Sharing data effectively across an organization can reap massive benefits for manufacturers, but change requires long-range planning.
Manufacturing organizations handle massive amounts of data but need a coordinated strategy for accessing and using that data to improve product development and save money. They need a business process that leverages corporate knowledge through the entire product development lifecycle, and that stimulates real-time collaboration among partners within the supply chain.
Companies need to connect the sourcing processes with product design to provide consistent supply chain information, and more importantly, allow a manufacturer to design and build product anywhere.
Those goals can be achieved with product lifecycle management (PLM). But there are many challenges. Data must be reliable, available and consistent, but problems abound:
- There are often no clearly defined responsibilities when it comes to data ownership.
- Multiple business processes across different divisions increases complexity.
- Many manufacturers have an inappropriate focus on getting product out rather than supporting current products.
- Silos of technology often can’t be integrated easily, and prove burdensome to developing collaborative applications.
A good PLM effort can clear those hurdles if companies understand it’s going to take time and good planning, says Pandarinath Tumkur, with HP’s PLM Center of Excellence and Global Delivery India Center (HP GDIC) PLM Practice in India.
“Oftentimes companies fail with PLM because they expect too much, too early and don't look at the process side of the implementation. They take on more than they can handle,” says Tumkur, noting that PLM is a progressive effort requiring well-stated goals and a detailed roadmap.
Center of Excellence helps manufacturer
That’s exactly what HP's India Center of Excellence provided for an India-based scooter and motorbike manufacturer. The leading two-wheeler company was facing several issues within its design and manufacturing organizations. With multiple inconsistent versions of Bill of Material (BOM) data, it was grappling with production errors, poor servicing and warranty levels, and incorrect material accounting, which then led to erroneous product costing. In addition, the manufacturer suffered a delay in tool redesign and duplication of effort with engineering change requests and engineering change orders, both of which hurt the bottom line. There was also a lack of traceability since it had no rigorous change management process.
In adopting PLM, the manufacturer focused on integrating its design system with its manufacturing system, creating a seamless flow of engineering BOM data, and eliminating manual re-entry of data. The PLM initiative also included implementing an effective change management process.
As Tumkur explains, the first step toward PLM is understating the product cycle problems and outlining expected benefits.
“Don’t put the solution in front of the problem. You need to understand the problems first so you can then define a strategy roadmap,” he advises. The roadmap, which is typically a two- to three-year framework, outlines current business processes and which ones may require reengineering. “Once you have the roadmap the second stage is a deeper self-assessment of what the problems are.”
By working with HP's Center of Excellence, the manufacturer expects to gain efficiency and cost reduction in several areas, including
- a 75 percent reduction in time, cost and errors associated with re-keying data from one system to the other;
- a 60 percent drop in error costs with consistent management processes;
- a 15 percent reduction in inventory costs, and;
- a 20 percent improvement in tool design time.
An integrated PLM solution
HP’s PLM solution includes leading software vendors like Parametric Technology Inc., Dassault Systemes, SAP and UGS—the latter has nearly 4 million licensed seats and 46,000 customers worldwide. It's that level and depth of expertise that propelled HP to partner with UGS in PLM for the past 18 years.
In working with UGS, HP serves as the general contractor for the PLM effort, explains Roderick Strand, UGS Global Alliance Manager, HP. Working together, the two companies can architect a PLM strategy within heterogeneous environments, thanks to the support of their various design partners.
“It’s a unique offering as we deliver a completely integrated solution,” says Strand.
HP’s PLM program includes portfolio management, product design, product configuration and development, production process planning and failure tracking, as well as a comprehensive portfolio of services for startup, expansion and management.
“PLM is not a simple solution as it requires long-term thinking,” says Tumkur. “By reviewing product cycle processes and making needed changes you can achieve the goals you map out.”
From its own experience integrating and executing new product introduction environments worldwide, HP realized the benefits of creating a simulated environment to test and refine actual product design and development chain processes before full implementation. HP now offers the best of this solution as a packaged service called HP Product Lifecycle User Simulation (PLUS).
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