CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
September 2008
CIMdata News
Ask the Expert: How Will PLM Evolve?
CIMdata Director of Research, Ken Amann, addressed this question in the Ask the Expert column at Managing Automation:
Question:
What are the challenges for the growth of PLM solutions? And what will be the future trends in PLM?
Answer:
There are many challenges for growth in PLM solutions. These include providing solutions that address industry-specific issues and include best practices tailored to each industry. As new areas of functionality are brought into a PLM environment, business practices must be updated to better utilize the underlying technologies and to improve business processes. This impacts organizational standards and cultures. As PLM expands, new users must be provided access to PLM-managed information and processes without their having to be experts in the domains that created the information. The broader the PLM environment, the more business systems will be touched, and this requires integration with those systems and the information/processes managed by them.
Other issues include expanding the ability to collaborate across more organizations and users while maintaining the security of each company's IP (intellectual property). The broader the solution, the more need for better, more comprehensive, and easier-to-use search methods, as well as more product information-related analytics.
As for coming trends, there are several that are impacting the PLM industry. These include Digital Manufacturing, integration with factory production systems (automation), improved and expanded product portfolio management, design for X (compliance, manufacturing, serviceability, etc.), increased use of system engineering and mechatronics, expanded use of PLM information (3D and other) by casual users/consumers, use of PLM solutions and methods in new industry sectors, e.g., finance and services, green design and manufacturing, broader use of strategic sourcing methods, and others.
If you have a PLM related question for Ken, you can submit it at http://www.managingautomation.com/maonline/channel/ProductLifecycleManagementPLM/expert.
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