Infiniti Research Announces the Release of "PLM Software Market 2007-2010" Report

Infiniti Research announces the release of its new report titled “PLM Software Market 2007-2010”. According to TechNavio, Infiniti Research’s IT market intelligence platform, Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions have evolved from being more than just product data management (PDM) solutions to applications and software that help create, disseminate, and manage the use of product and plant information and processes throughout the entire life-cycle and across the extended enterprise.
Yvonne Herkemij, Director of Infiniti Research says

“with globalization and increase in competition from SMBs – especially in discrete manufacturing – enterprises have begun to adopt PLM solutions to remain competitive. In addition, expansion of enterprises and regulatory compliance requiring companies to create and store detailed product information are factors driving the adoption of PLM solutions”.

Have a look at my latest post Which industries would benefit more from adopting PLM?

“companies in the manufacturing industries must adopt PLM, their competition already doing that!. Companies within the emerging industries should understand that ‘The sooner the better’, adopt PLM before the competition and gain advantage in the market – more innovative products to the market, shorter time to market, shorter development process, better usage of the company IP (Intellectual Property) and the ability to reuse it while innovating.”

ENOVIA SmarTeam Engineering Express (SNE) – What do people really think?

As part of my work you can imagine I am meeting a lot of customers, potential customers, resellers and PLM professionals all over the world. it is always nice to hear what they think about what we in ENOVIA SmarTeam delivers to the PLM market. I have already wrote to you about Technicom review of ENOVIA SmarTeam Engineering Express in my previous post ENOVIA SmarTeam Engineering Express Review by TechniCom.

This time I have the opportunity to give you the view of a PLM professional, Jonathan Scott.

Jonathan is a senior PLM consultant from Razorleaf Corp. and has vast experience in PLM, methodology wise and technically.

So, here is Jonathan’s view… this is what people really think…

Dassault Introduces Engineering Express (SNE)

Those of you keeping up with Dassault’s latest announcements related to ENOVIA SmarTeam have certainly heard of SmarTeam Express. This relatively new offering (first introduced on top of V5R16) is a fresh approach to PDM. Several players in the PDM market have tried to offer watered-down versions of their software in an effort to make it easy to adopt PDM. The trouble has generally been that either a) there is no easy way to get from the junior version of the software to the senior version without rip-and-replace, or b) the junior version is missing really critical capabilities (like an API or a database). For their part, Dassault chose to make their offering a streamlined, not crippled, version of ENOVIA SmarTeam. The difference is obvious; you can do anything with the Express offerings that you can do with good old ENOVIA SmarTeam – the Express version just takes some of the distractions out of the way up front.

Dassault’s first installment of the Express lineup was SDE, or SmarTeam Design Express. SDE is targeted at CAD designers and CAD workgroups, in organizations large and small. The offering is a collection of pre-configured ENOVIA SmarTeam elements, including a focused data model, some great customizations, well-designed Profile Cards, and optimized settings. The “streamlined” part of SDE is that users don’t have to think about (or even see) information in the system not related to CAD work. Project tasks, contacts, bills-of-material, and other advanced system capabilities are turned off, allowing users to focus on revision management and relationship management of CAD data. It’s important to note though that “turned off” implies that these other features can be turned on if and when the time comes.

That brings us to SNE. SNE is SmarTeam Engineering Express (SEE is a Dassault designation for another piece of software, so SNE was selected instead). SNE is built on the same data model as SDE, making it easy for new users of the system to add capabilities by removing or applying various Express behaviors and configuration elements. SNE targets the overall engineering process, as a superset of the CAD design process. If I was to offer a slogan for the combined SDE/SNE package, I would say that it, “manages product data from concept through manufacturing”. That includes change processes, BOMs, CAD data, and related documentation.

The Expresses each ship with a methodology guide describing the answers to not just the “how-to” questions, but also the “why” questions. With this, Dassault is providing a powerful tool, a quick-start approach, and best practices built right into the software. What’s really clever about SNE is the way that it incorporates more than just mechanical design. For instance, SNE includes a process for managing ECAD (electrical CAD) files and BOMs side-by-side with MCAD (mechanical CAD) and software design information. The complete product structure can be managed and manipulated in a revision controlled environment (let’s see ERP do that).

SNE contains an even larger set of useful automations and customizations than SDE. Best of all, the latest versions of these Expresses were designed to work together. So what started as a good idea, “provide a streamlined PDM tool with best practices built-in”, has become even stronger in the second addition to the Express line-up. SNE is available on top of V5R18 (at no additional cost, I should mention). Based on the successes and capabilities of SDE and SNE, I am optimistic about the value of the other Express offerings Dassault has in the works.

You can find the article also in Razorleaf web site: http://www.razorleaf.us/dotnetnuke/Newsletter/June2008/tabid/156/Default.aspx#922

PLM for SMB – who are those companies?

PLM for the mid-market

This post is in continuation to my previous post in this subject ‘Do Mid-Market companies need to adopt PLM?‘ and the question in hand is who are those mid-market companies? what are their characteristics?

I will try to specify those companies to maybe share some light on this matter.

Mid-market company in the PLM world

Unlike what we would have think, the mid-market companies develop today very complex products and need to use complex development processes (in the past we could see mid-market companies developing simpler products, but not any more) and they need to do so with fewer people. which means they face essentially the full range of challenges in the PLM world but must be much more efficient in solving those. In addition to that, they face higher competition than in the large OEMs.

Those companies are not anymore local but global (could be even in very small sites) and tend to grow faster. They are usually working across industries (if I am a mold maker for automotive probably I develop molds also for other industries) and they are in most cases part of value chains (need to exchange and collaborate with other companies, do not have responsibility to the end product end to end).

Another interesting characteristic would be the organizational structure. because of the fact that those companies tend to work in more small projects in parallel, they will use in most cases matrix organization instead of hierarchical/program organization.

You will find that the users (the engineers) are integral part of the decision making team and therefor have higher end user influence on decision makers. in general you could say that in those companies you will find more individual view versus corporate process view. This does not reduce those companies’s need to standardize their business processes. 

Those companies usually have fluctuating cash flows & unpredictable revenue stream with limited IT resources. Which leads to the fact that they did not rush to implement the traditional PLM because of low budget and low risk capacity.

Do you have the feeling we are talking about your neighbor carpentry workshop? if yes, you are wrong. We are talking about companies up to around 1 billion $ revenue…

If you find most of the characteristics above fits your company… congratulations! your company is a mid-market company and my guess will be that ENOVIA SmarTeam will fit your company PLM vision.

Product lifecycle management 2008 summit in Israel

PLM 2008 summit:

This month the Product lifecycle management 2008 summit will be held in Israel. this is the 5th PLM summit held, introducing very interesting topics (not only because I will present… ):

• PLM also for SMB
• Optimization of overall processes throughout the product lifecycle
• Time to Market
• Culturing – the culture change as a result of implementing PLM
• PLM as 3D experience
• PLM for SMB versus PLM for ENT
• PLM – for anyone in any place
• PLM architecture – SOA, Web services
• The tight relation between Design, PLM, Product to society and economics

Our PLM sessions:

We will present in 2 sessions in this summit:

• PLM for SMB – The importance and knowhow of PLM rapid deployment
• From concept to manufacturing  – was never easier to reach
• Interesting customer implementation case

and in the second session:

• Introducing PLM 2.0 – The future of PLM is here. With live demo of a PLM Life-like experience

So, for all of you that happened to be in Israel during July 8th, come and join us… for those of you who will not be able to attend, I promise to give you highlights and insights afterwards here in my blog… so keep your subscription…

PLM for SMB Market growth

PLM for SMB Market growth as part of overall SMB Enterprise Applications Market growth

I have just read an article by BusinessWire “Small and Medium-Sized Business Enterprise Applications Market to Grow to $80.3 Billion by 2012, IDC Finds“

In this article IDC forecasts that the small and medium-sized business (SMB) enterprise applications market will grow to $80.3 billion by the end of 2012, representing a 10.6% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for the 2008-2012 period. Additionally, IDC finds that there will be increased spending by small and midsize businesses across the entire spectrum of enterprise application segments over the forecast period.

“With an onslaught of software vendors seeking to capture the growth opportunity in the increasingly lucrative SMB segments, a leadership position will be awarded to those that shape their operating model around increasing customer value,” says Judy Hodges, research manager, Small and Medium Business Markets: Enterprise Applications. “In such a highly competitive marketplace, improving customer value is a market leader’s imperative.”

Based on PLM analysts reports, we know PLM expected growth in the SMB is around 17%, which means PLM growth rate is even higher than the general SMB enterprise applications market.

 

PLM for SMB needs

IDC report also on additional key findings examined, specifying the needs of the SMBs in general. If you remember my post Do Mid-Market companies need to adopt PLM? where I wrote about the needs in the SMB companies, you will see lots of similarity. The key needs based on IDC are:

• The growing needs of SMBs to automate their business processes and meet regulatory compliance means that opportunities will abound in this market. Enterprise applications providers that lead their selling efforts with their solutions’ capabilities for managing these challenges will profit most.
• The SMB markets are extremely competitive and vendors looking to claim a significant share of the expanding opportunity will need to differentiate themselves through delivery of industry-specific functionality for micro-verticals and localized products to appeal to the global needs and support concerns of fast-growing SMBs.
• Vendors will need to ensure more rapid delivery of their applications for time and budget-constrained SMBs by offering fixed scope in-house installations at predictable costs and on-demand subscription programs.
• When searching for new packaged solutions to run their businesses, small firms will seek those that have the non-technical user in mind, require no training, and provide immediate value.

ECR / ECO is not only about the process

I have just read a post in Jos Voskuil blog concerning change management in SMB. You can read the complete post, but in general Jos had conducted an Engineering Express training for ENOVIA SmarTeam resellers. During the training people were wondering whether SMB companies should implement change management (like the big companies…), because the process is creating an overhead that compromises flexibility…well…the truth is that change management (ECR/ECO) is not only about the process!

Moreover, managing ECRs is about traceability, about data management and reducing cost, it is about improving decisions, accuracy and quality of our products. The last time I heard, SMB companies need that also… in a matter of fact… isn’t it why we implement PLM?

So let’s start look at the reasons why we need change management (ECR/ECO):

We all know that if a change will be done during concept or planning phases of the project will cost 1$, the same change in development phase will cost ~100 times more, if this change will happened during manufacturing probably it will cost ~1000 times more… in euros not dollars… it is clear I need to make sure I have as less changes in the product as I move forward from concept to manufacturing in order to achieve that, I need to have the ability to completely understand the items affected from the change (when I worked at Elta, before we implemented change management in our PLM system, we had ~3 ECRs in average for each change. people were working with ECR paper form and doing one for the part they needed to change but what about other parts affected by this change?).

I need to understand all the content of this change (the problem/affected items, the solution items, any references for the change, the change data).

Do I need to be Compliant with standards and regulation like CMII? EIA-649? MIL-STD-973A?

A lot of times you will find parallel change requests on the same item (e.g. I am performing a change on an item and on its assembly also, another engineer is now wishing to perform a change on a different item under the same assembly) can I join the effort and conduct a single ECR for both? probably yes… if I would have only knew about the parallel ECRs…

I need to have the traceability when I am looking at an item which ECO is the origin of this item, what was the change request that was approved for that, is that what was actually implemented in the part?

In order to improve my processes and make better decisions, I need to be able to get statistics and analysis data about the ECRs we are doing (which member of my team has ECRs with the reason of drawing errors? how much? can I start give my team members objectives, measurable objectives for improving the quality of our designs? If the customer keeps giving us changes, can I retrieve all ECRs with the reason of customer request, calculate the changes cost and ask the customer to pay? or do I just lose money… does SMB company has a lot of money to give away…? let’s say I would like to reuse a product developed 5 years ago, probably some of its components have newer versions, how can I easily gets all ECRs opened on this product in the past 5 years and retrieve the newer versions created based on those ECRs?).

Can I do all that by using manual forms? or the new generation data management system called emails?

By implementing change management with ENOVIA SmarTeam Engineering Express I can easily understand the items affected from the change, making sure a change is complete and being done ones. By using all links navigation I can easily navigate to where the problem item is used, what are the documents/analysis/tooling/… related to it that are affects. I can also understand the full content of the change (the problem/affected items, the solution items, any references for the change, the change data):

I can be easily compliant with standards and regulation like CMII, EIA-649, MIL-STD-973A. I can also have single and comprehensive ECR instead of parallel ECRs that will save me money and will improve my quality:

I will have the traceability when I am looking at an item which ECO is the origin of this item, what was the change request that was approved for that, what are the original (affected) items that this item is based on:

I can improve my processes and make better decisions, I will be able to get statistics and analysis data about the ECRs we are performing:

I also will be able to get an ECR report to even see it manually like I used to:

Ahhhh… So I guess the overhead that compromises flexibility actually will make my development process easier, will make my decisions better, will reduce my development time and will save me money… a lot of money… just for the example, a company with only 10 engineers creating around only 1 change a week can save by implementing this ‘pure overhead’ change management around 150,000$ a year!

I actually will be able to deliver my products earlier to market (maybe before my competition?). Isn’t it what PLM is really about???

Now… does it really matters if I have 2 or 3 or 5 nodes in the process?

Do Mid-Market companies need to adopt PLM?

PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) is well accepted in the large OEMs of the world – you probably won’t be able to find any leading OEM that is not utilizing PLM. But in the mid-market (the vast majority of the world’s manufacturers), PLM use is not that obvious.

Is it because the mid-market manufacturers do not need PLM?

Is it because the challenges mid-market companies face are not the same challenges as the big ones; are they not that critical to the business?

When you look at today’s mid-market companies, you will see that not only  they face and are affected by the same challenges as the big OEMs, they deal with even more challenges:

·         The demand for shorter product lifecycle is getting higher and higher

·         Globalization of markets

·         Supply chains have been changed and almost every mid-market company find itself as part of a supply chain (even outside the traditional Automotive and Aerospace supply chains)

·         More complex design or distributed design environment

·         Mid-market companies are developing and manufacturing more complex products than in the past

·         Huge amount of parallel projects (unlike a small number of big projects in the large OEMs)

·         Data reuse becomes critical for success, ~70% of the products does not start from scratch

·         Competition in the mid-market is higher

·         Less resources; less money to invest

If you look at the short list above (if you belong to a mid-market company I am sure you have nodded your head while reading each line…), you understand that the answer to the question in matter is very clear… YES, YES and YES.

Not only implementing PLM today gives one of the biggest ROI a critical business system can give your company, but the truth is that in today’s world, you can’t really afford not to implement PLM.

After we all understand that adopting PLM even in the mid-market is a must, a short fun exmple: “Why we need PLM…”

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