In Parts 1 and 2 of this series, we explored how modern change management can evolve beyond traditional processes to address the growing complexity of managing product data across disciplines and systems. In Part 1 (Rethinking Change Management: Orchestrating Complexity Across Systems & Disciplines – Collaborative Workspace), I introduced the concept of a collaborative workspace – a dynamic data management environment that facilitates real-time collaboration and change tracking. In Part 2(Rethinking PLM Change Management: From Check-Out/In to Collaborative Processes, Part 2: Single Source of Truth), I shared my thoughts about the transition from check-in/check-out methods to processes centered on a single source of change, enabling better traceability and process control.
Today, I want to share my thoughts about how this new change management architecture can coexist with legacy PDM/PLM systems that rely on file-based revision control. By leveraging new data modeling, document management, and collaborative technologies, we outline a framework for integrating unmanaged “files” and existing PDM systems into a consolidated single source of change, thereby orchestrating a unified and streamlined change management process.
Existing Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) – What’s The Problem?
If you exploring PLM domain you most probably found that Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is a strategic approach to managing the entire lifecycle of a product, from initial concept through design, manufacturing, service, and ultimately, retirement. PLM usually presented as a “system” that integrates people, processes, and technology to create a single source of truth for product data and processes, ensuring that everyone involved in the product’s lifecycle has access to the most up-to-date information. The approach usually separates the “PLM as a strategy” and “PLM software” and the benefits highlights PLM as a critical tool in this process, enabling companies to streamline collaboration across departments, increase agility in responding to market changes, and improve overall product quality. By implementing a PLM system, organizations can reduce time-to-market, enhance productivity, and ultimately increase revenue. This holistic approach to managing product data and processes ensures that all aspects of the product lifecycle are optimized for efficiency and effectiveness.
You can read the above text in almost every PLM software vendor website. You can pull any PLM software name into the fragment above, but where is the problem?
The reality of PLM strategy and a PLM software that it goes back in the paradigm when PLM (aka PDM) database collected all information about CAD files, added some metadata and managed check-in/out process combined with workflow release mechanism.
PLM Software and Reality Of PLM Software Implementations
Although PLM software presented as offering numerous benefits, current PDM/PLM architecture goes back in the day when it as a CAD file manager. As a result it has many problems. Here are five key problems with the traditional PLM approach:
- File-Centric Approach: Focused on managing CAD files and basic metadata, missing broader product data like requirements, electronics, software, and supply chain.
- Rigid Data Structures: Monolithic SQL databases with fixed schemas make it hard to integrate and adapt to modern needs like different product disciplines, complex configurations, and connection to data upstream and downstream.
- Workflow Bottlenecks: Rigid workflows and sequential check-in/out processes slow collaboration and innovation. It doesn’t fit well multiple teams and complex cross organizational structures
- Limited Collaboration: Prevents real-time teamwork, relying on outdated waterfall methods unsuitable for modern distributed teams.
- Lack of analytics and intelligent queries: Old SQL database architecture limits capabilities of traditional PLM environments in data queries, analytics, data insight and many other tools. The only way to solve these problems is to “export data” to another environment that slows down the process and creates another silo.
Despite all these challenges, existing PLM software solutions provide a solid foundation to companies often collecting a significant amount of product data (eg. CAD files and databases), which won’t allow you to easy replace them as you do it with your old iPhone or even home appliance. It should be a better way…
Product Complexity and PLM Implementation Challenges
While we are thinking about new approach, we should take care the following challenges of all PLM implementations. Some of them are technical, but most important are human related. Here is my take on the most important challenges of the implementation that must be taken into account when we offer a new change management paradigm.
- Resistance to Change: Employees and stakeholders may be resistant to adopting new systems and processes. Effective organizational change management and communication are essential to address this resistance.
- Integration with Existing Systems: Integrating new change management with existing PDM/PLM software systems and processes can be complex. A thorough integration plan is necessary to ensure seamless connectivity.
- Data Migration and Management: It is almost impossible to migrate the data overnight. Companies might consider how existing system will co-exist for a long time by separating layers of “system of records” and “system of engagement”.
- Change Management and Training: New paradigm can be confusing for users. Therefore, ensuring that all users are adequately trained and supported during the transition is vital.
- Scalability and Flexibility: The new change management layer on top of existing file/PDM/PLM systems must be scalable and flexible to accommodate future growth and changes in business processes.
You should not underestimate these challenges to prevent a situation when customers (and especially end users) will ask you “to bring an old check-out/check-in process”. It is especially critical in siloed environment where each engineer is focusing on their own “design environment”.
Product Data Management (PDM) and Its Role in the Transformation
Historically Product Data Management (PDM) was a critical component of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) strategy, enabling companies to manage and control CAD file data throughout the entire product lifecycle. PDM systems were involved in the process of CAD data management and simple downstream processes (mostly via data export and Excel-ware solutions)
However, because for many engineering teams and PDM systems is a reality of 80-90% production systems, the new approach must support existing desktop CAD files with unmanaged files and existing PDM environment without impacting existing processes. Otherwise, the cost of introducing new change management will be too high. The co-existing with existing business systems allows teams to focus on more value-added activities, ultimately enhancing the overall efficiency of the new collaborative change management process. At the same time, new change management approach will create better PLM solutions and support connected product development process integrating existing computer aided design (CAD) systems and adding new process management capabilities.
The Need for a New Product Lifecycle Management Layer
The reality of modern engineering and manufacturing environments is that they are heterogeneous and complex. Existing PLM (aka PDM) systems, often built around file-based revision control, continue to play a critical role in managing data. However, these systems struggle to handle the interconnected nature of modern product development, where changes ripple across domains, disciplines, and systems.
What I suggested in my previous two articles, new solutions can provide a new way to manage change process that integrates both CAD files and existing PDM/PLM tools to streamline product development and improve resource efficiency.
What I suggest is to introduce a new layer of change management architecture, capable of consolidating changes from multiple systems, including CAD files and legacy PDM/PLM platforms. This layer is enabled by flexible data modeling and collaborative technologies, creating a “single source of change” that represents both structured and unstructured data.
Building the Single Source of Product Data Management
How to build a new data layer capable to consolidate multiple data elements including files (eg. CAD files) and federated data elements (pointing to existing systems). Here are three important elements:
- Flexible Data Modeling for Consolidation
The cornerstone of this new architecture is its ability to accommodate diverse data types and structures. Flexible data modeling allows for the seamless integration of files, metadata, and other system objects into a unified framework. This flexibility is essential for creating a comprehensive single source of change. - Files as First-Class Data Elements
In this architecture, files are no longer treated as isolated entities but are integrated into the broader data model. By treating unmanaged files and file-based revisions as distinct data elements, the system can federate them with other product data, making them accessible within the single source of change. - Federation with Legacy PDM Systems
Legacy systems often maintain their own revision control processes. Instead of replacing these systems, the new architecture federates them—allowing data to flow into the collaborative change management layer without disrupting existing workflows. Each PDM system operates independently, while the consolidated layer ensures that changes across systems are tracked and managed holistically.
Orchestrating the Change Management Business Processes
With the single source of change established, the collaborative workspace becomes the control center for orchestrating the change management process. Key components include:
- Collaborative Workspace: This data environment represents a structure model that can be accessed by multiple users (think about Google Doc, Figma, Onshape, OpenBOM, and other collaborative data management tools)
- Specialized File Management Objects: These objects encapsulate file-based data, preserving revision histories while linking them to broader change requests and processes.
- Approval Routing: Changes are routed for review and approval based on predefined workflows, ensuring traceability and accountability across teams.
- Baseline Snapshots: Snapshots of the consolidated data state provide a reference point for tracking progress and managing revisions.
By pulling data into the collaborative workspace, the architecture shifts from the traditional push-based paradigm—where each system attempts to impose its own structure—to a pull-based paradigm, where data is dynamically aggregated and managed in a shared environment.
Solving the Complexity of Multi-System Coordination
From my perspective, the new paradigm addresses one of the most persistent challenges in change management: coordinating changes across multiple systems and file-based data sources. By creating a unified single source of change, the architecture provides:
- A holistic view of changes, regardless of their origin.
- Improved traceability, linking file revisions to broader product changes.
- Streamlined processes, with collaborative workflows replacing fragmented, system-specific procedures.
What is my conclusion?
What is the future of change management and product lifecycle management software? We live at the time when existing paradigms will be changed and turned upside down. And a new collaborative change management process is a great example of that. It might look different and upside-down of existing create revisions, check-out/in process. Indeed, the new process turns traditional paradigms on their head. Instead of relying on the process established around CAD file-based PDM (with revision, check-in/out process), and file driven isolated systems to manage changes, data is pulled into a consolidated layer that serves as the single source of change. This new collaborative process and collaborative workspace layer orchestrates the entire change process, integrating approval workflows, file management, and baseline tracking.
By federating unmanaged files and legacy PDM systems into this flexible architecture, organizations can preserve the value of their existing investments while overcoming the limitations of file-based revision control.
As we continue to rethink change management, this approach offers a path forward—one that simplifies complexity, enhances coordination, and ensures that even the most fragmented ecosystems can work together seamlessly.
Just my thoughts…
PS. The last (Part 4) in this series of articles, I will share examples of PLM architecture for collaborative change management and technologies for single source of change. Stay tuned.
Best, Oleg
Disclaimer: I’m the co-founder and CEO of OpenBOM, a digital-thread platform providing cloud-native PDM, PLM, and ERP capabilities. With extensive experience in federated CAD-PDM and PLM architecture, I’m advocates for agile, open product models and cloud technologies in manufacturing. My opinion can be unintentionally biased.
