How cloud CAD can avoid “double PDM tax”

My yesterday post – Will cloud CAD inherit data interoperability problem? raised few interesting discussion about cloud data management in PDM/PLM implementations. How cloud CAD/PDM will make our life simpler? In my view, the most important part is to exclude files from data management chain. By doing that, new cloud based CAD systems are able to make data flow much easier. Existing check-in/out behavior will become redundant in cloud systems, cloud applications can save data instantaneously and redundantly and will allow you to restore to any point of changes. I also hope cloud CAD systems will have lock function in case you want to prevent somebody else from changing your design. The same mechanism will also provide a way to branch design options much easily by leveraging direct data access to all design data stored in the cloud databases. This is my dream scenario.

However, data interoperability of new CAD/PDM bundles seems to be a potential point of failure. And it is can slow down adoption of cloud CAD systems in environments that require integration with existing desktop CAD, PDM and PLM systems. The following Engineering.com article can give you some context to the problem –Dassault or Siemens PLM? The Contrasting Paths of Jaguar Land Rover and Volvo Cars. It speaks about challenges of large manufacturing companies related to usage of CATIA V6 / ENOVIA PDM. Here are few passages that caught my attention:

Volvo invested in Siemens PLM solution Teamcenter as a backbone, and kept CATIA V5. However, the automaker is reluctant to switch to CATIA V6 and the 3DEXPERIENCE/Enovia V6 platform. “We will not use the V6 version if it requires double PDM installations”, says VCC’s Andreas Westholm, IT Director – Geely Liaison. 

Volvo will not use CATIA V6 if it requires a second PDM implementationAll CATIA files are managed in Teamcenter. Since Volvo does not have any plans at this time to migrate to CATIA V6, they don’t need Dassault’s Enovia PDM as an intermediate step in the data management. 

”It is not possible to work effectively with two PDM systems”, asserts the Volvo IT-director. ”And we will not use CATIA V6 if it requires double PDM installations. However, we will bring in a new V5-V6 release that facilitates the import of V6 information”.

Potentially, any cloud CAD (with embedded PDM functionality) can create a situation similar to CATIA V6, which is a problem. Engineering and manufacturing companies have very slow process of new software adoption. So, to be successful, cloud CAD systems will have to co-exist and be used alongside with existing desktop CAD systems. What is even more important, new cloud CAD systems will have to be integrated with existing PLM products to become part of product development processes. How to prevent future cloud CAD systems from a problem described by Volvo?  How to avoid future “double PDM tax” on cloud CAD systems?

I think the answer is in a new cloud system architecture. It reminded me one of my old posts – Why PLM needs to learn Web APIs? A potential solution to the double PDM integration problem is future cloud CAD platforms, web APIs and data openness. Think about the way most of modern web platforms are consuming data. Seamless data streaming, avoiding local temp file storage and standard REST-based API is allowing us to create better integration between web systems. This is a way new cloud CAD solutions can be seamlessly integrated into existing PLM solutions and eliminate “double PDM tax”.

What is my conclusion? Future of cloud CAD/PDM bundles is promising and can provide many advantages to users – transparent data management, ease of revision management and collaboration. However, it is very important to think how new cloud solutions will be integrated with existing PLM platforms. Openness and web-based APIs are two most critical elements to support integration and adoption of new systems. Just my thoughts…

Best, Oleg