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 :
by Lion Benjamins "It is not the strongest of the species that survives nor the most intelligent. It is the one that is most adaptable to change." (Charles Darwin) Before addressing this year's PLM scene we should take a step back, and consider a broader view. Not just the PLM scene but the state of the manufacturing base at the core of our suffering economy. The shift to low-cost producing countries fuelled the need for better collaborative design and manufacturing tools. Supply chains are tighter than ever and neither quality nor services provide sufficient competitive differentiation to guarantee survival. We talk of sustainable manufacturing with an eye to the environment. But whilst politicians argue about treaties and rescue packages, Rome burns. We have plundered our empire and lost vast sections of our productive capacity. New economies are developing, consuming and producing on a scale that is difficult to imagine and this will significantly impact our fragile existence. The pace of change is accelerating and while we remain undecided about how we will handle change one thing is certain: we either learn to adapt fast enough, or we take the course of unsuccessful species - there will be no middle ground. So how do we survive? Getting PLM to the CEO In 2005, John Stark, PLM consultant and author wrote, "The objectives of PLM are to increase product revenues, reduce product-related costs, and maximize the value of the product portfolio. Responsibility for PLM lies with the CEO". Last year, Menno Huijben, senior IT advisor dedicated to improving performance of Information Management in organizations, wrote: "although the PLM vision is difficult to disagree with, PLM is not high on the wish-lists of CEOs and CIOs". "PLM vendors aim to implement the requirements of the engineer, but many product designers cannot be bothered with logistic, sales or supply chain considerations. PLM should be more about strategy and benefits, and less about systems and technology. Too much focus on PLM as a system will cause very complex system integrations, less transparent supply chains, and challenging enterprise architectural issues." Antti Saaksvuori, PLM author and consultant emphasises the point. "CEOs and management teams do not understand their own complex products and services anymore. They cannot take decisions about their products because they don't know what information they need to manage in order to make sound product lifecycle decisions. If these managers would understand the behaviour of the product lifecycles of their products and services and could define the set of information they need in order to make good decisions and manage their product portfolio it would be much easier to implement a PLM system creating significantly more business value than what is achieved today." "Instead of more information systems, system features or system integrations - we need more understanding of products as such and more common models within corporations to govern product portfolios, most of the data already exists in systems somewhere". The idea of generating movement as Roger Tempest suggested in the December 15, 2008 issue of 2PLM has merits, but this must imply widening the playing field to be of interest to decision takers and influencers, the movers and the shakers. PLM is not just for CAD and PLM managers! Bad News and Good News in 2009 The bad news is that, in difficult times, such as those of early 2009, organizations concentrate on squeezing managers harder and controlling their existing operations more tightly. They fail to learn and adapt just when they need it most. According to Dr. Béla Pátkai, expert in integrated systems and aerospace: "The good news is that there is an abundance of ideas, tools and cultural changes around that provide powerful means to adapt to change much faster than ever before. Agile solution development, open source initiatives, micro formats, cloud computing, managed services, the success of Software-as-a-Service and Web2.0 "mash-ups" - like social networking tools - have already proven that adaptation is possible at orders of magnitude faster and at a fraction of the usual cost. We even know how. The challenge is to adapt our corporate culture and start making use of these tools without delay." In 2004, 21 organisations including Caterpillar, SAP, Fiat and Bombardier, supported by the European Union, invested 14.7 million Euros into a project to develop a methodology to enable item level lifecycle information to be captured, converted into knowledge and used in decision support systems to impact beginning, middle and end of life processes. Based on proven PLM, the PROMISE project succeeded in overcoming many of the technological barriers, issues of interoperability and scalability and took the concept of PLM one step further by "closing the information gap". During 2008 closed loop lifecycle management (CL2M) became possible. A spin-off was launched to enable companies beyond the original project members to take advantage, assisting both technology and service providers to adopt and adapt whilst prioritising development of understanding amongst senior management. Promise Innovation initiated The Information Exchange for Closed Loop Lifecycle Management, www.cl2m.com, providing a common meeting place for all participants in closed loop lifecycle management. CL2M.com neither competes with thought leaders, vendors or service providers nor tries to replace great newsletters. Providing a single place to start understanding and developing closed loop lifecycle management, information is indexed and searchable and will retain its value - offering a set of free collaborative tools such as forums and blogs, calendars and a specialised wiki. Closing the information gap in lifecycle management has far-reaching benefits going well beyond shortening time to market, collaborative design or adaptive manufacturing. CL2M has the means to reach the CEO because it assists meeting regulatory compliance and environmental demands and delivers the competitive advantage needed to outmanoeuvre the competition. Taking PLM beyond technology is a matter of survival. More information on www.cl2m.com You can reach Lion Benjamins at lion.benjamins@promise-innovation.com. 
|
