Product Lifecycle Management

verfasst von: Antti Saaksvuori, Anselmi Immonen

Verlag: Springer Berlin Heidelberg

Enthalten in: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Einloggen, um Zugang zu erhalten

Über dieses Buch

The significance of product lifecycle management (PLM – Product Lifecycle Management, formerly referred to, in a narrower frame of reference, as PDM – Product Data Management) is increasing, especially for companies in the manufacturing, high technology, and service industries. Product and component lifecycles are shortening while, at the same time, new products must be delivered to market more quickly than before. Many manufacturing and service companies are also trying to grow out of a bulk provider role. In the future they will be p- viding configurable and flexible solutions rather than just individual products. This leads companies to form networks in which each actor specializes in the planning, manufacture or integration of products in a certain field. Information concerning common products must pass quickly, faultlessly, and automatically between companies so that they can compete effectively in international markets. In today’s industrial production, therefore, PLM is an essential tool for coping with the challenges of more demanding global competition and ever-shortening product and component lifecycles and growing customer needs. New, better and more flexible products must be introduced into markets more quickly, with more profit and less labor, and the lifecycle of each product must be better controlled, for example, from financial and environmental perspectives. Fierce competition in global markets drives companies to perform better. In order to perform well financially, companies must be able to make informed decisions concerning the lifecycle of each product in their portfolio.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

1. Introduction

Product lifecycle management makes it possible to command the whole lifespan of a product and the information connected with it. Efficient product lifecycle management enables companies to compete successfully in international and global markets.

2. Fundamentals

This chapter introduces the basics and the central terminology of product lifecycle management. The chapter presents the area of application of PLM and the core functions of an information processing systems adapted to the practical realization of product lifecycle management.

3. Product lifecycle management systems

In this chapter we consider the basic functionality of product lifecycle management systems and the adaptation of their functions to the creation and use of product data in the basic business processes of the company. Furthermore, the chapter examines the use of product lifecycle management in the various functions of the industrial enterprise.

4. Product structures

The product structure in many respects forms the heart of a PLM system. In other words, the parts or components, service elements, documents and assemblies are attached to the product and to each other through the product structure.

The product structure provides the foundation for some of the basic functions of a PLM system. Many of the functions of the system are based on the use of the product structure and the items connected with it.

The descriptive methods used to describe the product structure are usually object-oriented. An object is a data element, which describes a certain product component, product element, module, subsystem or assembly. The objects of the structure have different dependencies in relation to each other. This dependence between objects can be functional or hierarchical by nature. The actual product structure, with its different levels, consists of mutual hierarchies of various objects. The hierarchy is based on properties inherited from father to son. In other words, lower object classes contain the properties of higher classes together with some additional or changed features; for example, the coupler sensor and analogous sensor can be subclasses of the sensor class. The properties of objects can be described by the attributes connected to each object. For example, the attributes of a certain component object might include its weight, effect, item number, cost, and reference designator.

5. Integration of the PLM system with other applications

This chapter considers the role of PLM systems in relation to other systems used in the company. Furthermore, the most essential ways to integrate applications with each other are discussed.

6. Deployment of the PLM system

This chapter considers questions related to PLM implementation projects. What kind of risks does a project involve? How is the project group established? Whom in the company will the project affect?

7. Business benefits of a PLM system

This chapter examines problems related to companies’ product lifecycle management, and the possibility of solving problems by utilizing a PLM system. The chapter also discusses the costs of acquiring and deploying a PLM system.

8. Challenges of product management in manufacturing industry

This chapter examines the challenges in the separate fields of the manufacturing industry from the product management point of view. At the same time, a survey of the various fields of the industry is created from a slightly wider perspective. There are three case examples in this chapter that look into three very different product environments and the special features or demands in such businesses for product management:

A (bulk) product to be manufactured in great volumes
A product that is customer-specifically configured or customized
A unique engineering product

These different product environments can also be referred to the traditional tri-fold division of products in the manufacturing industry, into A, B and C categories (figure 34).

Category A – build to order or build to stock (BTO/BTS) no design work or engineering needed.
ategory B – usually build to order, a little engineering or use of mass customization is needed.
Category C – always build to order. The product is built strictly according to the unique needs of the customer and a very large amount of design work is needed.

9. Service industry and PLM

This chapter examines the concept of service. The chapter will look into a theoretical definition of service and discuss more about the use of PLM principles in service business as well as the practical application PLM in service companies. The chapter also introduces a case example of a company operating in the field of IT-services which has implemented a new service product concept and a PLM system to support the operative use of the concept.

10. The role of product information management in collaborative business development

This chapter acquaints us with certain management isms central to industrial manufacturing and examines their significance from the product information and product lifecycle management point of view. At the same time these “isms” serve as an introduction to the examination of electronic cooperation (i.e. product collaboration) between companies.

When companies concentrate more and more on their own core business and form cooperative value networks, the significance of collaboration is strongly increased. This development has also significantly increased the importance of product life cycle management.

11. Understanding the product lifecycle

In many cases, the product lifecycle is still not a very clear and exact concept. The lifecycle concept can be seen from a number of different aspects and understood in many different ways depending on the frame of reference of the persons defining it. Another very important point here is that the lifecycle status of product information is a completely different thing from the lifecycle model of a product. In relation to the product information lifecycle, a more appropriate term would be the status or phase of the product information. (The basic principles of product information status handling are described in more detail in chapter 3.)

In this chapter, we will examine the most important viewpoints of the product lifecycle and see why a clear and exact definition of lifecycle concept is important for steering business.

12. Product and product management strategy as a part of business strategy

Product lifecycle management is an excellent tool for carrying out the business strategy of the company in suitable areas. This chapter examines what this means in practice. What kind of strategic possibilities does PLM bring?

13. e-Business: electronic business and PLM

This chapter goes into the significance of product lifecycle management from the e-business point of view and looks at the relationship between PLM and e-business.

Modern, advanced information technology has made the electronic business – e-business – possible. At the end of the 1990s its growth potential looked limitless and its growth rate was extremely fast, but growth in the early twenty first century has proved to be slower than anticipated. In particular, growth of consumer directed e-business is considerably slower than anticipated. In spite of this, electronic business is the sure trend of today and the future, and everyone will join the party according to their own schedule. e-Business conducted between companies, business-to-business or B-to-B, has been growing strongly of late. A lot is expected from electronic B-to-B but it also provides many opportunities in addition to mere expectations.

14. Digest

The new information processing systems do not magically remove all the problems from a company’s product management. During a PLM project, business processes must be developed; otherwise, the planned return on the investment will not be realized.

Backmatter

Titel: Product Lifecycle Management
verfasst von: Antti Saaksvuori
Anselmi Immonen
Verlag: Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Electronic ISBN: 978-3-540-78172-1
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-78173-8
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-78172-1