The Aerospace & Defense PLM Action Group (AD PAG) researching the Obsolescence Management “pain point” identified areas where data generated by advanced CAD capabilities is difficult to access and use in downstream solutions. The Group reported on the mitigating impact of standards on the complexity of integrations and other means used to facilitate CAD data exchange for consumption by downstream applications. The AD PAG’s goal is to develop a direction statement for the A&D industry to use to influence solution providers, their supply chains, and standards bodies, regarding the interrelated subjects of advanced features imbedded in native data structures, standard data formats for storage and exchange, and numerous and complex integrations. The directives are expected to be clear, to the point, and sufficiently supported to merit serious consideration and action, leading to improved process flow and a reduction of factors contributing to cost and risk of data loss.

PLM Obsolescence Management is a main concern in industries, such as Aerospace & Defense (A&D), where the lifecycle of a company’s product information is longer than the lifecycle of the PLM solution technology used to manage that information. Here, PLM Obsolescence Management is defined as the ability of A&D companies to upgrade and transition their PLM solution to new technologies in multiple increments over a period of several decades without loss of data and without incurring excessive cost and effort. The A&D PLM Action Group’s (AD PAG’s) initial research identified and documented the top five causal factors and mitigation methods affecting the cost of the technology refresh to obtain business improvements and the risk of data loss when migrating to a new solution. Additional research (Phase 2) explores in greater depth a subset of the causal factors and mitigation methods identified in Phase 1.

The intent of this document is to provide the basis for productive dialogue within the A&D PLM community. Initial distribution will be to a select set of PLM software providers with a request for response and support. However, this is only the first in what will be a series of position papers that address the topic in ever increasing detail, ultimately resulting in a detailed requirements statement. Through this progression, it is the intent of the A&D PAG members to engage the broader PLM community in dialogue.

This presentation will share work undertaken by members of the A&D PLM Action Group to define a desired future state, business improvement objectives, and derived top-level requirements for PLM solution providers that, if implemented, will minimize the cost of technology refresh and risk associated with managing and reusing data in long lifecycle products.

Managing the risks associated with PLM solution and data obsolescence within A&D companies is a large, growing problem. To address this, the A&D PLM Action Group assigned a cross-industry team to identify the causes and potential remedies. This presentation will provide a high level review of the obsolescence research and the resulting requirements.

In this presentation, CIMdata reports on recent research identifying the major causal factors driving the negative consequences of technology obsolescence and mitigation methods for countering their impact. Specific proactive strategies for user companies and for solution providers will be presented and discussed.