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

PLM and The Art Of Simplicity

PLM and The Art Of Simplicity
Oleg
Oleg
11 April, 2013 | 2 min for reading

For many years, enterprise software was known as a place where development of new features was one of the main priorities. To have comprehensive list of features was considered as absolute necessity. The army of sales people and advisers spent enormous amount of time in validating and comparing features of enterprise systems. From the early beginning, PLM was considered as an extremely complex discipline. Product development methodology and engineering culture made PLM in the way we have it now – overloaded with features, struggling with user experience and the ability to have fast and broad PLM adoption in any company.

It looks like we are going to spot some changes in this place. It is not about small manufacturing shops anymore. Companies like Boeing are complaining about PLM software usability and looking for solutions to solve that problem.

To confirm what I said above take a look on the slide presented yesterday at CIMdata PLM Forum in Ann Arbor. CIMdata defines the simplification of PLM as one of the key challenges PLM is facing with customers.

However, the act of bringing a simplicity is not a simple thing to do. CIMdata confirms that to make complex simple is a significant development undertaking. CIMdata defines it as “art and science” at the same time.

What is my conclusion? We are going to see a big change in PLM development. PLM developers, just a minute ago focused on how to add one more feature to the product,  will take a step back and think about user experience and simplicity. This is a result of many years of  customer disappointment in the way PLM systems are implemented. To hide complexity of data models and processes make a total sense. People like “everything simple” these days. Vendors must take a notes. Just my thoughts…

Best, Oleg

Recent Posts

Also on BeyondPLM

4 6
29 May, 2009

Do you remember how a 5-inch floppy disk looks? And how to use it? It doesn’t seem like so long...

14 September, 2009

I had chance to write about Project Management in the past. However, I decided to get back to this topic...

26 May, 2025

It’s the evening before Share PLM 2025 officially begins, and I’m sitting here in Jerez de la Frontera with a...

14 June, 2011

I’m attending PTC Live 2011 event these days in HOT Las Vegas. Actually, you have no chance to feel Las...

22 April, 2016

Distributed environment is a new reality in manufacturing and it creates many new challenges. You can argue that manufacturing companies...

30 December, 2015

Standards are similar toothbrushes. Everyone need one, but nobody wants to somebody else standard. CAD and PLM solutions are supporting...

21 August, 2019

The understanding market potential can make all the difference for the company between sitting courtside in the middle of the...

11 February, 2016

Once open source software was a no-go solution in enterprise software. I remember debates and discussions about open-source code with...

24 June, 2021

CAD and PLM companies are on the run towards the cloud. Each company has its own journey, stories, strategies, and...

Blogroll

To the top