Manufacturers' Survival is on the Line
By Ed Miller

The following article is an overview of a featured presentation at the COE Spring 2002 Conference & TechniFair

As manufacturers have been hit by the recent economic crisis, they have become more focused than ever on making themselves more competitive. Whether the motivation has been a renewed commitment to excellence, or a heightened fear of failure, the result is often a serious introspective on their organization's approach to their business. In this environment of change, product innovation and a clear focus on management of the entire product lifecycle have emerged as critical areas for investment.

In considering these investments, the perspective of "what" constitutes the product lifecycle is expanding massively and continues to evolve as new technologies emerge, user requirements change, and vendors scramble to position themselves in a rapidly shifting market. This expansion manifests itself in multiple ways. The scope of information handled has broadened from MCAD models to cover the full product definition, including associated electronics, embedded software, and manufacturing processes. The scope of groups using the technology now reaches far beyond engineering to include areas throughout the expended enterprise such as the shop floor, marketing, customer service, accounting, and field support; incorporation across the supply chain is expected. Applications stretch from the design phase of product development to the entire product lifecycle, from early conceptual development to design, manufacturing, maintenance support, and field service.

In many respects, this current evolution reflects the vision of early approaches such as computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) that sought to integrate and coordinate all of the various activities in the manufacturing enterprise, but fell short because the technology of the day couldn't support such initiatives. The current expanded perspective, however, of managing product definition throughout the entire lifecycle is indeed a practical reality. Today, companies can approach this problem with solutions based on a wide variety of commercially available software suites that incorporate multiple technologies and applications.

Web-based collaborative technologies, for example, allow people in dispersed areas to access and share information in real time. Decision support applications enable users to readily harvest information and leverage knowledge. Program management capabilities are intertwined with other lifecycle applications to coordinate efforts throughout entire projects. Capabilities to track embedded software and electronics are becoming an expected part of configuration management systems. Customer requirements management software is now being utilized as a way of factoring market expectations into engineering design. Asset management, applications crossing over from the process industries, are now being applied to discrete manufacturing to keep track of capitol equipment on the shop floor. Applications focused on maintenance and field service are being utilized to efficiently provide after-delivery product support, which is especially important when product lifecycles can be decades long in industries such as aerospace, military equipment, and machine tools. Digital manufacturing applications are becoming particularly strong, as companies recognize that production processes are an increasingly critical part of the product definition for the enterprise to operate as efficiently as possible.

Like all new industry-wide initiatives, this one has touched off a war of terms and acronyms as users and vendors grapple for appropriately descriptive labels. Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) has emerged as the industry's consensus term of choice to identify this expanded way of thinking. What we call this movement, however, doesn't really matter. It's gaining tremendous momentum in the industry not because a new buzzword has emerged. Rather, companies are focusing on total management of the product lifecycle because today's worldwide economic conditions absolutely demand that they make these process changes to remain competitive. Past initiatives aimed solely at product cost, quality, or time-to-market are no longer sufficient to gain market advantage. The focus today is on innovation: products that clearly differentiate themselves from others while also being affordable, reliable, and early-to-market. Total management of the product lifecycle is critical in developing products to meet customer needs innovatively without driving up costs, sacrificing quality, or delaying product delivery.

Top executives are increasingly involved in spearheading these efforts because they have a justified sense of urgency in moving forward with these new directions. They realize that the survival of their companies is on the line and that sweeping transformation is necessary to remain in business.

Ed Miller… is president of CIMdata Inc., a global firm providing consulting and research in product lifecycle management (PLM) solutions, best practices, and technologies that help companies develop products in the evolving global business environment. Call him at (+1) 734-668-9922, or email him at e.miller@CIMdata.com.