Unit 4 ROLE OF PLM IN

INDUSTRIES
Auto, aero, Electronic, other possible sectors, ten step approach to PLM,
benefits of PLM, Change management for PLM
Role of PLM in Auto industries
 PLM in Automobile industries
• The global automotive industry is in a growth cycle.
• The industry is witnessing remarkable innovation in fuel economy, safety and vehicle
connectivity.
• Nowadays suppliers are part of the automotive innovation process, providing complete
systems solutions instead of build-to-print components.
• These new opportunities increase complexity on many levels. Global coordination for
program launches is critical, requiring original equipment manufacturer (OEM)
engineering centers and their suppliers to be connected throughout the vehicle
development process.
• To drive efficiency, top-performing auto companies rely on processes and tools that
enable standardization of vehicle architectures and re-use of existing knowledge.
• Design intent and quality parameters must be tracked throughout the product lifecycle.
Innovation is increasingly driven by software and electronics, forcing automakers and
suppliers to adopt a systems-driven product-development approach.
PLM in Automobile industries
PLM in Automobile industries
u n d e r th e “PLM u m b re lla ” b e c a u se PLM c o ve rs a ll a sp e c ts o f a p ro d u c t's life c yc le ,
in vo lvin g th e e n tire e n te rp rise a n d su p p ly c h a in .
PLM –CHALENGE FOR AUTOMOTIVE MANUFACTURER

Fig. 6 Product Lifecycle in automotive industry [3]

WHY IS PLM A NECESSITY IN AUTOMOTIVE
INDUSTRY?
• In automotive industry at any given time, there are always two-three products
being developed simultaneously.
• A large number of designs are created, reviewed, modified and approved.
• Due to the competitive nature of the industry, the products have to excel in
terms of quality and usability.
• Customization of automobile features is an essential part of the business
practice at automotive company.
• Smallest error can mean a huge production and capital loss.
• Proper coordination between the designers, engineers and production units
in the assembly line is a must.
• Collaboration across the enterprise helps catch the errors and rectify at the
designing phase itself. This saves the cost and effort of repetitive manufacture
of defective parts.
PLM in Aerospace industries
 Aero industrial background
• Company D is a medium-sized corporation with several segments
of the aerospace market.
• it plays a prime contractor role and provides assemblies for other
manufacturers.
• Company D is faced by issues such as
• In civil markets: global competition and the recent recession which has
had a devastating effect with airlines cancelling orders and holding on to
their old planes.
• In military markets: the main problem has been the end of the Cold War,
and the resulting changes in defence spending.
• Across all markets, the electronics component of products is growing
rapidly. The general slow-down in business has led to downsizing and
corporate re-organisation.
 Objectives
• The prime short-term objective is to ensure survival
over the next few years. -cost reduction
• Longer-term objectives are to increase the capability
to develop new products and services – possibly by
increased joint venturing with companies on other
continents, and
• to find new ways to make and deliver products and
services to the customer faster than competitors.
key competitive parameter
 The response to change
• Company D has made tremendous efforts to change
corporate restructuring activities and divested some operations.
started joint ventures and new relationships with new partners.
Adoption of new strategies, and is torn between the benefits of focused
factory, low-cost, niche, agile, and high-velocity manufacturing.
As one of the leading companies in its various markets, it is generally one
of the first to develop and use new techniques.
It has all the latest CAD, CAE, CAM, aerodynamic and structural analysis
systems.
It has invested a lot in new plants, introducing new techniques wherever
possible.
It has invested heavily in TQM, CIM and time-based management.
 Current situation
• The different engineering departments -unable to work together, reports from different
departments are inconsistent, and the same subject problem, they come up with different
answers.
• Interdepartmental strife, with departments not working together to solve problems. They don’t
share important data between departments, and don’t share reasons for engineering choices
with manufacturing engineers.
• The engineering function has become very expensive to run, and a major customer for capital
investment. In view of its cost, top management is pursuing options to spin it off as a separate
company, or to sell it to a competitor. Any increase in its efficiency will have a positive effect on
its chances of survival. However, much of the engineering process seems uncontrollable, and
engineering management finds it difficult to get productivity up.
• Engineering managers recognize they have frequently missed important deadlines and that
some of the big projects have taken too long.
• Engineering managers say there are too many people who were once working in government
bureaucracies, too many corporate staffers, too many levels of middle managers. They recount
countless horror stories highlighting top management’s failure to understand the specifics of
the business.
 What comes next?

• The first step would be to agree a Vision of the Engineering environment –

not an easy task for people who have problems working together, but it will
get them talking and working towards a common objective.
• The top management recently instigated and carried out an extensive
review of business and manufacturing processes with the aim of protecting
current product positioning and revenue streams, and developing new
markets.
• The review also showed up many areas where improvements could
contribute significantly to lowering costs, improving quality and reducing
cycle times. Enterprise-wide re-engineering was identified as the key
improvement activity, along with the introduction of an ERP system and a
sales configurator.
 PDM for Aero industries
●  supporting digital design
●  managing configurations
●  supporting reengineering
●  providing an enterprise-wide information vault
●  enabling global product development collaboration
●  improving customer service world-wide
●  speeding up change management
●  facilitating regulatory compliance.
 PLM in Electronic Industries

• Time-to-market, pricing pressures, speed of technology change, global markets and

supply chains are the top drivers that highlight issues facing consumer and industrial
electronics companies today.
• Whether it’s a home appliance, computer, cell phone or a controller driving a factory
line, individual product lifecycles continue to shorten, while bringing increasingly
complex products to global markets entails more effort and risk.
• How do you address these pressures?
• How do you manage product content and collaborate with all stakeholders to
reduce the risk, time and cost, while improving quality and aligning products to
customer demands?
• Planning, designing, manufacturing and servicing products must be managed in
unison with each other to provide products that not only work, but also meet
customer needs, hit price points and align with regulatory requirements.
 Facing the challenges
• Consumer and industrial electronic products today are composed of mechanical,
electronic and software elements. Software is taking on a significant role to help
differentiate products, define functionality and extend the product lifecycle. But
smart decisions across all design disciplines are important, as changes in one area
frequently affect another.
Four key challenges electronics companies face today:
1. Time-to-market ,
2. Complexity
3. Optimization of innovation pipeline
4. Globalization
key challenges electronics companies
1. Time-to-market
• Late is late.
• Poor decisions can cost your company the first- to-market position,
decreasing total revenue and premium margins.
• Reducing time-to-market requires coordination and inclusion of all
stakeholders, productivity in every step, with efficient processes that
remove waste without excessive overhead or management effort.
• Integration of all stakeholders is crucial.
 key challenges electronics companies
2. Complexity
• With increased electronic, mechanical and software content in today’s
products, a change made anywhere seems to have impact everywhere.
• Managing the complexity of products and processes is required for quality,
regulatory compliance, sustainability and reputation.
• Product management captures all design and product information into a
common framework to manage mechanical and electrical CAD, software and
other documentation to ensure there is a single source of information about
the product.
• Designing for sustainability requires whole product management to validate
design content against evolving global regulations and customer-driven
requirements.
 Key challenges electronics companies…
3. Optimization of innovation pipeline
• Companies cannot afford to reinvent the wheel.
• Intellectual property investments must be captured, evaluated and exploited through
re-use.
• Select the right products to develop in order to reduce product costs, maximize ROI and
profitability while delivering products that capture market share. In other words, bet on
winners.
4. Globalization
• No company does it all on their own.
• Suppliers and partners contribute to development and manufacture of products.
• Time zones, geographic and other boundaries inhibit collaboration.
• Co-design, contract manufacturing or your dispersed organization must synchronize
their efforts and collaborate securely.
• Globalization continues to increase in importance.
 Success factors for PLM implementation
1. Optimizing the product innovation pipeline
• Product success rates, time-to-market, and profitability increase as industry
focus their resources on winners.
• PLM procedures will help optimize the product development, enabling them to
identify and commercialize the opportunities with the highest probability of
success.
2. Improving product quality
• employed across all design disciplines enables whole product management to
improve product quality and configuration accuracy.
• They can reduce cost and time-to-market by driving reuse initiatives and virtual
prototyping, capitalizing on existing intellectual property and early virtual
validation of product characteristics and performance, reducing the
dependence on late and costly physical prototypes.
 Success factors for PLM implementation…
3. Synchronize and secure collaboration across the global value chain
• It will help to achieve business requirements for on-time, on-cost and on-quality
product delivery.
• Through a single source of product knowledge and processes, it will achieve effective
collaboration with all stakeholders in the success of products.
4. Invisible PLM reaches
• all product contributors by leveraging applications and tools they use every day,
providing PLM-based information to stakeholders outside of the traditional
engineering roles, without burdening them to learn PLM based clients and processes.
5. Facilitate design-for-sustainability
• to enable processes and information that ensure the products align with regulatory
and business objectives for sustainability, reducing the chance of redesign, recall or
barred markets.
 10 approaches to PLM
1. Define the goal of the PLM implementation: according to the
PLM definition companies can identify the most important points
to focus on.
2. Analyse the existent PLM foundation: the ability of the current
product structure to support PLM must be analysed and if
necessary enhanced.
3. Rank processes: the processes to be implemented can be
selected from the PLM process list, considering company aims and
the expected benefits.
4. Identify company maturity level (as-is process): comprehends the
mapping of company current processes (only for the previously
selected processes).
 10 approaches to PLM…

5. Select an appropriate reference model: from the provided set of

reference models it is possible to identify the process type that best
suits company characteristics.
6. Customize reference model: although processes that target different
kinds of company are available, processes must still be refined to reflect
very specific business needs. The customized processes picture the to-
be PLM scenario.
7. Specify requirements for system selection: the vendor neutral
software requirement catalogue related to the already configured
processes provides the system specification.
8. Select software solution: based on previously defined requirements
and considering detailed software profiles.
10 approaches to PLM…
9. Define the evolution path and implement software solution:
the differences between the as-is and to-be processes allow the
definition of implementation roadmaps, including the necessary
implementation of the selected software solution.

10. Teach employees: the knowledge base connection to the

processes indicates the new necessary qualification and provide
the necessary training material and context.
presented to executives.

Table 10.3. Deliverables of the Ten Steps

Step Main Deliverable

PLM Status Review, Data Gathering Report on the ‘as-is’ situation, and
expectations for the ‘to-be’ situation
Executive PLM Education and PowerPoint presentation addressing
Awareness potential benefits and opportunities of
PLM
Best Practice Positioning Improvement opportunities, strengths
and weaknesses
PLM Concept Generation and Analysis Report on potential PLM concepts, and
reasons for the choice of a particular
concept
PLM Roadmap and Plan Generation PLM Roadmap and deployment plan
Business Benefits & Business Case Report on expected costs, benefits,
Development value and ROI
ROI Calculation Realistic calculation of Return on
Investment
Management Report Preparation Management Report (Word) and
presentation (PowerPoint)
Executive Presentation Full understanding of PLM proposal
Executive Decision Support Go/No Go decision

10.14 Results of Use of the Ten Step Approach

PLM benefits related to processes
 Change management for PLM
PLM calls for change
Reasons why a company may find it difficult to change include:
●  Major changes can only happen if top management takes the lead, yet top managers may not
be capable of taking the lead in a particular environment. Top managers may have performed
excellently when things were going well for the company, but not have the skills to lead the
company through a period of change in a tough environment.
●  It can be expensive to change. Downsizing the payroll by several thousand people can lead to
quarterly results looking sickly for quite a few quarters.
●  Massive change in a company isn’t going to be brought about by one person. It’s not enough for
one person to want to change, the whole top management team has to be on board. It only takes
one key person to drag their feet and the momentum will fizzle out.
●  In a large company, it’s going to take along time and a lot of effort to bring about change. Top
management may feel the need to change, make some tough decisions, and set the targets, but
unless the great mass of the company’s employees change, then nothing’s going to happen. For a
large company it may take 5 years for the real results of the change to come through. That’s a long
time for a top management team to maintain focus and involvement. It will be tempting for some
of the team members to look for easier ways to glory.
PLM activity is one of the most difficult activities of all to change

●  old tasks to modify

●  new tasks to identify, define and improve
●  people who will have to change
●  new tools to bring in
●  information to be used differently
●  cultural problems to address
●  organisational structures to change
Managers who want to bring about changes and achieve successful
PLM have to:

●  understand the need for change

●  accept the need for change
●  understand that they personally have to change
●  understand that change is a major activity in its own right
●  find out where they want the changes to lead to
●  find out how to carry out the changes
●  carry out change activities
●  then implement new tools and techniques.
 Key features of successful change :
●  recognition of the need for a clearly defined and professionally managed
change project
●  definition of the as-is, intermediate and to-be states of the organisation
●  recognition of different types of people such as leaders, sponsors, agents,
champions, accepters, blockers and sleepers
●  the three major tools for change – communication, learning and reward
systems.
 Three major tools for change

1. Communication:
-It is important to overcome the fears and concerns aroused by
change.
-Communicate to people at the beginning of a change project to
answer their initial fears and concerns.
-There are four key subjects of communication the present state, the
intermediate state, the future state, and the activities of the change
process.
-Communication can be carried out in a variety of ways such as a
newsletter, e-mail, video, person-to-person, or in small groups.
-The best method of communication is for each manager to
communicate a well- prepared change message and accompanying
support material to their direct reports.
 Three major tool for change …
2. Learning:
• People have to learn about the way the company wants to work and how they are expected to
work, and they have to learn the skills, behaviour, culture and tools that will enable them to work
in the expected way.
• Many companies have understood the importance of learning as a foundation stone for building
change, and there are many related terms such as the learning organisation and continuous
learning.
• It’s often difficult to decide exactly when learning should take place.
• the first tasks in putting together the learning programme is to work out who will follow the
programme and what kinds of grouping can be established (group of project managers, groups of
engineers).
• Find out what people know, and what they need to know. Work out what they need to learn.
Make sure the components of the plan fit together properly.
• Make sure that as individuals go through the learning programme they are building on previous
learning.
• And don’t forget to include feedback sessions in the plan to make sure that learning is really
occurring.
 Three major tools for change
3. Reward systems:
• They will be rewarded twice for changing – for getting the right skills and for
behaving the right way.
• They may be thinking, “If I’ve got to work to get new skills, what’s in it for me?
How’s it going to work in the future if I’m doing a great job, but the other
team members aren’t – why should I lose out because the others aren’t
performing? And my future – how am I going to move up the tree if there are
fewer branches? Just what sort of reward will I get in the future? Is it worth
the effort to change?”
• The late Judge Tuttle said,“the professional man’s only asset is himself. If he
does not contain the quality of integrity he is worthless. If he does he is
priceless.” Good change sponsors must have the quality of integrity, and are
priceless.
 Incremental change Vs Transformational change
• Incremental change:
● does not change any assumptions and culture
● does not modify the existing organisation
●  uses existing structures and processes
●  causes little disruption
●  is relatively low risk
●  is slow
●  may not produce enough change.
• Transformational change:
●  changes existing structures
●  changes the existing organisation
●  changes the existing structures &process
●  more disruption
● is relatively high risk
●  is fast
●  focuses on major breakthroughs.
 Successful implementation of change Management
●  a strong and widely agreed desire for change
●  recognition at the top of the organisation of the need for
change
●  top management commitment to change
●  a single, unchanging theme for change
●  widespread awareness of the reasons for change
●  a motivating vision of the future after change
●  changes to the reward and recognition system.