If you receive errors when attempting to view this white paper, please install the latest version of
Adobe Reader.
"Manufacturers worldwide have now developed global collaborative
product development talent networks to drive increased productivity. New product development design
centers are assuming larger roles and freeing existing design centers to refocus on innovation.
Access to additional capacity and capabilities is enabling manufacturers to address a broader set
of product design and development activities."
Source: PTC
Expanding the Enterprise: Breaking the Barriers to Collaborative Product Development
Collaborative Product Development is also known as :
Product Development,
Global Product Development,
Product Development Process,
Product Development Collaboration,
New Product Development Design Centers,
Product Development Team,
New Product Development,
Product Design Development,
Product Development Manager,
Global Collaborative Product Development Talent Networks,
Product Development Organizations,
Facet of Product Development,
Product Development Lifecycle,
Product Software Development,
Product Development Management,
Product Development Engineer,
Product Life Cycle Management,
Product Development Complexity,
Current Product Development Infrastructure,
Collaborative Product Development Networks,
Product Development Information.
Learn How Best-Practice Technology is Enabling Partners, Customers and
Distributed Global Teams to Work Together
Abstract
Product development has never been easy, but in today's global market,
the pressures facing industrial manufacturers are greater than ever. With
more and more stakeholders involved in the product development process,
collaboration and communication are critical to driving competitive
advantage. The fact is, the product development team has grown outside
of the engineering department, to now include cross-functional internal
resources, suppliers, partners, and customers located around the world.
Your challenge: to bring all these globally dispersed product stakeholders
into the same virtual room- in real time - to help drive your next generation
of innovative products. If you ignore this mandate and fail to connect your
global team, your product development process is likely to become a long
and painful effort marred by miscommunication, poor resource utilization,
and costly rework. If you succeed, you will be leveraging a highly tuned
network of global resources to maximize existing bandwidth, increase
innovation, speed time-to-market, and reduce costs.
Cross-functional Collaboration:
Extended Teams, Partners & Customers
In the vast world of industrial manufacturing today, there are as many
‘flavors' to product development as there are product development
organizations. While some see product development as merely synonymous
with engineering, truly effective manufacturing organizations
know that product development now involves a variety of cross-functional
participants from marketing, procurement, manufacturing, sales,
and service departments.
And in today's global manufacturing environment, many of these
resources may not even be internal; ever-increasing outsourcing is
now forcing suppliers and manufacturing partners into direct roles
in the product development process. In addition, thanks to Internet based
communication and visualization tools, your customers-
located down the street or across the ocean-now want more direct
involvement in every facet of product development.
The growing ecosystem of participants in product development is
adding massive complexity to the product development process.
These cross-functional, interdepartmental, and external third-party
team members are bringing with them multiple priorities, drivers and
expectations that have to be consolidated and managed. Decision makers
with varying degrees of engineering knowledge must be able
to review and provide feedback on design and execution at multiple
stages of the product lifecycle.
In addition to integrating these new human resources into the process,
you must also take into account the corresponding technology
systems and processes they bring with them into the development
cycle. These technologies and processes must also be incorporated
into your product development lifecycle, so that all involved can
exchange, interpret and retain data and present it in a way that is
relevant to each user. In practical terms, this means your collaborative
processes and supportive technology must be highly optimized
to coordinate so many access points and to manage each project's
timeline, scope and ultimate success.
When Physical Distance Increases Product
Development Complexity
Another barrier to success, which most industrial product design
teams face in today's world of global product development, is physical
distance. True, technology and communication advances now provide
instant access to a global talent pool, and manufacturers are
taking advantage of these new resources. In fact, in a 2008 survey
conducted by PTC of more than 350 industrial decision makers, 89%
of those surveyed reported working with global teams on product
development. However, managing a global development team means
that you must collaborate while dealing effectively with multiple
time zones, language barriers, cultural differences, and in-county
laws and regulations, among other factors.
Despite these inherent challenges, many manufacturers see multiple
reasons to engage global resources. Some firms are setting up design
centers in low-cost areas so as to lower operating costs and increase
profit margin. Some are tapping into overseas labor markets because
of a shortage of skilled engineering resources in their own geographies.
Some are acquiring companies overseas, then integrating
them into their current product development infrastructure. Still
others are partnering with third-party vendors to deepen their portfolio
with specialized expertise, or opening local offices to provide
regional support to targeted overseas markets.
Regardless of their motivation, companies are finding that distributed
global product development is a proven method of staying competitive
in an increasingly global playing field, and it is a trend that
is only increasing. In fact, in the previously mentioned survey, over
44% of respondents said that globalizing key business functions and
processes was one of their top three corporate initiatives, up from just
28% the year before. While advanced technology, processes and tools
have made these long-distance collaborations more likely, the very
nature of physical separation still adds additional complexity to the
collaborative relationship.
So, how do you successfully build these global, cross-functional,
collaborative product development networks? Achieving effective
collaboration often requires manufacturers to alter their processes
and their product design structure - changes that industrial companies
have historically been reluctant to make. As a result, many fail to
realize the anticipated ROI. Gartner Group studies show that about
50% of outsourcing deals - a predominant form of collaborative
product development for industrial manufacturers - end in failure.
Despite that statistic, nearly a quarter of the industrial decision makers
responding to the PTC survey said they needed to improve
their collaborative global relationships. Realizing value from distributed
product development requires an understanding both of the
challenges of collaboration, and the tools, technologies, and processes
needed to address those challenges.
The Challenges of Collaboration:
Technology and Processes
Technology Challenges: Keeping the Product Data Set
Complete and Secure
Technology is the single, underlying backbone of collaborative product
development; it is the advancement of information technology that
has made most forms of collaboration a practical reality. Technology-
including data management, project management, or web-based
collaboration tools - enables manufacturers to manage the entire
lifecycle of a product, from its conception, through design and manufacture,
to service and disposal. This extended product lifecycle, known
as the "Digital Product Value Chain," incorporates a variety of processes
and supporting software systems. The two main components of the
Digital Product Value Chain are Product Lifecycle Management (PLM)
and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). PLM refers to the creation,
management, and sharing of product development information, and
includes tools for design (CAD/CAM/CAE), engineering content and
data management, process management, documentation management,
engineering calculations, and visualization.
ERP, also known as Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP), includes
operational planning, order management and financial planning, and
material requirements planning (including both worker resources and
raw materials/parts), and product data management. For both PLM and
ERP, the underlying functions can be comprised either of a single system,
or point solutions connected with multiple integrations. PLM and ERP
systems are each typically independent but integrated, as the functions
of each vary too widely to be managed within a single architecture.
Typically, new product development begins in the product development
system - that is, the software application or set of applications
that encompass all the aspects of PLM described previously (CAD/
CAM/CAE, etc.). For most engineers, this solution set is the primary
technology used for creating, managing and sharing product development
information. The complete product design that is created in
the product development system will be translated into a bill-of materials
(BOM) and communicated to the ERP system for manufacture
and assembly.
Because the product development system is the main collaboration
tool used during product design, it has a direct impact on the ability
of extended teams to work together effectively. Today's best-in-class
product development systems allow industrial manufacturers to:
- Get Digital. By eliminating paper and moving to a purely
digital product modeling approach, companies can make
their intellectual property highly portable between locations,
third-party partners, and internal team members. It is this
portability that allows engineers in dispersed offices and across
multiple time zones to collaborate on product design around
the clock. The consistent use of 3D CAD (computer-aided
design) software, in particular, is a prerequisite to any
meaningful outsourced design strategy, while the use of
complementary CAM, CAE, and visualization technologies is
required for these partnerships to realize their full potential.
- Get Control. Using an effective information and process
management environment, companies can fully capture
digital data content, securely control its various versions and
configurations, manage concurrent changes, and automate
the flow of information between members of the product
development team. Having a baseline of information and
process control is a critical prerequisite for avoiding chaos
during the transition to, and ongoing operation of, global
product development.
- Get Global. The introduction of Internet-based collaboration
technologies enables companies to establish "virtual team rooms"
that allow dynamic sharing of digital product information across
both geographic and company boundaries. When collaboration
tools and data management solutions are integrated, companies
can share enterprise information with offshore partners in a
select and secure manner, thus boosting productivity without
compromising the proprietary nature of intellectual property.
In addition to having your human resources sharing information during
the product development lifecycle, various technology systems must
also share data created during product design as well - including
both downstream ERP systems and, quite frequently, other internal
and external product development systems. To limit the number of
needed data transfer points, an effective product development system
will support as many of the varied PLM functions as possible in a single,
integrated system. Picking and choosing product development "pieces"
- for instance a CAD tool from one vendor, a data management tool
from another vendor, and a documentation tool from a third vendor,
is a strategy that might seem, on the surface, to provide more options.
Alternatively, it may seem like too great an effort to move users from
a pre-existing "legacy" system to a new product development system,
motivating manufacturers to keep some PLM tools even when choosing
a new product development vendor.
Integrating multiple product development technology ‘pieces' usually
requires massive resource efforts, and in the end may result in poor
system-to-system communication, slow and cumbersome transfer
processes, and data loss. The lack of data interoperability and the
need for ongoing integration maintenance required of a non-integral
product development system can make product development unnecessarily
complicated and costly to maintain - for the system integrator,
the system administrator, and the manufacturer.
At a technical level, these architectures suffer in terms of usability,
performance, scalability, security, and availability. Also, by retaining
legacy systems for some aspects of product design, you may be
retaining technology that does not offer the most up-to-date features
and functionality, which limits the efficacy of the entire solution.
Conversely, with a single, integrated product development system,
all of the application's features and functions work together seamlessly,
allowing integration teams to focus on links to other enterprise
systems. This approach has far-reaching future benefits as well, as it
allows for an easier routine upgrade and update processes, as a finite
number of integrations to the ERP or other PLM systems need to be
updated in kind.
While, ideally, each facet of the Digital Product Value Chain is managed
by only one enterprise solution, such as one ERP and one PLM system,
with little or no duplication, this is frequently not the case. As a result
of acquisitional growth, department-level decision-making, distributed
implementation resources, and company politics, companies often find
themselves working with duplicate or overlapping internal systems. For
example, within a single company, engineers in North America may be
using one CAD tool while engineers in an acquired division in France
may be using a different CAD tool, even though the two groups are
working together on the same design. When internal teams must work
with disparate tools and systems on the same product development projects,
there is often a dramatic negative affect on collaboration. While
in some cases the manufacturer in this situation can choose to migrate
to a single, company-wide tool or system, the available resources or
lack of centralized support for such initiatives often make integration
between existing tools the only feasible solution. Integrations between
these systems must ensure that product data, including change and configuration
history for product designs, is fully usable across tools, so as
to prevent costly rework.
Even without system duplications, some integrations are necessary;
any product development system must share data with other systems
during the product lifecycle. Because product development is by its
very nature an iterative process that requires changes at all stages,
data that passes between PLM, ERP and other enterprise systems
often goes in both directions, as opposed to a simple ‘push' from
one system to the other. This means that integration between these
systems must be able to manage a broader set of product and design
data points than each system needs individually, to ensure that information
is not lost during these bi-directional flows.
Finally, because your partners and customers involved in product
development are generally independent entities with autonomous
decision-making teams, they may be using an entirely different set of
tools for their function in the product lifecycle. This can be an issue
for collaborative product development, when product data must be
passed to and from external partners. The needs of these partners,
in terms of data-sharing, can vary from relationship to relationship;
some partners might need full access-control when participating in
product design, while some may just want to view the product model
to ensure their component is compatible with the existing design.
While the responsibilities and the level of interaction with partners
and customers in the product development design chain may vary,
there is generally at least some level of integration needed. In addition
to providing partners with access to the data they need, these
external integrations must account for multiple, role-driven data
access rules, data security, and the retaining of change and configuration
history (or audit trail) when data moves back and forth
between parties.
Given the extended nature of current product development processes
and the significant transfer of electronic and digital content on a
day-to-day basis, technology is now a critical part of any secure data
management scheme. For industrial organizations to operate safely
and securely, they must incorporate both technology tools and processes
that deliver seamless integration across distributed product
development participants. All these parties must be plugged into the
process "at the right time, with the right access to the right data." This
challenge is heightened due to the complexity of product data and
the robust nature of industrial product development processes today.
To support effective internal and external collaboration, companies
must carefully consider their security needs, including the integration
between the disparate systems, the overlying process definition,
management, and governance, secure end-user access, and security
of data and data exchange.
Process Challenges: Moving Data through the Product Lifecycle
In tandem with technology, processes are central to establishing
effective collaborative relationships - with highly effective processes
being critical to successful collaboration. Without effective processes,
even the best technology infrastructure will be less effective. Just as
product development includes many cross-functional participants,
cross-functional processes are involved as well. Implementing effective
processes requires a full understanding of your entire organization's
cross-departmental product development processes, and how the product
development lifecycle impacts those processes.
For instance, you need to understand your company's Proposal Response
process in order to understand how changes to an outsourced component
will affect that process in the future: How will the change affect
development costs, product time-to-market, and variant options? How
is this information distributed to teams preparing customer quotes and
proposals? How are special customer requests, which are outside the
partner's current capabilities, addressed? How is feedback from customers
or the service department communicated to the partner? And
what is the process for incorporating this feedback into later versions
of the component?
In addition to internal processes, your partner‘s processes will also
impact your ability to collaborate effectively with them. Collaborative
design relationships between manufacturers and partners can vary,
and are sometimes defined by the "maturity level" of the shared processes.
The maturity level of a process can range from being ‘basic',
that is, undefined and ad-hoc, to an advanced level where processes are
formally defined and supported by integrated technology. The above
graphic depicts four maturity levels exhibited by companies who are
outsourcing design capabilities. Each higher step depicts how advancement
in maturity level leads to more collaborative and strategic relationships,
which ultimately drive greater value. Below is a description of
the characteristics of an organization that is operating at each level:
Level 1: Ad Hoc Processes
- Independent and ad-hoc design processes at both manufacturer
and partner
- Ad-hoc process for engaging and collaborating with
design partners
- Little or no virtual design collaboration or collaborative
project management
- Product data is exchanged using email and FTP, or by sending
hard-copy documents
- No transaction traceability or content management
Level 2: Structured Processes
- Formal design outsourcing process at a departmental or
functional level
- Controlled process for interaction and data exchange (manual
or automated)
- Manufacturer maintains different processes for each partner
- Limited or no insight across different outsourcing projects
Level 3: Managed Processes
- Formal design outsourcing process consistently applied
across the company
- Common, controlled and verifiable procedures-often
automated-for collaboration and data exchange
- Overall project management with shared design milestones
and deliverables
- Process enables early design-partner involvement and fosters
strategic relationships with partners
- Close collaboration and ongoing design feedback during the
lifecycle of the project
Level 4: Advanced Processes
- Formal design outsourcing process used consistently across
company and partners
- Process accommodates multiple types of partner relationships,
from arms-length to strategic
- Manufacturer and partner each have identical design tools
and methodologies
By having an understanding of the maturity level of various relationships
- not only the current level but the desired level as well
-manufacturers can better identify process deviations, as well as
their integration needs and collaboration challenges. Keep in mind,
however, that the ideal maturity level can vary based on your goals
and the constraints of your partner relationship. For instance, Level
4 maturity may not be appropriate in all cases. If you need to make
changes to processes, procedures and technology to reach the ideal
maturity level, then you'll need to create a plan to properly manage
the process. Your plan should consider not only the desired goal of
changes, but also how much effort and time are required for both the
manufacturer and the partner to adopt the new processes. Without
this plan, implementing drastic change can be nearly impossible, as it
becomes a struggle to manage all of the required people, process and
technology changes at a rate that product development practitioners
and budgets can absorb.
Perhaps the one process that is most crucial to the success of collaborative
relationships is the Change and Configuration Management (C&CM)
process. Many industrial organizations today are attempting to manage
a multitude of change processes across an extended global enterprise.
Many companies still use manual, paper-based processes, while others
use technologies that are either homegrown or custom-made, and yet
others use myriad combinations of each, all in an attempt at automation.
This lack of a single, standardized, automated C&CM process
creates a variety of problems, most notably schedule and program
delays, duplication of effort, added expense, and multiple avoidable
errors due to the lack of visibility and accurate information.
Disorganized C&CM processes can also result in incompatible or inefficient
synchronization of interdependent, but independently managed,
product development activities, such as software, mechanical and
electrical development processes, or development of connected product
modules by separate design and manufacturing teams. If changes
have not been effectively communicated and managed across these
independent design and manufacturing teams, you may be faced with
costly, time-consuming design rework very late in the product development
lifecycle.
When working with partners and external teams who are passing data
to and from enterprise systems, your in-house PLM system must have
a defined change management process, as well as highly effective
integrations and inherent configuration management capabilities.
Designers and manufacturers need immediate visibility into changes
and configurations being made to the product design, and must be
able to immediately identify any changes in product design that
could jeopardize integration with the larger product interfaces or
manufacturing.
Solving Collaboration Challenges: Technology,
Processes, and Integration
Technology and Processes
As daunting as the challenge of creating a collaborative product
development relationship may seem, the economic and competitive
benefits make it an initiative that the majority of industrial manufacturers
deem worthy of pursuing. Collaboration throughout the entire
product lifecycle, from design to manufacturing and beyond, can be
done effectively with best-in-class technologies and practices. By
choosing the right technology platforms, by consolidating duplicate
and overlapping systems, and by creating highly effective system
integrations, industrial manufacturers can create a strong technology
foundation for successful collaboration practices.
Today's best-in-class PLM and ERP technologies are able to support
effective processes via automated workflows and advanced capabilities.
‘Automated' means that product data is moved from one step in
the product development cycle to the next, triggered by events or the
completion of tasks. On the PLM (Product Lifecycle Management)
side of the Digital Value Chain, in the product development system,
this data can include MCAD and ECAD data, calculations, illustrations
and technical publications. This entire set of product development
data, including a history of changes, moves through the product lifecycle
as a single representation of the entire product. Because the
entire set of data needs to be kept complete, yet also needs to be
filtered based on the needs and rights of the user, the product development
tool should be a single, integral system that incorporates
a common database schema, business objects, process models and
web-based user interface, including single login.
The most effective product development systems work natively with
the many forms of product data that must be shared across resources,
including data generated from other PLM systems. This results in
faster data conversion and transfer, data presentation that is appropriate
to the role of the specific user, and workflow management to
keep complex, multi-departmental schedules on time.
In addition, a system architecture that is built upon industry standards
is better able to support the variety of users who must participate in
product development workflows - including people from various departments
within the company, as well as external users, such as suppliers,
partners and customer communities.
The ultimate purpose of the product development system is to optimize
the business processes that companies need to execute in order to
develop competitive products and achieve their business initiatives. A
system that merely delivers a hodgepodge of features and functions is
not optimized to facilitate the execution of specific business processes.
Recognizing the fact that business processes are what drive product
development, best-in-class solutions automate and optimize business
processes, both those that are contained within the product development
solution and those that extend beyond into other enterprise PLM and
ERP systems. Consolidated enterprise systems can also play an important
role in increasing a company's competitiveness by allowing continuous
improvements and automation of business processes and procedures.
By starting with a solid product development system base and an
understanding of the related product development processes, you
can focus your integration efforts on connecting PLM with ERP and
coordinating with other best-in-class solutions for other enterprise
capabilities (CRM, etc).
Implementing End-t o-End Digital Product Value Chain
Processes and Solutions
When implementing PLM, ERP and other enterprise solutions, industrial
manufacturers often attempt custom integrations. Often, this
‘one-off' approach can fulfill the needs of a given business process.
However, one-off applications typically require high levels of ongoing
administrative attention and manual exception handling. In most cases,
companies don't recognize or understand the high cost of resources -
human and financial - consumed by the ongoing administration of
their application interfaces. The more custom code a company develops,
the more code it must maintain, using either its own IT department
or an outsourced development service. Beyond the resources needed
to create custom software code, resources are also needed to test and
implement this code; these tasks are difficult and time-consuming for
most traditional IT departments who, as a rule, are more likely to leverage
commercial applications whenever possible.
One of the most difficult aspects of working with customized software
applications is that every time a new release of the source code or
target software is available, much of the development process has to be
redone. Scalability is also an issue with custom integrations; as business
processes expand to support a growing enterprise, they often fall short
of evolving business requirements and are too inflexible to accommodate
additional systems. Inevitably, the shortcomings of these integrations
are "fixed" with manual processes that are resource-intensive
and prone to error. The result is pockets of efficiency with significant
process and information gaps in the overall enterprise system.
Commercial middleware applications are helpful, but they don't offer
any business logic to support manufacturing business processes, thus
leaving a significant portion of the integration efforts to in-house
or outsourced third-party integration teams. As a rule, traditional
approaches to integration don't yield all of the expected benefits.
Effective integrations consider not only the technology platforms
that need to be connected, but the business processes that these
technology platforms are intended to support. Business Process
Management (BPM) is a discipline that combines software capabilities
and business expertise to accelerate process improvements and
facilitate business innovation. BPM relies on an enabling technology
called Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), an IT architecture that
supports integrating a business as linked ‘services'.
SOA is a methodology or approach on how to integrate different software
applications. It is not a software product or a communication
standard. However, there are certain kinds of middleware and certain
software standards that are typically used when implementing an
SOA solution.
When integrating two enterprise applications, there are typically
three main components:
- An integration layer or module for the first application that
utilizes an Internet communication protocol such as XML
- A middleware application (such as IBM WebSphere)
- An integration layer or module for the second application that
utilizes an Internet communication protocol such as XML
Protocols, such as XML, can significantly reduce the work involved in
developing an interface. In addition, an existing interface can be reused
with other applications instead of having to develop a new interface.
SOA can greatly lower the amount of effort in developing composite
applications that rely on information from a number of different applications.
SOA also enables IT to simplify application and system integration,
and to better reuse existing applications. Thus, the overall business
value of SOA is that it lowers the IT total cost of ownership.
Helping manufacturing companies extend the value of their investments
in enterprise applications, by better leveraging vital data
across the enterprise, will not only improve collaboration, increase
productivity and reduce the time and cost to bring new products
to market, but it will also enhance the strategic importance of these
applications to all users in the enterprise.
The combination of PLM with SOA concepts eliminates integration
and process complexity issues by changing the way data is structured
and handled. With this approach, a ‘federated' information mechanism,
based on open standards, is created, from which all applications access
and share data. Here, business processes exist independent of specific
applications and are viewed and accessed by all companies participating
in a product development value chain. This allows business flexibility
and better responsiveness to changes in the competitive landscape.
Portals provide access and visibility into all business processes relevant
to particular user roles, enabling support of better business decisions as
well as role-based access to information.
Why Is ‘SOA for PLM' Critical for Collaboration?
A truly successful Digital Product Value Chain requires an understanding
of:
- The ‘big picture' view of the enterprise technology systems
involved in the product lifecycle
- The interdepartmental processes that are affected by product
development and product management
- The interrelation between technology systems and processes
This big picture view includes both internal processes, and the related
processes of your partners. Thus, in order to be successful, any related
integration effort must also consider all of these extended, collaborative
relationships. Only with these relationships in mind are you best
able to:
- Formalize repeatable processes around best practices at all levels
- Improve people's capabilities to execute the processes in
day-to-day work
- Deploy software and service capabilities designed to
support process
- Plan the changes to coincide with product development programs
Mapping out the processes enables you to identify integration points
between your processes and your partners' processes. This allows you
and your collaboration partners to:
- Establish a common understanding of terminology, scope and
relationships between processes selected for improvement
- Provide the basis for validation of process flow, including tasks,
roles and software alignment at multiple maturity levels
- Provide documentation of multi-level, best-practice procedures
for training
By eliminating traditional information silos and making vital product
information visible throughout an enterprise, an SOA-enabled Digital
Product Value Chain connects the distinct systems, processes and
resources, and creates a unified source of all product information.
An SOA-enabled, end-to-end solution provides business decision
support, increases flexibility and responsiveness, and improves integration
with the value chain, enabling CEOs to continually innovate
their products, their business processes, and their PLM infrastructures.
SOA also creates an ecosystem in which multiple solution
developers, integrators and IT consultants can collaborate, replacing
competition with cooperation-a profound benefit to the client.
By permitting heterogeneous hardware and software to operate together
smoothly through a shared commitment to open standards, SOA truly
delivers on the long-held client dream to mix and match best-of-breed
PLM and ERP applications to achieve a system uniquely suited to their
special goals and challenges. The result can be client solutions tailored
for the various industries, such as aerospace and defence, automotive,
consumer products, electronics and industrial products.
Conclusion
For many of today's industrial manufacturers, the Digital Product
Value Chain involves cross-functional, interdepartmental, geographically
dispersed, and third-party team members, along with a variety
of technology applications, and a plethora of interrelated processes.
Progressive manufacturers must move away from silos of information
and processes, and transition towards a view of the product
lifecycle as an integrated flow of product data.
To optimize collaborative product development, whether you are
collaborating with internal or external resources, you must have a
complete view both of technologies and processes in order to succeed.
Companies are most successful in attaining the value they expect
from collaboration initiatives when they follow these best practices and
supporting methodologies:
- Build PLM process on a strong, integral product development
technology foundation. Best-in-class product development
systems make engineering data and intellectual property highly
portable, eliminating the barriers of time zones and enabling
collaboration on product design around the clock. They support
the control of product information and the management of
changes and configurations-which becomes increasingly
important as product data moves to and from other PLM and
ERP systems. Product development systems should also support
the sharing of information with partners in a select and secure
manner, enabling productivity without compromising the
proprietary nature of intellectual property.
- Understand your organization's end-to-end product development
processes. Include those processes that happen both internally
and externally with partners. By looking at product lifecycle
processes across all departments-and not just those processes
within your engineering department-you can anticipate which
concurrent, dependant, or intersecting processes will be affected
by changes.
- Effective product development collaboration requires effective
product lifecycle management, or PLM. For effective PLM, both
the technology tools and the business processes that support
the entire lifecycle of product data need to be connected. These
integrations must incorporate an understanding of the enterprise
technology systems and the interdepartmental processes that are
affected by product development, and how these systems and
processes are interrelated. This big picture view includes both
internal processes, and the related processes of your partners.
Whether you need to respond to increased competition, or you need
global resources to meet engineering bandwidth demands, you
must develop strong collaborative relationships to be successful.
Without the right technologies and processes in place, productivity
will decrease, changes will take longer to manage, costs will go up,
and time-to-market will suffer. Effective collaboration is not just a
bonus; it can make the difference between sinking or swimming in a
competitive global market. Understanding the challenges of collaboration,
and how to best address them through technology, processes,
and a "big picture view" of the Digital Product Value Chain, is the
secret to realizing the potential benefits of these new product development
opportunities.
Above all else, when optimizing your processes, choose technology
providers who offer best-in-class solutions, proven expertise, and an
understanding of the entire product development lifecycle. Whether
your organization consists of distributed internal teams, or a network
of global design partners, you should select providers that understand
the product lifecycle framework both inside and outside of the internal
engineering department, so they can help you achieve success.
© 2008, Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC). All rights reserved. Information described herein is
furnished for informational use only, is subject to change without notice, and should not be construed as
a guarantee, commitment, condition or offer by PTC. PTC, the PTC logo, and all PTC product names and
logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of PTC and/or its subsidiaries in the United States and in
other countries. All other product or company names are property of their respective owners.