Transitioning to a PLM System: Best Practices and Planning Strategies

The product lifecycle management system improves the efficiency and effectiveness of the entire product development process, from ideation to post-market servicing, customer feedback handling, and obsolescence of the product.

A PLM solution centralizes all product-related data & information, allowing key stakeholders to interact, stay up-to-date, and contribute towards making the product a success across the lifecycle. Access to product-related data from across relevant functions improves the quality of decision-making by providing insights that can help develop meaningful strategies around the product lifecycle, including pricing, time to market, features, and raw materials to be used.

Some of the benefits of a PLM include:

• Automation of Workflows: PLM systems allow the automation of repetitive tasks and the integration of workflows across the entire product development process. This speeds up time to market and frees up resources to innovate and add value to their tasks. With automation, processes such as document lifecycle, change request management, reviews, and approvals, etc. become streamlined and minimize delays and errors common in manual processes.
• Improved Collaboration and Communication: A PLM system provides a unified platform with centralized access to data, thereby breaking down silos and facilitating chats and discussions within the system. This improves the quality of decision-making and problem-solving.
• Transparency and Visibility: All stakeholders are updated about any revisions or new information at the same time. This reduces the risk of miscommunication and errors due to confusion or lags. This lowers the cost of development by minimizing rework and addressing any deviations or variations in a timely manner.
• Improved Access to Data: In today’s competitive world, data plays a key role in creating differentiation and competitive advantage. PLM systems help access and manage data from multiple systems, providing insights to create a product that addresses a real problem and positions it for greater success.
• Supplier Management: Product development is not just about collaboration between internal teams but also about sourcing the right components and raw materials in the right Quantity and Quality in a timely manner. Any change in product design or specifications will also impact suppliers, who need to be integral to the development process with sufficient security allowing them limited access to relevant documents. A PLM facilitates this by improving collaboration to ensure conformance and compliance.

However, manufacturers, and product developers transitioning from manual systems to digital solutions must implement best practices to maximize benefits.

Best Practices for Transitioning to a PLM System

There are many reasons why digital transformation efforts fail or do not deliver the expected outcomes. Often, it is because:

• There is no user buy-in
• There are no clear goals or ways to measure success
• There is no enterprise-wide vision to guide the project
• There are no champions who steer the effort in the right direction

Therefore, to minimize the risk of failure and maximize the benefits of adopting a PLM solution, businesses must adopt the following best practices:

Best Practice #1 - Define Goals

A product lifecycle brings together different functions at various points. For instance, at the design stage, inputs from manufacturing, procurement, sales and marketing, and customer service are critical to understand user needs and the ideal raw materials available to design and develop the product. Each of these functions also have their own goals and tools. Cost cutting may be the need for finance and manufacturing, while marketing and customer service may demand a variety of features. Balancing the differing needs and aligning all teams towards a common goal is important to ensure the PLM implementation serves the teams well and is used effectively.

Therefore, the management must share the vision, strategy, roadmap, and requirements for the product clearly and consistently. It also must standardize processes, provide centralized access to data, and comply with regulatory requirements.

Best Practice #2 - Be Data-Driven

In the manual approach, data may have been stored in multiple locations and duplicated. When migrating to a cloud-based solution, data management, deduplication, ensuring data integrity and quality, as well as defining access and authorization become critical. Data review, cleaning, and decisions on where what should stay must be part of the strategy discussion to optimize resources. Further, data analytics and metrics also form a critical part of the migration process, allowing for the assessment of progress and ensuring milestones.

Best Practice #3 - Establish Processes, Assign Roles

Given the multitude of teams involved in the product lifecycle, it is critical to empower them with tools and processes for smooth and seamless integration of the different teams for better collaboration. The roles and responsibilities of each participant, as well as their deliverables and deadlines for each phase, must be clearly defined and shared. There must be a clear two-way exchange of information so that any doubts can be clarified quickly.

It requires integrating different systems and tools, such as product data management (PDM), enterprise resource planning (ERP), and customer relationship management (CRM), to ensure that all stakeholders have access to the latest product information.

Best Practice #4 - Training and Support

Mindset is a big hurdle to the proper adoption of new approaches and tools. Often, transformation stories remain incomplete because users slip back to old ways of doing things due to finding the new approach difficult or not familiar. Therefore, training and support become crucial in ensuring the tool is adopted and the benefits evident for all to use it comfortably and explore it for other features that can improve their operational efficiency. Ongoing assistance and guidance will increase user comfort, as also easy access to manuals and FAQs. Also actively seek feedback from users for continuous improvement of the product and engage the users in the process to increase their sense of ownership.

Best Practice #5 - Find the Right Fit

There are many PLM products in the market, but each has a strength in a different aspect or two. Goal setting will act as a guideline for identifying the software that fits the company’s goals. For instance, for businesses where quality from the word go plays an important role, a PLM with integrated Design Quality & Product Quality capabilities will be the best fit. While integrating all functions on the PLM, the solution runs on a Quality management platform that ensures Quality Control and assurance at every stage. In addition, being cloud-based, it is flexible and scalable, integrates with other enterprise systems, and streamlines the product development process. Design controls and requirements traceability matrix improve the traceability and transparency of the process, ensuring audit trails, version control, and compliance at every stage of development.