commercial relationships must be negotiated; business processes have to be adjusted and integrated; and improvements must be achieved in the capabilities for creating, sharing and sustaining the huge volumes of data required for lifecycle support. Fortunately, new approaches that meet these requirements are now appearing. Life Cycle, Performance-Based, and Total Cost of Ownership techniques have taken great strides in recent years. Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) has emerged as a major pillar of the corporate IS architecture. And, in 2005, a new international information standard was published in this area: ISO 10303-239 Application Protocol: Product Life Cycle Support (PLCS) - specifically to address the requirements for information sharing throughout the product lifecycle. These approaches will enable OEMs to provide effective low-cost global support for long-life complex engineered products such as airplanes, power plant, heavy vehicles, industrial machinery and equipment, elevators, trains, and weapon systems; as well as for less complex systems. 
By choosing the right route to implementation and making maximum re-use of existing applications and information, OEMs can grow their business, maximize profits and increase customer satisfaction progressively, with returns on investment at every stage. Improved support services can be delivered to asset owner-operators without the costs and risks implied by a "Big Bang" approach. This has the potential of driving new business in many industries as has already been seen with contracts based on "fleet management", "power by the hour", etc. For more information, download "Part 1: Business Benefits" of the "Standards-based PLM: Re-engineering the Aftermarket with PLCS" White Paper here. * 1.8 Global Products: Good News, Bad News and Best News * (1.1 Global Products and You) The Good News about Global Products is that they offer companies the opportunity to address larger markets, to develop a great product, sell it to billions of customers and users, and rack up huge profits. The Bad News about Global Products is that they are not easy to develop, sell and maintain. There are a lot of questions to be answered, a lot of choices to be made, and a lot of decisions to be taken. Once these decisions have been taken, all sorts of problems can occur. Products can take a lot longer to develop than planned. The wrong product can be developed. Problems can occur during manufacturing. When the product is in the market, a competitor may bring out a better product that will eat into sales. And problems can occur during use, all the way through until the product's end-of-life, where there can be even more problems waiting. However the Best News - for some - is that their companies will understand the opportunities, questions and potential problems of Global Products. And then they will develop appropriate responses for their products and for their capability to deploy those products to customers throughout the world. * 1.9 Global Product and Product Deployment Capability * Global Product: Strategy, Product Lifecycle Management and the Billion Customer Question 
* 1.6 PLM: A New Way of Thinking * (1.5 Responsibility for PLM) At first glance, PLM may just appear to address the management of products across the lifecycle. However, that's just the tip of the iceberg. PLM offers a new way of thinking about manufacturing industry. Thinking about Manufacturing Before PLM, companies aimed to make a product and get it in the hands of the customer. The activities of Manufacturing and Assembly created most of the value for the company. Thinking PLM, it seems clear that, in developed countries, companies' future profits will not come from Manufacturing and Assembly of commodity products. Companies in a country where wage costs are 10% of those in the US will be able to carry out those Manufacturing and Assembly activities at a much lower cost. To survive, companies in developed countries have to create revenues elsewhere, for example, developing ideas for new environment-friendly products, providing customized products, providing services to support product use, refurbishing existing products, or taking financial and environmental responsibility for products produced in low-cost countries. Thinking about the company Before PLM, when thinking about a company in simple terms, people sliced it into functions - sales, engineering, manufacturing, after-sales. Jobs were defined with reference to those functions - sales person, design engineer, manufacturing worker, after-sales service person. Information systems were implemented to help the functions in their work - CAD systems for engineering, Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP) systems for manufacturing. Thinking PLM, people slice the company into product lines. They identify the lifecycle for the product line. They look to build the best design chain and supply chain for that product line. They hire people to work in its product teams. They define lifecycle processes, and implement lifecycle PDM systems to manage the data across the lifecycle. Thinking about a function Before PLM, people thought functionally about the company. A Marketing VP, an Engineering VP and a Manufacturing VP would report to the CEO. Managers of product lines would report in through a matrix. Thinking PLM, people first think about the product lifecycle. A Chief Product Officer (CPO) has the responsibility for all the products across the lifecycle. The CPO reports to the CEO - so do the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and the Chief Information Officer (CIO). Product line managers report to the CPO. Thinking about an activity Before PLM, people would think about one activity in a company at a time. In the Engineering Department, without considering the needs of other people in the lifecycle, design engineers would buy new Information systems to design products faster. In the Recycling Department, recycling specialists scratched their heads and wondered what they were going to do with the freshly-arrived truck-load of old products too difficult to disassemble for recycling purposes. With PLM, people think about more than one activity at a time. They think about the product across its lifecycle. Engineers designing a product take account of how it will be manufactured, and how it will be disassembled and recycled. The recycling specialists keep up-to-date with environmental laws and keep development engineers informed. Together they work out how to design products that can be disassembled quickly, and how to re-use parts in new products. Thinking about the product development activity Before PLM, people would think about one activity in a company at a time. Product development, in particular, was often seen as a separate island, somehow disconnected from the other activities. Design engineers seemed to have problems communicating with people in other functions, so were left to work alone. With PLM, people think about the entire product lifecycle, from cradle to grave. Product development is one of many activities in the lifecycle, and is closely integrated with the others. Design engineers talk to people in other functions to find out as much as possible about product needs and behavior, and to learn about experience with similar products. Thinking about focus Before PLM, the rule was "focus on the customer". With PLM, the rule is "first focus on the product", then focus on the customer. Customers buy great products. Companies can have all the knowledge in the world about their customers, and what the customers have said, but they won't get a sale without a competitive product. Thinking about voices Before PLM, the rule was listen to the "Voice of the Customer". With PLM, the rule is "listen to the Voice of the Product as soon as possible". Get the product to report back about how it is working. And, of course, don't forget to listen to the "Voice of the Customer". Thinking about time Before PLM, time went forwards: product development, then manufacturing, then support. One thing comes after another. With PLM, not only is there a flow of time forwards, there's also a flow backwards. Information comes back from product operation to be used in product development. Feedback about the use of one generation of a product helps improve future generations. Products that have reached the end of their life are disassembled, and some parts are reused in the start-of-life of new products. Thinking about Customers Before PLM, people would carry out a Customer Survey to find out what customers were thinking about existing products and future products. With PLM, people think Customer Involvement. Using technologies that have become available recently, such as mobile telephony, Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology and the Web, they exchange information directly with a customer who is using the product. Getting feedback from a customer at the actual time of use provides more valuable information than a survey form. Thinking about the Portfolio Before PLM, people in Marketing and Sales would refer to the product portfolio - the portfolio of existing products. People in Engineering would refer to the project portfolio - the portfolio of new products in the pipeline. With PLM, everyone in the lifecycle refers to the Integrated Portfolio which contains both the existing products and those under development. Thinking about the product Before PLM, people would think bottom-up, starting with parts and building up to the product. Parts were designed with CAD. Formats of different CAD systems were incompatible. Data exchange standards were developed. Engineers wasted time down at the level of the bits and the bytes. With PLM, people start by thinking about the Integrated Portfolio, then work down through product families, platforms, and modules, to products, and then to parts. PDM systems manage the information about a product across its lifecycle. Maybe a company will outsource design engineering, and won't need a CAD system. Maybe a company will outsource Manufacturing. Maybe Assembly will be limited to putting together a few dozen major modules. Engineers focus on the product, not the bits and bytes. Thinking about the approach to the product lifecycle Before PLM, the many product-related issues were not considered together. For example, Product Recall, Product Development and Product Liability would be addressed separately and independently. With PLM, all the product-related issues are united under PLM and are addressed together in a joined-up way. The approach is holistic. PLM is seen as the way to address all the product-related issues. Thinking about the management role Before PLM, product-related issues were not considered to be a subject for management. With PLM, top managers understand and can formulate the need for effective product lifecycle management. They define the key metrics and how the activity will be managed. Thinking Profit or Planet Before PLM, companies often put profit before the planet. They fouled the air, the water and the land. They burned wood and oil as if there was no tomorrow. Major corporations boasted of their success while much of mankind lived in poverty and squalor, and died young of preventable hunger and disease. With PLM, companies think profit and planet. They take more account of non-financial issues, such as the environment, social issues, health, education and sustainable development. Thinking about Processes, Data, Systems Before PLM, companies thought about ourProcesses, ourData, ourSystems. With PLM, companies think of the standard processes, standard data and standard systems that they, and their numerous suppliers, customers, and partners in the extended enterprise environment, can use to save an enormous amount of time and money. Without standards, each inter-organization interface would be a source of chaos, would add costs, and would slow down the lifecycle activities. * 1.7 PLM offers Different Benefits to Different Managers * Product Lifecycle Management: Paradigm for 21st Century Product Realisation * Front End of Innovation * IIR announced the second annual Front End of Innovation Europe event. With its core team of advisors, the PDMA organization, its local European chapters and a respected faculty of presenters, IIR is honored to provide the industry with THE event dedicated to advancing the knowledge and practice of global innovation in the front end. Through a cross-industry advisory board and rigorous application process together IIR and PDMA have organized an experience marrying top quality content with unparalleled networking. Through vigorous research, the Front End of Innovation Advisory board determined today's most desired innovation topics that address your existing and future business challenges. The team behind FEI EUROPE matched these cutting-edge topics with expert cross-industry speakers to create an agenda that provides you with unparalleled content never seen before. Over 50 presentations to choose from and 4 days of jam packed content. More information here. 
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