Alfa Laval’s OnePLM

This case study looks at the benefits and lessons learned resulting from Alfa Laval’s OnePLM program. Alfa Laval AB is a €3.6B provider of products and solutions based on its three key technologies of heat transfer, separation and fluid handling. The drivers for OnePLM go back to 2012, when a “pain point hunt” identified some 300–400 pain points related to product data management. Company management understood the problems were impacting the business, and the OnePLM program was launched. By 2018, OnePLM had been rolled out in 3 of Alfa Laval’s Business Units. Benefits have been achieved in many areas, including a rationalisation of the product portfolio, better insight of customer needs, and introduction of standardised business processes. A key benefit of the approach taken in OnePLM is that it has enabled a practically self-financing PLM program. Among the lessons learned have been the importance of: top management commitment; key stakeholder involvement; change management; focusing first on information; and having the right implementation team and partners.