I attended PI Congress in Dusseldorf last month. During the conference I had a chance to share my thoughts about PLM selection process. PLM landscape is changing these days. There are multiple opportunities to get PLM differently these days. Even some of my colleagues in PLM analytic community can call the complexity and cost of PLM implementation urban legend, I still believe many companies are asking how to develop right PLM strategy and implementation approach.
If you ask a company what they believe is the most important area of investment when planning and implementing PLM you are likely to get many answers. You can go between choosing the right vendor, setting up right PLM implementation team. You can hear about importance of cultural change management and many others. The truth is, there is no right answer. PLM is different and your company is an important factory you need to consider when selecting PLM system and strategy.
These are topics I covered my short commentary. .
1- What is the biggest force to change existing PLM paradigms.
PLM implementation is still considered as a complex task, which takes time, resources and cost. I believe, new paradigms should changed that. It is like waterfall development process. Agile development methods came to change it. The same with PLM. New paradigms – cloud, agile, etc. are coming to make a change in PLM.
2- What should every company thinking before taking first steps in PLM implementation.
Take a look in a mirror. You should learn your company and development processes. Company should understand how current processes are working. It sounds simple, but many companies are missing that. Without that PLM implementation doesn’t make sense – you will just automate bad processes.
3- How is vendor competition is changing PLM landscape
PLM space is dominated by few very large vendors. It is a very competitive space with high barrier to entrance. Nevertheless, companies are looking for alternatives and I can see few interesting entrants into PLM space. Aras had fresh approach with enterprise open source. Aras claims “different PLM” with model based SOA platform and new business model. Autodesk came into PLM back in 2012 with cloud PLM. It was a change. These days cloud is transforming all vendors. This is probably the last big changing force in the industry.
4- What is the common misconception regarding PLM
The biggest misconception is that PLM can solve the problem of bad product development processes. PLM as a tool and technology. It cannot solve bad organization process. Only company and people can do so.
5- Where do PLM implementation go wrong
There are few typical situations when PLM implementation process can go wrong. Some of them are generic and can fail any IT project. However, some of them are more specific. Here is my list – wrong expectations, no C-level support, no plan, integration between new PLM system and other systems wasn’t planned, company is planning to force a change in a short period of time.
What is my conclusion? Take a look in the mirror before starting PLM project. The PLM technology and product itself is not a silver bullet. You need to have deep understanding of your organization and its processes. Only by doing that you can develop right PLM strategy and manage PLM implementation step by step. It will help you to avoid PLM experience that is complicated and miserable. Just my thoughts.
Best, Oleg
