July 2020

I want us to look back and try and make sense of various process and IT interventions we have advised or participated in, for enterprises big and small, in an attempt to speedup their product innovations and (thereby and therefore) expand markets, revenue and margins. Chances are, we would have come across terms such as Product Data Management (PDM), Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) or more recently Digital Thread. To what degree were these (PDM, PLM ) initiatives successful in making products faster, better and cheaper has been the subject of intense debate! PDM has its humble roots in trying to manage design/engineering data and files, keeping things organized and flowing smoothly. Between new products being brought to the market and changes to the existing products, Product Data Management systems did a decent enough job of organizing various CAD Files, Part/BOM Data, Simulation/Test Data and the accountability/timeliness of the effort that resulted in such files/data. I would say, PDM was quite successful (and still is) in wanting to create a system of record of design/engineering information (i.e. data and files both), but failed to keep up with the changing market dynamic owing to Globalization of supply chains and markets Mass customization, personalization Software defined product features Internet led technology disruption – Cloud, Mobility, IOT (sometimes called ‘Digital’) Subscription economy and changing idea of product ownership Digital Thread and How is it… Read More »Is Digital Thread the New PLM?