It was Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher, living around 500 BC, who told the Greek people that change is the only constant: Τα πάντα ρεί – the title of this blog post. Apparently he was not a popular philosopher and telling people there will be change during a comfortable period of time in their society does not make you loved.
As I am personally passionate about Greece in my personal life, I have also some business activities in Greece. From these experiences, I wish Heraclitus would be their leading guru. Greece at this moment is stuck in their inability to change. Old habits and private interests prevent new initiatives, and the blame for their current situation goes to the outside world: Europe.
This trick has been used over and over again by politicians when a country needs to restructure or reorganize. Create an external enemy and the majority of people swallow their distressing situation. The outside world is to blame and thanks to the external focus nothing changes internally as the population focuses on the enemy first. Where Heraclitus implies there is always change, which could be evolution, it seems that the Greek need a revolution to change their old habits and patterns in order to adapt to the new global society.
But are the Greek the only ones that need to change?
Τα πάντα ρεί also came in my mind when I read Chad Jackson’s blog post: PLM requires Business Transformation ? Bollocks for the first time. I envy Chad’s powerful writing style, which calls for action, a BLOGFIGHT among the PLM community. Unfortunate due to the word Bollocks some of the younger PLM consultants (do they exist?) might not be able to participate to this blog fight as their parental filter on the computer has blocked the page.
My first impression from Chad’s post was that he claims we just need to go to for global centralized data management and build processes digital and automated. And as he calls a PLM journey bollocks, I suppose in Chad’s ideal world all would be done in a single step or focused project. A new Big Bang! The last known successful Big Bang was approx 13.798 billion years ago. All other Big Bangs failed.
Τα πάντα ρεί
However my first impression was not 100 % correct and after rereading the post and the related comments a more elaborated picture comes up. The few other PLM consultants that participated in the BLOGFIGHT demonstrated there are many viewpoints often based on the consultant’s background. Often PLM is associated with “The single source of the Truth”, it is precisely on that point where PLM as a concept is struggling. There is no single opinion for PLM.
I am glad that we (Chad and I) agreed there is a need for change. This axiom (another Greek word known from Euclid’s Elements) is to my opinion the first starting point to consider for any PLM implementation. If you do not expect change, you will be probably forced to customize the new system the way your company worked before, maybe a little faster, leaving the organization structure as-is. And by building automation similar to the as-is organization you actually make your organization less flexible to adapt for new concepts.
Why do most of the large automotive companies have a problem with their PDM / PLM platforms? Because they have automated and customized their environments year after year. For sure there was ROI (Return On Investment) at that time, but gradually it also created an inability to change. And change is happing faster and faster. Globalization has come up so fast that most large PLM implementations seem to be too rigid to change. What to do? Change their CAD system?
Τα πάντα ρεί !
Knowing that there will be always change, companies should anticipate for change. And this is what I mean by the PLM journey. If implementing PLM is a onetime shot, you might be shooting in your own foot. And if you do not change, you end up with the same problem that Greece is currently facing: revolution or bankruptcy. Revolution is something nobody sane wants, neither bankruptcy.
Evolution is the only way to go even if this is against the way we humans in general behave: we want things to stay the same.
Now combining all ancient Greek wisdom with modern PLM wisdom, I would like to post my five axioms for PLM.
- There will be always change – build your vision for the upcoming 5 – 10 years with the anticipation there will be change – do not try to consolidate the now.
- Look for the latest best practices, not your current best practices
- Implement systems (PLM / PDM / ERP) as much as possible Out-Of-The-Box again avoiding to become dependent on specific releases or fixed environments
- Focus on areas where there is direct visible ROI or long term strategic advantage. As there will be always change, identify where to improve or alter moving towards the big picture brings visible comfort (business wise / users wise)
- Focus on a clear and business oriented data model – it is easier to maintain data through a long lifecycle when their definition is clear. This is a call for open data standards (STEP / ISO) as they bring you long term flexibility.
Concluding notes and call for action:
- If you are a respected PLM consultant, feel motivated to continue the blog fight and share your thoughts here related to this post or related to Chad’s post.
- If you are a respected PLM consultant or PLM enthusiast, please take a moment to answer six questions in the following anonymous survey to share your opinion and background. The survey closes on July 1st 2013: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/PYSMBJ9
I will publish the results in July.
LOOKING FORWARD TO YOUR RESPONSES
Related articles
- PLM is a journey (virtualdutchman.com)
Jos Voskuil's Weblog 
3 comments
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April 21, 2013 at 5:21 am
Scott@PLMDojo (@PLMDojo)
I’ve seen a harmful reluctance to inflict multiple changes on users. “We can get from point A to point B in one step or four. We don’t want to retrain our users four times, so let’s do it all at once so they only have to deal with one change”.
Years later we finally deployed something. It would have been much better to adopt the phased approach. Implement one piece, gain some experience and understanding. Refocus, implement the next. Solve for one variable at a time. Instead we were trying to simultaneously solve a dozen interdependent equations at once.
Agile development methodologies, like Scrum, focus on iterative development, done in short cycles that deliver working products at each iteration. “Lean Startup” (which isn’t just about starting companies, it’s also about launching new initiatives within companies) talks about beginning with minimally viable solutions, gathering metrics, and a willingness to pivot to new solutions while scrapping the old ideas. I don’t know how well these methodologies can be applied to PLM implementations, but I think that they are worth trying.
Scott thanks for sharing. The phased approach indeed is not appreciated by management that like to push a change in the organization as fast as possible. Scrum is very dependent on the people participating – as they are the ones that decide if the new delivery good enough. One of my smoothest PLM project was a project where the company started from being an Excel/CAD/ERP company into a modern BOM-centric ETO company. The implementation was phased in block of 3 month activities describing and building something for a single process step. Next bring it into operation and collect for 3-4 months feedback and discuss the observations. After 3-4 months the users were familiar with the new system and we discussed the next step, sometimes with the same roles, often other roles as we tried to keep the changes limited per role. The management understood this approach and followed the PLM project but did not push to move faster. The whole project took a little more than 3 years. Best regards Jos
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April 21, 2013 at 7:58 pm
Scott@PLMDojo (@PLMDojo)
That sounds very sensible. It should be a case study given to every manager overseeing a PLM project.
I have one comment on my previous comment. I think I was somewhat off topic. After re-reading Chad’s Bollocks post (after I disabled the parental filters 😉 and your journey post, I’m seeing that you and Chad were talking about PLM strategy — what it is we hope to accomplish by adopting PLM. However I was addressing the *tactics* of implementing those strategic goals.
I think Chad makes a good point in advocating for a modest set of strategic goals with provable ROI and clear end state as the starting point for PLM adoption. However I have hard time accepting that as the final state. I should think that after the first set of goals is realized that new opportunities for improving process would be explored and a new set of goals drawn up.
Scott – fully agree and I think it is a must to think beyond the first step. Otherwise management would say, you got your PLM and now you need more ?
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April 21, 2013 at 9:14 am
Dejan Vitorovic
Great analysis Jos!
Don’t forget that there is a very important factor in making decisions about PLM and it is time. And even here in not only one dimension. I will explain.
Very often I have witnessed the situation that companies wait too long before they decide to enroll into this process of change. Sometimes, maybe not so often, the companies involve in the change without really knowing not only where they want to go but even, in the worst case, not being aware where exactly they are. What I want to say is that prior to engaging into the PLM change you need to do think about your products, your goals, your market and your organization and plan on the execution.
This phase not only crave time but it demands the right timing for all the above factors. If this is not right – you might fale! Another danger is exactly the opposite – overdoing this phase and not dare to go towards change. This is not better in any way. Missing the window of opportunity may take you, as Jos is writing, to the place where Greeks are now. Time is important!
Another aspect of the importance of time is from the angle of project/program management. There is actually one uncertainty in not only planning for the PLM implementation but for whatever you do in life future. We can guess and sometimes get lucky, but mostly the things usually develop in unpredicted ways. One mistake that I have seen very often is making detailed implementation plans stretching over a very long period of time. Believe it or not 3 years! And I am talking about detailed plans!!! What if not this is the opposite of flexibility. This kind of perception of life, time and PLM will take you into trouble. Time is important!
There are several other aspects on time and PLM but I will stop here. The conclusion is that the time and the timing are important and your management of it can make you a winner or a loser in a PLM project.
Dejan thanks for sharing your thoughts and experiences. Like you I have also seen projects where the company thought having a detailed project plan was the key to success. In one of them already after 3 months they were lost as nothing seems to be possible according plan. Only the project leader was not concerned – he had a job adjusting the planning – Best Regards Jos
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