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The Perfect Product Lifecycle | Published June 1, 2008
Win or lose. These are the two simple outcomes for companies that want to sell to customers around the world. In recent years, winners have been companies that value and implement concepts of flexibility, agility, and perfectionism. They develop a set of best practices and processes that integrate product planning, design, and manufacturing into the core business issues of an enterprise. Product lifecycle management (PLM), historically a set of software applications for designing a product, is no longer a topic reserved for product designers and engineers. Companies can effectively manage product innovation by following a set of proven models in the PLM space. From concept to customer satisfaction, managing product lifecycles is becoming a boardroom discussion for companies planning growth. While cost reduction has been the impetus for optimizing a dispersed and global supply chain, quality and safety remain paramount. Other concerns, such as the environmental impact of manufacturing, have led to governmental regulations. Managing all these complex pieces effectively dictates the need for an integrated practice to manage PLM. Companies remain exposed to costly mistakes unless they have the tools to establish and monitor product development from planning to maintenance. Consider medical devices. Last year the FDA issued 20 recalls of medical devices. It issued six recalls in 2003 and just three in 2001. This upward trend is alarming, reflecting more than one recall per month involving products like life-saving defibrillators and the daily blood-glucose test strips critical to millions living with diabetes. While the FDAregulates the safety of medical devices, it is the manufacturers who are responsible for quality as they are in most industry sectors from auto and defense to retail and consumer goods. And it is the manufacturers who absorb the cost of these often-expensive errors. Small design changes create the same mayhem that recalls do. Changes usually make the product better, but at what cost? How many inventory parts will become obsolete? How will customers respond? Will the product still meet environmental benchmarks expected by customers? In short, is there more risk than reward in making the change? Such questions arise at every company that is continuously innovating. The answers can be found in collaboration that helps businesses make faster, more precise decisions. Companies will avail themselves of these answers by leveraging all their technology investments. Business intelligence systems recognize customers’ buying patterns to dictate inventory flows and product enhancements, maintenance systems linked to user portals automatically generate service requests or warranty information, inventory management and maintenance solutions can limit waste and promote part re-use and recycling, and unified communications platforms link experts around the world to share best practices while avoiding common mistakes. PLM touches all divisions of a company. Today’s PLM tools go beyond traditional MCAD, CAM, and CAE products. A PLM-savvy organization will weave traditional design-centric PLM systems into a common enterprise-wide solution to seamlessly link engineering and business systems to make information accessible to all key disciplines in the extended enterprise. Manufacturers who harness their collective knowledge with that from suppliers and partners will be tomorrow’s winners. Al Bunshaft is vice president of IBMProduct Lifecycle Management (PLM) Solutions. Send feedback to DE-Editors@deskeng.com. |
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