As today it was again ‘Black Saturday”, the day that the French and German roads are filled with cars and traffic jams above100 km length, it was a moment for me to reflect in the middle of my summer holiday. I do not want to make other continents jealous, but the summer holiday is important (and long), still time for some thoughts.

PLM is dead, long live Social / User focused PLM ?

In one of my old 2008 posts, PLM in 2050, I predicted that PLM would no longer exist at that time, as companies would no longer focus on individual systems, but on full coverage of business processes, through integrated  and federated data sources. I see this trend coming from two major PLM vendors (Dassault Systems / Siemens) with their 3DLive / HD PLM concepts. These concepts are trying to provide a unique user experience, where in an intuitive manner, a user in a specific role can obtain relevant data, analyze and simulate it in a virtual environment. Here the PLM vendors are really taking the lead to become the main platform for product development processes. Will the name PLM disappear at a certain stage ?

Additional you see startups and also some of the major PLM vendors experimenting with community concepts, social media. Moving towards a “Facebook’- like environment for product development and collaboration processes. The idea behind this direction is partly driven by the fact that the old generation of workforce slowly moves towards retirement where the new generation is not motivated to follow up the same working processes and procedures. The old generation moved from paper-based, manual processes to terminal-like screens, email and excel sheets.

If the new generation of employees will benefit from Facebook like environments is the question. Product development and collaboration requires a lot of boring data entry, even if we have a unique user experience. In addition, I was reading a preview of some research done with American and Dutch students, stating that study results from those students active on Facebook are significant lower as the result of student not active on Facebook, although they spend the same time on internet. I haven’t found the original source – here is a Dutch link. Curious to learn who will develop and bring better products to the market in the future with modern social PLM ?

ALM based on PLM is underestimated by owner /operators

alm_1 As I have been active the past two years in some Asset Lifecycle Management projects based on PLM, I also feel that many owner/operators do not have the understanding or guts to change the way they are working. Understandable from their point of view – as long as the errors and risks are acceptable, why change the way the whole industry is working ? 

In the nuclear industry you see the awareness growing. People know the risks of a nuclear disaster (after Chernobyl) and as we need more energy resources, nuclear energy with enhanced containment of risks is a natural way to go.

Perhaps after the BP disaster in the Mexican gulf, where apparently to the various reports, people were taking the wrong decisions due to inaccurate data or due to lack of information (could not be found in time) ALM based on PLM could be considered. However, investing even a few millions and changing the company’s way of working will never be approved by the BP management, as it will never happen a second time. It is all about being proactive (which is not a natural behavior) or being reactive and trying to control the damage. Here I have no predictions for 2050, I only believe that the proactive companies have a higher chance of survival – no matter which industry

But now my holiday activities call me back – for those not blessed by a holiday, here an overview of some of the relevant posts from the past year/

PLM and Organization

PLM, CM and ALM are not sexy

Mid Market deadlocks for PLM

How to get users excited for PLM ?

Some users do not like the single version of the truth

Implementing PLM requires a vision

What not to do in a bottom up PLM implementation ?

Where is the MBOM ?

Culture change in a mid-sized company a management responsibility !

PLM selection

PLM for mid-market a mission impossible ?

Who decides for PLM in a mid-market company ?

More on who decides for PLM in a mid-market company

The academic conclusion on who decides for PLM in a mid-market company

Can ERP vendors do PLM ?

Free PLM does not help companies

ALM

Asset Lifecycle Management based on PLM experiences

Asset Lifecycle Management using a PLM system

Tutorials

BOM for Dummies: BOM and CAD

BOM for Dummies: CTO

BOM for Dummies: BTO

BOM for Dummies: ETO

Connecting PLM and ERP – 1

Connecting PLM and ERP – 2

Connecting PLM and ERP – 3

and if these links are not enough – look at my favorite blogs:

http://plmtwine.com/

http://www.global-plm.com/

http://tech-clarity.com/clarityonplm/