In this era of connected products, it only makes sense that product teams stay synchronized and connected in real time as they manage product development across the lifecycle. However research shows that product PLM in high tech electronics, as executed in many companies in particular, is full of disconnects.
What’s common with high tech electronics companies is that PLM systems are only partially connected to ERP, are typically not integrated to MCAD or ECAD, and rarely, if ever, connected to the software development environments. Companies are unable to get a complete product bill of materials. Component management is commonly managed in excel spreadsheets, and compliance management is frequently done outside of the PLM platform. Change management within many of the solutions is considered to be restrictive and not flexible enough to support the increasingly complex product definitions and the myriads of personnel who need to be engaged in the change process.
PLM in High Tech - A New Vision
It’s crucial to recognize that there is no one system that will resolve every business need for managing the product, and that PLM is a business approach, a practice of managing product information cradle to grave. Some will refer to needing a digital twin, however, what has to be addressed is closing loops and eliminating disconnects.
Recently, the team at CIMdata asked “what if?” What if there is a remedy? What if the answer is not to rip and replace, but rather to build a platform, a backbone?
The CIMdata report entitled “Illusion of PLM in High Tech Persists" looks at Aras Innovator and Minerva’s Electronic PLM Solution. The report details how companies can begin the process of transforming from the restrictions of the solutions they have today, to a platformized approach that improves business processes without having to tear out the old.
Read this informative report for a look at high tech use cases and best practices in PLM.