A blog by Oleg Shilovitsky
Information & Comments about Engineering and Manufacturing Software

Should PLM develop its own process tools?

Should PLM develop its own process tools?
olegshilovitsky
olegshilovitsky
20 February, 2009 | 1 min for reading

There is no discussion – PLM is very oriented towards processes. In order to be able to coordinate multiple organizational activities around product lifecycles it seems like process tools is  a “must to have” component in PLM tool box. But is it really true?

In today’s world, process tools are becoming available as part of many non-PLM products. Starting as workflow automation, process tools were developed and/or acquired by platform vendors (IBM, Microsoft and others). Large ERP vendors also provided process tools as part of their packages. In addition to these big behemoths, many BPMS (Business Process Management Suites) are focusing on process definition, execution and improvement. In addition, some standards initiatives around BPMN and BPEL are also focusing on process management and tools.

So where does PLM play into this game? I see two possible options: (1) PLM providers will focus on the development of process management tools; (2) PLM providers will allow the integration of PLM information and IP  (Intellectual Property) into existing process tools provided by platforms. I believe that option #1 will be very helpful in integrating PLM systems into the enterprise software already available within the vast zoo of software within the organization, option#2 can simplify deployment and and keep the implementation of PLM simple.

From a customer’s standpoint,  I see great significance to maintaining single organizational process. Therefore, a promising alternative is to align the PLM process implementation with the growing adoption of standards like BPMN /BPEL. This allows customer to run multiple tools around the same process…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7K53XR6A1c&feature=related]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFlKuPRpHoM&feature=related]

 

Recent Posts

Also on BeyondPLM

4 6
1 May, 2015

Connectivity and information technologies are changing our lives. Think about your everyday experience – news, driving, communication, banking. It is...

22 April, 2019

I attended ACE 2019 Aras Community Event that took place in Phoenix, AZ last week, Aras Corp branded it as...

23 July, 2013

Touch interface is changing the way we work and think. You can see it everywhere these days. Engineers are not...

15 March, 2010

Content is a King. If you create valuable content in your app, you can do whatever you want. Since everybody...

17 May, 2017

Cloud is making its way into manufacturing industry. I’ve been watching this process for the last 5-7 years and I can...

16 September, 2013

Application integrations is a complicated topic. Especially when it comes to enterprise. I can confirm decades of different attempts to...

10 January, 2019

PLM was started few decades ago and it looks like coming to some sort of mid-life crisis. I can see...

22 January, 2013

One of the biggest tech events for me last week was Facebook Graph Search. If you haven’t heard about this,...

28 July, 2015

The conversation I started yesterday PLM vs Excel: Bullfight and Prohibition made me think again about reasons why Excel is constantly...

Blogroll

To the top