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

PLM and Bottom Up Option

PLM and Bottom Up Option
olegshilovitsky
olegshilovitsky
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
14 September, 2019

For the last several weeks, we had a few very interesting discussions about PLM standards. Manufacturing companies are demanding standards...

7 October, 2011

I’ve been watching what happens around Oracle Open World 11 earlier this week. Among multiple topics, the announcement about Oracle...

18 November, 2023

Earlier this week I attended Autodesk University 2023. The event back to its regular location Las Vegas Venetian (Sands Expo),...

31 August, 2025

Earlier this week, I came across news about Taylor Swift’s deepfake images and Sydney Sweeney’s jeans campaign that used AI-generated...

26 January, 2017

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is having a renaissance moment these days. With the risk to disclose my age, I can remind...

30 May, 2025

Earlier this week, I had the chance to present at the Share PLM Summit 2025 in Jerez de la Frontera....

4 May, 2025

Back in 1992, Bill Clinton’s campaign faced a tough political climate. His team needed a simple, focused message to cut...

5 November, 2015

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are going through the renaissance period these days. Few days ago, I shared my some...

19 May, 2017

Integration and connectivity was always one of the most important aspects of PLM deployment and implementations. It was never simple...

Blogroll

To the top