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

PLM, don’t fight processes – focus on people!

PLM, don’t fight processes – focus on people!
olegshilovitsky
olegshilovitsky
13 August, 2009 | 2 min for reading

social-softwareDo you think PLM is about a process, right? Reading last buzz about social networking and product development I actually came to the conclusion, there is a significant change in PLM software eco-system toward understanding of the role of people in Product Lifecycle Management. Few interesting discussions about social networking came from PTC’s Tom Shoemaker in this cadalyst article, Jim Brown Clarity on PLM blog as well as some others.

Based on all discussions and conversation I’d like to propose 3 step recipe for methodology  how to approach process transformation in the organization and successfully implement Product Lifecycle Management strategies. These are my three steps:

1. Capture existing business processes. This is significant and important step in implementation. You need to capture the most significant processes in organization- processes that happen now. Whatever they do for good and for bad, these are processes that drive your organization now. So, this is a starting point for your implementation. As soon as you have it done, you can make analyses how you can improve it.

2. Establish Social Communities. What is the best way to analyze processes and think about their improvement? Yes,you are right – social networking. You need to connect people in different departments of your organization and present them a system with captured and functioning processes. As soon as you will be able to do so, people will come separately and in groups and will discuss it. The role of social innovation here is very important.

3. Plan process improvements and transformation. And, finally, this is your time! You have processes captured, you established communities and got people involved. Now start your transformation. Based on what people considered as the most important for your organization. Don’t fight to change processes that work, focus on processes that require improvements. Those’s processes were mentioned by people in communities.

I’d be very interested in listen to your opinion and feedback. This is just my opinion. YMMV.

Best, Oleg

Recent Posts

Also on BeyondPLM

4 6
7 December, 2015

Platform. It is a very confusing term. What is platform and how to define it. Is it just about the...

16 September, 2011

BPM (Business Process Management) is another interesting topic I’m following already many years. I found it connected to PLM and...

27 February, 2017

At the time research companies and industries pundits are trying to answer on the question why cloud PLM adoption is...

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...

20 June, 2016

Cloud applications are getting better these days. However, most of existing mainstream engineering applications are still using files to store...

3 May, 2011

One of my blog readers asked me few questions about managing of effectivity. I decided to share this information. In...

13 December, 2012

PLM is all about process management. This statement comes to the play when people explain the value of PLM in...

10 February, 2010

Google introduced a new product yesterday – Google Buzz. It is still very new, but I think, the message is...

3 January, 2016

The end of each year produced tons of predictions and resolutions. Rarely we look back to check what happened and...

Blogroll

To the top