Change is never easy, especially when that change involves streamlining current business processes and technology investments but change is what you may need to stay competitive in today's business world. A company that welcomes change by implementing a more effective way of doing business is a company that will not only survive, but prosper. Product Lifecycle Management or PLM is an area of change that successful companies are pursuing to launch innovative products faster with reduced cost.( http://newsletter.plmworld.org/2009-volume-iii/volume-iii-partner-corner-iii-2/). Product lifecycle management (PLM) is the process of managing the entire lifecycle of a product from its conception, through design and manufacture, to service and disposal.PLM integrates people, data, processes and business systems and provides a product information backbone for companies and their extended enterprise. (Wikipedia)
BENEFITS OF PLM
(http://www.susanto.id.au/papers/PLM.asp
It has been proven that PLM will dramatically reduce the time to market a product.
"Better quality, more innovative products and services" Since a better communication between business and market / user has been performed, there are more genuine ideas about trend-setting new products or client needs arisen in every aspect of production which in turn will bring a better, more innovative product / services and influence enterprise's decisions.
"Greater flexibility for mass customization and design to order products"
PLM will simplify mass customization process and design to order products since the production process will be based on functional transaction rather than every individual task.
"Improve relationships with customers, suppliers and business partners"
This is a critical benefit of implementing PLM ensuring synchronised information flows between the business / enterprise, customers, suppliers and business partners. PLM will allow automatic ordering of raw material from supplier, responding unique requests from customers and exchange information from business partners..
"Fewer design flaws resulting in lower customer care costs and improve customer satisfaction" With collaboration support from all customer, supplier and many departments throughout the enterprise, they will be able to produce a near perfect product which satisfies all parties in development and marketing processes.
"Increased revenues as a result of better product acceptance in the marketplace"
If a product produced based on market demand / request, it is more likely to be promptly accepted within the market. PLM provides a better exchange of information and greater context within which to understand the impact of the design which results in higher product quality and more easily manufactured designs.
"Saving through the complete integration of engineering workflows"
One centralised complete integrated system. PLM as part of ERP system allow integrated information within engineering processes. Supplier will automatically be warned by the system of current stock level. Customer requests will automatically be counted in product design. Standard level of product will be established by join evaluation with competitors.
"All people involved in product development have quick and secure access to current information through integrated environment" Appropriate level of access can be assigned to each individual component of development process which enables information exchange between all of them through integrated environment.
"Simplicity in tracking or sharing product data inside or outside of the enterprise"
PLM is now being pitched as a pragmatic way for enterprises to include supplier, partners, and customer in product design and development.
SAP PLM Solutions
To survive in an ever-changing global environment, creating and delivering innovative and market differentiating products and services is what distinguishes your company from the competition. The SAP Product Lifecycle Management (SAP PLM) application provides you with a 360-degree-support for all product-related processes - from the first product idea, through manufacturing to product service. With our PLM software, you can
Create and deliver innovative products that fulfil or create market demand
Optimize your product developing processes and systems to speed products to market ensuring compliance to industry, quality and regulatory standards
Become more agile than your competitors and able to react and take advantage of market and competitive opportunities across your business networks
SAP PLM is part of the SAP Business Suite, which gives organizations the unique ability to perform their essential business processes with modular software that is designed to work with other SAP and non-SAP software. Organizations and departments in all sectors can deploy SAP Business Suite software to address specific business challenges on their own timelines and without costly upgrades.
Business Benefits
The SAP Product Lifecycle Management (SAP PLM) application can help you quickly develop and deliver the products that drive your business. With SAP PLM, you gain the following benefits:
Reduced costs - SAP PLM allows you to outsource tasks and focus on your company's core competencies while controlling the cost of relationship management. The solution also allows you to manage the cost of changes and evaluate the progress of projects across product lines.
Better business results - With SAP PLM, you can develop innovative products, explore new market opportunities, gain a higher market share, and increase customer satisfaction.
Higher product quality - SAP PLM helps you manage product quality and reduce waste throughout every phase of the product life cycle.
Faster development - The solution reduces time to market and time to volume by integrating supply chain management and procurement closely.
Improved manufacturing operations - SAP PLM enables you to plan, measure, and track equipment availability, operation, safety, and maintenance.
Higher productivity - SAP PLM increases productivity through an easy-to-use, role-based enterprise portal that delivers all of the necessary content to workers.
Better business decisions - SAP PLM supports decision-making at all levels with powerful analytics covering areas such as portfolio management, occupational health, product safety, product quality, and maintenance management.
Lower cost of ownership - SAP PLM can be integrated with operational systems, such as computer-aided design, ERP, CRM, SRM, and SCM systems. Using a modular approach, you can implement gradually to meet evolving needs
Implementation of PLM solutions in companies
BMW GROUP
BMW GROUP group is one of the largest luxury carmakers of the world. BMW's strategy focuses on innovation and product variety. BMW quickly realized that it needed a powerful IT solution that offered a high potential for integration if it was successfully going to implement and sustain its growth strategy today and in the future. BMW worked with SAP Consulting to introduce my SAP PLM as part of its comprehensive change program within the new product development process. The goal behind this implementation was to redesign processes, Create a central transparent data basis, Implement product data management based on an end-to-end product structure and Optimize information flow. On the successful completion of this implementation now company is enjoying - Common, uniform product structure, Transparent management of new product development, Easier management of product complexity and variety, Consistent and reliable data, Greater reliability in planning and Big-bang go-live for 12,000 users with a Web-based application. In the foreseeable future, BMW plans to replace more of its existing systems and build a uniform, end-to-end data set based on my SAP PLM.
ARLA FOODS
Arla Foods is Europe's second largest dairy group and a truly global player, with subsidiaries in 19 countries worldwide. Product innovation is the key to company's growth. The challenges facing the company were huge such as heterogeneous IT environment and disparate processes for new-product development. Limited visibility into ongoing innovation projects Lack of enterprise-wide access to legacy solution.After implementing the PLM solution Benefits were.
35% improvement in time to market
Significant increase in sales of new products as a percentage of total sales
Tight integration with financials software for better cost monitoring
Greatly enhanced visibility into ongoing projects and programs
More effective assessment and prioritization of new-product development
Better coordination of market launches Solid basis for open innovation with external partners.
Conclusion
In order to survive this cut throat competition to grow, businesses need to innovate and look to the future. PLM helps a firm to manage the risk of launching a new product more effectively, whilst simultaneously maximising the sales and profits that could be achieved throughout the product's life cycle.
