When I started my company on August 1st, 1999, I thought TacIT knowledge management was the new hype. As companies started to store data on their intranets, managing company knowledge digitally became a strategy.
However, I was quickly dragged into the upcoming world of PLM, and since then, I have been active in this domain.
PLM is about knowledge sharing, and as a true believer in sharing, I started this blog to reflect on my activities in the PLM world. I am a coach and business consultant with an initial focus on mid-market companies, where I assist PLM implementers and customers in their stepped approach to PLM.
When I started this blog in 2008, there were a few blogs related to PLM, and I decided to focus on the people and process side of PLM in organisations. The knowledge shared on this topic was also relevant for larger enterprises, and since 201,1 I have been an active lecturer and contributor to PLM events, either organized by consultancy firms or PLM vendors, but also at kick-off and awareness events at companies that want to improve their business, understanding updated PLM skills are needed.
Since 2018, my focus has been on digital transformation in the PLM domain (From Coordinated to Connected) and sustainability (The PLM Green Global Alliance)
Contact me anytime for an interesting PLM-related discussion – I might be able to help or point you to the right people in my huge network
Jos Voskuil's Weblog 
23 comments
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July 14, 2008 at 7:16 am
Eudald Carrera
Congratulation by the BLOG. it is very interesting.
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October 21, 2008 at 9:09 am
vinod kumar
Hey,
It’s an interesting blog, i feel i am lucky to hit such a blog thanks to google i was searching for differences on E-BOM and M-BOM.
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December 5, 2008 at 6:26 pm
Jose Santiago
Hello Jos,
Congratulations for your blog. Some years ago I attended some of your training session and now I find really interesting your comments as a business consultant.
Regards.
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December 24, 2008 at 8:23 am
Bhushan Teli
Hi,
Thanks Joe for the beautiful blog.
Topics covered are really good.
Regards,
Bhushan Teli
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January 4, 2009 at 4:05 pm
K Balasubramanian
Jos
I hit your blog through google on perspectives in EBOM and MBOM and where they should belong to.
Keep it up
regs
Balu
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January 20, 2010 at 11:08 am
Ajit Kini
Jos, your blog seems to a PLMopedia. It’s a journey in fact !
Thanks & Best Regards, Ajit
Thanks Ajit and enjoy the journey together
Best regards
Jos
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April 16, 2010 at 5:05 pm
steve1981
I learnt lots of things, Thank You
Thanks Hamed 🙂
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April 16, 2010 at 5:20 pm
Jannis de Visser
Good Blog! Interesting.
By the way, there’s maybe a new area PLM-vendor have to discover:
Within the IT Service Management communities everyone is talking about how to implement CMDB’s (Configuration Management Databases) to support/achieve the Asset Management & Configuration Management as is defined in ITIL-model.
I have noticed that most (if not all) Service Management applications used to support ITIL/ASL-like Service Management, don’t offer any serious functionality in this area.
Maybe it’s time to introduce PLM-tools as the CMDB-solution to support/achieve true IT Service Configuration Management?
I am curious about your opinion…
Thanks Jannis for your interesting thought. The fact that as you mention, Service Management applications do not cover support for ITIL/ASL, might be because the value of having this implemented might no pay-off against the estimated cost of implementation.
As I am not a CMDB/ITIL expert, i have to guess – and perhaps in the wrong direction you were thinking. I think it is similar to the introduction of Asset Lifecycle Management for process owners. As there is a lot of investment to get the process running (could be energy, chemical, infrastructure), once operational the process owner does not want to invest too much anymore in the operational environment. And PLM systems by origin focus more on the creation process not on the maintenance process, although the collaboration capabilities of a PLM system fit very well to an ALM environment. But I am afraid the PLM vendors will not have the focus and knowledge to address this market ….
Best regards
Jos
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June 1, 2010 at 5:34 pm
Jannis de Visser
Hi Jos,
Took me a while to notice you had written a comment, but I agree that I most of the PLM vendors don’t have the focus and knowledge to address this market…
The other thing:
It look’s like it’s the classical discussion all over again:
For most companies it’s hard to see the benefit of investing in a PLM-like tool and implementing Configuration Management fully. For most of them it’s good enough for now (as long there’s no competition that’s perorming better) by getting your work done by communicating a lot, performing a lot of manual searches for the correct information, rechecking everything to try to prevent that mistakes are being made, or accepting that sometimes some of your products completely fail…..
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April 10, 2012 at 7:44 pm
Jason
Hi Jos,
Great post on PLM killing innovation — an interesting perspective I have yet to read elsewhere… I couldn’t find an email on your site, but I was wondering if you accept guest posts on virtualdutchman.com? I included my email below if you’d like to get in touch to discuss further.
Kind regards,
Jason
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March 5, 2013 at 10:10 am
Shantanu
Hi Jos,
Your blog is very informative and great learning experience. It would help me for sure in my future career.
Thanks Shantanu, and welcome to the passion for PLM – best regards Jos
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March 12, 2013 at 10:17 am
Shantanu
Hi Jos,
As you may know their are many PLM vendors in this industry and they are evolving with very high pace. So each company have its thoughts of implementing each feature specific to the tool. For that it opts for migration process from its legacy system to the newly featured tool. So in that context can you throw some light upon the migration process which has become a trend in PLM industry. Such as its technicalities and approach.
Thanks Shantanu for the suggestion. I try to stay away from the technical functional/feature discussion, but there is a point you are bringing in that is important to consider. I will put it on my todo list. Best regards Jos
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June 14, 2013 at 12:19 pm
Alan Caruana
Hi Jos,
your blog is really enlightening and we would like to consider various concepts and systems further for a potential project.
Can we contact you directly?
Alan
(Methode Electronics Malta)
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June 24, 2013 at 3:20 pm
Trinsley
Helllo Jos, What PLM solution do you recommend for Fashion/Apparel & Retail industry? What are your invaluable thoughts about http://www.edgeax.com/ Looking forward to see your feedback.
Thank you,
Trinsley
Trinsley hello, thanks for your questions. It is a question I cannot answer without having a context. As there is probably not one PLM solution that fits all, I will share my thoughts on PLM in the context of Apparel during the upcoming PI Apparel event in London 16-17 July (http://piapparel.co.uk/). I will promise to have a look at edgeax before that date
Best regards
Jos
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July 9, 2013 at 7:39 pm
Iqbal
Hello Trinsley and Jos, good to know that you are interested in EdgeAX solutions. There are numerous solutions available, but it’s a first of its kind as it’s developed specifically for mid market fashion, apparel and retail organizations, especially if they currently use Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, or plan to implement Dynamics AX in the near future. The good news is Jos will be sharing his thoughts on product life cycle management (PLM) on product innovation apparel conference 2013 for which EdgeAX PLM solution http://www.edgeax.com/solutions/edgeax-plm/ is a sponsor we can see listed on PI Apparel’s official website here http://piapparel.co.uk/sponsors
This seems like a feature-complete solutions for product lifecycle management (PLM), retail business intelligence (BI), supply chain management (SCM), and electronic data interchange (EDI). The company behind this solution is Visionet Systems Inc.
Iqbal, your response is is almost advertising advertising. I try to make no comments about products, but share mainly methodology and best practices around PLM for potential customers. I look forward to discuss during PI Apparel these thoughts related to edgeax-plm. Best regards Jos
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July 9, 2013 at 7:56 pm
Trinsley
Howdy Jos, appreciated, can’t wait to see your opinion about best PLM solutions supported for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. Your thoughts will be helpful hopefully. Thanks you
Trinsley hi, I believe when the best support for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 is the only key requirement, we know the answer. Isn´t it ?
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August 14, 2013 at 10:16 am
Katrine Olsen
Dear Jos Voskuil,
Thank you for posting very interesting viewpoints, I like your way of putting things into perspective.
I am quite new in the world of PLM, due to I am working on a project where I am supposed to clarify current material related to the subject – That is how I came across your blog.
I have read a lot of your posts, and you do a lot of refences to published articles which I subsequent have found in order read them as well.
Which leads to my actual question;
If you should point at todays top 5 most influencers “PLM experts” – who would they be?
I have have some guesses myself, but as I said I am pretty new in the field, so it would be very beneficial to me if a person with your knowledge would share your thoughts.
I hope you will have time to answer my single question
Thank you so much in advance,
All the best,
Katrine Buur Olsen
Katerine thanks for your feedback. Regarding the top 5 PLM influencers, it is an interesting topic. I believe it is not the person that influence. There is information popping up all around the world, in blogs, by PLM vendors and implementers and all of them contribute to influencing the PLM picture. Best Regards Jos
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September 10, 2013 at 1:02 pm
timconner
Hi Jos good to meet you at OE event thanks for the chat Tim Conner
Thanks Tim, is was a pleasure discussing the knowledge topic. Best regards Jos
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October 3, 2014 at 2:46 pm
Jan Takke
Hi Jos, This may be a very interesting (even if academic) viewpoint explaining why introducing PDM/PLM is so difficult: http://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-to-build-trust-and-fight-tribalism-to-stimulate-innovation/?tag=nl.e106&s_cid=e106&ttag=e106&ftag=TREf7159e0
I like your topic(s) and read them with pleasure!
Jan Takke
Thanks Jan for the link – Indeed it shows it is not PLM that is the root cause.
Best regards
Jos
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February 14, 2017 at 8:42 am
Gianluca Conti
Hi Jos,
it’s always a pleasure to read your blog!
A topic I want to submit you…
surfing on Internet I cannot find any article or debate about PLM & Third Party Products.
Many companies front the challenges relevant to the cooperations and joint ventures and need to integrate in a smart way the portfolio’s to offer integrated solutions.
In the world of sharing and collaboration this may be a good argument to dig into…
Are the PLM software ready for this challenge with best practice solutions or this is a matter that is under specific development case by case? Any guideline?
I’d like to see your point of view!
All the best
Gianluca Conti
Gianluca thanks for your feedback and question and I understand the question base don our discussions more than a year ago. I will respond to it in a blog post – hopefully early next week
Best regards
Jos
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March 16, 2019 at 5:10 pm
Lambertus Oosterveen
Hi Jos,
In your last blog there is a very small typo, the might must be there might:
Where the first point makes sense although the might be still situations where a separate EBOM and MBOM is beneficial.
Thanks Lambertus – I fixed it – hopefully the sentence is better readable/understandable now. Best regards
Jos
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October 21, 2020 at 7:49 pm
Fredrik Gerling
Great post. Thanks.
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August 29, 2022 at 7:39 am
shanthap89
Hi Jos,
Lot of things I learnt from your blog. It is really interesting that how it evolves. I also follow you in linkedin.
Though I am in PLM domain and was guided under great mentors, I still have lot of clarifications. I want an pictorial representation of how a product evolves from ebom to mbom to BOP to ERP to SLM in industry way (may be a product could be a pen). I always trying to imagine to connect the dots. But I feel like I lost into woods when i try to explain to others.
if you have any article related to this, I request you to post this.
Thanks,
Shantha P.
Dear Shanta, thanks for your feedback. The process you are asking for is something I explain when educating specific customers in dedicated session based on their situation. I have never attempted to describe it in one article. The information that comes closest to the content is in my series: Learning from the past to understand the future (top of my blog) – chapter 6 and 7 are addressing this topic. If there are still questions, contact me directly as currently I am not planning to write anything new around this topic.
Best regards, Jos
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