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Position Papers

Tuesday, February 25, 2020

Why is PLM Often so Hard? Simple is Best (Position Paper)

This paper discusses some of the reasons PLM initiatives are seen as being hard and not as intuitive to implement and use as they should be. Why is this? Is it a case of over-engineering, making things more complicated than they need to be? In this paper CIMdata explores this topic and considers why “Simple is Best.”

Our CIMdata colleague in Japan says it best, “Simple is Best.” A rather unassuming statement when you think about it, and at the same time, rather profound. So, why then do we tend to make things more complicated than they need to be? Why do we consistently tend to over-engineer things? Perhaps that’s just how we were born or how we have been educated. Or maybe because we feel the need to show how smart we are. Whatever the reason, we need to remember that SIMPLE IS BEST.

In a 1998 interview with Business Week, Steve Jobs was quoted as saying, “That’s been one of my mantras—focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: you have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.” A quick study of Apple proves his point—their success has often been a result of making the complex, simple (e.g., intuitive and accessible).

In the sports world, successful coaches stress the fundamentals (i.e., the simple things or the basics). Their thinking is, if you can do the fundamentals well without thinking, then the rest will be built on a solid foundation. But, if you have to think about the fundamentals or can’t consistently execute them, then good luck being successful when things become more complex or stressful. In other words, if doing the basics well is second nature, then you can focus on solving complexity when it arises. So, given this, why is making the complex simple often not a priority when it comes to architecting and implementing PLM?

The Over-Engineering of PLM

From all of this one can easily argue that “simple is best” is a truism. So, why then has PLM typically been so hard, and often not as intuitive to implement and use as it could and should be.

“Why is PLM Often so Hard?” is a 5-page CIMdata authored Position Paper.

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