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
PLM evolved from PDM and promised to bridge the business and technology chasm, created by the changing market dynamics. However it had limited success in tracking the product definition and performance across the entire lifecycle . I don’t intend to dig deeper in PLM in this blog and will only talk about it to the extent that it has contributed to the development of digital thread and twin concepts
Digital thread, a term that aerospace and defense industry coined and popularized, is a process and technology construct to connect all aspects of product lifecycle from ideation to consumption. In some sense, it is the DevOPs equivalent of software products, as it tries to establish a system of engagement between the product and it’s usage.
While PLM still is the foundation of Digital thread, PLM is linear in nature due to the absence of feedback at every stage of product lifecycle. Digital thread builds on PLM concept in the sense that it allows for a linear flow from ideation to design to sourcing and consumption, but also institutes a feedback loop between product states and at the product lifecycle level. And in doing so, it goes well beyond the traditional PLM as it requires integration of many different technologies for the incorporation and interpretation of feedback (as shown in the picture above). The feedback has to be understood in two dimensions
a) Feedback within the producer ecosystem (OEM, suppliers, vendors etc.)
b) Feedback from the market
The producer ecosystem feedback, such as between design and manufacturing (or contract manufacturing) is traditionally achieved through bi-directional integrations, but there hasn’t been a consistent process/technology/data standards for those bi-directional integrations. Digital thread attempts to create those uniform process and data definitions and hopefully there would be a technology solution in the future to stitch it all together.
Feedback from the market or the end consumer has been elusive all along. Service records/warranty claims/field recalls traditionally have been used as feedback into the product lifecycle, but they are not as continuous and structured as would be needed for an efficient product lifecycle orchestration. With the advent of Industrial and consumer Internet of things (IOT), continuous and unmediated feedback in the context of the specific product definition, operating environment and conditions is now possible. This vital missing link, that is the “feedback from the market” is what digital thread addresses!
In conclusion, Digital thread is not new PLM but it relies on PLM and many other technologies including IOT and manufacturing design/execution systems, to deliver a closed loop product innovation cycle. What are your thoughts?