4 June 2010
News and Information on Product Lifecycle Management
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NC Software Market Assessment Report The NC Market Assessment Report provides the only comprehensive market analysis of the worldwide NC software and related services marketplace available in the industry. It includes extensive information on the market size, trends and segmentation, authoritative rankings of NC software vendors, and results of targeted market surveys. Individual vendors are discussed. The Market Assessment Report also contains more than 70 figures and is updated on an annual basis. With each update, the precision of the estimates is increased and the reports are expanded to include additional market-related material. This continuous improvement provides added value to the user. The first report Version 1, was issued in 1Q94. Additional information is provided in each update. Version 19 is now available.
This report can also be purchased separately or as part of the CIMdata Numerical Control (NC) Service.
Download the PLM Industry Summary (PDF)
CIMdata is now featuring online polls with real time reporting on our web site at http://www.cimdata.com/polls/polls.html. Each week the results of the previous poll will be included in the CIMdata PLM Industry Summary to help you stay on top of trends in the PLM industry.
Take a moment to visit the site and vote
on our current poll.
The results for the last opinion poll are:
In CIMdata’s latest opinion poll, participants were asked to indicate how PLM can best help them cope with economic downturns. Just over one-third (36%) of the poll participants indicated that PLM can be used to help enable fewer resources to do more, and just under one-third (30%) indicated that PLM can help reduce the cost of development. In many ways, these two choices go hand-in-hand. During recessions, companies often downsize to cut costs, but still expect the same work to be accomplished. As a result, they often require those who are left to do more. In reality, for many companies this is usually difficult to accomplish (i.e., to produce the same work product with less people). This is especially the case when many of the people let go in a recession are those that are close to retirement and hold a significant amount of corporate, product, and process knowledge.
The economic downturn that much of the world is currently experiencing has caused many companies to thin their resources across the board. Often, the first to go are their support staff, e.g., information technology (IT), administrative assistance, etc. Typically, companies then look to thin staff numbers by offering early retirement packages. Unfortunately, this usually results in a significant loss of knowledge. CIMdata’s experience actually indicates that this often results in the loss of domain expertise that can take years to learn and recapture into the organization. Unfortunately, cutting staff can only do so much—product and process innovation and the knowledge associated with it will still be critical in the years to come. Fundamentally, the short-term gain in the reduction of costs can be far outweighed by the long-term loss in productivity and perhaps even an increase in product issues that result from the loss of key knowledge.
It is clear from this opinion poll that the participants understand that PLM can be used as a way to help reduce costs as well as increase productivity. For those that understand how PLM can be used as a process-enabler and as a knowledge management solution, this should be of no surprise. What is surprising is that 10% of those who responded to the opinion poll indicated that they felt that PLM could not help them cope with economic downturns. This is somewhat disappointing given all the documented PLM benefit examples and implementation case studies that can be found on vendor websites, in conference presentations, and even on CIMdata’s site. Clearly, this indicates that more PLM awareness is required in the market.
NOTE: The results of these polls are anecdotal, not scientific.
If you have a suggestion for a poll you'd like to see contact us at info@cimdata.com.
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