PDM–A Must Use Technology,

for Better Future

WHITE PAPER

Author: Ravindranadh Vetsa

Today, a mechanical engineer’s biggest task is to make products within a short span of time
while maintaining quality and reducing cost. Latest technologies like PDM contribute towards
this. Product Data Management (PDM) is a software system that manages product data and the
product development process involving that data. PDM allows companies to securely store,
share, modify and track their most valuable asset- product content- while streamlining their
product development processes.

PDM should maximize the time-to-market benefits of concurrent engineering while maintaining
control of data. It should also distribute data automatically to the people who need it when they
need it. In PDM systems, master data is stored (only once) in a secure “vault” where its integrity
can be assured. They help in instant delivery of information, speeding up tasks. A PDM system
allows creation and maintenance of multiple revisions and versions of any design in the database.
Collaborative PDM systems offer CAD management, ERP integration and Supply Chain
Management.

Today, PDM is one of the fastest growing technologies in the engineering-manufacturing market,
with some form of the technology being implemented in a range of industries including automotive,
aerospace, office equipment, industrial machinery, sports equipment, agricultural machinery,
and construction equipment.

Wipro Technologies
Innovative Solutions, Quality Leadership
WHITE PAPER PDM - A must use technology

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................... 3

PDM COMPONENT FUNCTIONS ........................................................................... 3

BENEFITS OF PDM ................................................................................................ 4

MEASURING THE BENEFITS ................................................................................. 7

COLLABORATIVE PDM ......................................................................................... 7

INTEGRATING PDM & ERP ................................................................................... 7

CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................ 9

REFERENCES ........................................................................................................ 9

ABOUT THE AUTHOR .......................................................................................... 10

ABOUT WIPRO TECHNOLOGIES ........................................................................ 10

WIPRO IN MANUFACTURING ............................................................................. 11

© Wipro Technologies Table

Pageof: Contents
WHITE PAPER PDM - A must use technology

Introduction
As defined by one consulting firm, PDM systems are to… “organize, access, and control all
data related to an enterprises’ products and to manage the lifecycle of those products.” [1]

PDM systems hold master data only once in a secure “vault” where its integrity can be
assured and all changes to it monitored, controlled and recorded. Duplicate reference
copies of the master data, on the other hand, can be distributed freely, to users in various
departments for design, analysis and approval. The new data is then released back to the
vault. When a “change” is made to data, a modified copy of the data, signed and dated, is
stored in the vault alongside the old data which remains in its original form as permanent
record. This is the simple principle behind more advanced PDM systems.

PDM Component Functions

PDM systems include the following functions.

1) Electronic Data/Document Management: Storing large amounts of different types of

data, e.g., multiple CAD files, Word Docs, etc., and providing access and security
through “vault”.

2) Workflow and Process Management: Controls procedures for handling product data
and also keeps track of changes to product data. Provides work break down structures
and allows coordination between products related processes, resource rescheduling
and project tracking.

3) Product Structure Management and Configuration Management: Handles bills of

material, product configurations, and associated versions and design variations. One
distinct advantage is the ability to hold not just the physical relationships between
parts in an assembly but also other kinds of structures; for instance, manufacturing,
financial, maintenance or document relationships.

4) Component and supplier Management: Parts classification and retrieval – search for
standard parts and existing design. A repository of suppliers is also maintained.

5) Utility functions: Communication capabilities such as links to e-mail provide for

information transfer and events notification. Data transport functions track data locations
and move data from one location or application to another. Data translation capabilities
exchange files in the proper format. Image services handle storage, access, viewing
and mark-up of product information. Administration functions control and monitor
system operation and security.

© Wipro Technologies Page : 03 of 11

WHITE PAPER PDM - A must use technology

Document
Management

Workflow

Product
PDM Structure/CM

Components &
Supplier
Management
Special
Functions

Venn Diagram on PDM products suites

The above Venn diagram [2] illustrates that PDM product suites typically deliver a portion of
the features and functions that might be available from a stand-alone, best of breed
component. This limitation is countered by the fact that the component functions offered are
integrated “out of the box”, providing a tremendous time and cost savings.

Benefits of PDM
PDM systems can benefit the entire business - design and engineering, production
operations, purchasing, marketing and sales. Increasingly, immediate access to authoritative
product and process data is vital for responding to market changes. PDM systems provide
this data at the desktop - managing the design process, controlling product description
data, and acting as design and information authority for each authorized user - including
suppliers and customers, where appropriate [3].

PDM systems combine security with flexibility. Data is fully protected while eliminating time
lag and interpretation problems. It also facilitates global teamwork by instant delivery of
appropriate information.

Effective business processes changes defined in PDM can be automatically system-driven

to meet market demands. By organizing product description data, PDM’s corporate
knowledge base supports business planning and studies to improve development and
manufacturing processes.

Reduced Time-to-Market
This is the major benefit of a PDM system. Three factors serve to place limits on the speed
with which you can bring a product to market. One is the time it takes to perform tasks, such
as engineering design, and tooling. Another is the time wasted between tasks, as when a
released design rest in a production engineer’s in-tray waiting its turn. The third is the time
lost in rework.

© Wipro Technologies Page : 04 of 11

WHITE PAPER PDM - A must use technology

A PDM system can do much to reduce time limitations listed below.

• It can speed up tasks by making data instantly available as it is needed

• It supports concurrent task management
• It allows authorized team members access to all relevant data, all the time, with the
assurance that it is always the latest version

Product Design and Engineering Benefits

Logical management of product structure information is a key functionality of PDM. Using a
PDM system, designers and engineers can obtain comprehensive information either via
the traditional part classification route - greatly enhanced through PDM or by interacting with
graphical representations of the product structure to find key data.

PDM workflow accelerates review and approval of change packages, resource allocation &
monitoring, new design, design alternatives exploration and process capability evaluation.
By monitoring part and document status levels, PDM facilitates rapid change early in the
design cycle, but ensures security and control when design stabilizes. Integrating PDM and
MRP systems allows smooth data flow between design and production.

Production Operations Benefits

Through PDM, designs are quickly proven before release whilst engineering change process
control cuts scrap and rework. Waste caused by manufacturing incorrect items is reduced
by maintaining information about current versions. Final design quality is improved because
more time is spent on the early design process. Fewer errors mean fewer corrections and
product recalls.

Extending PDM document view capabilities to shop floor level reduces physical distribution
and control of hard copy documents. PDM classification and retrieval facilities search for
previously engineered parts by part design features or manufacturing processes, facilitating
part count reduction.

PDM accelerated information flow offers earlier production planning and market introductions
bringing forward the new revenue stream. Accuracy of information reduces decision-making
risks cutting the overtime, “fire fighting” and panic usually associated with new product
introduction.

Purchasing and Subcontracting Benefits

Extending the PDM system to sub-contractors can provide mutual benefits. Some businesses
allow suppliers access so they can contribute to the design and change approval cycles.
The system can ensure early supply of complete, current release data to suppliers. PDM
classification capabilities also reduce purchase order numbers.

Marketing and Sales Benefits

PDM systems can enhance the speed and quality of response to business enquiries. Bids
and quotation scenarios can be speedily built by retrieving previous design details from the
database. Product information can be swiftly passed to the customer to enable them build
a whole-life support database.

© Wipro Technologies Page : 05 of 11

WHITE PAPER PDM - A must use technology

Better use of Creative Team Skills

Designers are often conservative in their approach to problem solving for no other reason
than the time penalties for exploring alternative solutions are so high. The risks of spending
excessive time on a radically new design approach which may not work would be
unacceptable. PDM opens up the creative process in three important ways.

• First, it keeps track of all the documents and test results relating to a given product
change, minimizing design rework and potential design mistakes
• Second, it reduces the risk of failure by sharing the risk with others and by making the
data available to the right people fast
• Third, it encourages team problem solving by allowing individuals to bounce ideas off
each other using the packet-transfer facility, knowing that all of them are looking at the
same problem

Comfortable to Use
Although PDM systems vary widely in their levels of user-friendliness, most set out to operate
within the existing organizational structure of a product engineering operation, without major
disruption. The system should, in fact, make familiar tasks much more user-oriented than
before. When users wish to view information on a PDM system, the application is loaded
automatically, and then the document is loaded. In a conventional working environment,
users would either have to be more skilled at accessing the information or be prepared to
accept it in a much less flexible form.

Data Integrity Safeguarded

The single central vault concept ensures that, while data is immediately accessible to those
who need it, all master documents and records of historical change remain absolutely
accurate and secure.

Better Control of Projects

The reason that product development projects are almost invariably late is not that they are
badly planned in the first place, but that they routinely go out of control. The reason is the
immense volume of data generated by the project rapidly snowballs beyond the scope of
traditional project management techniques. The greater the time pressure, the higher the
possibility for inconsistency, and likelihood of rework. PDM systems enable to retain control
of the project, by ensuring that the data on which it is based is firmly controlled.

Product structure, change management, configuration control and traceability are key benefits.
Control can also be enhanced by automatic data release and electronic sign-off procedures.
As a result, it is impossible for a scheduled task to be ignored, buried or forgotten.

Better Management of Engineering Change

A PDM system must allow you to create and maintain multiple revisions and versions of any
design in the database. This means that iterations on a design can be created without the
worry that previous versions will be lost or accidentally erased. Every version and revision
has to be ‘signed’ and ‘dated’, removing any ambiguity about current designs and providing
a complete audit trail of changes.

© Wipro Technologies Page : 06 of 11

WHITE PAPER PDM - A must use technology

A Major Step toward Total Quality Management

By introducing a coherent set of audited processes to the product development cycle, a PDM
system should go a long way towards establishing an environment for ISO9000 compliance
and Total Quality Management (TQM). Many of the fundamental principals of TQM, such as
‘empowerment of the individual’ to identify and solve problems are inherent in the PDM
structure. The formal controls, checks, change management processes and defined
responsibilities should also ensure that the PDM system you select contributes to your
conformance with international quality standards.

Measuring the Benefits

Measuring the benefits involves three areas:
• Direct cost savings - through time saved seeking and retrieving data
• Time to market - effect of getting products to market earlier.
• Quality improvement - impact of reduction in changes and increased ‘right first time’
rate [3]

Collaborative PDM
Collaborative PDM is a Web-enabled, extended enterprise solution for optimizing product
development. Apart from core PDM, it involves CAD management, ERP integration and
Supply Chain Management.

Integrating PDM & ERP

Undoubtedly one of the most critical issues facing manufacturing companies today is
integrating product data management (PDM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP): two
different yet closely related technologies that are the heart and soul of managing the overall
product definition and production lifecycles.

A wide range of manufacturers are pursuing efforts to integrate the two technologies. In the
past few years, every major automaker has launched some type of initiative linking PDM and
ERP, with some of the most visible activities continuing at companies such as Volkswagen,
General Motors, Ford, and Mercedes. Aerospace and defense companies likewise are
investing heavily in integration, as well as firms in telecommunications, industrial equipment,
business machines, consumer products, and a host of other industries. Trying to get a
jump on others in their markets, these manufacturers realize that the ability to effectively link
PDM and ERP will dictate their success in the coming decade. Companies that succeed in
establishing an effective integrated enterprise information environment will prosper while
others will not likely maintain their competitiveness.

Sizable barriers must be reduced in integration efforts, however, not the least of which is
finding the right way to tie PDM and ERP systems together in a world with no off-the-shelf
answers or single best solutions for all organizations. As PDM and ERP both have expanded,
a growing number of areas have started to overlap including bills of material, parts
classification, configuration management, and process workflow [6].

© Wipro Technologies Page : 07 of 11

WHITE PAPER PDM - A must use technology

Product Structuring
One of the most extensive areas of overlap between ERP and PDM exists in product structure
management. Product structures are at the heart of ERP systems, defining parts and how
they are put together on the shop floor. Typically, this information is reflected in “as-planned”
views that drive manufacturing and assembly, so it is oriented toward materials and production
processes. Likewise, product structures are central to PDM but are more functionally oriented
toward product capabilities and how it is configured. This technology is influenced by design
engineers to reflect “as-designed” views developed in CAD/CAM systems. These product
structures are coupled with documents, product information, processes, etc. to provide full
configurations of the product definitions.

Because of huge overlaps of data and functionality, most companies using PDM and ERP
view integration between the two systems as a natural step and see the product structure as
the primary link between the two systems. Benefits are compelling indeed for companies to
integrate. Transferring information quickly and accurately between engineering and
manufacturing speeds workflow, improves communication throughout the organization,
and avoids redundant efforts along with reducing associated errors and delays in recreating
data. This provides an ability to leverage efforts so that data already entered in one area
doesn’t have to be recreated in another.

In many cases, product information is transferred when design engineering releases a

PDM product definition to industrial engineers who then convert it into an assembly view for
ERP. Some companies use a more direct exchange where the PDM product structure is
sent via a translator directly into ERP. A few even provide two-way translation between PDM
and ERP, giving engineering and manufacturing a direct view into one another’s database.
In some rare instances, companies strive for the most tightly integrated system where
overlapping portions of PDM and ERP information are stored in the same database and
shared by both systems.

Technical Difficulties
Significant benefits of linking PDM/ERP and successful implementations notwithstanding,
challenging problems must be overcome to integrate these two technologies. Much of the
difficulty involves the control and flow of information throughout the two types of systems,
each of which has different ways of storing, accessing, exchanging, and translating data.
Also, PDM and ERP usually are concerned with different types of information while providing
different perspectives of the same information.

Similar information often has different names or dissimilar data formats that may be difficult
to recognize. For example, “part attributes” in PDM may be the same as “material master
elements” in ERP. In general, getting systems to speak the same language, or even be able
to recognize alternate terms, can be troublesome.

Ownership of Data
One of the greatest challenges in integrating PDM and ERP is resolving inevitable questions
about who controls data in the enterprise. Is it mastered in PDM and replicated in ERP, or
vice versa? Can it be split between the two? How should data ownership change over the
life cycle of the product? Engineering may have greater control of the project in early conceptual
stages of product development, for example, with ownership gradually shifting to
manufacturing as production begins. But how does the system manage this transition?

© Wipro Technologies Page : 08 of 11

WHITE PAPER PDM - A must use technology

Resolving the issue of data control is particularly tough for PDM and ERP developers. Few
of the commercial PDM or ERP systems support the concept of their data being “controlled”
by an outside system. Compounding the difficulty is a general lack of application
understanding on both sides of the PDM and ERP fence. As a result, vendors face huge
challenges in developing these integrations. An additional challenge is that these integrations
require the commitment of heavy investments in time and resources that are difficult to
recoup, since many implementations involve highly customized one-of-a-kind systems.

Conclusion
Today, PDM is one of the fastest growing technologies in the engineering-manufacturing
market, with some form of the technology being implemented in a range of industries
including automotive, aerospace, office equipment, industrial machinery, sports equipment,
agricultural machinery, and construction equipment. In fact, several companies have been
quite open about their results and have publicly released them as examples for others to
see. The benefits these companies have reported are impressive, and provide substantial
encouragement for groups just getting started with their programs.

At a leading Commercial Airplane Group, PDM is playing a major role in the aircraft
manufacturer’s efforts to make process improvements. They report that the technology has
enabled this company to significantly improve its bill of material procedures that keep track
of more than 3 million parts in each aircraft. In the past, parts information went through more
than 800 legacy systems and 14 separate BOM programs so that components compared
from one BOM to another were only about 65% accurate. With PDM, they could consolidate
this information into a single source of product data that is 99.7% accurate. They comment
that one of the greatest benefits is that this aircraft manufacturer can respond faster to new
airplane features requested by customers. Key results include the following –

• Changing the design to accommodate a different size cargo door in the past could take
up to 5,000 engineering hours and 6 months to implement. With new business process
and PDM in place, the same change is expected to take only 100 hrs [4]
• In some lines, flow times reduced from as many as 30 days to less than 5 days [5]
• Inventory turn rates increased from 4.5 in 1997 to 9.7 in 1999 [5]
• In some facilities, almost 85% of sales orders now being delivered on or ahead of
schedule
• Since 1998, employee over time has decreased by more than 50 % [5]

References
[1] ‘Product Data Management: More than just an ERP module’ by Richard W. Bourke,
CPIM

[2] ‘Product Data Management’ – Gateway Consulting Group, Inc

[3] ‘The Benefits of Product Data Management’ by Mike Philpotts, CIM data Inc

[4] ‘Where PDM pays Off’ by Ed Miller, President, CIM data, Inc

[5] ‘Metaphase Success Stories’– SDRC

[6] ‘Integrating PDM and ERP’ by Ed Miller, President, CIM data, Inc

© Wipro Technologies Page : 09 of 11

WHITE PAPER PDM - A must use technology

About the Author

Ravindranadh Vetsa is Manager, PLM practice under manufacturing solutions vertical at
Wipro Technologies, Hyderabad. He takes care of services in the PLM (Product Lifecycle
Management) space, including CAD/CAM/CAE and PDM/CPC segments. He has wide
experience in the areas of product design, applying IT in manufacturing domain. He has
authored several papers including papers on technologies like Solar furnaces.

Ravindranadh Vetsa received his Masters in Design & Production Engineering with a Gold
Medal from Regional Engineering College, Durgapur. He is a certified Project Management
Professional (PMP) from PMI, USA and certified Black Belt in application of Six Sigma
methodologies.

About Wipro Technologies

Wipro is the first PCMM Level 5 and SEI CMMi Level 5 certified IT Services Company globally.
Wipro provides comprehensive IT solutions and services (including Systems Integration, IS
Outsourcing, Package Implementation, Software Application Development and Maintenance)
and Research & Development Services (hardware and software design, development and
implementation) to corporations globally.

Wipro’s unique value proposition is further delivered through our pioneering Offshore
Outsourcing Model and stringent quality processes of SEI and Six Sigma.

© Wipro Technologies Page : 10 of 11

WHITE PAPER

Wipro in Manufacturing
Wipro Technologies has more than 1100 person years of experience in providing consulting
and software services to customers from diverse sectors such as Aerospace, Automotive,
Chemicals, Consumer Electronics, Defense, Industrial Automation, Construction and
Semiconductors. We offer specific solutions in Production Control, Equipment Maintenance,
Procurement, Costing and Factory HR.

www.wipro.com/manufacturing

Worldwide HQ
Wipro Technologies,
Sarjapur Road,
Bangalore-560 035,
India.
Tel: +91-80-844 0011.

U.S.A. U.K. France

Wipro Technologies Wipro Technologies Wipro Technologies
1300, Crittenden Lane, 137 Euston Road, 91 Rue Du Faubourg,
Mountain View, CA 94043. London, NW1 2 AA. Saint Honoré, 75008 Paris.
Tel: (650) 316 3555. Tel: +44 (20) 7387 0606. Tel: + 33 (01) 4017 0809.

Germany Japan U.A.E.

Wipro Technologies Wipro Technologies Wipro Limited
Am Wehr 5, # 911A, Landmark Tower, Office No. 124,
Oberliederbach, 2-1-1 Minatomirai 2-chome, Building 1, First Floor,
Frankfurt 65835. Nishi-ku, Yokohama 220 8109. Dubai Internet City,
Tel: +49 (69) 3005 9408. Tel: +81 (04) 5650 3950. P.O. Box 500119, Dubai.
Tel: +97 (14) 3913480.
www.wipro.com
eMail: info@wipro.com

Wipro Technologies
©I nWipro
n o v a t i vTechnologies
e Solutions, Quality Leadership Page : 11 of 11