Benefits of PLM

Manufacturing companies are established to develop products. Their very existence depends on how well accepted and successful the product is. There are quite a few examples of manufacturing companies that fail to make the cut because they could not deliver what the consumer wanted, or innovate further a product that was accepted by the market. Like everything else in life, products have a certain life cycle. It starts with ideation and product development, product launch, growth and maturity, and discontinuation or replacement of the product. Each product goes through this life cycle and eventually becomes obsolete. Products which were once a household name have disappeared from the market as they entered the decline phase of their life cycle. It may be either because they failed to deliver what the customer wanted, or were replaced by a better version with improved features in a planned way. Today, software has permeated all aspect of human life, and manufacturing is no exception. As we enter the age of Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), software is governing all aspects of manufacturing. Today, it is imperative for companies and manufacturers that need to design, source, produce and distribute products around the world to have a single source to manage all the data and processes. Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is an integrated business approach to manage the creation, validation, dissemination and application of engineering data throughout an enterprise. It is a strategic approach for creating and managing an organization’s product-related intellectual capital, from its conception to discontinuation. The basic aim of any manufacturer is to continuously monitor products in use, and update them as needed, patch problems, and rethink functionality. The end goal of course is to improve customer satisfaction in order to generate profits. PLM has now evolved to become a smart, connected platform that can deliver the momentum needed to support digital transformation and drive faster product launches. A modern PLM solution unifies processes, allowing for a seamless flow of data from idea capture to design, all the way through manufacturing and service so you can accelerate global product launches and time to market share. Today, advanced PLM software like Windchill from PTC incorporate more software capabilities across the PLM including innovation management, requirements management, and improved connections with downstream manufacturing, supply chain processes, and commercialization processes.

Benefits of PLM

• Data and document management – The main aim of PLM is to collate product data. With proper PLM solution in place, the planning, engineering and production teams of a manufacturer can work cohesively by sharing a single source of information. PLM software makes it possible to store data in one place instead of maintaining separate silos, even breaking down geographical barriers in the process.
• Improved engineering effectiveness and quality of the end product - With PLM, manufacturers can use online workflows and easily control any revisions and engineering changes. Further, the changes can be virtually tested first, reducing not only the resources needed but also reducing the number of errors and redundancies.
• Decreased design costs – It is estimated that approximately 70% of the costs in manufacturing could be reduced at the designing stage itself. PLM makes it possible for accurate and collaborative designing, reducing the costs related to prototyping and scrap management as well as drastically bring down retooling costs.
• Visualization - When fused with a PLM system, visualization can provide a number of additional benefits, especially during design and production. The data that goes into such a system can be transformed into both 2D and 3D models, with 3D being the more utilitarian. Easy access to Bill of materials (BOM) – A BOM is a comprehensive inventory of the raw materials, machines, parts and components needed to manufacture a product. The BOM module of the PLM software provides teams with accurate information so that they can schedule manufacturing efficiently and cost-effectively.
• Cross-domain design management - PLM enables effective capturing of the linkage between different engineering domains that include mechanics, electric, electronic and software in order to handle changes and derive or test requirements across domain borders.
• Reduce time-to-market - By making available all product data centrally, PLM allows stakeholders easy access to all data and processes and resources. This results in expedited process cycles, and reduction in timelines, ensuring that the time taken to get the product to the market is reduced as well.
• Meeting compliance and industry regulations – Manufacturers can enable easy maintenance of all historical data, which can help them in accurately meeting several compliance regulations on time. Even small and medium scale enterprises can create formalized compliance management systems with PLM. This also helps to avoid unnecessary costs of compliance
• Increase in productivity – PLM allows engineers to spend more time in effectively manage process flow than rather than spend time on obtaining the right data and workflow. What is more, since the data is updated automatically by the PLM software, they need not worry if it really is the latest or not. Since engineering changes are also easily fed in to the system, precious resources can be conserved.
• Protection of intellectual property – Since product data is stored in a safe, central repository, manufacturers can protect the rights to their intellectual property in a better manner using PLM solutions.
• Enforce process standardization - PLM allows the organization of different tasks, approaches, and administrative steps in a business, as well as their formalization and documentation.

PLM Software Manufacturers are in business to make profits, and they are increasingly exploring the use of PLM technologies in order to innovate, structure, and manage product development information more effectively. Good PLM software like Windchill can integrate into all of a manufacturer’s multiple systems, software suites including CAD, CAM, CAE, etc. and seamlessly form a link between the full range of processes right from the top floor to the shop floor. If deployed on the cloud, PLM brings in additional benefits like increased reliability, quicker data transfer and lower production costs due to global data access capabilities. Along with ERP and CRM, PLM is here to stay. The sooner companies adapt to it, the faster their growth will be. In economically growing countries like India, PLM software can bring competitive edge that will allow Indian companies to forge ahead of their competitors from neighbouring countries.