A Survey, Few Facts and INNOVATION

In our daily conversation, terms like innovation, invention and creativity are often used interchangeably. But, for academics, researchers and policymakers there are important distinctions between these terms and these distinctions give each term a unique, specific meaning.
Competition today it isn’t about big things, elements that are very easily seen but it is about small things that anybody else haven’t seen. This is why almost all enterprises are in a search of creating competitive advantage against its competitors.

PwC carried out a survey of 246 CEOs from around the world, and the surveys showcases changing role and nature of innovation in today’s businesses. 64% say innovation and operational effectiveness are equally important to the success of their company. What emerges from the latest survey is that CEOs are now taking personal responsibility for directing and inspiring innovation as it becomes an ever more vital element of business survival and success. The problem is that while the eyes of the CEO are fixed on innovation, the body of the organization may not be following. The ‘antibodies’ that inhibit innovation include a culture that sees it as separate from the mainstream operations of the business and is slow to commercialize new ideas.

This is where we at Panso Solutions differentiate ourselves from our competition. Innovation is part of our DNA. Be it a technical developer or the C level executives; each individual tries to imbibe their respective knowledge with a flavor of innovation. Trying to do things differently and efficiently is what we strive for but apart from that we pride ourselves is to do things that others haven’t thought about.

The byproduct of our constant urge for innovation is the Solution studio which showcases some of the most innovative solutions which has helped our customers in terms of cost saving, time to market, process simplification and much more.

Having an innovation doesn’t mean that a company has sustainable competitive advantage. In order the innovation to be used in gaining competitive advantage; companies need to have appropriate strategies in order to use these innovations in a proper way. Without these strategies having innovation is like having the latest smart phone but with no battery!

Boyang Hardware employs Solid Edge dramatically improves productivity and throughput

Boyang designs better with Solid Edge. Marine hardware manufacturer created an error-free design environment, boosted product development 20 percent, reduced manufacturing errors 10 percent and increased orders and enhanced competitiveness.


For 30 years, Boyang Hardware (Boyang) has produced industry-leading products, such as ship cabin equipment and other steel and aluminum products for major shipbuilders and shipyards throughout Asia. Boyang has invested in technology development and innovation and has increased its competency by earning ISO 9002 Standard Quality certification, Hyundai Mipo Dockyard HGMS certification and WPS Shipping certifications.

As Boyang attempted to expand its business from the core shipbuilding business to the marine plant field, the company faced internal challenges due to increasing demand for its products. The organization also faced quality issues as it ramped up production. There were too many errors and inaccuracies in product design that led to an increase in scrap. Reviewing and editing 2D drawings was time-consuming. In addition, the inherent difficulty in interpreting 2D drawings by designers and manufacturers led to even more physical losses.

The company tried to solve these issues by hosting stringent internal reviews and lengthy meetings revolving around 2D design data. However, the legacy system’s product data management capabilities were inadequate, so the company started investigating new solutions for both designing and manufacturing.

Boyang needed a solution in which design errors could be easily spotted and corrected, as well as one with that enabled quick problem-solving. Eventually, the company reached a consensus to replace its 2D design approach with a hybrid 2D/3D approach, concluding that the older 2D system was the main reason for most of the design errors. An important point in selecting a new system was its ability to minimize any losses during the migration of its enormous amount of 2D data to the 3D environment.

Learn how 

Try Solid Edge for free

Boat designers quickly capture customers’ preferences

Back Cove Yachts designs better with Solid Edge. Using synchronous technology, motorized yacht manufacturer makes more design iterations than it could with traditional history-based modeling processes. It also increased productivity and creativity, spent more time to refine boat aesthetics and gained better ability to respond to customer and dealer input.

Learn How

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Teamcenter – Sap Integration Gateway

Bill of Material Concept

BOM management is most important functionality of PLM system. BOM is most critical component in a product based industry and managing it is still most challenging aspect in PLM system. The complexity increases as BOM lifecycle doesn’t reside just in one system or domain but in multiple Enterprise systems. Also Bill of Material for a given Product or Part means different to different section of people in the company based on their perspective and functionality for the given BOM.

Concept of Bill of Material: BOM is defined as “A comprehensive list of raw materials, components and assemblies required to build or manufacture a product”. Hence it is a detail recipe of product which help to define, build and maintain a product. Since product goes through various lifecycle and interacts with various discipline or domain from Design to Manufacturing to Service to Finance, Bill of material also goes through similar lifecycle and various discipline or domain. Hence for a given product there resides many BOM based on the lifecycle and discipline which required using it. For example Design Engineer mainly deals with Functional aspect of product where as Manufacture Engineer deals with manufacturability aspect of product. Hence the way the Design Engineer look same BOM is different from manufacture engineer. Same is true for Service Engineer, Procurement etc. Each one has his own way of looking of BOM.

There is numerous ways for defining the BOM for same product. In technical terms, BOM can mainly classified as follow

a) Design BOM (EBOM): This deal with functional aspect of product. This is mainly first steps of BOM creation for a product. The design BOM usually originates from CAD model or Functional architecture breakdown. Manufacturing BOM usually derived from Design BOM.

b) Manufacturing BOM (MBOM): This BOM deals with manufacturing aspect of Product. Hence it can have detail related to manufacture information along with part detail of product. For example Tools or Fixture can be part of Manufacturing BOM (or it can be reference in the Part). Also some single design part can be consider combination of component ( Ex : Welding two plates ).

c) Material BOM: This BOM mainly managed in ERP system for inventory and process planning. They deal with actual physical aspect of parts. Design or Manufacturing BOM can have component which might not be real or perishables item. For example MBOM can have component for intermediate manufacturing operation which doesn’t exist as storage or tangible part.

d) Service BOM: This BOM deals with Serviceability of Product. This BOM has only that information which defines the service aspect of Product. Hence it deals only with list of part which is serviceable. Therefore this BOM doesn’t have detail for subassembly which constitute as a single part from service perspective.

Apart from above BOM type there are some other BOM type like Order BOM, Procurement BOM etc which are derivatives of above BOMs with some variation. Also BOM can also be distinguishing based on configurability of BOM.

Configurable BOM: From single BOM, based on certain rules or condition you can derive various resultants BOM. For example for a given model of a car, you can multiple versions. The Configurable BOM is used to dynamically create "end-items" that a company sells. The rule as basically variant and condition are option for those variant. For example based on engine type, power train can be selected in a given BOM. Configurable BOM provide a means to company to manage single BOM for multiple products variant. This saves considerable time and cost to company. All major PLM tools provide configurable BOM management modules.

Master BOM: Looking at so many BOMs variant for a given product, it is always a night mare for the company to manage all BOM and synchronize all when there is any change in either upstream (Design) or downstream (Service). To overcome this challenge, the concept of Master BOM has come.  Master Bill of Material can be defined as single source of BOM having all aspect of information for various configuration and discipline. Hence Master BOM by definition is single source of truth for all BOM. Industry is still struggling to find the exact solution in term of defining and managing Master BOM. Also it become more complex due to the facts that different BOM types are managed in different systems. PLM vendors including Siemens PLM has come various solution and tools, but still required to show the success and maturity of managing Master BOM as a single source of truth across various BOM lifecycle and discipline.

Source : http://teamcenterplm.blogspot.in/2014/01/bill-of-material-concept.html

Excel to Aras Solution Showcase

A company implementing a PLM solution faces many challenges. One of the most typical challenge is to get data from various other data sources like excel into the PLM system. There are certain risks involved while performing these activities :

* It is a messy, time-consuming undertaking if done manually
* High potential for loss of information
* Difficult and unattractive task
* Engineers’ non value-added activities hinder productivity

Excel to Aras Solution - bridging the gap between EXCEL and PLM!

Panso’s Plug-in to excel and PLM solution bridges the gap between excel and PLM implementation.
The Excel to Aras Solution :

* Provides a framework to perform bulk operations
* Create customized reports
* Easy import of bulk data records to Aras Innovator architecture

Making Teamcenter 10.1 Licensing Work with Older Teamcenter Versions

As more and more of you may be discovering since the Teamcenter 10.1 release a few weeks ago, Siemens PLM has changed many licensed feature names in Teamcenter 10.1 which do not work with older versions of Teamcenter. Also, the new Tc10.1 license file does not yet contain entries for some licensed features that exist in your pre-Tc10 license file.

This is type of thing causes us customers a lot of frustration since we need to install newer versions of license files to support development and upgrade testing of the newer versions while at the same time having to continue supporting the current production environment. This leaves customers in a bind since they (or at least I) do not plan to buy duplicate licenses of everything just for testing purposes.

There is a workaround to this problem that I have used over the years: combine the old and new license files into one file that serves both Teamcenter versions at the same time. I have successfully done this to support Tc10.1 development while still maintaining our Teamcenter 8.3 production environment.

To do this,

1) Copy the problematic or missing feature entries from your pre-Tc10 license file to your new Tc10 license file.

2) Install the latest version of the Flexlm licensing software.

3) Use the newly merged license file.

4) Reread license file using ‘lmreread’, or restart your license service.

I did this and am now to able to plan our next upgrade again while at the same time continuing to support our current Teamcenter environment.

Source : http://www.plmworld.org

Increase Profitability by Taking Control of Procurement Costs

When procuring a part, it is important for procurement officers to understand the supplier’s costs, their material costs, manufacturing costs, machine rates, labor and burden costs, etc. This wealth of  information provides a foundation for procurement officers to judge if the price quoted by the supplier is realistic, improving their negotiating position and allowing them to take control of procurement costs.

Unfortunately, obtaining these information is not easy, the efforts required to gather these information varies from one industry to another. In automotive, mechanical engineering or aerospace for example, it is especially difficult because a large portion of the purchasing budget applies to complex systems and assemblies. Another factor affecting costs is the lack of viable supplier choices, because only a few suppliers are able to produce such complex parts.

Traditional methods for cost analysis are based on stale and anecdotal after-the-fact data. Teamcenter Product Cost Management allows you leverage the same product lifecycle management (PLM) system you use to manage product development to predict and control product costs using data such as geometry, materials selection, part volumes, assembly and product definition. Teamcenter also provides a common database for critical information such as labor rates and material costs so that they can be updated once with the most recent data and reflected across multiple cost models.

Teamcenter Product Cost Management efficiently and accurately calculates costs and prices of purchased components from various material groups by performing process-based “shadow calculation” and bottom-up validation of purchase prices. With Teamcenter Product Cost Management you can easily calculate target prices for project purchasing, perform price verification for series purchasing, compare costs across multiple production sites to determine the best-cost country to source from, and perform make-or-buy analyses.

By having more accurate cost models and knowing the cost composition of a product, its materials, manufacturing and overhead costs, you can take control of the procurement negotiation to arrive at the desired product costs and increase your profitability.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

The phrase “A picture is worth a thousand words” is generally attributed to a newspaper editor, Arthur Brisbane, who first used it in a 1911 article about journalism.  At the time, photography was relatively new and Brisbane was conveying the notion that images (i.e. visualization) make it easy to communicate complex subjects compared to text. It was true then and it remains true today.

Visualization in the PLM domain is extremely beneficial because it increases clarity and understanding of complex products and processes. It leads to faster decision making1  and increases productivity. Siemens PLM is a leader in PLM visualization with viewers that take advantage of the ISO standard JT format for visualization. Our portfolio of viewers includes sophisticated Product Mockup tools (Teamcenter Visualization Mockup), free viewers (JT2GO), and everything in-between including embedded viewers ( Teamcenter Lifecycle Viewer) and a software development toolkit (PLM Vis).

In fact, there are so many viewers that I’d like to take this opportunity to give you a “picture” (well, ok, it’s a table) of all of our viewers so you can pick the one(s) that meets your needs.

Most of these products are self-explanatory, with the exception of PLM Vis, so I’ll elaborate a bit. The basic explanation is that PLM Vis enables our customers to enhance and create custom applications that include visualization based on our commercial technology and the JT standard.

Of course, some development effort is required, but our customers think it’s worth it because “a picture is worth a thousand words”…..

By enhancing existing applications, customers are able to continue to work using their existing processes while improving productivity through the addition of graphics; for example:

An automotive company developed an in-house Issues Tracking application that referenced JT files. The company embedded PLM Vis into this application so that the 3D models are visible alongside the issue description.  This increased clarity and improved the solution time.

A consumer electronics company enhanced their in-house workflow application by using PLM Vis to visualize 2D and 3D data. This greatly enhanced the approval process by eliminating the need for a separate viewing application. Stakeholders benefited from greater clarity throughout the process.

Customers also use PLM Vis to create new sophisticated applications that include visualization using the same robust commercial technology we use in our own products. These custom applications increase productivity because they are company and data specific and have a focused, streamlined Ux. They may also enable sophisticated capabilities that are not available in “out of the box” solutions. For example:

An aerospace company embedded controls in their drawing files to launch a 3D model view of the corresponding location.  This reduced the time required to understand a complex drawing, identify potential problem areas and make modifications if required.

Hopefully, you now have a better “picture” of what can be done with PLM Vis. PLM Vis provides our customers with the ability to enhance or create custom visualization applications using the same technology that is the foundation for our entire visualization portfolio. It’s an important part of the Siemens PLM visualization portfolio and offers the ultimate in flexibility with respect to Ux and non Teamcenter data integration.  PLM Vis based applications are robust, tailored to a company’s specific needs and enable faster, smarter decision making.

Latest Release: Aras Innovator 10 PLM Platform

Aras Innovator 10 provides a new level of PLM platform scalability for enterprises with global supply chains, and introduces an HTML5 browser interface which redefines usability making PLM more accessible for business users.

The latest release of Aras Innovator is technology focused with Firefox browser support, the top-rated, most-wanted item on our Roadmap, and includes inputs from ECCO, GE, MAN and other members of the Aras Community.

"The HTML5 browser client together with scalability for over 100,000 users enables true collaboration within companies and across the extended enterprise making Aras Innovator 10 the best PLM platform for businesses with complex products and complicated processes," said Peter Schroer, President of Aras.


Release Highlights

• Scalable - Scales from 100 users to over 100,000 users providing enterprises with global supply chains and companies of all sizes with a new level of power
• Lean - Fewer lines of code for greater efficiency and performance on standard hardware configurations
• Modern - New roles-based Web browser interface features an Office 13-style look & feel with new SVG icons, controls and shortcut keys for common functions

Get the release notes and download Aras Innovator.

Is April 2014 the Next Y2K?

Microsoft is ending support for Windows XP on April 8th, 2014.  If your company is still running XP on ANY computers, you should act now.

Here are 3 reasons why you should act:

1. Your unsupported and unpatched environments could be vulnerable to new exploits that come out after April 2014.

2. XP may be working just fine, but it’s more than a decade old.  You should upgrade to take advantage of new OS technology.  Better memory management for NX, better file search, improved User Interface and more.

3. Your other business applications may no longer be supported after April 2014.

In 1999, there was the fear that key computers around the world would  fail and cause a global “meltdown” as  January 1, 2000 approached.  While there wasn’t a massive “meltdown” of computer systems, many companies used this as an opportunity to upgrade their systems,  re-evaluate and re-engineer their processes.  We can’t think of a better excuse to modernize your PLM system than this.

Tips for a Successful PLM Implementation

How do you ensure success with PLM? We've put together a complete guide of best practices for PLM implementation but to get you started, here are a few tips:

• Use an iterative approach. Start with a well-defined problem and implement the solution in manageable phases that comprise the complete project.
• Gather requirements at a high level. Plan near tern phases in detail and longer term phases more loosely as they will likely change in scope over time.
• Involve users early and often. Users drive requirements, develop use cases, validate prototypes and more.
• Don't underestimate the value of training. Train your team early in the process so they are familiar with Aras.
• Test. Test. And test again. Create visual and behavioral prototypes to test and validate with users.

 

How to Claim the Benefits of PLM

If you asked 10 people in your company to give you a definition of PLM, you would likely get 10 different answers. That's because people have very different experiences with PLM, or maybe a lack of experience with PLM. To claim the benefits of PLM there are some steps you must follow. This post will not try to mention every single step that you must follow, that would take way too long and I want to eat lunch. But, this list represents some of the key activities that you must follow in order to claim the full benefits of PLM for your business:

Education

The first step in any PLM activity is to education everyone. By that I mean the executives, the PLM team participants, and others that will be supporting your PLM initiative. Once people are education, and they understand the comprehensive nature of PLM, they will be more likely to support your efforts. A good PLM definition to start with is:

PLM is the collaborative creation, use, management & dissemination of product related intellectual assets.

Some key aspects of PLM include the following:

•     PLM is a strategic business approach, not just a collection of technologies.
•     PLM supports the extended enterprise.
•     PLM spans the full product life-cycle, from concept to end of life.

Once you have educated people about PLM, you will be able to have important discussions about your business on a level playing field. When everyone is on the same page regarding PLM, you will find that making progress is much easier. To claim the benefits of PLM for your business, you must educate your people.

Information Management

Managing the information within your business is one of the core features of PLM. Without managing your information (intellectual assets), you won't be able to have the confidence to make decisions. This leads to delays, mistakes, redundant reviews, unnecessary signatures, and an overall inefficient business process. Until you can manage your information effectively, and guarantee that all information is valid, complete, and available, you will struggle to claim the benefits of PLM for your business.

PLM is Strategic

Understanding the strategic nature of PLM will lead you to seek out more understanding about your strategic business objectives. Once you understand the strategic direction of your business, you can craft a PLM vision that supports your business. This leads to a long list of business requirements. This, along with other requirements will drive the selection and implementation of PLM in your business.

In order to claim the benefits of PLM you must consider three important factors:

•     People - How will people be encouraged and supported through the changes that PLM will bring.
•     Processes - What new processes are needed to support the implementation of PLM.
•     Technology - What is the proper technology to support strategic business objectives and the PLM vision.

You cannot consider just one of these three in isolation if you want to get the most out of PLM. All three will have a major impact on the success of PLM at your company. Our experience shows us that most of the failed PLM implementation we have seen are not a result of bad technology, but more often a result of process or people issues.

Measure PLM Benefits

It is important to convince your executives, and your users that PLM has benefits. That also means that you need a way to measure and illustrate the degree and timing of PLM benefits. We recommend using a spreadsheet model that allows you to calculate cost vs. benefits and then show a valid ROI for PLM. Once you have charts and graphs of how PLM will impact you business, it becomes much easier to convince others about the value of PLM.

We recommend an early benefits appraisal analysis for feasibility to show the potential benefits of PLM. Do this early and use this to sell PLM to the organization. Then, you can gauge additional benefits as your PLM program progresses to determine the real ROI. This repeatable methodology also allows you to do this benefits analysis as often as needed. To claim the benefits of PLM for your business you will need to sell these benefits to many organizations using a repeatable appraisal methodology.

Conclusions

Making PLM successful requires education, managing your information, strategic planning, and measuring benefits. There are many other activities and plans you will need to be successful with PLM, but if you start with these key items, you will be well on your way to claiming the benefits of PLM for your business.

Source: http://plmjim.blogspot.in/2013/12/how-to-claim-benefits-of-plm.html

Teamcenter Product Cost Management

Increase profitability by taking control of procurement costs

When procuring a part, it is important for procurement officers to understand the supplier’s costs, their material costs, manufacturing costs, machine rates, labor and burden costs, etc. This wealth of  information provides a foundation for procurement officers to judge if the price quoted by the supplier is realistic, improving their negotiating position and allowing them to take control of procurement costs.

Unfortunately, obtaining these information is not easy, the efforts required to gather these information varies from one industry to another. In automotive, mechanical engineering or aerospace for example, it is especially difficult because a large portion of the purchasing budget applies to complex systems and assemblies. Another factor affecting costs is the lack of viable supplier choices, because only a few suppliers are able to produce such complex parts.

Traditional methods for cost analysis are based on stale and anecdotal after-the-fact data. Teamcenter Product Cost Management allows you leverage the same product lifecycle management (PLM) system you use to manage product development to predict and control product costs using data such as geometry, materials selection, part volumes, assembly and product definition. Teamcenter also provides a common database for critical information such as labor rates and material costs so that they can be updated once with the most recent data and reflected across multiple cost models.

Teamcenter Product Cost Management efficiently and accurately calculates costs and prices of purchased components from various material groups by performing process-based “shadow calculation” and bottom-up validation of purchase prices. With Teamcenter Product Cost Management you can easily calculate target prices for project purchasing, perform price verification for series purchasing, compare costs across multiple production sites to determine the best-cost country to source from, and perform make-or-buy analyses.

By having more accurate cost models and knowing the cost composition of a product, its materials, manufacturing and overhead costs, you can take control of the procurement negotiation to arrive at the desired product costs and increase your profitability.

A Brief Guide to Integrating Teamcenter with other Enterprise Systems

Executive Summary
Companies are often faced with the challenge of integrating standalone PLM systems with ERP and there are clear business benefits that can be derived from achieving a robust bi-directional flow of bill of material (BOM) information between the two environments.

The sheer variety and complexity of the integration challenge means that ‘off the shelf’ ERP connector products may not always provide the level of flexible bi-directional integration that is demanded.

In these circumstances a more bespoke approach becomes necessary. In this context, there are a number of different ways for integrating to Teamcenter ranging in complexity from the very simple file based to a more sophisticated SOA type approach. The most appropriate approach will take into account the complexity of the integration challenge as well any infrastructure and financial constraints.

The paper begins by looking at basic XML approaches with a particular focus on PLMXML. The various ways of exporting PLMXML are reviewed and the appropriateness of using PLMXML is also discussed. The paper explains when & why PLMXML may not always be the most effective approach and discusses alternatives.

This leads into a fuller discussion of the various Teamcenter APIs. Server side approaches are discussed with particular focus on the Teamcenter Integration Toolkit (ITK) and the new C++ API which is an alternative to ITK with Teamcenter Unified.

The paper then discusses how server side customisations (or user services) can be made accessible from a Teamcenter client via another module in Java (weaved into the Teamcenter Rich Client interface).

The paper explores variations on this theme. For instance, how ITK can be bypassed completely and Java integration programs written directly into the Teamcenter Rich Client Platform using the Teamcenter Portal API. There is also a discussion of how & why it may be desirable to expose server-side (ITK) functionalities through the thin or web client.

The final part of the paper explores the Teamcenter SOA client toolkit. The SOA approach becomes very useful when you have other enterprise applications that cannot be run in the context of a Teamcenter client or server environment but which still needs to access Teamcenter functionality or data.

Read more at AESSiS
 

Vishwakarma Engineering Works - Solid Edge Case Study

Business challenges: Make parts that are more standardized Promote design re-use Develop new products consistently

Keys to success: Convert to a 3D process Utilize experienced users in training of new users Implement synchronous technology

Results: Enabled faster product development Eliminated non value-added work Reduced errors found during manufacturing stage

Limitation of 2D Drawings: Although 2D drawings had been the primary design deliverable for many years, Vishwakarma Engineering Works (VEWorks) found that there were drawbacks to a 2D approach. If there was a design change, 2D drawings could not be easily updated in a timely manner. Changing complex assemblies involved considerable drafting hours. Engineers faced pressure to revise the drawings, which was not only time consuming, but also arduous. Moreover, VEWorks often is tasked with producing a prototype to be approved by customers before getting the go-ahead for production.

“The conventional way of designing in 2D was an impediment,” says Jay Patel, CEO. “It was time-consuming and often human errors would surface during the manufacturing stage.”

He notes, “Our production orders are usually for small batches in varying sizes. Any change in dimension requires updating the entire assembly. This is more common when we are manufacturing process equipment.”
The solution was to convert to a 3D design process.

Choosing Solid Edge: VEWorks chose to implement Solid Edge® software from product lifecycle management (PLM) specialist Siemens PLM Software. The most complete hybrid 2D/3D computer-aided design (CAD) system, Solid Edge with synchronous technology enables a company to accelerate design, makes changes faster, and improve the reuse of imported CAD data.

Patel notes, “One meeting with Siemens PLM Software was sufficient for our management to understand the advantages Solid Edge had to offer. The biggest advantage with Solid Edge is that it offers far better editing and updating capabilities than any of its competitors. It’s backed by support that is among the best in the industry. Plus, Siemens PLM Software offers a comprehensive range of product development solutions that can be easily integrated into our growing organizational structure.” Read Full Story.

Why PLM Is So Important For High-Tech Manufacturers

Product lifecycle management (PLM) may sound like one of those deep-in-the-weeds business terms, but it has become one of the most important arenas for accelerating product deliveries, reducing costs, and generating more revenues in major manufacturing industries. Going forward, aerospace, consumer electronics, medical device, semiconductors, and wireless infrastructure manufacturers would need to invest even more in product lifecycle management technologies and capabilities and Product Lifecycle Services to make this complex process more streamlined, cohesive, and simplified.

So what is product lifecycle management? Put simply, it’s all the processes and systems involved in product development from the original product conception through the end of its life. Product lifecycle management involves numerous corporate groups such as marketing, engineering, manufacturing, and purchasing. These processes and systems are particularly designed for use by manufacturers employing thousands of highly skilled designers, scientists and engineers working within global processes across hundreds of current and future products.

Why is PLM so important?

Product development has become strategically crucial to the financial performance of these manufacturing companies so they are investing more in it. They understand and appreciate problems PLM addresses and the benefits it can reap such as lower production costs, as well as accelerations in new product designs and launch schedules and engineering cycle times.

What’s at stake for high-tech manufacturers?

Each year these manufacturers companies spend as much as 25 percent of their revenues—in some cases billions of dollars—on innovation and product development, according to Accenture analysis. But nearly half of the investment is on products that are either late to market or don’t  address customer requirements. A one percent reduction in the time it takes to deliver a product to market by improving PLM, for example, can translate to major financial benefits.

While PLM can solve a plethora of problems, a one-size-fits-all offering does not exist. The correct remedies depend on the company, industry, specific needs, and competitive dynamics. Based on Accenture’s extensive experiences with clients, however, the most pervasive and common problems are inefficient end-to-end processes, fragmented data systems, mounting offering and product complexity, and difficulties adhering to more and increasingly stringent regulations.

Four Product Development Problems Vex Manufacturers

Inefficient end-to-end processes: Because of deeply ingrained silos within these companies, the marketing, product planning, engineering, manufacturing, purchasing, sales, and service groups often operate independently. Too often these groups are disconnected islands that rarely talk to each other. To boost efficiency, they need to operate in a more coordinated and streamlined fashion by determining areas where the overall process can be improved. To further improve end-to-end process efficiency, they should enhance and supplement their work forces, as well as enhance product design, validation, and manufacturing.

Fragmented data systems:  When investing in product development, companies seek data about requirements, designs, parts, bills of material, software codes, and quality. But within these companies such data often remains disorganized, unclear, redundant and dispersed throughout different groups spread among hundreds of applications. Valuable product development data does not get captured, categorized, managed nor disseminated efficiently. These firms need to create centralized data owners and management systems. By doing so, they increase accessibility of accurate, timely and reusable data throughout the business. This increases process efficiency and re-use of product development data and, therefore, investment dollars.

Mounting product complexity: Most companies have seen a steady increase in their number of product offerings, which often combine sophisticated services and features. But due to the mix of mechanical, electronic, software, and service elements, these products are increasingly complex. As such, the offerings are more complicated to conceptualize, develop, and deliver to market. These companies need to examine and enhance the profitability of different product types and features as well as project platforms. Furthermore, if companies are challenged to gather excellent internal and external product ideas, they can accelerate innovation processes, incubate new businesses, and create and mine new product ideas.

Difficulties adhering to increasingly stringent regulations: In the product development arena of high-tech companies, the number of global regulations continues to grow and often has become more complex. To avoid fines and penalties, these companies need to be vigilant and well-organized in following product regulations. They need to more uniformity in the ways in which these regulations are abided by and tracked.

Final Thoughts

It’s not an overstatement to say that PLM is fast becoming one of the most important areas in manufacturing companies for improving business performance. The potential improvements PLM offers are widespread and significant. They can be realized using a number of approaches and techniques. This is the time for manufacturers to derive all the benefits they can out of their PLM processes.

Source: http://www.mbtmag.com/articles/2013/07/why-plm-so-important-high-tech-manufacturers

Shop Floor Work Instructions Made Easier With PLM

How do you create the work instructions for your shop floor workers? How do you reconcile them with the manufacturing structure? How do you communicate changes?

If you’re using paper-based methods to create and communicate work instructions, or finding your electronic methods cumbersome, you may want to consider switching to interactive, PLM-based electronic work instruction.

Electronic work instruction (EWI) refers to computerized visual tools to instruct shop floor workers to perform their jobs. Unlike paper-based work instructions, electronic work instructions may also include 3D models of the parts to be assembled, information about the tools as well as product and manufacturing information (PMI). In addition, EWI may be interactive, allowing the reader to manipulate the 3D view, play animated assembly sequences as well as browse through a sequential list of steps to be performed per job order.

EWI is in use by many manufacturers from various industry segments. Any production line that requires manual operations requires a certain level of shop floor documentation. Regulated industries such as aerospace and shipbuilding must invest significant efforts to define and implement high standards for shop floor documentation. In many cases, government regulations mandate that shop floor documents meet certain criteria.

There is no single way to author work instructions. Some manufacturers may use inexpensive Microsoft Office® software tools to author documents, while others implement integrated work instruction and routing planning tools. In general, work instructions are tightly connected to the engineering design and manufacturing planning processes, constituting a significant component of the communication flow. Authoring of work instructions requires the availability of engineering and manufacturing information, as well as the validity of assembly processes. In some cases, work instructions may include instructions for machine operators. Shop floor work instructions also have to satisfy intra-company formatting and layout standards. Therefore, customized template creation is a key requirement of any work instructions solution.

Traditionally, work instructions would be printed and distributed to the shop floor with accompanying 2D engineering drawings. Many manufacturers still use that method, at least partially. Electronic work instruction, however, may be embedded into the enterprise manufacturing execution system (MES). This allows manufacturers to combine all manufacturing execution tasks and information into a single backbone, and to link the work instructions to work orders, resources and parts stock. MES systems also allow data collection which is required for many processes (for example, nonconformance).

Building on the value of MES-based electronic work instructions, Siemens PLM Software now offers an end-to-end, PLM-based solution for work instruction authoring and publishing. The basic concept is that the entire authoring process – from engineering design through manufacturing planning to shop floor execution – is performed using product lifecycle management (PLM) software. PLM applications support the workflow, and the work instruction data, including CAD-neutral visualization using the JT format. The PLM system manages electronic work instructions in one single source that spans the lifecycle, from Design to Manufacturing Planning to Process Instructions Planning to Execution.

Because the authoring process is managed using a single PLM backbone, your company reduces the risk of quality escapes, increases engineering efficiency and eliminates the need for data conversion. The PLM system supports smooth change management, minimizes data conversion and provides state-of-the-art 3D-based interactive authoring. Your company can realize significant savings in engineering time, as well as minimize time spent by manufacturing experts on the shop floor.

Source: http://www.mbtmag.com

PLM Licensing is so Old School

The way enterprise PLM software is licensed to businesses is wrong, period. Pay now. And pay later. Then pay even more. And why not pay for things you can’t even identify. Traditional PLM licensing schemes are complicated, confusing, expensive and broken… and their days are numbered.

To understand why, you need to experience it first-hand. Start by getting a quote from your friendly, knowledgeable PLM salesman at any of the major legacy PLM system providers.

User-seat licenses are the first thing you'll want to know the cost for; however, as you get into the quoting process you will soon learn that each User license has accompanying "modules" access. This is a fancy way of magically justifying higher and higher fees.

From there you learn that server licenses are needed, along with a lot of other ancillary things such as developer licenses and other mysterious costs. Next thing you know, you've got a multi-million dollar quote and the salesman is telling you he's going to do you a favor by providing a "discount." But wait, there's more.

If your PLM software deployment gains wide-spread adoption (a goal of every successful PLM implementation), you will need to purchase more licenses. PLM license expenses can be huge up-front, but broad, global roll-outs are where the costs absolutely skyrocket. Effectively, the PLM project becomes a victim of its own success.

The reality is that many PLM implementations have been stuck as "engineering only" systems or worse, "limited to a few designers only" because it is economically unfeasible to spend the small fortune required to provide everyone that needs access with a license.

If it is proposed that PLM licenses be purchased for "only those that need them," then the company's competitive position is being sacrificed. Collaboration is essential to innovation and without it your company is sure to lose its edge.

Yesterday's safe answers are today’s death knell. That's why the days of expensive enterprise PLM software's User-Seat License schemes are over. Buyer beware, you may be jeopardizing your company's future (and your own career) if you purchase PLM licenses from one of the major providers.

So, if User-seat PLM licensing is broken and wrong for the enterprise, then what's the answer? What's the alternative? No user licenses, end of story.

Panso Solutions to Sponsor PLM World® Detroit Regional Users 2013 Conference

Regional Conference Provides Opportunity to Learn About Latest Innovations and Collaborate on Best Practices for the Siemens Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) Software Suite.

India – 18-10-2013 - Panso solutions a new age PLM, IT and Engineering solutions and services firm today announced that it will sponsor Detroit Regional Users Group 2013 conference which takes place on 5th November , in Troy, Michigan.

Detroit Regional Users Group 2013 Conference – 5th November, 2013
Troy Marriot - Troy, MI
Details and Registration: http://www.plmworld.org/detroitrugevent

Sriram Chitlur, CEO of Panso Solutions, said, “Panso Solutions is excited and honored to sponsor and participate the PLM World ® Detroit Regional Users Group 2013 Conference. It’s an excellent forum and brings people together from all over the Siemens Corporate Community and all over the world, providing an excellent opportunity to interact, learn and listen to the voice of users, understanding their challenges and provide solutions for their business problems.”

The Detroit Regional Users Group conference of PLM World is the local voice for the users of the Siemens product suites of PLM tools in SE Michigan. The event provides an excellent opportunity to learn about the latest innovations, talk to users that have achieved PLM success and find out what’s coming next in the future from partners and collaborate on best practices within Siemens Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) Software Suite.

About PLM World ®
PLM World ® is an independent, not-for profit organization. Their mission is to be the Voice of the User in providing an open forum for the exchange of ideas within the Siemens Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) Software product environment. Through networking, these users share best practices and technical techniques for implementing and using the software more effectively. For user-to-Siemens PLM Software interaction, they helped Siemens create the Customer Involvement Process, which allows the user community to play a key role in the future development of Siemens PLM Software products. Through Enhancement Request voting and discussion during special sessions at annual conferences, users directly affect future product direction. To learn more, please visit the PLM World ® website at http://www.plmworld.org

About Panso Solutions:
Panso Solutions is a company focused on providing high value and fierce competitive advantage to its customers in the areas of Product Lifecycle Management, Engineering Service and Procurement & Sourcing. Panso develops solutions for its customers that enable faster product launches, strategic sourcing and better business intelligence that are absolutely critical in today's global markets. We use the latest, most innovative, open source and cloud-based technologies and deliver our products and services in a cost efficient business model. Visit http://www.panso.in/ for further information.