Archive for February, 2016

openBoM for hardware startups and contract manufacturing

openBoM for hardware startups and contract manufacturing

Manufacturing is changing these days. For the last few months, I’ve been observing many changes in manufacturing environment driven by factors such as globalization, additive technologies, distributed global manufacturing networks, one-click manufacturing, maker movement and hardware startups. Thinking about modern manufacturing challenges brought me together with my partner, Vic Sanchez,…

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Will machine learning eliminate part numbers?

Will machine learning eliminate part numbers?

Part Number is a fundamental element of any identification mechanism in product development and manufacturing. The debates about intelligent and non-intelligent part numbers are unstoppable like a wildfire. Back in time when the most updated bill of materials was on the cork board in shop-floor, people memorized part numbers. I…

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Entrepreneurs are changing manufacturing. How it will impact CAD, PLM and ERP tools?

Entrepreneurs are changing manufacturing. How it will impact CAD, PLM and ERP tools?

Entrepreneurs are taking manufacturing by storm. Recent HBR article –Entrepreneurs Take On Manufacturing by Mark Muro gives you an interesting perspective on a hardware renaissance and a wave of new manufacturing companies coming from a vibrant local “maker movement” and hardware hobbyist communities. Although makers and hobbyist provided a jump start, the…

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Business of Engineering – buzzword or new domain?

Business of Engineering – buzzword or new domain?

PLM products are insanely similar. Two decades of competitions between small number of vendors and multiple acquisitions made PLM landscape looks like what we have today. PLM sales presentations are often look similar. Value proposition is simple. Case studies are often using very similar words about why a particular customer decided to…

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PLM assumptions and new manufacturing realities

PLM assumptions and new manufacturing realities

Over the weekend, I had a chance to read Steven Sinofsky’s article – Disruption and Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda… He speaks about disruption in business. His example is Blackberry business and how it was disrupted by modern mobile technologies (specifically by iPhone and Android). I found the following passage about disruption very…

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Product Lifecycle and IoT startups

Product Lifecycle and IoT startups

IoT (Internet of Things) is an interesting trend. It is certainly impact everything in manufacturing. In Product Lifecycle Management, it open a new way for manufacturing companies to interact with physical products, collect intelligence and improve the design of products. Dreams? Yes, kind of… A confirmation of that is Gartner Hype…

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The hard things about simple PLM

The hard things about simple PLM

PLM is complex – the paradigm, definition, implementation, technology. Simplification of PLM is the discussion topic among PLM industry people and pundits. I can see it as a reflection of a broader “simplification trend” that came from consumer product, internet and mobile devices. In my view, this is one of the most…

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How many PDM systems does Solidworks customers need?

How many PDM systems does Solidworks customers need?

Product data management (PDM) domain is transforming these days. Back a decade ago, PDM was a system that can introduce an order into engineering chaos, helps to manage files, revisions and collaborate. Engineers didn’t like it much and considered it as a necessary evil. As a result of such position,…

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How to turn PLM, ERP & MES into a 360-degree system

How to turn PLM, ERP & MES into a 360-degree system

Major pillars of enterprise software in every manufacturing company are represented by the silos – engineering, manufacturing planning, shop-flow control. Historically each silo developed its own system to manage information and processes. Nothing wrong with that, but within time, created a huge problem of data handover between organizations. With increased competition, demand…

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