Some discrete manufacturers continue to operate with Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) applications that will no longer be supported by their OEMs. In the foreseeable future, the PLM selection process predominantly revolves around cloud-based solutions. This indicates that cloud technology stands as the primary choice for companies seeking PLM solutions. Moreover, there’s an urgent need to transition within the next five years, underscoring the importance of timely action.
Here are some suggestions on how your company can benefit from a Collaborative PLM Selection Process.
Plan with Key Business Areas
PLM manages product information across the enterprise from inception to phase out. Product information is the center of a company’s existence, beginning to end, and should be one of the most important selections your company makes, yet seldom in our 25 years of Consulting have we seen more than a couple of areas of the business involved in selecting a PLM. As a discrete manufacturer, the highest members of each of the following cross-functional areas should be present:
- Engineering
- Quality
- Manufacturing
- Operations
- IT
Learn why selecting a new PLM solution is one of the most important decisions you can make.
Each executive can come together to work with a trusted advisor to create:
A Vision for the Company
Work together to create the ingredients you think would make each business area successful and profitable. Requirements gathering initiates the flow of information downstream, aiming to integrate expertise from management levels. However, the primary communicators are the highest decision-makers within the organization. By involving them, the vision transforms into a collaborative strategy aimed at accelerating product launches. Which ensures superior quality compared to competitors. This alignment ultimately leads to growth and profitability across all functional areas.
The shift to remote work has created silos in already distributed teams and makes it more difficult than ever to coordinate their work. Modern products are more complex than ever and bring another level of difficulty to already complex data management challenges.
Oleg Shilovitsky
Ability to Eliminate Silos
Many areas of the business want applications specific to only their needs. As a cross-functional team, this is something to decide on when moving from requirements gathering to automation. While each area may want a best-of-breed application, oftentimes there is the ability to be on a seamless platform while meeting most needs of each organization. These platforms should be considered as the added walls and steps to accommodate organization nice-to-haves as it may hurt the collaborative process, delay product launch and introduce risk in product quality. Eliminating these siloed applications, where there is overlap in functionality, can save money, get products to launch quicker, and ensure higher quality products.
Provide Motivation and Visibility to the User Community
The executive team who created the recipe for their company’s success can keep teams motivated if they are working toward your vision to keep on track and integrally involved in user adoption across all areas. The more motivated and involved the executives are, the more motivated their users will be as a collective. Visibility across the organization is important, and places in the user mindset that this is a priority which decreases the time to adoption.
Remember Corporate Initiatives in the Planning Process
Top decision-makers are aware of corporate initiatives (Acquisitions, divestitures, etc). Keep these initiatives in mind in your road mapping. The more the executive team is involved, the more your company can prepare for a quality launch incorporating these corporate hurdles.
Collaborating with a trusted advisor empowers your company to organize and lead this process from start to finish. The trusted advisor should have the ability to provide a detailed roadmap, and cross-functional value, and expedite this process so your team can stay productive.
Contact us today to start the process with a trusted advisor on selecting a new PLM software or serviceDisclaimer: The views and opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Domain Systems. The author takes full responsibility for the views expressed here.