PLM as an integral part of agile product development: What are manufacturers doing?

The term "Product Lifecycle Management" (PLM) is misleading, as many PLM systems only map part of the product lifecycle. However, in order to be competitive today, we need a holistic approach that makes PLM an integral part of agile product development.

The good news: Users and manufacturers are beginning to understand this. Instead of immediately selecting a PLM system, companies are beginning to define PLM as an integral part of their broader business strategy. Vendors such as Siemens, Dassault, PTC and Aras are beginning to respond.

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Read on to find out how PLM has changed over the years, what PLM needs to offer today and how you can help your company transform to agile product development.

What PLM is and what it should be

PLM stands for Product Lifecycle Management. This implies that it covers the entire lifecycle of a product. In practice, however, this is not the case. In some cases, the PLM system is used to manage parts lists (BOM). But even with strategic PLM, product development takes place separately, perhaps with the exception of CAD data, which is sometimes integrated. Nevertheless, the actual product development and innovation work takes place in separate, specialized tools. This leads to an isolated way of working and long development cycles. This creates silos and frictional losses, which drives up costs and slows down innovation.

Instead, there should be a system that acts as a central hub for all product-related information and processes. The term PLM is already in use, alternative Terms are Systems Lifecycle Management (SysLM) or just Agile product development. Such a system can be recognized by the "Digital Thread", which should really run through all phases of the product's life cycle. This digital thread connects all relevant data and enables seamless integration of product development, requirements management, manufacturing and service. The digital thread enables all teams to access the same up-to-date information. It also enables end-to-end traceability, which is particularly crucial in regulated industries.

An ideal, holistic PLM would have to integrate all product-related information and processes across the entire life cycle to ensure efficient, consistent and end-to-end collaboration.

MBSE could be an important component of agile product development. MBSE supports the consistency and completeness of system models and facilitates communication between different disciplines. But in practice, the system model itself is often another silo that exists in isolation from other product-related information and processes. Instead of promoting seamless collaboration and ensuring consistency across the entire product lifecycle, the system model often remains an isolated artifact that is not linked to the other data and processes.

Strategic PLM for business success

PLM expert Jos Voskuil observes that PLM increasingly an integral part of corporate strategy is seen. Organizations are beginning to understand that PLM is not only focused on technical aspects, but also promotes organizational change and a data-driven infrastructure. A central question here is whether companies dare to modernize the past or to align themselves with the future in order to be able to react flexibly to new market requirements.

Successful PLM requires a close link between business and IT architecture. Voskuil refers to Conway's lawwhich states that the structure of a system reflects the communication structure of an organization. It is therefore essential to drive organizational change in parallel with technical implementations in order to break through traditional ways of working and establish a data-driven way of working. This also includes promoting collaboration between different company departments and involving middle management in the transformation process.

One of the biggest misconceptions is still that PLM is implemented through a single system that is mainly used by R&D and engineering. These disciplines are seen as the traditional creators of product data - a logical assumption from the days when PLM was more of a silo that managed projects with CAD and BOM data.

Jos Voskuil

The transformation to a data-driven PLM requires not only technical knowledge, but also a strong company-wide vision. It is important that all levels of the company understand the necessity and benefits of this transformation. Managers should therefore not only present technical solutions, but also arouse the curiosity of employees and convey a vision of the future that supports the change. Continuous, iterative adaptation of business goals and processes is essential to ensure long-term success.

What are the manufacturers doing?

Oleg Shilovitsky from BeyondPLM has just a useful summary published:

• SiemensHolistic solution that covers the entire product value creation process; focus on digital threads, cloud, AI, industrial metaverses; expand TeamcenterX and MindSphere; by adding Cameo to the portfolio as a reseller, now also with an MBSE solution.
• Dassault SystèmesHolistic platform (3DEXPERIENCE), increased use of virtual twins and augmented reality; covers the entire product life cycle and has an MBSE solution in its portfolio with Cameo.
• PTCStrong focus on SaaS, cloud solutions and the further development of the Atlas platform. With PureSystems, has a powerful solution for comprehensive variant management in its portfolio.
• IBM (not on Oleg's list): Focus on integrating AI and data analytics to support the "digital thread" and provide insights across the product lifecycle.
• ArasExtension of the open source platform Innovator, focus on flexibility and adaptability.
• Autodesk: Moves towards a holistic solution; integration of design and production (still strong focus on mechanics).
• SAPNew cloud PLM strategy based on SAP S/4HANA.
• OracleTransition to Oracle Fusion Cloud, discontinuation of support for Agile PLM.

In addition to these large providers, Oleg also mentions a number of smaller providers, none of which (yet) offer a holistic, comprehensive product. These are Duro PLM, OpenBOM, Propel PLM, Authentise, CoLab, Five Flute and Jiga.

Further development vs. new approaches

A key question is whether agile product development works at all through the further development of existing tools, or whether we need radically new tools. One indication of this is that extremely innovative companies (Tesla, GM Cruise, SpaceX, Google, etc.) are developing their own tools because those available on the market are not adequate (e.g. Warp Drive at SpaceX).

Another approach is a tool-independent networking of data, as used by systems such as Flow engineering or spread is made possible.

Conclusion

Whether we call it agile product development or digital thread: PLM must not remain a silo and must become an integral part of the development process. Whether this is best made possible by a holistic solution from a portfolio company (Siemens, PTC, IBM), an in-house development or another external system such as Flow or Spread depends on the company and how these solutions will develop over the next few years.

Image source: From tears to tiers - architectural principles for federated PLM landscapes