Product Life Cycle Management

MODULE 1: INTRODUCTION TO PLM AND PDM

Syllabus: Introduction to PLM, Need for PLM, opportunities and benefits of PLM, different
views of PLM, components of PLM, phases of PLM, PLM feasibility study. PLM Strategies,
strategy elements, its identification, selection and implementation. Product Data Management,
implementation of PDM systems.

Introduction to PLM
PLM is a new activity for manufacturing companies that open up new business opportunities.
PLM manages each individual product across its life cycle from cradle to grave; from the very
first idea for the product all the way through until it is retired and disposed of.
PLM enables the company’s complete portfolio of products to be managed in an integrated way.
PLM also manages a company's projects to innovate and develop products and their related
services all the way across the life cycle.
PLM is a holistic business activity addressing many components such as products, organizational
structure, working methods, processes, people information structures and information systems.

Definition of PLM
"Product lifecycle management is the process of managing the entire lifecycle of a product from
its conception, through design and manufacture, to service, and disposal."
"PLM is a systematic concept for the integrated management of all product related information
and processes across the extended enterprise through the entire lifecycle, from concept and
design, to production, distribution, maintenance, and retirement"
PLM integrates people, data, processes, and business systems and provides a product information
backbone for companies and their extended enterprise.
PLM is integrated, information driven approach to all aspects of a product’s life, from its design
through manufacture, deployment and maintenance culminating in the product’s removal from
service and final disposal. By trading product information for wasted time, energy and material
across the entire organization and into the supply chain, PLM drives the next generation of lean
thinking.
PLM software suites enable accessing, updating, manipulating, and reasoning about product
information that is being produced in a fragmented and distributed environment.
Another definition of PLM is the integration of business system to manage a product’s life cycle

PLM Life cycle Model

At the center of the model is an information core .This core represents all the product data and
information about the product throughout the product’s life .The information core is separate
from the function or stages that use it .The product information does not belongs to any one
functional area, but is available to all functional areas. Around the information core are the
functional areas that comprise a product’s life cycle. These functional areas are divided into
major categories:
Plan
Design
Build
Support
Dispose

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Figure 1.1: PLM Lifecycle Model

Plan
The model starts with requirement analysis and planning, which is the initial step in developing
any product.
What are the functions the product must perform?
What are the requirements the product must meet?
In some cases these requirements are obtained directly from the customers or through R&D.
Design
Plans are converted into specifications.
The entire mandatory functional requirements should be met in concepts and prototypes.
Functional designs and prototypes are turned into specifications in product engg.
At the end of this phase the products are fully defined in CAD specifications.
Build
Once the product is fully specified, it is the role of manufacturing engg to determine how the
product must be built.
The designs must be analyzed and bill of process developed to specify what operations must be
done in what sequence to create the desired part.
It consists of 3 phases: building the first product, ramping production up and building the rest of
the products.
The manufacturing and production stage is when the rest of the products are built.
Support
The sales and distribution function uses the product information and supports PLM model.
Dispose
Final aspect of PLM is to dispose and recycle the product’s life.
Information about how the product was designed and its component make up is necessary for
effective and efficient disposal and recycling.

Threads of PLM
Computer Aided Design (CAD)
Engineering Data Management (EDM)
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Product Data Management (PDM)

Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM)

Computer Aided Design

Use of computer programs to create two- or three-dimensional (2D or 3D) graphical
representations of physical objects. CAD software may be specialized for specific applications.
CAD is widely used for computer animation and special effects in movies, advertising, and other
applications where the graphic design itself is the finished product. CAD is also used to design
physical products in a wide range of industries, where the software performs calculations for
determining an optimum shape and size for a variety of product and industrial design
applications.
In product and industrial design, CAD is used mainly for the creation of detailed 3D solid or
surface models, or 2D vector-based drawings of physical components. However, CAD is also
used throughout the engineering process from conceptual design and layout of products, through
strength and dynamic analysis of assemblies, to the definition of manufacturing methods. This
allows an engineer to both interactively and automatically analyze design variants, to find the
optimal design for manufacturing while minimizing the use of physical prototypes.
CAD system take a rule of physical structures, line, vectors, surface, etc. and attempt to mimic
them within the memory space of a computer system. As the richest description of product
information, CAD representations are at the heart of PLM.

Engineering Data Management

Engineering Data Management is simply the organizing and control of the information created to
design, sell, manufacture, and maintain a product. And it continues over the entire lifetime of the
product.
The starting with the conceptual design, digital engineering information about a product is
generated by marketers, designers, and engineers. This information is an important asset of the
company, but too often it is simply left on the hard drive of the author, where no one else in the
organization can use it. Usually, there is little or no control over changes or sharing of the data
until the product is released and the information is manually entered into a MRP OR ERP system
and manufacturing information is added. Then any changes in the engineering department have
to be coordinated with the manufacturing information in the MRP OR ERP system.

Product Data Management

The Product data management is the use of software or other tools to track and control data
related to a particular product. The data tracked usually involves the technical specifications of
the product, specifications for manufacture and development, and the types of materials that will
be required to produce goods.
The use of product data management allows a company to track the various costs associated with
the creation and launch of a product. Product data management is part of product lifecycle
management and configuration management, and is primarily used by engineers. Within PDM
the focus is on managing and tracking the creation, change and archive of all information related
to a product. The information being stored and managed (on one or more file servers) will
include engineering data such as computer-aided design (CAD) models, drawings and their
associated documents.

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Product data management (PDM) serves as a central knowledge repository for process and
product history, and promotes integration and data exchange among all business users who
interact with products including project managers, engineers, sales people, buyers, and quality
assurance teams.

Computer Integrated Manufacturing

CIM is the manufacturing approach of using computers to control the entire production process.
This integration allows individual processes to exchange information with each other and initiate
actions. Through the integration of computers, manufacturing can be faster and less error-prone,
although the main advantage is the ability to create automated manufacturing processes.
Typically CIM relies on closed-loop control processes, based on real-time input from sensors. It
is also known as flexible design and manufacturing
The term "computer-integrated manufacturing" is both a method of manufacturing and the name
of a computer-automated system in which individual engineering, production, marketing, and
support functions of a manufacturing enterprise are organized. In a CIM system functional areas
such as design, analysis, planning, purchasing, cost accounting, inventory control, and
distribution are linked through the computer with factory floor functions such as materials
handling and management, providing direct control and monitoring of all the operations.
CIM is an example of the implementation of information and communication technologies
(ICTs) in manufacturing. CIM implies that there are at least two computers exchanging
information, e.g. the controller of an arm robot and a micro-controller of a CNC machine. Some
factors involved when considering a CIM implementation are the production volume, the
experience of the company or personnel to make the integration, the level of the integration into
the product itself and the integration of the production processes. CIM is most useful where a
high level of ICT is used in the company or facility, such as CAD/CAM systems, the availability
of process planning and its data.

Need for PLM

Outsourcing has lead to long design and supply chains with the result product development,
manufacturing and support activities are spread out through different organizations, often very
different continents.
The functionality of products goes on increasing, complicating the development and support.
Deregulation has led to the breakup of large organizations with well defined responsibilities and
their replacement by numerous companies, contractors and subcontractors with unclear
relationships.
Competitive pressures result in less time being available for product development.
Many companies now offer complete solutions, rather than individual products, this adds a new
layer of challenges. Solutions are more complex to develop and support than single products.
Many more services are offered along with a product. Sometimes, it seems services are more
important than the product. Developing and supporting these services may require additional
skills.
Customers want customized products which are much more difficult to develop and support than
standard products.
Customers want more services which are not easy for organizations.
Population trends such as ageing in western countries have led to the need of new type of
products.

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Globalization has led to the availability of hundreds of millions of workers.

Rapid emergence of new technologies provide many opportunities but also the difficulties of
industrializing them and ensuring their safe use.
Sustainable development is needed to ensure resources are available for future a generation
which means companies has to take good care of existing resources.
The lifetime of some product is now so short, that the development of a future generation has to
start before the development of the previous generation has been finished.
Geo political development such as the appearance of China as a major exporter of manufactured
goods, India as a leading producer of software and software developers and Russia as a leading
producer of Oil and Gas lead to many changes.

Opportunities and benefits of PLM

Opportunities Galore
At the beginning of 21st century, there are use opportunities for manufacturing companies.
Globalization has increased the number of potential customers for their products and services.
Electronics, biotechnology and nanotechnology provide the basis for new products.

Benefits along the life cycle

It can be expressed in terms of cost, time and quantity.
PLM can help a company to improve effectiveness, efficiency and control throughout the entire
Product life cycle enabling it to:
Capture customer requirements better
Create more innovative ideas
Develop product faster
Improve sales process, wherever the customer is located.

Increasing revenues
Increase the number of customers by developing and supporting new products.
Increase the range of products that customers can buy.
Increasing sales by introducing innovative new products.

Cutting costs
Reduce direct labour cost, overhead labour cost, material and energy consumption costs by use
of optimized design, better decisions, more reuse.
Reduce costs of storing information. Information will be stored on low cost, compact media
rather than on paper.
Reduce cost of holding finished inventory and WIP.

Other expressions of benefit

Provide better management of innovation.
Improve the interface between product development and product support.
Improve the quality of customer service.

Doing all these things better

Defining a strategy for the product portfolio.

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Analyzing portfolio profitability.

Planning product life cycles.

Opportunity, benefit and response

Better understand products and parts.
Better understand the product life cycle.
Better understand the activities and processes across the lifecycle.

It's important. Be careful, it's easy to fail

Failing to start the initiative properly.
Believing that implementing a new information system will automatically provide the required
results.
Failing to plan properly.

Different views of PLM

Those who may have difficulty in understanding the need for PLM could include CEO, top
managers, product development managers, product support managers, engineering managers,
quality manager, human resources manager and IS professionals. Their reactions to talk of PLM
may include:-
We are focusing on customers these days, not products. Customer focus is our message.
It's just another cost. We have to focus on cost cutting, not look for ways to spend money.
The payback period is more than 12 months so we are not interested.
Engineering to do this job properly and you don't need PLM.
We don't need it. Put a new product support Organization in place.
We have done it. We have a product knowledge database.
We have done it. We already have a PLM system.

CEO
PLM initiative should be led by CEO. However CEO has other things to think about than process
mapping and number of duplicate parts.
CEO has to set company directions, objectives, strategies organizational structures, plans and
budgets, leave the company, act as a figurehead for employee, shareholders, customers and make
sure that sales exceed costs.
Good ways to bring the PLM initiative to the attention of CEO include demonstrating successful
use of PLM by a competitor or customer, articles in the business press and discussions with other
high level managers.
Business Planners
A PLM initiative will cost a lot of money and should bring a lot of benefits. It has to be included
in:
Company budgets and invest plans.
Implementing PLM has to get support from the people who look after the business plans. This
may not be easy.
It may be difficult to get people to understand the actual difficulties involved in doing something
such as bringing a new product to market a to understand the effects of something as difficult as
defining the benefits of better control of product data.

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Functional managers
Managers running a functional department such as Engineering or manufacturing live in the real
world and are expected to produce instant results.
As a result, they may not show much interest in benefits of PLM that may appear in two or three
years time.
Their primary concern is to meet the short term targets set for them by the CEO. As a result, it's
impt to demonstrate them the short term benefits of PLM.

Marketing, Manufacturing Managers

Marketing managers will react positively to CEO’s interest to PLM and also manufacturing
managers.
PLM provides marketing managers a new reason to identify more finally segmented niche
markets.
Manufacturing managers will claim they have been set the objectives of reducing cost and
improving manufacturing productivity and cannot see how these targets can be achieved by
PLM.

Engineering Managers, Product Support Managers

Most engineering managers will welcome PLM, unless their budget is going to be used to pay.
Product support managers are at the end of marketing, design, manufacturing, support chain in a
company, and they are faced with many problems generated earlier in the product life cycle.
Most product support managers will welcome PLM and will provide valuable input to the PLM
initiative.

Workers
Many of the workers in the life cycle are highly educated well trained, underutilized under
respect and underpaid.
For years they do their job well and see little rewards.
People who work in product life cycle may not be very interested in whether or not PLM is
introduced.
They may understand the benefits it can bring, but may doubt that it will ever work as suggested.

Components of PLM
Product
The product is the focus of PLM.
Without a product the company does not exist and don't have any customers. Once the product is
known, its life cycle can be defined.
The product portfolio is maintained. Platform products are defined and built.

Organizational structure
To make all the activities manageable, organizational structures are defined.
The extended enterprise is built up with different organizations such as contractors,
subcontractors, suppliers, partners, customers auditors, lawyer, trainers etc.
Inside the company, groups teams, services and departments may be created with all sorts of
names to carry out or manage all sorts of activities such as product design, Compensation
management, customer service, manufacturing engineering etc. creating the organizational

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structure is one of the most challenging task in PLM.

Human resources
It takes many people to manage a product across its life cycle.
Outside the company many people play roles in the PLC and inside, the list of people may
include account managers, assembly workers, designers, programmers etc.
Groups can be done based on departments or based on their skills.

Methods, techniques, practices, methodologies

Methods and techniques can be applied at various levels. ex:-
Quality function deployment(QFD)- deploy the product
Theory of inventive problem solving(TRIZ)- help innovation.
Design for manufacture (DFM)
Design for assembly(DFA)
Design for environment(DFE)
Design for six sigma may be applied.

Processes
In each phase of the lifecycle there are processes which may be specific to a product or project or
to an organization.
They could include Alliance management, contract preparation, contract review, document
control, inspection, leadership, manufacturing, new product development, training processes etc.
There is also the process of establishing, documenting, maintaining and improving processes.
PLM enables all the product related process to be carried out in a coherent way.

System components
Computer Aided Design (CAD)
All Computer Based tools using interactive graphics techniques
Computer Aided Engineering(CAE)
All Computer Based tools used in design engineering and Manufacturing Engineering functions.
Computer Aided Industrial Design (CAID)
Model a design in three dimensions on a workstation
Computer Aided Manufacturing(CAM)
Computer Based tools used in manufacturing engineering activities.
Computer Aided Production Engineering (CAPE)
Models a manufacturing plant, production Line or work cell to enable simulation of production
processes for particular product in a virtual factory.
Computer Aided Process Planning (CAPP)
Used in generation of process plans
Computer Aided Software Engineering(CASE)
used to support some or all the phases of software life cycle.
Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM)
Technique used to integrate manufacturing activities.

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Phases of PLM (steps)

Figure 1.2: Phases of PLM

Product development
Product introduction
Product growth
Product maturity
Product decline

Product development phase

Product development phase begins when a company finds and develops a new product idea.
This involves translating various pieces of information and incorporating them into a new
product.
A product is usually undergoing several changes involving a lot of money and time during
development, before it is exposed to target customers via test markets.
Those products that survive the test market are then introduced into a real marketplace and the
introduction phase of the product begins.
During the product development phase, sales are zero and revenues are negative. It is the time of
spending with absolute no return.

Introduction phase
The introduction Stage of the product life cycle occurs when a product is first introduced to its
intended target market.
Sales grow slowly. Profit is minimal due to large investment costs in product development
The marketing objective for the company is to create customer awareness and stimulate trial.
Companies often spend heavily on advertising and other promotion tools to build product
awareness.
As more competitors introduce their products a firm focuses on creating selective demand,
preference for a specific brand.
Other marketing mix variables are important at this stage.

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Gaining distribution can be a challenge because channel intermediaries may be hesitant to carry a
new product.
During introduction pricing can be either high or low. A high price or skimming strategy is used
to help the company recover the costs of development as well as capitalize on the price
insensitivity of early buyers.
Since high prices tend to attract competitors because they see the opportunity for profit, a
company can price low, referred to penetration pricing, to build unit volume.

Growth phase
The growth stage of the product life cycle is characterized by rapid increases in sales and when
competitors appear.
Profit usually peaks during growth stage because of more competitors and more aggressive
pricing.
Product sales grow at an increasing rate because new people try or use the product and a growing
proportion become repeat purchasers, people who tried the product, were satisfied and purchase
again.
It is important to gain as much distribution for the product as possible.

Maturity phase
The maturity stage is characterized by a slowing of total industry sales for the product class.
Weaker competitors begin to leave the market.
Most consumers who would buy the product are either repeat purchasers of the item or have tried
and abandoned it.
Sales increase at a decreasing rate as fewer buyers enter the market
Profits decline because there is fierce competition
Marketing attention is directed toward holding market share through further product
differentiation and finding new buyers.

Decline Phase
The decline stage occurs when sales and profits begin to drop due to changes in the marketing
environment.
Product deletion and dropping
Harvesting - when a company continues to offer the product but reduces marketing costs.
When sales begin to drop off, a product or service is considered to be in its decline stage.
Many competitors have already left the scene.
It is at this point that the company must decide whether to abandon the product entirely or
modify it to meet new demands in the market.
Modification would move the product or service to a different stage in the life cycle.

PLM feasibility study

The feasibility study is carried out to find out what type of approach and what level of response
is appropriate for the challenges that the company faces.
Feasibility study should lead to a report of the form and contents shown in the figure below.
Much of the study will address the options for each option, the following questions have to be
answered:-

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What?
How?
Why?
Who?
When?
How much?

Title:- Feasibility study to develop and assess options for our PLM activity
Table of contents
1 Executive Summary And Recommendations
2 Introduction
2.1 - background to the study
2.2 – PLM activity -ours and theirs
3 Options
3.1 Options a
3.2 Options b
3.3 Options c
4 SWOT analysis
5 conclusions
Appendices
A1-Glossary
A2- Industry contacts and references.

PLM strategy
A good, well defined and well communicated PLM strategy is important because it:
Provides the better chance of achieving the PLM vision.
Make sure resources and capabilities are used to their best.
Make sure everybody knows what's happening.
Make sure all resources are aligned in the same direction.
Enables planning decisions to be taken in a coherent way

A Strategy describes:
The way to achieve objectives.
How resources will be organized, managed and used.
Policies governing use and management of resources.

The resources that can come into play in the product life cycle include:
Facility such as offices, manufacturing plants, service centers
Equipment such as computers, office equipment, machine tools, assembly line machinery
Supplies such as raw materials and waste materials
Reputation with potential customers and employees
Information Systems such as CAD, PDM and ERP
Processes such as product development and retirement processes
Working methods and techniques such as concurrent engineering and QFD
Communication in terms of communication equipment, communication with customers
Control in terms of management of life cycle activities, project management, product

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management
Alliances with other organizations, companies, government

Strategy Elements
Examples of the types of strategy elements that can be proposed include:
Customization capability - every customer can configure their own product
The highest functionality products and or services
The most robust product or service
The most sustainable products - perpetual recycling
The best processes across the lifecycle
Environmental friendly products and process
Fastest time to market
Market leading Hi-Tech products
Bundled solutions rather than individual products
Long life products -buy once used for ever
Most mobile products and services
Best service over the life cycle
Products that are easy to integrate into solutions
Products most appreciated by customers

Strategy identification and selection

Customer involvement
Customer involved in product development and support teams
Development and support to work on customer sites
Online Feedback from customer use
Customization capability
Able to identify customization requirements quickly
Able to identify customer requirements correctly
Able to carry out requested customization quickly
The highest functionality products and or services
Technological leadership
Premium features
Perceived by customers as the market leader
The most robust product or services
Product has Long mean time between failure
Product requires little maintenance
Extensive simulation and testing
The best processes
Focus on implementing the best development process and methodology
Able to do tasks well
Process Certification
Fastest time to market
Simulation rather than test
Information shared as early as possible
Information reused
Environment friendly products

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Stainable Development
No pollution
Reuse
The longest life product
Modular design
Easy to upgrade
Add- on services

Product data management

Product data management systems are one of the most important components of a PLM solution.
They are the primary system component of PLM. They are systems to manage product data and
product workflow.
PDM is the discipline of controlling the evolution of a product and providing other procedures
and tools with the accurate product information at the right time in the right format during the
entire PLC.

The basic components of PDM system include:

The information warehouse or vault: This is where product data is stored.
The information management module: This manages the information warehouse. It is responsible
for such issues as data access, storage and recall information security and integrity, concurrent
use of data archival and recovery. It provides traceability of all actions taken on product data.
The user interface: this provides a standard but tailorable, interface for users. It supports user
query, menu driven and forms driven Input and report generation.
System interfaces: for program such as CAD and ERP
Information and workflow structure definition functions: which are used to define the structure of
the data and workflows to be managed by the PDM system. The workflow is made up of a set of
tasks. Data such as resources, events, responsibility, procedures and Standards can be associated
to these tasks.
Information Structure management functions: that maintains the exact structure of all
information in the system across the product life cycle
Workflow Management functions: that keep workflow under control
System administration functionality which is used to set up, maintain, configuration of the
system and to assign and modify access rights.

Functionality of PDM
The functionality of PDM systems is often divided into two categories: user functions and utility
functions. User functions provide functionality for the user to access the PDM system. Different
types of users may work with different subsets of these functions. A user may be a consumer
(viewing information) or a producer (creating information).
User functions can be divided into five categories.
Data vault and document management
Workflow and process management
Product structure management
Classification management
Program management

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Data Vault and Document Management

PDM systems consist of central locations, referred to as data vaults, used in the control of all
types of product information. Data vaults are either physical locations in the file system or
databases. They provide data access control, data security, and integrity. Two types of data are
stored in data vaults
Product data generated by various applications, such as specifications, CAD models, computer-
aided engineering (CAE) data, software executables, maintenance records, services, user and
operating manuals, or any kind of information that permits users to access the data. This
information is stored in the file system or in a database.
Metadata, which describes different properties of the product data (e.g., who created a specific
piece of information and when) and index and definition information about products so that
changes (new versions), approval authorizations, and other data can be tracked and audited. The
PDM system also offers the functionality to query for a document, either by searching for key
metadata (e.g., document title or document number) or free text search.
Users have access authorization to one or several data vaults, where they can check in documents
to the data vault and control the alteration of documents after they have been checked in to these
locations. To modify a data item, a user checks it out to a local work structure. Check-in and
check-out functions provide secure storage and access control to data stored in the data Vaults.
When a PDM system is deployed in an organization or in a project, the system administrator
must define how the data vaults are to be used. One example of the use of data vaults— is shown
in Figure. When the user checks out a document, it will be under PDM control in a work location
a personal physical file location. Only one specific user is permitted to read and write in this
work location. Any change made in the document here will not be visible to other users. The
document may be changed several times before it will be checked in again into another data
vault, the work in process (WIP) vault. All of the members of the project team are provided with
access to the WIP vault for viewing or altering the information it contains. When the document
has passed the approval process, it will be submitted and stored in the release vault, a file
location where users have only read access. The approval process automatically stores
information in the release vault to which only the PDM system (a very specific user with system
authorities) has write access.PDM offers many more functions than storage, check in, and check
out for managing documents.

Figure 1.3: Use of data vaults

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Workflow and Process Management

All companies must manage their changes effectively, whether using a tool for managing
changes and workflows for strict change control or using manual procedures for managing all
changes on paper. Thus, workflow management is a critical part in the product definition life
cycle to ensure that the right information is available to the correct users at the proper time. It
includes defining the steps in the process, the rules and activities associated with the steps, the
rules for approval of each step, and the assignment of users to provide approval support. PDM
workflow management provides the mechanisms for modeling and managing defined processes
automatically. Data can be submitted to the appropriate workflow for processing. The workflow
can transfer the data to nominated users, groups, or project roles to carry out a specific business
process. Appropriate information is routed automatically. At any location, the data can be
assessed as it progresses through its life cycle. PDM systems record information at each step in a
process, and users can review the change history at any time. Audit and historical records are
maintained. Workflow management can help define and control changes in any kind of product
data.
Below shows an example of an approval process. All documents in which work is in progress are
stored in the WIP vault. A work order is set-to the designer when review is necessary. The
designer sends the document to designated users for reviewing. The change review board will
take care of the comments. When the document is approved, it will be stored in the release vault.
Upon approval, the new and modified documents and all data are sent from the WIP to a release
vault, and the item now revised becomes generally available. After the work is completed, the
newly revised items continue to refer to the work instructions and work orders by which they
generated. This provides a valuable history of the evolution of the design, which allows users to
learn from design approaches that have been implemented in the past.

Figure 1.4: Example of a work flow for change approval

Product Structure Management

When designing a complex product, the management of its component parts is as important as
the management of the documents that describe the product. A product structure comprises

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components (elements), the externally visible properties of those components, and the
relationships between them. Product structure management includes the following activities:
Identification and control of product configurations;
Management of the development and selection of product variants, including platforms, options,
alternates, and substitutes;
Linking of product definition data to the structure;
Allowance of various domain-specific views of a product structure, such as design and
manufacturing views;
Transfer of product structure and other data in both directions between PDM and manufacturing
resource planning (MRP) or enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems.
A product structure most often forms a hierarchical structure. A traditional mechanical design-
oriented
A product structure is a division of parts into a hierarchy of assemblies and components. An
assembly consists of other assemblies (subassemblies) and/or components. A component is the
lowest level of the structure. This definition also describes a bill of material (BOM), which is
used in manufacturing to collect all the objects and information for building the final product.
The Below Figure depicts an example of a BOM of a bicycle, which consists of pedals,
handlebars, a saddle, a frame, and wheels. In the figure, each of the parts is quantified (e.g., there
are two wheels and one saddle).

Figure 1.5: Product structure management of Bicycle

Classification Management
Classification management is the classification of standard components in a uniform way. To
support reuse of standard components, the components are classified and information about them
is stored in the PDM system as common attributes Examples of information relating to
components are supplier, supplier part number, release date, revision, and material. These
attributes are used for querying and retrieval of standard components, items, or objects. To
ensure that a new product reaches the market in the shortest possible time, the reuse of parts of
products is essential. Reuse is supported by the possibility of classifying components and
attaching attributes to them. These attributes can later be used for querying and retrieval of
components to be used. Reuse also leads to greater product standardization, reduced redesign,
shorter time to market, savings in purchasing and fabrication, and reduced inventories. Reuse can

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Dept of Mech Engg, KIT Tiptur
Product Life Cycle Management

be at any level of a product in the product structure e.g., engines, wheels, antennas, software
modules, screws, and bolts). When a PDM system is installed, libraries with standard
components (with searchable attributes) are often included. User-defined attributes created
specific objects can also be added to these standard components. To make good use of the reuse
of components, an organization should define the structure of the available reusable components.

Program management
It involves work breakdown structure, resource allocation and project tracking. It enables the
relation of project data and product data. It helps to check which parts of a product a specific
project is working and resources utilized for particular part of the product.

Utility functions provide an interface between different operating environments and can be
categorized into five categories:
Communications and notifications
Data transport and translation
Image services
Administration
Application integration

Communications and notifications

As part of the implementation of workflow support notifications can be automatically sent to the
users.
A notification can be sent to the user to make a user aware of specific operation, specific state
etc.

Data transport and translation

PDM stores and manages data produced by many different applications. In PDM system,
predefined translators can be used for converting data from one application to another.

Image services
Visualization tools support collaborative work by making it possible for all users to view images.
Images can be viewed, stored and assessed.

Administration
In includes installation, maintenance, role mgmt, workflow defn, operational parameters , system
performance and monitoring.

Application integration
Integration with authoring, visualization and other collaborative tools to establish a single source
of product data.

Reasons for implementing PDM system

Information management
Provide a single, controlled vault for product information
Maintain different views of information structure

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Dept of Mech Engg, KIT Tiptur
Product Life Cycle Management

Provide Faster access to data

Reuse of information
Make available existing designs for use in new products
Reduce duplicate data entry

Workflow management
Make Sure appropriate design process is followed.
Improve distribution of work to Engineers

Engineering Change management

Speed up the distribution ,review and approval of Engineering changes
Provide status information on engineering changes

Overall business performance improvement

Improve product quality
Reduce overhead cost

Resolution of business problems

Reduce scrap
Reduce product liability cost

Functional performance improvement

Increase engineering productivity
Reduce inventory

Better management of product development activities

Improve Project coordination
Increase the reliability of product development schedules
Automation of product development activities
Automate the sign off process
Automate the transfer of data between applications

Information Systems effectiveness improvement

Integrate Islands of automation
Link data bases together
Remove unnecessary systems

Infrastructure for effective product development

Support product development practices and computer systems
Distribute data, documents and messages electronically

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Dept of Mech Engg, KIT Tiptur