Desktop Engineering - Does One Size Fit All? Part 2

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Does One Size Fit All? Part 2

Vendors of product lifecycle management systems weigh in on how they understand and satisfy SMB sector needs. 

by Louise Elliott | Published March 1, 2006

Vendors of product lifecycle management systems weigh in on how they understand and satisfy SMB sector needs.

PLM vendors agree with the industry analysts quoted in part one of this story (click here) that small and mid-size businesses (SMBs) have many similar pain points and needs, regardless of their specific industries. In short, the most common areas of pain are small or nonexistent IT departments; limited financial resources for software, implementation, and training; growing pressure to reduce both design cycle time and product cost; and a desire to implement solutions as quickly and painlessly as possible.

SMBs are fortunate in that they benefit from the lessons learned by vendors during the days of long, costly, and difficult PDM and PLM deployments at larger enterprises. Those lessons have led to more modular PLM products that require little or no customization and offer rapid return on investment. However, SMBs are unfortunate in that they often don’t have a clear idea of what automation tools they need, or how to find them.

› › Regardless of the UGS Velocity tool a company uses or upgrades to (Solid Edge Insight, Teamcenter Express, Teamcenter Engineering, or Teamcenter Enterprise) a common database enables the data from one level to read directly to the next, handling increasingly complex PLM tasks with no data loss. Click image to enlarge.

Three major groups of vendors seek shares of the SMB market. They include large CAD/CAM/CAE/PDM developers—specifically UGS, Dassault Systemes, and PTC; mid-range stand-alone PLM companies like Arena Solutions, Aras, and Softech; and mid-range CAD companies such as Autodesk and SolidWorks. Solid Edge also belongs in the latter group, but is part of the UGS Velocity Series.

What Larger Developers Think

"Discrete manufacturers have much commonality in needing compliance, documentation, and collaboration tools, and in their ultra-sensitivity to risk and disruption," says Bruce Boes, vice president in charge of the UGS Velocity Series. "Surveys show that 60 percent of all companies, particularly in the United States, are part of a supply chain, or at the head of one—even small companies that outsource manufacturing. No one is an island, and SMBs across the board need collaborative tools."

Where once the exchange of data took place by sharing CAD files, says Joel Lemke, president of Dassault Systemes Americas Corp., "Now data sharing requires a collaborative environment that can help companies, particularly those that supply large OEMs, respond quickly to multiple customers without requiring many different systems." He also points out that even though some suppliers are fairly large organizations, they still need help in using PLM to relieve the price and time pressures they face.

‹ ‹ Arena Professional Edition is a hosted solution aimed at bridging boundaries within and outside of the organization by providing unified product definition in an easy-to-use way. Click image to enlarge.

Tom Shoemaker, director of product marketing for PTC’s Windchill products, believes that SMBs place a premium on modularity as well as on reduced cost and time. "Many companies don’t want to do everything at once," he says. "They may need to organize designs first, before they ever think about change management. For such companies, CAD files form the language of data management. Then they need the right vault to handle CAD from a variety of different sources in a number of different CAD programs. And then, as their customers’ demands change, they need change management."

All three large developers agree that SMBs are placing the emphasis on programs that are easy to deploy with minimal customization, but each developer takes a different approach to satisfying that requirement.

At UGS, the Velocity Series is a Microsoft-native chain of tools that starts with Solid Edge Insight (typically used by people who want to manage only Solid Edge data at one site) and moves up to Teamcenter Express before moving to full Teamcenter Engineering, and finally to Teamcenter Enterprise. A common database enables the data from one level to read directly to the next, handling increasingly complex PLM tasks with no data loss, Boes says.

PTC offers the same tools to SMBs and large enterprises: Pro/E for handling CAD, CAM, and CAE, Windchill and Intralink for collaboration and data management. (Intralink shares the same database as Windchill in releases after 3.3.) Modularity provides scalability, and users can choose server-based or IBM-hosted installations.

Dassault recently targeted SMBs with a series of Business Process Content (BPC) bundles including CATIA, SMARTEAM, and specific process steps for specific segments of the electrical/electronics, industrial products, consumer goods, and machining industries. The processes are very detailed steps that enable companies to get up and running without configuring the software.

Mid-Range Stand-Alone PLM Vendors

In addition to industry stalwarts such as Agile and MatrixOne, which offer a wide range of solutions to both large and small users, a group of smaller companies including Aras Corp., Arena Solutions, and Softech offer PLM business functionality specifically designed for SMBs.

"About half of the queries we receive deal with project management, and the other half with quality issues," says Peter Schroer, president of Aras. "The typical company develops 50 to 100 products at a time—and suppliers to larger companies may develop as many as 400 parts simultaneously, giving them a great deal to organize. Aras offers them coordination, communication, collaboration, and control, especially where a variety of production steps tends to be outsourced."

‹ ‹ Aras Innovator’s corrective and preventive actions (CAPA) ensure compliance with quality standards through root-cause analysis; closed-loop workflow coordinates fast resolution at an issue’s source. Click image to enlarge.

Softech, previously a 2D CAD and CAM vendor, acquired Workgroup Technology in 2002. Jay Pappas, ProductCenter product manager, says that SMBs are ready for PLM when they know they "have problems in the areas of time to market, workflow management, dealing with acquisitions, time from design to manufacturing, and short product lifecycles." Although each company has distinct problems, all have some issues related to adopting change—and, he says, Softech helps them to implement PLM step by step. "They may move from resolving their immediate pain to learning what they need overall," Pappas adds.

› › Softech’s ProductCenter SolidWorks Integrator embeds comprehensive PLM functionality directly into the CAD application for product information access, version/revision control, ECO/ECN processes, etc., all from within the design environment. Click image to enlarge.

According to Eric Larkin, CTO of Arena Solutions, which offers hosted PLM applications, "The fundamental business problem PLM should address in the SMB market is bridging boundaries within and outside of the organization." He says he believes that PLM geared to mid-size companies should provide them with an aggregate, unified product definition along with ease of use that makes the system approachable by engineers.

Do Mid-Range CAD Vendors Agree?

Neither Autodesk nor SolidWorks would argue with Larkin’s view. Both, however, believe that engineers find their greatest comfort level when working with PLM tools embedded in their familiar CAD environments.

Autodesk’s Bob Merlo, vice president of marketing for the manufacturing solutions division, believes that most of the companies that Autodesk has surveyed don’t relate directly to the entire span of PLM. "Of the full spectrum of PLM, our research shows that users’ primary needs are in the design-through-manufacturing process area; specifically, design, production BOMs, and documentation. So we decided to offer solutions that can be implemented incrementally and proceed with baby steps."

Merlo says Autodesk users perceive problems starting with workgroups stepping on each other, and working with incorrect design versions. As a result, it started its vaulting system as a way to develop version control, and grew its solutions from that point, adding more PDM functionality with Product Stream, supporting workflow and engineering change management.

Joy Garon, SolidWorks product manager for PDMWorks, says PDMWorks is designed to manage design-related data at the workgroup level. "Many people tie it in with other tools," she says, "to provide PLM connected with ERP and MRP systems." She recently completed a survey to find out what other PLM and ERP tools SolidWorks users had, and says that out of 350 responses, only six identified use of the same systems.

‹ ‹The bidirectional Agile/PDMWorks connector from Systematics allows the SolidWorks user to easily obtain part numbers directly from Agile for new (work-in-process) designs. Once a new design is ready for production, the user simply releases the design (and control) to Agile. Click image to enlarge.

"It’s important to have connectivity to systems already in place, whatever they are—and some PLM systems already connect to PDMWorks," says Garon. "Some people use SMARTEAM side by side with PDMWorks, although SMARTEAM has its own connectivity with SolidWorks. Customers needing BOM management and engineering change order management just use SMARTEAM directly."

Most smaller companies—in the range of $50 million annually—want tools that work with their familiar Microsoft applications. "Many of them don’t want to have to modify software to fit their processes," Garon adds, "or modify their processes to fit software. Mostly, they want to save money."

Now what do the users say they want? We’ll take a look at SMB PLM needs and preferences from their own viewpoints in part three of this story next month.

Contributing Editor Louise Elliott is a freelance writer based in California. Offer Louise your feedback on this article by clicking here. Please reference "PLM, April 2006" in your message.

Companies Mentioned

Agile Software

Aras Corp.

Arena Solutions

Autodesk

Dassault Systemes

MatrixOne

Microsoft

PTC

Softech, Inc.

Solid Edge

SolidWorks

Systematics, Ltd.

UGS Corp.