Chapter 2 Saurav Dhyani

1. What is PLM? How are various thought leaders defining it?

• PLM is a social construction with competing views and interest

• Product lifecycle management is an integrated, information –driven approach to all aspects of a
product’s life, from its design through manufacture, deployment and maintenance – culminating in
the products removal from service and final disposal. PLM software suites enable accessing,
updating, manipulating, and reasoning about product information that is being produced in a
fragmented and distributed environment. Another definition of PLM is the integration of business
systems to manage a product’s life cycle.
• PLM is about the product
• It is not about :
• Supply Chains
• Employee knowledge management
• Domain expertise
• PLM is all about the product and its associated information

DEFINATIONS (Do Fakelogy on each defination)

• A Strategic business approach for the effective management and use of corporate intellectual
capital.
- National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), USA
The above definition is fairly vague and does not lend enough specificity to PLM

• PLM stands for Product Lifecycle Management, which is a blanket term for a group of software
applications used by engineering, purchasing, marketing, manufacturing, R&D, and others that
work on NPD&I – AMR Research.
The above definition represents PLM as a software application which limits the scope
substantially

• A strategic business approach that applies a consistent set of business solutions in support of the
collaborative creation, management, dissemination, and use of product definition information
across the extended enterprise from concept to end of life–integrating people, processes,
business systems, and information.- CIMdata

• Product Lifecycle Management:

a) Is concerned with processes, methods, and tools used from a product’s inception through the
end of its service life
b) Is the science of bringing these three disciplines together to create an environment that
enables creation, update, access, and, ultimately, deletion of product data
c) Extends across traditional boundaries, PD-Manufacturing, Inter-Intra Enterprise, North
America-Europe…
d) Is not CAD, CAE, or any other discipline that exists to author or analyze narrow subsets of
product data - Ford
This definition also states the total life span of the product

2. Explain life cycle model with a neat diagram. Briefly describe activities in each stage. What
is the role of information in this model?

• The functional areas represent how organizations divide up the major categories of a Product’s
life:
– Plan (Defined in question 4)
– Design (Defined in question 4)
– Build (Defined in question 4)
– Support (Defined in question 4)

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– Dispose (Defined in question 4)

3. What are the salient features / elements of PLM? Illustrate PLM definition incorporating
these features

Elements of PLM

People have been shown in the top of the triangle to indicate their dominant role.
However all the three elements must perform individually & work together cohesively for
implementation of PLM.

People
People have some characteristics which we need for PLM to be successful
There are also some characteristics that will limit their effectiveness
The relevant practices of people to be considered are
– Capabilities (Experience, Education & Training, Support)
– Change Capacity
– Organization

Processes or Practices
• Though Processes are very important, Practices deserve equal attention
• It is important to differentiate between Process & Practice
• If we deal with a Practice as if it is Process – we attempt to make it more efficient by removing
“Unnecessary” information & “Extraneous” communication. This leads to reduced efficiency
• Processes & Practices can exist within the same task

Technology
• PLM is a heavily dependent on the applications based on technology
• With continuous development, mergers & acquisitions even the names of PLM applications have
changed
• Since there is large variety of applications for different aspects of PLM, the functions of such
applications need to the assessed
• There are some issues regarding Technology that are independent of any particular application
• These issues pertain to the considerations that any PLM application must take in to account.

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4. In a PLM model, write brief notes on following ( ANY THREE):

• Plan
• Design
• Build Support
• Disposal

Plan
• The models start with requirement analysis and planning to answer
– What are the functions the product must perform?
– What are the requirements that the product must meet?
– These requirements are then mapped in to specifications
– Discuss example of power window
• These requirements can be obtained:
– Directly from the customer who is buying the product
– Indirectly through a marketing function that determines that a customer will buy a product
that has certain functions

Design
• The requirements are then taken up by the concept engineering and prototyping
• The functions can be realized a more than one way
• The function requirements can also be combined in different ways so that the number of parts
required can vary
• Some functions can be combined into a single part
• Different technologies can be employed to produce the same functionality
• Form follows function is a basic of product design
• Function might allow for a wide variety of forms
• Aesthetics of a product also come into play
• Design is ensure that the product needs all the mandatory function requirements and as many of
the desired functional requirements as possible
• When trade-offs arrives the designers must shared the information with specification developers
• Next step in the cycle, product engineering coverts the functional design and prototypes into
exact specification
• While the concept engineers develop the general form, the product engineers completely
specified
• Product engineers ensure that all the various components fit together in an integrated system
• Engineers must run various test to check the product really meets the requirement specified
• The product engineer need to act this body of information to the product lifecycle model
• At the end of this phase the components that make up the product are fully defined in a math
base model or CAD specification

Build Support

BUILD
• It is the role of manufacturing engineering to determine how the product must be build
• The design is analyzed and the Build of Process develop to specify what operation must be done
and in what sequence to create the part
• These parts are then assembled in a specific sequence to develop the completed product
• If the product is build in a new plant then the design is more complicated because even the tools
to be used in building that product must be specified
• Manufacturing engineers must either select a tools that need the specifications or asked for
quotations from tool manufacturers
• Building has three fairly distinct phases:

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• Building First product

• Ramping production up
• Building the rest of the products

SUPPORT
• Sales and distribution functions uses the product information:
• Tell the buyer and the user of the product what the functions and specifications of the
product are
• To keep the product performing to those expected specification
• User needs product information to understand hoe to obtain the required functions
• Service engineers required product information to maintain/repair to the product
• This part of product life cycle is potentially rich source of information about the product
• The actual performance of the product tells us if it was design properly
• Warranty data, or data collected by monitoring system are important information about weather a
product performs its function as specified

Disposal

• Disposal and recycling close out the products life

• Information about the design of the product and its component make up is necessary for effective
and efficient recycling and disposal
• Information about weather the product could be recycled using the processes designed when it
was built is important for future product design
• The cycle starts allover again with the next version of the product, building on the existing
information core
• Though the model shows a sequential process in practice we often need to iterate designs to a
solution that needs the functional requirements and can be built at the right cost
• Feedback from the field will indicate the problems to be fixed in the new products as well as in the
existing once
• The cycle starts allover again with the next version of the product, building on the existing
information core

5. What are the technologies that were predecessors to PLM? List the four technologies and
explain any TWO of them.

The technologies that were predecessors to PLM

– Computer Aided Design (CAD)
– Engineering Data Management (EDM)
– Product Data Management (PDM)
– Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM)

Computer Aided Design (CAD)

• CAD refers to math based description of physical representation of products.
• This description can locate & replicate shapes in 2D or 3D space.
• Initially CAD was a simple drawing system to produce faster and accurate drawings, hence the
name CAD.
• Now CAD has focused to local system enabling and controlling design.
• Using geometric figures, CAD provides a complete definition of the physical structure of the
product.
• Internal measurements can be computed as easily as the external measurements.
• CAD represents better than actual physical objects, because, being math based, CAD
specifications do not divide from implementation to implementation.
• Each replication of representation will be exactly the same each and every time.

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• Measurements are absolutely consistent.

• 3D representation also lead to Computer Aided Engineering (CAE)
• CAD representations all at the ‘Heart’ of PLM

Engineering Data Management (EDM)

• Math – based specifications describe the products from a geometric perspective.
• This does not fully describe the product.
• The math-based information needs to be augmented by other information called ‘characteristics’.
• Characteristics are any information used to describe the product and include tolerances, tensile
strength, weight restrictions, adhesives, conductivity requirements etc.
• These characteristics must be associated with the math-based or geometric information to fully
describe the product.
• Other information to be associated with the product is:
• Process for building the product.
• Methodology for coating or painting the product
• Methodology for testing
• Instruments & process required to carry out the testing methodology
• Result of the testing procedure.
• This information is to be associated and managed with the product
• EDM consist of data and information that abstract, define and describe the product
• EDM was developed from a direction opposite to CAD
• Microsoft Spreadsheet – Excel is most commonly used standard application

Product Data Management (PDM)

• PDM applications develop as a way to organize CAD and EDM databases which were pre
structured and in different forms
• With large number of CAD files it was no longer physible or even useful to view the actual
drawing as end product
• PDM applications were simply the storage of information which required the user to develop
manner processes to make use of the information content in them
• Some systems began to incorporate some processes in the from of workflows
• As the name PDM implies, focus was only on managing the product data
• The primary purpose of PDM system was to replace the reliance of organization on paper and
microfiche archives with a reliance on electronic archives
• Before PDM systems most organizations had rooms full of drawings and microfilms
• PDM introduce the idea that a product data good safely and effectively be organized, maintained
and accessed in a digital form
• PDM form the basis of the PLM system that superseded PDM applications
• There was little or no focus on using this product data in other functional areas
• Another limitation of the PDM was that it was targeted at a single organization and some times
even for subsets of that organization

Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM)

• CIM recognized that the information could be and should be shared across functional areas
• Data and information from engineering could be transferred to and use by manufacturing function
in an electronic format
• CIM embodies the idea that a computer system could integrate the functions necessary to design,
engineer and manufacture a product
• Computer aided manufacturing (CAM) has a simpler premise of using math-based CAD
descriptions to generate numerical control (NC) programs to control actions of automated
manufacturing machines
• In advance form, CAM data would also drive machines sequences and product routings
• CAM implied a perspective for a single product whereas CIM implied a broader view of all
organization’s products against all the organization’s production facilities and resources

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• Both of these concepts were meant to bridge the gap between engineering and manufacturing
• CIM tried to take design and engineering data to directly drive the machine and factory processes
on the factory floor
• The idea behind CIM that Cross functional use of information can reduce duplication of effort and
waste and drive productivity is a measure aspect of PLM
• CIM was also considered broader than PLM because it included ERP and SCM functions

6. (a)What do you understand by CAD? In what way has it been able to contribute to PLM?
7. (a)What do you understand by EDM? In what way has it been able to contribute to PLM?
8. (a)What do you understand by PDM? In what way has it been able to contribute to PLM?
9. (a)What do you understand by CIM? In what way has it been able to contribute to PLM?
SAME AS ABOVE

10. Compare PLM to ERP. In what way do they differ? Are they complimentary or encroach on
each other? Explain with the help of a diagram.
OR
11. (a) Compare PLM and ERP in terms of functions and domains of knowledge applicability.

• The common questions asked are

– If we have ERP why need PLM?
– Are PLM and ERP competitive approaches?
– How do PLM and ERP work together?

• The modern organizations are divided in to functional areas

• The common functional areas are:
– Design and Development Engineering Production
– Sales and Service Disposal and Recycling
–
• Most common domains of knowledge in an organization are:
– Knowledge about Products Customers Employees
Suppliers

• PLM is intended to match up with the domain of knowledge about the product and to include all
the functional areas in the organization
• ERP does the opposite.
• ERP crosses the various domains of knowledge – product, customer, employee and supplier –
but only focuses only on the functional areas of production and sales & service as shown in
Green color
• ERP is primarily transaction based
• It is concerned with taking the information about a transaction with respect to the product,
customer, employee and supplier & tracking that information to produce a completed order
• ERP is narrowly focused but concerned itself with all domains of knowledge of organization
• ERP is concerned with an end result producing a transaction with respect to the delivery of a
product or service to a customer
• ERP and PLM have an area of overlap in the areas of production and sales & service with
respect to the information they are concerned with

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12. (a) Compare PLM to ERP on the basis of granularity of information.

• Another way to see the commonality and differences between PLM and ERP is to look at
Granularity of Information they deal with
• Fig. shows a matrix with increasing granularity of information that it deals with. The order of
(decreasing) granularity is:
– Transaction  Order  Program  Family  Industry

• Transaction based systems are only concerned with specific transactions at hand
• Transaction begins and ends as an event does
• Granularity increases such that transaction can be part of an order. There may be a number of
different transactions that are processed with a respect to a single order
• ERP is primarily concerned with the transaction and the order
• Once the order is closed out, ERP processes the transaction with a respect to that order but is
not concerned with the order beyond that
• On the other hand PLM is concerned with the order for the product and extents in to program,
family and the entire industry
• We believe that the future definition of PLM will also extend to transaction systems

13. (a) Differentiate between Transaction, Order, Program, Family and Industry in terms of
degree of granularity of information.
• Transaction based systems are only concerned with specific transactions at hand
• Transaction begins and ends as an event does
• Granularity increases such that transaction can be part of an order. There may be a number of
different transactions that are processed with a respect to a single order
• ERP is primarily concerned with the transaction and the order

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• Once the order is closed out, ERP processes the transaction with a respect to that order but is
not concerned with the order beyond that
• On the other hand PLM is concerned with the order for the product and extents in to program,
family and the entire industry
• We believe that the future definition of PLM will also extend to transaction systems

14. Discuss with the help of a diagram PLM, SCM, ERP and SCM in terms of functional areas
and domains of knowledge in an organization
• Because ERP is horizontal in nature it also overlaps with CRM and SCM
• But these domains of knowledge are much deeper for the CRM and SCM applications then the
ERP system has to deal with
(Diag.Same as Ans-10)

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