Loewen PLM: Enabling Customer Innovation

Loewen is a leading supplier of Douglas Fir Windows and Doors for luxury homes and is in the process of implementing a PLM system from Dassualt Systemes and IBM. Stephen Segal, Chief Information Officer of Loewen, will be a keynote speaker at the upcoming COE conference in Phoenix. In advance of the presentation, Stephen is providing some background information on Loewen, their PLM project and general informational comments on the PLM industry.

As a made-to-order manufacturer, with no finished goods inventory, Loewen is challenged with providing business systems and processes that transform the onerous process of complex configuration management into a customer-facing competitive advantage. It was this challenge that ultimately propagated the Loewen PLM Initiative.

Loewen first analyzed the potential of 3D CAD initiatives into the design process in relation to the management of configuration possibilities. Although not complicated from a technical point of view, windows are complex from a configuration point of view in terms of the range of options, sizes and combinations that can be specified. Loewen offers over 9.3 trillion, that’s right trillion, standard combinations. To give a sense of scale to this business challenge, consider the fact that 99.9999% of standard configurations offered by Loewen will not be ordered in our lifetime.

Loewen’s ultimate objective is for PLM to be the decisive system for tracking this extensive array of product data. Loewen recognized that it would be advantageous to start by establishing design constraints directly within the 3D model at the time of design. The goal is to eliminate the problems that often result from multiple databases existing for product data, customer configuration and design development. PLM will provide the framework to tie all these systems together during the design and development process and ultimately through to operational processes.

While increasing new product development performance is also a key driving force of the PLM initiative, it is the internal and external extension of configuration capability that generates the most excitement and provides the greatest opportunities for innovation. PLM will provide an extended development platform to other internal stakeholder departments including Advertising, Sales and Marketing. In addition, the voice of the customer is included in the process as their views and requirements have a major impact on Loewen’s product development priorities. Ultimately, the PLM system may provide a platform for customer centric information distribution.

In this era where companies are seeking new and innovative organizational differentiators beyond the simple attributes of product families, business systems and process have the potential to provide real and measurable competitive advantages. Product is as important as ever, but it is the business systems that an organization provides to extend product and process information that will result in an expanded value proposition to customers.

As an organization that markets through a third party dealer force, Loewen must provide exceptional business systems that make the dealer as profitable as possible. This means providing systems that allow them to easily place orders, or providing online environments that make it easier for our dealer to find product information, or for a dealer to find the status of their order, or to automatically change an order line or to elect to have an invoice delivered to them electronically. These are systems that provide a competitive advantage while streamlining the daily practices of the dealer.

At a fundamental level, Loewen views the PLM initiative as a key business system capable of providing the aforementioned customer facing competitive advantage. Consider the potential for the 3D platform and associated parametric data to provide the underlying information layer for a customer facing order entry solution. Through the extension of the visualization capability combined with automated routines for configuration validation, generated by the parametric data, the PLM system capability would be in the realm of the customer. This type of system would not only provide the most effective platform for the manufacturer to manage complex configuration data but would provide the most effective technology for seamlessly extending the capability to the customer while empowering them with maximum access to the manufacturers product capabilities.

From and operational viewpoint the ability to utilize the PLM system as the fundamental platform for automated Bill of Material generation will eliminate many non valued adding operational process steps. The positive impact to the customer will be reflected in reduction in manufacturing lead times and dramatic improvements in order accuracy through the elimination of date re-entry steps.

While PLM has the capability to have this profound impact on the customer experience, PLM vendors must capitalize upon the opportunity to extend their capability into the traditional space occupied by the ERP vendors. A battle may slowly emerge between the CAD vendors and the ERP vendors as both fight to extend their technical and functional capability into the PLM realm. To date, the Tier 1 ERP vendors appear to have a jump on the CAD venders, as the ERP vendors already proudly offer modules flagged by the PLM banner. However, the CAD vendors, whose 3D parametric layer should ultimately form the foundation for any configurable manufacturer, have the potential to displace ERP for PLM space provided they break their traditional line of thinking and evolve into the ERP space.

About Loewen
Loewen is a leading manufacturer of Douglas Fir windows and doors for the luxury market, featuring elegant design and a unique combination of old-world craftsmanship and state of the art materials. A family-owned company founded in 1905 in Steinbach, Manitoba, Canada, Loewen has grown to employ approximately 1450 people today. An extensive range of customizable Loewen products is available in North America and select international markets through a network of Loewen Window Centers and Authorized Loewen Dealers. Discover more at http://www.loewen.com.

About Stephen Segal
As a recognized industry leader on 3D and PLM concepts, Stephen has been asked to speak frequently on PLM topics. Stephen's presentations provide relevance to vast array of audiences as they not only provide a strategic framework for organizational PLM implementation but challenge and redefine the traditional role of the product designer into a far more collaborative role with broader organizational impact. Stephen was a keynote speaker at the 2004 PDMA Conference and was the key presenter at the February 2004 IBM Analyst session on PLM direction. Stephen has been interviewed by Business Week, CIO magazine, CIO Insite, START Magazine, the London Financial Times and other publications.

Stephen has over 12 years experience in implementing technology, application and processes with an emphasis on customer-facing applications. Most recently he was Vice-President and Chief Information Officer of Price, a leading manufacturer of products for the HVAC industry. Prior to this, Stephen was Vice-President of Rescom Ventures Inc. and President of Tricon Interactive. Stephen’s formal training is in Architecture, which he studied at the University of Manitoba.