CHAPTER 2:

PLM CONCEPTS, PROCESS

AND WORKFLOW
CHARACTERISTIC OF PLM

• Singularity
• Correspondence
• Cohesion
• Traceability
• Reflectiveness
• Cued availability
SINGULARITY
• Define as “ one unique and controlling version of product
data”
• If we have two or more unique data representation/versions,
there should be one version which all agree as the correct one
and will be working on.
• PLM system must have the ability to identify the controlling
product data
• If there are multiple version. It will identified the one which
everyone refers.
CORRESPONDENCE
• It refers to tight linkage between a physical object (component
, part or product) & data & information about the physical
products.
• The data regarding the geometrical shapes and dimensional
characteristic such as material, weight and colour and strength
etc.
• Irrespective of information/ data flow , it is core characteristic
PLM is developing & maintaining a correspondence between
the physical object and information about it.
COHESION

• “It refer to different representation or views of the product

information depending on our perspective of the product.”
• It includes hidden surface and cross sectional views.
• Eg:- logical diagram will represent a electrical system, which is expected
to provide certain function. If any change in physical object, then logical
diagram must reflect it. This is cohesiveness

• One way of cohesiveness is to reduce the number of

independent view
TRACEABILITY
• “It is ability to demonstrate that the path of the product’s
travel through time can be followed seamlessly back to its
origin”
• The result of lack of traceability is that we run the risk of
wasting time and material in number of different ways
• In simple, we can rely on yesterday’s successful operation &
progress in further.
REFLECTIVENESS
• “It is related to the data & information that connects real
space (RS) to virtual space (VS).
• Reflectiveness is directly related to the changes in the model,
i.e. any changes in information in real space should reflect in
virtual space.
• In PLM software , it is Reflectiveness which can make out
decision.
CUED AVAILABILITY
• “It is related to the movement of information and process
from virtual space to real space.”
• It is able to have right information and process when we need
them.
• Cued availability implies that when the recycler access the
product information in virtual space, he or she will get the
appropriate information and process.
ENVIRONMENT DRIVING PLM
It explores the fundamental requirements emerging from
within the business environment that are driving PLM.
They are:-
• External drivers
• Internal drivers
• Boardroom drivers- IT value map
EXTERNAL DRIVERS
• Scale
• Complexity
• Cycle time
• Globalization
• Regulation
SCALE
• It is a change that occurred in organization
• In order to appreciate the scale of today’s organization, we need to
go back.
• If we look at the example of 4 companies
company 1973 2003 increas
e
GM 35B 186B 5.3x

Ford 23B 164B 7.1x

General electric 12B 134B 11.1x

Wal-Mart 126M 255B 2031x

• In any event, scale of companies is dramatically increasing over a

period of time.
• Change in scale means that, not only will the larger company need to
use PLM to deal with product information but it will also trickle
down to supply change.
COMPLEXITY
• It is not only organization getting bigger, but it is producing
more complex products.
• It is the number of different products offered in market place.
• Increasing products increases more information that the
organization have to look.
Products 1970s 1990s
automobiles 140 260

SUV 8 38

Running shoes 5 285

• PLM is essential to manage large database system for a

growing organization.
CYCLE TIME
• As scale and complexity increases, they have to deal with time
frame with which they can complete work.
• Organization are being forced by their competitors and
customers to create products on a much faster cycle time than
they had in past
• Organization must remain constantly in synchronization & not
waste time by using inconsistent information that has to be
reconciled and reworked.
• PLM facilitates in incorporates changes due to ever decreasing
cycle time
GLOBALIZATION
The two aspects of globalization are
1. It has affected the way we handle product information, from
past to present
2. It has provided, new sophisticated competitors from less
developed countries which not only have cost advantage, but
also access to same technology

• Globalization requires organization to aggressively adopt PLM,

to compete with global market.
REGULATION
• Government regulations are different types of drivers
• Organization must comply with govt. rules else they face
immediate & severe consequence.

• Increased regulation has forced manufactures to dramatically

reuse their product in different ways.
• What was considered the responsible of product customer is
now the responsible of the manufacturer.
• Eg:- for automobile it is Euro 5 in Europe , BS 4 in India etc.
INTERNAL DRIVERS
These are within organization and are in control or in
influence of management
• Productivity
• Innovation
• Collaboration
• Quality
PRODUCTIVITY
• It is a ratio of output an organizations obtain over the specific
amount of input or resources it takes to produce that output.
• All organizations try to improve their usage of resource per
unit product.
• PLM enables organization to move around the globe in search
of lower wage rates.
• Enables simulations to discover the most efficient process &
facilitates reusing design that would unnecessarily duplicated.
• Information allows the workforce to eliminates wasted time
searching for information.
INNOVATION
1. Product innovations
2. Process innovations

• Product innovation usually gets more attention, because the results

of product innovations are lifeblood of an organization.
• Process innovations is generally a behind scene activity.
• With cycle time decreasing, the pressure is on organization to be
more innovative in their product development.
• The goal of process innovation is to find better technologies &
methods in order to reduce time, energy & materials .
COLLABORATION
• It is working together at same time and in same place.
• As per PLM it is working together over space and overtime .

• Farther we separate, we lose the richness of communication which

effects the collaboration
• Increasing scale of organization have moved to globalization which
disrupted collaboration.

• PLM with its singular view of data, focus on creating rich &
complete view of products through coherence and attempts to
recreate communications in virtual space.
QUALITY
Lack of quality is another way of describing waste time, material and
energy. The 2 aspects are:-
1. Quality is the characteristic of the product meeting its
specification
• If the quality is good , there is no additional cost, else there will be added
cost.
• PLM enables all the producers to know & understand the specification of
products.

2. Aspect of quality is performing to a particular standard of usage.

• Complex product , complex operation environment cannot be know.
• PLM can assist in using different virtual space to test a wide range of
products state & condition in less time & lower cost.
BOARDROOM DRIVERS- IT VALUE MAP

• Income , revenue and costs

• Comparing lean manufacturing , Enterprises resource planning
(ERP), Customer resource management (CRM) and PLM
• IT value map
INCOME , REVENUE AND COST
Function
Price
Revenue
Quantity Quality
Income
Value
Assets Eng.
Time
People
cost Mfg.
Rate
sales
Material
support

Figure represent basic IT value map

• The final outcome of IT map is value. Initiative are done to increase
these values for a products.
• There are two ways to increase income: increase revenue or
decrease cost.
• Revenue is related with price of product or quantity. Increasing price
can reduce quantity sold.
• The more functionality the product has, higher will be price.
• More quality, higher will be price.
• Cost of product depends on two thing that organization buy. I.e.
people and material.
• People working at specified rate and time and Material at specified
cost.
• These includes suppliers cost, wage rate of employees and time of
work etc.
COMPARING LEAN MANUFACTURING

Function
Price
Revenue
Quantity Quality
Income
Value
Assets Eng.
Time
Mfg. People
cost
sales Rate
support
Material

Figure represent basic IT value map for lean manufacturing

• Lean manufacturing is generally successful project for an
organization.
• It is just providing training for people in applying lean
manufacturing techniques .
• Here increase in income comes only with decreasing cost.
• Cost are limited to manufacturing department.
• Focus of lean manufacturing is to decrease waste time and
process, remove inefficient task. Reduce material wastage etc.
ENTERPRISE RESOURCE
PLANNING (ERP)
ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING
(ERP)
Function
Price
Revenue
Quantity Quality
Income
Value
Assets Eng.
Time
People
cost Mfg.
Rate
sales
Material
support

Figure represent basic IT value map ERP

• It has impact on the amount of revenue that an organization
can get because it increases quality.
• Increasing quality increases price of product and thereby the
revenue
• On the cost side ERP is primarily a manufacturing and sales
system.
• Job of ERP is to collect information. This might increase the
rate and cost as data collection involves more people and time
• Therefore ERP are generally expensive.
CUSTOMER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
(CRM)
• Figure represent basic IT value map

Function
Price
Revenue
Quantity Quality
Income
Value
Assets Eng.
Time
People
cost Mfg.
Rate
sales
Material
support
• CRM proposes a race between revenue and cost. If race is not
won by revenue, then CRM cannot increase income.
• It says that quality of product should increase as organization
knowledge on the product grows giving more revenue.
• CRM objective is to increase the income by increasing quantity
of product sold to the customers

• On the cost side CRM focus on collecting information which

increase the peoples time.
• This increase the pay rate of people. Therefore the cost can
increase .
• Thus there is a balance in cost and revenue.
IT VALUE MAP - PLM
• Figure represent basic IT value map

Function
Price
Revenue
Quantity Quality

Income Cost Path

Value Constraint
Assets Eng.
Time
People
cost Mfg.
Rate
sales
Material
support
• PLM impacts all organization
• PLM is not simply trying to decrease cost, but also increase
revenue
• PLM has impact on all functional areas: engineering,
manufacturing, sales and support.
• This information enables them to reduce time spend on
devolving products that exist.
• At top part, PLM works on innovation and quality
• With PLM we would expect price to increase since both
quality and amount of functionality of product is increased.
PLM ELEMENTS

The elements of PLM are:-

• People
• Process/ Practise
• Information Technology
 PEOPLE
• The characteristic of people is important in order to make PLM
successful.
• Different individual will have different capabilities to work. Some have
limited capabilities for simple, well defined work, others have robust
capabilities for tough, uncertain circumstance.
• The aspect which determine these are
• Experience , education, training & support.
• Experience is accumulating information and knowledge about different
situation in order to reduce wasted time , energy and material.
• A way to get around waiting for people to gain experience is to
provide them with education and training.
• Support that an individual is provided with also enhance or distract
from his or her capabilities.
PROCESS / PRACTISE
• Process are well defined & better behaved than practice.
• Dealing with a practice as if it is a process & attempt to make
it more efficient by removing unnecessary information can
make efficiency low.
• The PROCESS for a design change on a complex product
may consist of specific steps that must occur each & every
time.
• However deciding whether the change is consistence with
professional & organization or to send back for revision is
PRATICE
TECHNOLOGY
• Since PLM is heavily dependent on software. It get outdated
quickly
• The companies that have been responsible for the
development of PLM application have to continuously undergo
change.
• There are some issue of technology related to PLM
• PLM application must be configurable & not customizable.
• PLM application ,must be useable & embedded.
• PLM application should be open & harmonize with other application.
• PLM application must be utility like in their performance.