I spend last 3 days with a very interesting group of industrial companies attending IpX 2017: Integrated Process Excellence Symposium & Training. The event and organization formerly known as Institute of Configuration Management is undergoing transformation and expanding of the activity. You can check agenda and keynote speakers navigating to the following link.
CM (Configuration Management) originally developed as system engineering process to establish and manage consistency of product development, product performance, functional and physical attributes aligned with requirements, design and operation information. CM process is widely used by military engineering organization. If you want to dig more in the history, check the following article or MIL-STD-973.
CM2 (or CMII) is an enhanced model of CM. Based on IpX definition here:
CM2 is an enhanced version of CM. CM2 brings all Configuration Management related activities under one umbrella and provides an infrastructure that can: accommodate change. keep documented requirements clear, concise, and valid. ensure that configurations conform to their requirements in every case.
The main theme of the event was about how configuration management is influenced by modern trends such as 4th industrial revolution, digital transformation, industrial internet of things and others.
Below, I put few pictures and notes I captured during the event.
One of the things that often comes in every customer presentation is the difference between PLM vendor vision and customer reality. The following 2 slides from Orbital ATK is a great demo of ugly realities and bright vision.
Few slides from the presentation of Nathan Hartman, Purdue University Dauch Family Professor of Advanced Manufacturing – Transforming the Model-based Enterprise: More than Meets the Eye about collaboration and communication model in manufacturing.
My favorite slide from Nathan’s presentation is about digital enterprise supply chain.
Another very interesting slide outlining changes in business model in manufacturing.
The following 2 (very sophisticated) slides from Tata consulting presentation. Data is a new oil. These slides are great demonstration the complexity of data and speed of change:
I found this example of new Enterprise Business Architecture. I guess not all vendors will agree with 4 system configuration – PLM, ERP, SLM and MES. Notable is that Bill of Information is located outside of the boundary of all 4 systems, which is great acknowledgement of changes in data ownership.
The last slide from AGCO agriculture equipment manufacturer shows complexity of change management dependencies on different systems.
What is my conclusion? Modern manufacturing environment is enormously complex from data perspective. As product definition complexity is increasing, change management is getting even more complex. Some of the processes that companies were able to solve in the past with brute force, now can bring product development, manufacturing and support activity in full stop. Companies should consider how to organize product development and change management data and process related activity. Although, traditional PLM and ERP systems are still serving as a core foundation of configuration management related activities, modern distributed digital environment brings new flavor of complexity to the story. A solid platform providing scale-able data management is the most important elements of your future success in configuration management activities. Just my thoughts…
Best, Oleg
Want to learn more about PLM? Check out my new PLM Book website.
Disclaimer: I’m co-founder and CEO of OpenBOM developing cloud based bill of materials and inventory management tool for manufacturing companies, hardware startups and supply chain. My opinion can be unintentionally biased.
