Item-Centric product data management

Lately I see more and more usage of the term ‘Item-Centric’ PDM / PLM. Is every PDM application that can support BOM (Bill of Material) also can say it is ‘Item-Centric’ ?

What do you say, ‘Item-Centric’ = BOM ?

Is it that simple ?

Item-Centric product data management – What is it really?

I will try to specify few elements that are MUST for a real Item-Centric PDM / PLM. After that you can judge yourself which application really provides Item-Centric PDM / PLM, and which just knows to have a simple BOM from the design.

 

The 1st element that is critical to understand will be the fact that when talking about Item-Centric PDM / PLM, we are talking about managing the development process from Concept to Manufacturing, and not just design to BOM. The reason I am saying that is an Item-Centric PDM / PLM means bringing a Top-Down Engineering approach which means I am starting with Item (from Concept), reusing items structures, planning top-down up to the module level and only then going to design bottom-up. any solution that starts bottom-up from the design is not Item-Centric.

Next important element will be Item Maturity Management. When working Item-Centric, the Item maturity represent the development business process maturity and unlike a design maturity (that usually will be based on Check-in/Check-out/Release/Obsolete of the design) the item maturity really represent the development maturity (e.g. In Work, Approved by Engineering, Limited Released for purchasing only (LLI support), Released to manufacturing, Delivered, In Service…). also the movement (Promote/Demote) within this maturity process need to be performed based on the company development process rules and not just sequential.

But, the most important and critical is the ability to automatically apply the company business rules needed for getting into a new maturity state, e.g.:

• Does specifications needs to be released and frozen?
• Do I allow InActive/Obsolete children?
• Do I need all children to be in minimum state (e.g. Released, Approved by Engineering)
• When I demote an Item, how can I be sure I am not breaking maturity of a parent?

Usually, this part will be where you will need to invest a lot of customization (in applications that do not support real Item-Centric).

When implementing an Item-Centric PDM / PLM you need to be able to support different configuration views (e.g. Conceptual BOM, Engineering BOM, Manufacturing BOM, Serialized BOM…) the minimum will be E-BOM (Engineering BOM) and M-BOM (Manufacturing BOM). Is this enough? when working Item-Centric I need the capability to synchronize between those different configuration views, synchronize with embedded business logic (what needs to be synched and what is not), Item-Centric means I’m managing mechatronics (Multi-disciplinary product development integrating mechanical, electrical/electronic and software components – Unified BOM including Hardware (mechanical, electrical / electronic) & Software. This means I need to be able to automatically synch the unified BOM from multiple sources concurrently (Mechanical, Electronics, Software, Standard components, Outsourcing, Excel…) = Concurrent Engineering.

Also, do not forget different configuration views needs to be frozen based on different maturity states (E-BOM needs to be frozen when ‘Approved’ by engineering, but M-BOM is still open for modifications by production engineering.

 

So, to summarized – if one is selling you an Item-Centric PDM / PLM ask him:

1. Do you support Top-Down Engineering?
2. Do you support Item Maturity?
3. Can I model my development process into the Item Maturity?
4. Does the Item Maturity support Out-Of-The-Box business rules?
5. Do you support Configuration views (E-BOM, M-BOM)?
6. Can I automatically synchronize between the Configuration views?
7. Can I manage Mechatronics? unified BOM including Hardware (mechanical, electrical / electronic) & Software?
8. Can I Freeze Configuration views based on Item Maturity?

If the answers are YES to all those questions, you’ve got a real Item-Centric PDM / PLM in hand, if NOT…

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