What makes PLM so powerful?

The power of PLM is its inherent ability to model the business environment. This makes PLM straightforward and rewards simplicity. The items you include in a PLM system should be present in the business processes: drawings, models, parts, product structure, requirements,... The "art" to PLM design comes from making sure that you don't create conflicts in your data model. A classic example is creating 2 PLM data items for equivalent business items: if for instance one business unit calls their parts "part" and another calls theirs "component". Any attempt to use common parts, reuse assemblies, or report on structures is going to be much more difficult (possibly impossible in the short term). Now this is an obvious example and most people will understand the problem here but there are many more subtle occurences and managing the PLM data model is a crucial task.

Welcome Aboard

Welcome my name is Pete. I have been working in the PLM field for the last 20 years. It has been very interesting watching PLM develop. In the beginning there was Kalthoff, if you attended a Kalthoff conference you qualify as an old timer. At the early conferences we had conference sessions to debate what acronym to use - the result was PDM. The technology PDM was built on has tremendous potential which is one reason it grew into PLM. The technology is maturing and the business vision is expanding. I am going to use this blog to reflect on this growth, where it may be going, and what additional potential there is. Please feel free to comment on my thoughts or suggest additional topics to discuss.

I look forward to making your acquaintance, Pete