CIMdata 2021 PLM Forum – Forcing Factors and Hot Topics

Earlier today, I attended a traditional CIMdata PLM Industry and Market Forum, which CIMdata holds usually in multiple geographies. Today was the North American forum. Check the website for more details. Although the forum this year was still virtual-live, CIMdata preserves the geo-specific forums. The theme of the forum – “Resilience in the Face of Crisis: Bouncing Forward” and the presentation provided a lot of focus on the COVID crisis and how the crisis was transforming industrial companies.

I wanted to share some of my notes from the keynote presentation of Peter Bilello, CIMdata president, and CEO, who provided a review of the current state of the PLM industry with emphasis on trends and issues.

Industrial Companies Upheaval

My absolute favorite topic from the presentation was industrial upheaval. According to CIMdata, a massive upheaval is happening now while companies need to figure out how to work under new conditions, how to address complexities, risks, and opportunities.

However, the biggest part of this upheaval is rapid acceleration of information extraction from many data sources that are traditionally associated with paper or mimicking paper and document formats.

Major Forcing Factors

CIM data identifies major forcing factors that impact industrial organizations these days. Check this slide I captured from the presentation – it clearly outlines many topics I’ve been discussing with you in my blog for the last few years – complex products (needs for multi-disciplinary BOMs), mass customization and highly configurable products, IoT, and connected products. are among them.

PLM Hot Dozen

Digital transformation remains the key topic on the agendas of industrial companies and CIMdata presented a list of 12 hot topics – enabling elements of digital transformation. Check this out – end-to-end connectivity, data platforms, bill of information, digital twin/thread is just a shortlist of topics with corresponding links to my earlier blogs.

Here is the CIMdata hot topics list- I found it very insightful and will share my opinion about it in the following articles.

What is my conclusion?

There is one thing, which is common for all trends and topics. It is about data and how modern manufacturing companies are turning raw data into intelligence. Manufacturing companies and supply chains are a goldmine of the data, companies are struggling with the data and even worse,  this data is largely unused. It happens because of old technologies, lack of knowledge, and bad strategies. Organizations that will fix their business and technological approach will strive in the future. It is time to get smarter in everything that is related to the data. Just my thoughts…

Best, Oleg

Disclaimer: I’m co-founder and CEO of OpenBOM developing a digital network-based platform that manages product data and connects manufacturers, construction companies, and their supply chain networks. My opinion can be unintentionally biased.