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

PLM and Bottom Up Option

PLM and Bottom Up Option
Oleg
Oleg
20 August, 2010 | 2 min for reading

The following publication in VEKTORRUM got me to review again a book “3D Manufacturing Innovation” by Dr. Hiroshi Toriya. I had a chance to read this book last year and it contains some very impressive examples every PLM software company need to learn. The book is pricey. As alternative, navigate your browser on Google Book link and you will have about 30% of this book for free. This book and Randal’s post – “3D Manufacturing Innovation- Explains the Japanese Quest for an Alternative to PLM” made me think about PLM strategies that were developed over the last decade and their potential improvements.

3D Master Top-Down
This is a dominant concept used today for Product Lifecycle Management. It supported by mindshare PLM leaders (Dassault, PTC, and Siemens PLM). Their strategies as well as portfolios are aligned straight from the CAD / 3D products, and they built infrastructure to manage and proliferate in 3D information downstream. Dassault is the dominant in their vision of 3D for all, PTC and Siemens PLM, in my view, provide more balanced between CAD/3D and Process orientation. As a consequence of competition with major ERP vendors, PLM mindshare companies are shifting towards better modeling of downstream data, engineering and manufacturing options as well as industry businesses.

Process is King
This model supported by PLM companies that have roots in ERP domain. 3D is definitely not the strongest side of their portfolio. So, building their product with “a process in mind” makes a lot of sense to them. These companies can be leverage a very strong enterprise architecture and infrastructure. By doing so, they can provide a support for development and manufacturing process. The advantage and disadvantage of this approach is a very weak connection to design and 3D data. Therefore, we had a chance to see investments of ERP companies in acquisition of 3D viewing technologies.

Bottom Up Approach
Both approaches – “3D Master” and “Process is King” are very focused on top down methodologies. This is, in my view, a significant weak point. What if we need to move from top down approach to bottom up? Dr. Hiroshi Toria mentioned in his  something that can be considered as an alternative bottom up when 3D data will be accumulated by company in a central database and access by everybody. Here is a quote from his book:

What is my conclusion? PLM is one of the strategies that introduced by software companies to improve design and manufacturers. It was adopted by manufacturing companies. However, it faces a significant criticism. There are two main criticisms – (1) need to make a reform in a company in one day and (2) complex implementation following this decision. I can see multiple alternatives on the table. One of them is a top down approach and decline in a massive 3D CAD top down dominance in PLM implementation. Just my thoughts…

Best, Oleg

Recent Posts

Also on BeyondPLM

4 6
15 January, 2015

Holidays are over and it was a good time to think about what you can expect in engineering and manufacturing...

6 August, 2010

I read a very good summary of SharePoint 2010 Search Features by Agnes Molnar on End User SharePoint blog. Take a look...

4 January, 2025

As we close the chapter on 2024, it’s time to reflect on some of the most engaging discussions that resonated...

2 April, 2024

I’m continue to digest what I learned at CIMdata Industry Forum 2024 last week. The main theme of the forum...

16 June, 2024

Timing is everything in business. Manufacturing industry combining supply chain management, product lifecycle and product development process are offering a...

15 April, 2016

Hardware is growing these days. According to Bolt VC blog, hardware industry is the fastest growing sector in the market,...

2 March, 2024

In the rapidly evolving digital landscape, the integration of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems is...

31 January, 2022

In a previous blog post, I shared my thoughts about Metaverse and PLM user experience. Check this out here. PLM...

14 January, 2017

Product Innovation Platform is an interesting concept emerged for the last few years. It addresses few very important aspects of...

Blogroll

To the top