INSIGHT# 2010-47EMDH
OCTOBER 14, 2010
PLM10, the Seventh International Conference
on Product Lifecycle Management
By Valentijn de Leeuw
Keywords
PLM, Asset Information Management (AIM), Asset Lifecycle Management
(ALM), Benchmarking, BMW Efficient Dynamics
Overview
The PLM10 Conference was held early July in the old Free Hanseatic City of
Bremen in Germany. PLM10 brought over 100 product lifecycle management (PLM) researchers, developers, and users of together.
"Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is an
integrated business approach to the
collaborative creation, management and
dissemination of engineering data throughout
The many
interesting presentations and articles indicate an active international community
working on the many subjects within the
full breadth of PLM.
extended enterprises that create, manufacture
and operation engineered products and
For the first time, the International Federa-
systems. It supports enterprises over the
tion for Information Processing (IFIP,
whole lifecycle of products and systems from
concept to the end of life disposal. PLM
involves issues of people, processes, business
systems, and information."
http://www.ifip-wg51.org) promoted the
conference. Prof. Alain Bernard, co-chair of
IFIP Working Group 5.1, noted that the International
Journal
of
PLM
(www.inderscience.com/ijplm) is also associated with the Conference, and
invited the audience to read, propose, review, and publish papers.
Almost three days of presentations in two parallel sessions and a visit to an
EADS Airbus site followed the two keynotes reported on below. Inderscience will publish full papers in the Proceedings of 7th International
Conference of Product Lifecycle Management.
The PLM Processes behind BMW Efficient Dynamics
Andreas Weber, responsible for project, process, data, and release management at BMW, explained the company's long-term, "Efficient Dynamics"
strategy for emission-free individual mobility, based on increasing demand
VISION, EXPERIENCE, ANSWERS FOR INDUSTRY
ARC Insights, Page 2
for highly innovative vehicles. Today, as a transition to this goal, BMW
lowers vehicle weight and fuel consumption to control costs and maintain
or improve performance. Measured against EU standards, vehicle weight
has been reduced by 2.8 percent, fuel consumption by 8.9 percent, and
power increased by 6.1 percent. Increased demand for higher variety in
configurations inspired the other part of the strategy, to cope with or exploit the increasing complexity in configuration management.
BMW's approach was to first conceive a process before implementing an IT
solution. First, BMW defined a product structure, the basis of configuration
management, which should be used throughout the vehicle lifecycle. This
conceptual backbone can be used in any organizational unit, in any process,
and in any life cycle phase. A goal was to synchronize informational (billof-material and virtual vehicle)
and physical objects (vehicle as
produced).
The vision became reality. Important processes are integrated and
supported.
The initial situation
with many different systems and
BMW Vision Efficient
processes, each with list-oriented
structures, was transformed into
an object-oriented system of systems, where PLM integrates with finance,
production, sales and production planning, and project evaluation. Since
2006, BMW has made all developments system, which now handles over
300,000 components, more than 100,000 engineering change requests, and
contains 20,000 configurations and prototypes. Five cars have been released using the process and the system. Components and parts can be
reused in new projects. The system also includes information about the test
conditions and environment, to make it easier to decide if the part could be
suited.
According to Weber, the system provides the capability to handle an increasing number of configuration variants of products and "derivatives,"
products based on the same technology platforms.
Cost, quality, and
weight are also well controlled. Change management, accuracy, and timeliness of the information, allows purchasing with the latest engineering
specifications. Workflows such as problem and decision management are
streamlined using workflow automation.
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BMW identifies the following success factors:
•
An approach in which process improvement leads the IT aspects. The
technology provider is not regarded as a critical issue.
•
A direct reporting line to top management.
•
High attention for human aspects. The company allocated one-third of
the project cost to human change management.
Benchmarking Benefits of PLM in the Automotive Industry
Prof. Abramovici, chair of the department of IT in Mechanical Engineering
of the University of Bochum, presented the results of the third edition of a
series of benchmarking studies in PLM, done in cooperation with IBM
Business Services. The contrast between the lack of information and the
size of benefits promised was intriguing. Further, best practices in PLM
were not very well known. The third edition involved the participation of
over twenty-five global automotive companies in Germany.
Three domains were researched and thoroughly compared with results
from prevision editions: PLM maturity, benefits obtained, and best practices. PLM maturity in companies was evaluated quantitatively in terms of
Benefits of PLM: Key Study Findings
•
Best-in-class manufacturers produce
less new parts/products but create
twice as much revenue from new
products than laggards
•
Implementing PLM successfully requires
a process-focus
•
Advanced users spend more on
organizational and business process
improvement than on PLM technology
breadth and depth of usage, as well integration.
Compared to ten years ago, PLM usage and integration maturity doubled and became more
balanced.
Based on maturity levels, the res-
pondents were identified as laggards, advanced
users, and champions.
The authors report the benefits on a relative
scale, since little or no quantitative information
is available. They urge users to define KPIs and
measure benefits quantitatively. The key domains in which respondents
report gains are, in order of importance: process efficiency, process standardization, data search time, reduced development times, and schedule
adherence. Advanced users obtained significantly more benefits than laggards.
Participants estimated most benefits increased by 10-30 percent
during the past ten years. Interestingly, champions create and develop less
new product parts, but create twice the revenue with innovative products
than do strugglers. This implies they are more efficient reusing designs, for
example, by applying technology platform strategies.
©2010 • ARC • 3 Allied Drive • Dedham, MA 02026 USA • 781-471-1000 • ARCweb.com
ARC Insights, Page 4
Leaders improved their processes before introduction; laggards after the
introduction of a system. The study reports that the typical duration of
PLM project reduced dramatically from 42 to 22 months during the last 5
years, also by making them smaller and more focused. Advanced users
spend only around 14 percent on software, where the major costs come
from organizational aspects, process reengineering.
Success factors for
PLM processes are change management in individuals and departments.
This requires a process-driven, rather than an IT-driven approach.
Asset Information Management
Mohamed Zied Ouertani (University of Cambridge, UK), Alain Bernard
(Ecole Centrale de Nantes, France), and Vijay Srinivasan (NIST, USA), organized a special session on asset information management. Here, Julien
Schwarzenbach defined data quality attributes and presented an analysis of
the impact of behavior on the quality of asset information. Behaviors that
are questionable or prohibited when dealing with physical assets are often
accepted when dealing with informational assets. This leads to lower quality data, reducing the quality of decisions and increasing risk. Valentijn de
Leeuw from ARC pointed out the challenges and costs of highly interdependent life cycles of assets, sub assets and components, and gave
suggestions for an AIM and associated technology strategy. He indicated
that an adaptive corporate implementation framework provides the best
opportunity for sustainable, recurring benefits. Cumulative savings over
the asset life cycle could exceed the value of the initial capital investment.
Last Word
ARC believes the platforms this conference and the journal provide are
welcome additions supporting the PLM community with an exchange between industry, providers, integrators, consultants, and academia.
In
particular, academic participation pushes the community to more critical
and forward-looking thinking and enriches the domain knowledge with
more fundamental aspects that the commercial world cannot always afford.
For further information or to provide feedback on this Insight, please contact your
account manager or the author at vdeleeuw@arcweb.com. ARC Insights are published and copyrighted by ARC Advisory Group. The information is proprietary to
ARC and no part of it may be reproduced without prior permission from ARC.
©2010 • ARC • 3 Allied Drive • Dedham, MA 02026 USA • 781-471-1000 • ARCweb.com