PLM – so near but yet so far

By Michael Burkett, Vice President of AMR Research

Manufacturers today are striving for greater agility in their new product development and launch (NPDL) process, and product lifecycle management (PLM) has done much to provide a technology foundation to support this goal. However, complex business decisions need to be made faster as new data becomes available. Stronger analytics will be required to support the quick decisions needed for a successful product launch.

In search of knowledge

Capitalising on knowledge and being able to aid in decision-making remain a challenge. A manufacturer once stated to me that, while it had made many technology investments to manage its product information, it still struggled to “drink from the fire hose of knowledge.” The comment articulated the challenge many manufacturers face in gleaning the most important innovations from the vast body of product knowledge across their enterprise. PLM applications have brought tremendous value to manufacturers, allowing them to control product information and eliminate costly waste and mistakes, plus streamline operational processes, such as direct material sourcing and engineering change management.

Yet most applications remain limited to basic reporting capabilities. Progress is still needed to support many of the business and design decisions that occur from idea discovery to product launch.

Manufacturers make numerous diverse decisions throughout their NPDL process. Questions they must ask include:

• What are the operational cost trade-offs to expanding the design performance or increasing the number of SKUs when offering additional product features?
• How do the results of alpha-beta tests or recent market data affect a new product launch?
• What learning experience from past experimentation or failures can be reused in future product development efforts?

Application providers answer the call

Currently, most PLM applications own or will import much of the data to support these decisions, commonly delivering reports using Crystal Reports from Business Objects. However, progress is being made by several application providers to build their own analytics engine and supporting data model to aid business decisions specific to launching new products.

Recent activities include:

• ERP vendors that offer PLM are building role-based analytics to support product launch decisions, including Oracle’s Daily Business Intelligence and SAP’s Business Warehouse.
• Agile’s Analytics Framework supports product costing and quality analysis, two capabilities that are further enhanced in its recent 9.2 release.
• Recent upstart aPriori combines integration to CAD with factory knowledge to quickly assess the operational cost impact of a design on different factories.

These are certainly not the first vendors to address the business decisions of NPDL; product portfolio management applications have led the way in aiding product pipeline and roadmap decisions. There are many remaining decisions, which will require specific analytical tools that leverage the expertise and data that different vendors can bring to the problem. Therefore, look for PLM providers to embed richer business analytics in their applications to support the agility manufacturers require to succeed.

About the author

Mike Burkett is regarded as the leading expert in product lifecycle management (PLM), co-authoring the first industry publication that defined the PLM market. His PLM research draws on more than 15 years of experience, introducing and supporting products from concept to end-of-life.

Burkett, a Six Sigma Master Blackbelt, has conducted a variety of research on software developments and business issues. Recently, he completed research on benchmarking the perfect product launch, the value of PLM, program management in aerospace and defense, aftermarket services, lean manufacturing, and quality systems for Six Sigma manufacturing. Mike is a member of the Product Development Management Association as well as the Society of Manufacturing Engineers.