For me, the joint conference from CIMdata and Eurostep is always a conference to look forward too. The conference is not as massive as PLM-Vendor conferences (slick presentations and happy faces); it is more a collection of PLM-practitioners (this time a 100+) with the intent to discuss and share their understanding and challenges, independent from specific vendor capabilities or features.  And because of its size a great place to network with everyone.

Day 1 was more a business/methodology view on PLM and Day 2 more in-depth focusing on standards and BIM. In this post, the highlights from the first day.

The State of PLM

 

 

Peter Bilello, CIMdata’s president, kicked of with a review of the current state of the PLM industry. Peter mentioned the PLM-market grew by 9.4 % to $47.8 billion (more than the expected 7 %). Good for the PLM Vendors and implementers.

However, Peter also mentioned that despite higher spending, PLM is still considered as a solution for engineering, often implemented as PDM/CAD data management. Traditional organizational structures, marketing, engineering, manufacturing, quality were defined in the previous century and are measured as such.

This traditional approach blocks the roll-out of PLM across these disciplines. Who is the owner of PLM or where is the responsibility for a certain dataset are questions to solve. PLM needs to transform to deliver end-to-end support instead of remaining the engineering silo. Are we still talking about PLM in the future? See Peter’s takeaways below:

 

 

We do not want to open the discussion if the the name PLM should change – too many debates – however unfortunate too much framing in the past too.

The Multi View BOM

 

 

Fred Feru from Airbus presented a status the Aerospace & Defense PLM action group are working on: How to improve and standardize on a PLM solution for multi-view BOM management, in particular, the interaction between the EBOM and MBOM. See below:

 

You might think this is a topic already solved when you speak with your PLM-vendor. However, all existing solutions at the participant implementations rely on customizations and vary per company. The target is to come up with common requirements that need to be addressed in the standard methodology. Initial alignment on terminology was already a first required step as before you standardize, you need to have a common dictionary. Moreover, a typical situation in EVERY PLM implementation.

 

 

An initial version was shared with the PLM Editors for feedback and after iterations and agreement to come with a solution that can be implemented without customization. If you are interested in the details, you can read the current status here with Appendix A en Appendix B.

 

Enabling the Circular Economy for Long Term Prosperity

Graham Aid gave a fascinating presentation related to the potentials and flaws of creating a circular economy. Although Graham was not a PLM-expert (till he left this conference), as he is the Strategy and Innovation Coordinator for the Ragn-Sells Group, which performs environmental services and recycling across Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Estonia. Have a look at their website here.

 

 

Graham shared with us the fact that despite logical arguments for a circular economy – it is more profitable at the end – however, our short term thinking and bias block us from doing the right things for future generations.

Look at the missing link for a closed resource-lifecycle view below.

Graham shared weird examples where scarce materials for the future currently were getting cheaper, and therefore there is no desire for recycling them. A sound barrier with rubble could contain more copper than copper ore in a mine.

In the PLM-domain, there is also an opportunity for supporting and working on more sustainable products and services. It is a mindset and can be a profitable business model. In the PDT 2014 conference, there was a session on circular product development with Xerox as the best example. Circular product development but also Product As A Service can be activities that contribute to a more sustainable world. Graham’s presentation was inspiring for our PLM community and hopefully planted a few seeds for the future. As it is all about thinking long-term.

 

 

With the PLM Green Alliance, I hope we will be able to create a larger audience and participation for a sustainable future. More about the PLM Green Alliance next week.

 

The Fundamental Role of PLM in Data-driven Product Portfolio Management

 

 

Hannu Hannila (Polar) presented his study related to data-driven product portfolio management and why it should be connected to PLM.  For many companies, it is a challenge to understand which products are performing well and where to invest. These choices are often supported by Data Damagement as Hannu called it.

An example below:

The result of this fragmented approach is that organizations make their decisions on subjective data and emotions. Where the assumption is that 20 % of the products a company is selling is related to 80 % of the revenue, Hannu found in his research companies where only 10 % of the products were contributing to the revenue. As PPM (Product Portfolio Management)  often is based on big emotions – who shouts the loudest mentality, influenced by the company’s pet products and influence by the HIPPO (HIghest Paid Person in the Office).  So how to get a better rationale?

 

 

Hannu explained a data-driven framework that would provide the right analytics on management level, depending on overall data governance from all disciplines and systems.  See below:

I liked Hannu’s conclusions as it aligns with my findings:

  • To be data-driven, you need Master Data Management and Data Governance
  • Product Portfolio Management is the driving discipline for PLM, and in a modern digital enterprise, it should be connected.

Sponsor sessions

Sponsors are always needed to keep a conference affordable for the attendees.  The sponsor sessions on day 1 were of good quality.  Here a quick overview and a link if you want to invest further

 

 

Configit – explaining the value of a configurator that connects marketing, technical and sales, introducing CLM (Configuration Lifecycle Management) – a new TLA

 

 

Aras – explaining their view on what we consider the digital thread

 

 

Variantum – explaining their CPQ solution as part of a larger suite of cloud offerings

 

 

Quick Release – bringing common sense to PLM implementations, similar to what I am doing as PLM coach – focusing on the flow of information

 

 

SAP – explaining the change in focus when a company moves toward a product as a service model

 

 

SharePLM – A unique company addressing the importance of PLM training delivered through eLearning

Conclusion

The first day was an easy to digest conference with a good quality of presentations. I only shared 50 % of the session as we already reached 1000+ words.  The evening I enjoyed the joint dinner, being able to network and discuss in depth with participants and finished with a social network event organized by SharePLM. Next week part 2.