PLM system and selection

I. Introduction:

Lifecycle is a broad and important and interesting concept. For example, a manufacturing product has a life cycle, a manufacturing enterprise has a life cycle, and a manufacturing enterprise has a life cycle. data describing and managing these products also has a life cycle. The life cycle presents the concept of dynamics and time, which is also in line with the law that the world is absolutely moving.

Ii. Definition and positioning of PLM System

2.1 PLM Definition

PLM (product life-cycle management) is the product lifecycle management. It includes the following stages: training, growth, maturity, recession, and renewal.

The core of product lifecycle management is data, including digital data, graphic data, and data structures, storage and computation in a computer-understandable and processing mode, along with the entire product process and enterprise operation activities that use such materials.

 

Figure 1

2.1 PLM Positioning

Unlike ERP, SCM, CRM, and other information systems, PLM is an information system for product innovation, knowledge base management, and process optimization. It manages intangible assets of enterprises, use knowledge-driven design methods to improve product quality, treat and make full use of product knowledge as the strategic wealth of enterprises, highlight the strategic ideology of sustainable development, and support continuous innovation, make full use of the company's "Knowledge" assets to improve product R & D speed and agility.

PLM is in a cooperative relationship with ERP, SCM, and CRM. Using the services provided by PLM, especially in complex products such as the equipment manufacturing industry and ERP, the value can be better reflected. Existing enterprise information systems, such as ERP, cannot be replaced with PLM. On the contrary, they both form synergies at the technical and implementation levels. PLM plays a role in the entire collaboration process. Other information systems are the basis for supporting the process.

The PLM system fully supports conception, evaluation, development, management, and support of products in the entire digital product value chain. It integrates multiple unconnected product information islands into a digital record system, together with ERP, SCM, and CRM, a complete enterprise information collaboration system is formed.

Iii. PLM Selection

For enterprises, it is necessary to call appropriate professional development teams to develop their own PLM systems. On the one hand, the development cycle is long, and on the other hand, the system will lose flexibility if you are too concerned about business. On the other hand, the investment will be too large. It is more suitable than purchasing a PLM system suitable for enterprises.

3.1 PLM system vendor

Due to the relationship between PLM and PDM, there is almost no PLM vendor with a brand new look. Most PLM vendors come from PDM vendors. Some original PDM vendors have developed a systematic PLM solution that successfully converts data to PLM vendors, such as EDS and IBM. Of course, some ERP vendors, such as SAP, have proposed their own ERP-based PLM solutions to try to share a scoop in this broad market; some CAD or engineering software vendors are also making such efforts. It should be noted that there are some vendors that originally used to be PDM/CAD and did not launch actual PLM products, but changed their names to self-called PLM solution vendors, take a ride to sell some low-end PDM/CAD products. These actions have caused a lot of confusion to the market and major customers.

At present, the PLM software provided by software vendors in China is still in the development process, and does not have all the functions in the PLM concept. Most of the implementation of PLM remains at the level of PDM. Some international PDM vendors have successfully entered PLM from the PDM field, such as UGS Teamcenter (table 1)

(Table 1: PLM (PDM) Supplier List)

3.2 PLM System Selection

The system built on the PLM concept should be a system that strictly implements the concept at the beginning of the system design, rather than making some modifications on it.

How should we choose these PLM systems? What are the considerations for choosing a software that can maximize the Software Benefits, apart from the cost?

(1) good user interface

The PLM system has a wide range of end users, and various internal organizations and personnel outside the company may use this system. Therefore, users of the system cannot be limited to professionals with high it level, so that the system should be easy to use. Including:

1. The system is smooth, and the necessary work should be completed in as few page jumps as possible.

2. The system interface is friendly and easy to operate.

(2) Clear system deployment structure

C/S (Client/Server), B/S (Browser/Server) the advantages of the two software development and use modes are different, compared with the installation and maintenance of C/S, it is inconvenient to update. It is more convenient to use IE or other browsers to work directly.

However, the positioning of the PLM system is fixed. It will have both modes at the same time, and B/S will be presented to end users, c/S has administrators to quickly and efficiently perform system configuration and management. In this case, the PLM system should have such a layer-4 structure:

The user Client layer is an interface for interacting with the system. It is generally based on B/S or c/s. The C/S-based interface is a general rich client program. It is used after installation, b/S is based on IE and Firefox.

 

The presentation layer of the system is designed for browser B/S to implement enterprise-level development for amateur Logic Functions, and handles and contacts with the service layer. System development at the first layer will be deployed on application servers such as Tomcat or WebLogic, providing browser access to the terminal, and implementing integrated interfaces between the PLM system and other enterprise systems. However, it is not recommended to directly perform operations with the database on this layer. The technical implementation is basically based on the Java language.

The server layer of the business is the core layer of the system. This layer processes and stores data and deals with databases. This layer requires a high level of efficiency, therefore, the technical implementation of this layer is well developed in a lower-layer Language.

The resource layer is the final storage layer of enterprise data, mainly in two aspects: Database Management System and file system,

This layer is also used for processing by its upper service layer.

(3) Data efficiency, correctness, and security management

The purpose of PLM implementation is not to add a new system in an enterprise, to add or review a series of new data, or to process multiple types of original data. PLM implementation, to ensure the uniformity and consistency of enterprise data, PLM can replace which systems and which systems can synchronize data. The enterprise data input and output form a unified interface implementation.

Data management must be correct and secure. Employees at different levels of an enterprise must have different access permissions for different data at different stages, these permissions must be flexible and changeable. This will not cause data flooding or data leaks. The PLM system needs to clearly classify data and perfectly combine lifecycle management with user role settings.

(4) Complete Process Management Mechanism

The data lifecycle is the management of processes. The management of data processes should be as flexible as possible, users can easily draw their own processes and assign custom tasks to each node of the process. Process Management, coupled with role settings, identifies data in different States through different processes as different lifecycles.

(5) flexible system design and system redevelopment Space

A system that fully implements the PLM concept, the system designer is very flexible and has a flexible space for re-development of the system.

Flexible system design includes modular system structure and flexible system expansion. Modular System Structure, enterprises can increase, remove, or modify the corresponding modules according to their own status. Flexible system expansion allows you to easily customize system functions and interfaces based on the original system.

(6) powerful system integration capabilities

PLM systems are connected and integrated with ERP, SCM, CRM, and other systems of enterprises to eliminate information silos. Filling in the information gap is one of the goals of PLM systems, therefore, a good PLM system must have the ability to integrate SOA to achieve data identity and communication.

Iv. Summary

PLM, as a concept, is constantly changing and extending. It is continuously improved in the application process of mainstream manufacturers and large enterprises. The PLM system will affect the connection between enterprises and suppliers, sales channels and customers. In addition, the PLM system will not only integrate the internal business processes of an enterprise, in addition, it will begin to achieve cross-Enterprise Business Process Integration between multiple enterprises. Enterprises have higher requirements for PLM systems. Therefore, it is important for enterprises to choose a PLM system with high efficiency, powerful functions, good scalability and integration. It cannot be a chicken rib because of poor selection, or a burden caused by improper selection.

References

Http://www.wikipedia.org, Science and Technology Policy Research and Consulting Center (STPI), 2007/12

[2]. Current Situation and Development Analysis http://article.pchome.net/content-105142-2.html of PLM Market in China