It’s That Time Of Year Again. The shops are full of red, the streets and houses are decorated with lights and shops are full of teddy bears. Holidays and vacations are in the air. It is everywhere. And this is a time I usually write my traditional summary of Top 5 Beyond PLM blog posts.
Here are the five most viewed blog posts from the year and what I’ve learned from them.
What’s wrong with 3DEXPERIENCE and ENOVIA?
The next challenge for Dassault Systems is to simplify its platform and application stack. Lot of history is involved, but manufacturing environment is getting more dynamic and flexible. Old PLM applications were designed for 20-30 years lifecycle, today is different. It comes also from company business – product line development is more flexible with more changes as well as IT environment demanding end-to-end cloud with flexible data models, deployments in days and ability to share data in the heterogeneous environment of OEMs, contractors and suppliers. It is time for DS architects to spend some time near drawing board, otherwise, the magnitude of next challenges will be even bigger that manufacturing companies are facing today with 3DEXPERIENCE platform.
Onshape vs SOLIDWORKS – a CAD version of “Fathers and sons” novel?
Solidworks vs Onshape. A grown up adult vs young startup. For me, it was a point I thought Turgenev’s novel is such a great analogy. Eugene Bazarov was a symbol and an ideal for imitation. He was followed by new generation of people going against admiration of authorities and established norms. Onshape is very much a symbol of new development. However, technology is different from literature. Zero files strategy, Solidworks re-sellers, new full-cloud technology, existing Solidworks tools, bridge 3DX products and new teams interested to learn new products. CAD industry ecosystem has lots of moving parts. And the jury is still out.
The best PLM for Product Innovation platform?
Manufacturing companies live with the status quo of existing PDM and PLM backbones developed and deployed for the last 10-20 years. The biggest question if these technologies can be replaced by something else. The economical aspect of such replacement is very interesting. From system architecture standpoint, it is a project that might take several years and become a technological nightmare for every PLM IT manager. Therefore, large manufacturing companies can choose is gradual integration and enhancements of existing solution with newer technologies and solutions. Companies should examine existing mature PLM technologies. Also, it might be a good idea to check new SaaS PLM systems and cloud-based services. Integration capabilities, ROI and potential system longevity are main decision factors to watch here.
Blockchain Technologies and Distributed Manufacturing Ledger
Manufacturing is more distributed these days than ever. Unfortunately, data and processes are holding back future development of this distributed manufacturing world. Current systems are clunky and coming from a last 20-30 years of enterprise software development where organizational databases was a king of technology and the focus was on how to control and centralized data in one company. It looks like the future will require to rethink these concepts and technologies to enable distributed manufacturing processes.
Digital Twin of an Entire Value Chain
Modern manufacturing is shifting paradigms and create a greater challenges then existing technologies can manage. PLM vision is shifting from single version of truth mantra towards something better – a model of entire manufacturing networking including all participants of enterprise value chain – OEMs, contractors, suppliers, etc. It will require a fundamental technological and paradigm shift in the way data is managed by multiple systems.
What is my conclusion? People like controversy. Brand oriented blog post are usually driving attention. Dassault Enovia blog was a champion this year – no doubt. Competition also drives attention. Business models and changing landscape of manufacturing relationship for value chain was another hot topic. Blockchain was hot as well. I hope you enjoyed 2017. And I look forward to 2018. It will be a year for me to celebrate 10 years of blogging. I have surprises for you. Stay tuned…
I love you. Happy Holidays!
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.
