How Does Engineering Reference Drive Value in a PLM Strategy?

Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is a huge business segment with over $10 billion spent annually on PLM software systems alone. Every Fortune 500 company that has a manufacturing or process component to their business has a PLM strategy. When organizations put together their PLM strategies, they focus on the productivity improvements that can be gained through process improvements, organizational design and enabling technologies. The technologies considered normally include solutions for digital design, digital product data management and coordinating engineering work across departments and geographies, etc.

Knovel is a solution that enhances engineering productivity by providing external reference information as part of the engineering workflow. PLM relies heavily upon accessibility, management and flow of engineering data.

A few months back, Jim Brown of Tech-Clarity approached me with an idea on doing a research project to determine the role of engineering reference information in a PLM strategy. Since it’s a question Knovel has wrestled with, I was happy to give Jim support and agreed to sponsor the project. Tech-Clarity has just released its findings in: Tech-Clarity Insight: Engineering Reference Information in a PLM Strategy.

At risk of oversimplifying, the report concludes that electronic reference is important in a PLM strategy and makes recommendations about how engineering businesses can look at its role. I wouldn’t be doing the paper justice to attempt to summarize it here, but I pulled out a few quotes from engineering leaders Jim Brown spoke with that I found engaging. After reading them, perhaps you’ll consider downloading the report.

“Electronic access to engineering reference information enables faster and better product development, although credit won’t be given where it is due. Upper management probably doesn't care about reference information directly, however they want to make sure they are doing everything possible to enable and empower the engineering organization. They expect you to put what is required in place.”

“We learned the hard way that the capability of the search engine is very important when we decided to put our own standards on the system. We just put paper documents on screen and it was hideous, there was no search, no connection, and it just wasn’t used. The electronic world didn’t work until we added search capabilities that made this medium usable in a meaningful way. The search is brilliant, it’s critical.”

You can download the paper: Tech-Clarity Insight: Engineering Reference Information in a PLM Strategy for free at the Knovel website (registration is required). You can read more of Jim’s thoughts on the electronic reference on his blog over at Manufacturing Business Technology http://www.mbtmag.com.