CIMdata Press Releases
CIMdata Reports on its Research Findings of SMARTEAM Users
ANN ARBOR , Michigan , April 7, 2005— CIMdata reports on the results of a research it had conducted with several companies that have deployed SMARTEAM to help improve selected product-related business processes . The report is available for free on the CIMdata and the SMARTEAM websites.
Reducing the time to bring products right-to-market requires that a company develop innovative products and also that it improve and be innovative in its product-related business processes. Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is a strategic business approach incorporating industry-specific best practices, processes, and methodologies delivered on a flexible, scaleable technology platform that enables an enterprise to achieve those goals.
According to Ken Amann, CIMdata Director of Research and co-author of this study, “ CIMdata has surveyed a cross section of SMARTEAM ® (a member of the Dassault Syst è mes family of PLM solutions) customers to understand the improvements these companies have achieved in a number of product-related business processes. ” Most of those surveyed use SMARTEAM ’ s collaborative PLM capabilities to optimize multiple business processes in order to deliver right-to-market innovative products and reduce time-to-market. On an overall basis, organizations using SMARTEAM have experienced up to 30 percent reduced time-to-market.
Mr. Amann added that, “ This research illustrates that SMARTEAM is a comprehensive solution suite being used by companies of all sizes across many industries to meet their business improvement requirements. Over 90% of the companies interviewed stated that SMARTEAM is considered mission-critical to their business success. This feedback clearly reinforces the importance of PLM. ”
Commenting on its findings Mr. Amann said, “ This study revealed both process-specific benefits and overall benefits. In the business processes and metrics measured during this analysis, the percentage of process improvement ranged from 25% to 54%. Further, more than 90% of the companies interviewed stated that SMARTEAM is considered business- and mission-critical to their success. ”
In all companies surveyed, SMARTEAM has been implemented within design engineering, as that is clearly at the core of all PLM implementations surveyed. Manufacturing engineering was the second most common organization to be involved in a SMARTEAM implementation, found in approximately three-fourths of the implementations. Hence, the majority of PLM implementations surveyed are directed at managing engineering data.
Engineering change management is the most commonly-employed process to support extended collaborative engineering. Approximately two-thirds of the surveyed companies have implemented SMARTEAM for this purpose. Half of these companies have implemented SMARTEAM to support the processes for re-use of product knowledge, collaborative engineering, and RFP management.