Product Lifecycle Management


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Ten Step Approach to PLM


It's widely recognized that Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) brings benefits in four main areas:
  • Financial Performance - for example, PLM should lead to increased revenue from earlier market introduction of products, and to reduced product development costs
  • Time Reduction - PLM should, for example, reduce project overrun time, and reduce engineering change time
  • Quality Improvement - PLM should help, for example, to reduce manufacturing process defects, reduce the number of returns and recalls, and reduce the number of customer complaints
  • Business Improvement - for example, PLM can lead to an increase in the innovation rate, increase the part reuse factor, increase product traceability, and ensure 100% configuration conformity
As a result, many companies are now looking to implement PLM, or to extend or improve their existing PLM implementation. However, experience shows that it can take longer to make progress than expected. The reasons for this often include:
  • A need to broaden the understanding of PLM issues among business executives
  • The difficulty of identifying the best approach to PLM and justifying the business case
To overcome these issues and enable faster PLM progress, John Stark Associates developed the Ten Step Approach to PLM to help companies:
  • Build a business case for PLM to gain management buy-in to proceed
  • Uncover hidden needs and opportunities for PLM beyond the obvious
  • Identify the best PLM approach in close alignment to business objectives
  • Gain clearer understanding of the ROI potential of PLM
  • Define and prioritize a clear PLM roadmap
  • Implement PLM most readily and cost effectively, preventing false starts and setbacks
  • Improve overall PLM success
There are a number of situations where the Ten Step Approach to PLM may be warranted. A company may for example be:

Looking at PLM for the first time..
  • How and where do we start?
  • How can we improve the chances for success?
  • What should be in our PLM concept?
  • Where does PLM fit with other enterprise initiatives?
  • The vendor of our CAD system suggests one PLM concept; the vendor of our ERP system proposes a completely different concept, which is right?
Creating a PLM Business Case..
  • What should we include?
  • What figures are realistic?
Expanding PLM from workgroup to enterprise..
  • What do we do next?
  • Where can we gain the biggest benefit?
Struggling with multiple CAD, PLM, ERP or other enterprise applications..
  • How do we handle multiple systems resulting from globalization or acquisitions?
  • How can we get our support costs under control?
  • What is the optimal solution?
Facing challenging business drivers demanding much greater effectiveness and efficiency..
  • How do we outsmart the competition this time?
  • How can we produce more great products ? faster?
The Ten Step Approach to PLM is applicable in companies of all sizes in almost any industry and can be beneficial at all stages of PLM investigation and use. It is as applicable during the initial introduction of PLM as when extending an existing PDM implementation. It can be used to review current PLM performance, to clarify PLM concepts, to choose between different options, or to gain a deep understanding of an individual option.

The Ten Step Approach to PLM includes the following ten activities:
  1. PLM Status Review, Data Gathering
  2. Executive PLM Education and Awareness
  3. Best Practice Positioning
  4. PLM Concept Generation and Analysis
  5. PLM Roadmap and Plan Generation
  6. Business Benefits and Business Case Development
  7. ROI Calculation
  8. Management Report Preparation
  9. Executive Presentation
  10. Executive Decision Support
Experience shows that these ten steps help in understanding where PLM can be applied to a business most effectively. They help to get that all-important executive approval for the PLM initiative to proceed. The Ten Step Approach is a tried-and-tested methodology that has been used in many companies, at different stages of PLM progress, in many industries. The ten steps make it clear to everyone involved what has to be done, with clear deliverables at each step to show what has been achieved.

For more information about the Ten Step Approach to PLM Progress in your company, please contact John Stark Associates.







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