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

Will PLM Handbook for SMEs solve customer problems?

Will PLM Handbook for SMEs solve customer problems?
Oleg
Oleg
24 October, 2011 | 2 min for reading

I want to continue the topic I started in my previous posts – PLM for SME (Small to Medium Enterprise). SME are interesting companies. In my view, “previous life” at Dassault Systems, I had a chance to work with many small companies. My former colleague and blogging buddy Jos Voskuil is writing a lot about PLM for SME in his blog – Virtual Dutchman. About a year ago, Jos posted an interesting report / questionnaire about PLM for SME – PLM for the mid market: Your opinion as reported. According to Jos’ questionnaire, 72% of people are thinking PLM for mid-market needs to be provided by a special software providers.

The following article by CAD CAM News caught my attention few days ago. PLMIG announces a new *PLM* Handbook for SME. The article confirms that majority of manufacturing companies around the globe are actually small to medium enterprises.

Small to medium-sized businesses (also known as SMBs, SMEs, PMIs or PMEs) are a massive part of the world economy but a tiny part of the PLM marketplace. In the USA they contribute up to 30% of industrial output, while in countries such as Italy they form up to 95% of the industrial sector.

According to PLMIG publication, most of PLM companies are trying to solve problems of PLM implementation by providing a stripped version of their PLM products. I wasn’t able to put my hands on the PLMIG Handbook. However, the opinion about “stripped PLM Lite” version resonated. According to PLMIG, this approach is misguided:

The usual approach of the PLM industry to this sector is to try to sell “PLM Lite”, in the belief that smaller companies simply need a stripped-down version of what works for large corporations.The recent PLM Standardisation Workshop in Milan showed that this approach is misguided. Many SMEs are striving to make the kind of improvements in performance and delivery that PLM could provide, and their problem is that a conventional PLM approach just does not match the world they inhabit.

What is my take? The conversation about PLM for SME isn’t new. I’ve seen many vendors that are looking how to crack how to solve product development challenges of small manufacturing companies. Personally, I hardly believe a “handbook” (or methodology) can solve a problem. Small companies are ‘flat by nature’ and driven by tools and not by methodologies. To get a job done – this is a main motto of small companies. Just my thoughts…

Best, Oleg

Recent Posts

Also on BeyondPLM

4 6
16 July, 2023

The manufacturing industry is transforming and digitalizing. Managing data is becoming extremely important in the modern digital world. In the...

6 April, 2014

If you are in PLM business, I’m sure you are familiar with term called “best practices”. The term is widely...

17 June, 2018

Last week, I’ve got invited to join Hexagon Live event in Las Vegas. If you’re following my tweets, you probably...

10 September, 2013

Few weeks ago, I posted Dassault IFWE and PLM Cloud Switch. It was a time for Dassault System to announce...

18 July, 2019

Have you heard about low-code development platforms? You better pay attention to low-code, since this cool buzzword and actually tools...

5 February, 2014

Do you know what means “hollow corporation”? My readers from UK and Europe should be familiar with the term. This...

21 February, 2019

Few years ago, I wrote about how data can be become a driver to improve user experience in PLM systems....

5 June, 2018

One of PLM projects I’ve been following for long time is Siemens PLM Active Workspace. It was first introduced 6...

14 October, 2009

I’d like to continue discussion around the topic raised yesterday by Jim Brown and this is about “single bill of...

Blogroll

To the top