LiveWorx2018 – From PLM to Things, IoT and Data

We are producing so much data these days. Every single movement, work done, project, activity, order, customer communication, design… practically everything you do is producing a huge amount of data. You can think about data is a disturbing factor. But you can also can think about data as a next oil.

As manufacturing is changing, PLM vendors are going through the trajectory of changes related to how information is managed and how companies are interacting during product design, manufacturing, maintenance and support. It is also related to communication with customers using these products.

One of the changes is PLM vendors turned into the development of Industrial Innovation Platforms. Check my earlier article. I captured an interesting comment made by Jim Hepplemann, CEO of PTC earlier this week at LiveWorx 2018. He was talking about PLM, IoT, Industrial Innovation Platform and Data. Yeah… data, data, data. It is all about data and ability to connect data from multiple sources.

I found an example of data collection and usage it for analytics at LiveWorx exhibition floor. Kalypso, is PLM consulting and software service outfit developing innovative customer focusing solutions demonstrated Product Lifecycle Intelligence solutions. The solution is relied on ThingWorx analytic service and can be collect  data from multiple data sources – PLM, ERP, machine controllers, etc.

You can check the Kalypso PLI information here. I captured an interesting passage from Kalypso announcement last year.

“Companies today are swimming in data. PLI provides a structured approach to extracting insights from PLM and other datasets to make better product development decisions,” said Jordan Reynolds, senior manager at Kalypso. “While PLI allows leaders to describe and diagnose a problem, the real power and benefit lies in the ability to predict the impact of product development decisions on key business performance metrics, then prescribe solutions.”

PLI is enabled by advanced machine learning techniques, powered by PTC’s ThingWorx® Analytics and the Navigate platform. PLI can provide insights on performance metrics such as demand, cycle time, cost, quality, regulatory compliance, manufacturability and supply chain efficiency to multiple business functions across the organization.

The following picture can give you some ideas about how it works.

What is my conclusion? Companies are swimming in data. It is so true. You can think about it as a problem, but it is also an opportunity. Data is a new oil. Product data intelligence is growing field and PTC seems to me understanding how to navigate between data islands to product intelligence and empower data driven decision support. 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.

Disclaimer2: PTC paid for my attendance and some of meals, but didn’t influence the content of the articles.