PLM Interest Group

The PLM 2025-35 Project provides a global collaboration framework for implementors to share and apply best practices, and for advisors and educators to model them into a single source of truth.

It combines the twin drives towards Professional PLM and the PLM Body of Knowledge in a constructive and completely open way that benefits participants directly while generating industry-wide solutions.

			The Project is also the home of the Future PLM Steering Group, which aims to re-envisage PLM for the modern manufacturing age.

By integrating these elements into one holistic project framework we can rethink the horizons of PLM, establish the best practices and professional techniques of right-first-time PLM, and embody them in the participants' implementations.  As the Project name implies, the aim is to set the direction of successful PLM over the next decade.

The Project narrative runs as follows:-

• Why Change is Needed
• The Current State of PLM
• What the Industry Needs To Do
• Project Methodology
• Structured Benchmarking
• PLM 2025-35 Project Proposal

• Future PLM Steering Group
• India PLM Steering Group

Way back in 2010 a 10-Year PLM Vision was published, entitled '2020 PLM'.  It set out some reasonable aspirations as to how the PLM industry could progress over the forthcoming decade, and how things would be better at the end of it.  Needless to say, when 2020 arrived absolutely none of this had been achieved. And we are now in 2026.

There are many underlying reasons for this, but industry veteran Doug Macdonald has finally crystallised the one that is most important, and from which there is no escape.  Current PLM solutions evolved from the manufacturing environment of the 1980s and, powerful as they now are, they still embody (and are constrained by) that line of thought.

Over the past decades new technologies have appeared, products have become vastly more complex, and manufacturing methods are much more advanced.  PLM has been left behind, and this has far-reaching consequences for everyone who is trying to apply it.  Implementations will always fall short unless we rethink the whole approach.

Doug gave the Keynote at the State of PLM Debate on 02 June, and he has written up his slides into a detailed 28-page document:-

We are now moving forward from that.  The State of PLM 2026 Report captures the wider debate and sets the scene for an industry-wide response.

Download Doug's Report >>>                              Contact Doug >>>

The reason behind this whole PLM 2025-35 Project is that PLM has not evolved at all over the past ten years, and is not likely to change in the next decade unless we do something about it.  Meanwhile the rest of the world has moved on.

The evidence is everywhere to be seen, from industry-wide lack of progress to the problems experienced by the companies that took part in the debate. This has far-reaching implications for current and future implementations.  It used to be thought that PLM was incomplete because the tools had not yet been fully applied. Now it is clear that PLM will never be complete unless the toolset is re-imagined, and this has massive implications for the future.

It is not enough just to know that PLM needs to change.  That change has to be defined very clearly, and there needs to be a way to actually make it happen.  Otherwise we are back in the realm of endless discussions of theory.

The State of PLM 2026 Report shows the way forward.  It describes the principles that should be followed, and the process that can make it happen: forming a Steering Group that will act as the 'Voice of PLM', producing a PLM Blueprint that the industry can follow. This is a milestone in the history of PLM, because it is the first independent and interactive appraisal of how far PLM has progressed, and how it should be re-formed.

Download the Report [PDF] >>>

Further discussions on 30 June worked through the conclusions of the Report and generated a Position Statement as a starting point for improvement.

Because of the shortfalls in PLM evolution compared to the general advances in modern manufacturing, even the most advanced User companies are not able to implement PLM to meet the needs of the present day.  PLM is indispensable for engineering and manufacturing companies in every type of industry, and shortfalls in PLM capability have a direct impact on product management and performance.

If PLM had been developed in with modern technology and with modern manufacturing ideas the solutions would be more comprehensive, more integrated, more effective and easier to apply.  The PLM industry therefore needs to rethink the aims, features and benefits of PLM in order to recalibrate for the future.

The Position Statement expands on this by returning to the fundamental aims and scope of PLM to remind ourselves why we are doing it. And PLM is something that engineering and manufacturing companies have to do. Before any computers or software or applications ever enter the picture, PLM starts with a need - the need to manage product data, all the way across the lifecycle and along the Value Chain. So we have to move from PLM as the problem, to PLM as the solution.

The document therefore moves seamlessly from the source of PLM through to the problem itself, ways to approach the thought process, and how the Steering Group will lead the industry through the re-appraisal.

Download the Position Statement [PDF] >>>

The PLM 2025-35 Project will run for a year initially, aligned with the natural pace of actual PLM implementations and consisting of three streams:-

Global corporations have developed very complex, structured solutions for PLM, generating their own methodologies based on what they have found to work best.

This represents many man-years of experience and learning that have never been shared or re-used. Thousands of different implementations around the world with locked-in knowledge.

The solution is very simple.  Take a number of user implementations that have each developed in their own random way, in response to their different business drivers and technical competences.  Array them in parallel, and we find that their strengths and weaknesses are in different areas.  Where one implementation has a weakness, others will have strengths - so the 'weaker' implementation gets a problem solution for free, immediately.  And that same implementation will have strengths that the others will use.

PLM 2025-35 not only facilitates this knowledge-sharing, but also provides new tools for areas which do not have existing solutions.

During the first 4 months the User participants liaise and calibrate with each other in order to fully understand each other's implementation approach and techniques.  This is not a loose conversation but a structured benchmark, designed to generate detailed and factual findings that everyone can learn from.

This methodology is embedded in the PLM 2025-35 Project, which makes it concise and easy to follow.  The Project provides the liaison material in increasing levels of detail, and the participant responses build naturally into the results framework.

The results provide high-level evidence of "What other people are doing", and break out into an array of comparisons that each PLM Team can review and apply within their own implementation.

The PLM 2025-35 Proposal explains the whole Project in detail, and has been up-issued to Version 5.0 to highlight the Future PLM Steering Group.  All three streams are shown in parallel, with a full description, benefits and deliverables.  It shows the synchronisation and two-way exchange between User Collaboration and Knowledge Development, and expands on the PLM Benchmarking and Value Chain Integration aspects.

The Future PLM Steering Group will carry out a collaborative review of how the PLM industry has progressed, and where it needs to improve to match modern manufacturing, and produce a PLM Blueprint for the future. The Body of Knowledge stream will blend User collaboration with industry expertise to generate the definitive reference model for PLM best practice. The AI Working Group will combine technical skills with engineering development techniques to produce the real, working PLM solution.

The Proposal expands to 29 pages precisely because it does contain all the detail, but it is well structured and easy to read.  Participating organisations need to know what they will be doing, how their part of the Project works, and how everything fits together - as well as to have confidence that the results are likely to be as planned.

Download the Proposal [Word] >>>                              Download the Proposal [PDF] >>>

The vehicle for change is the Future PLM Steering Group, which will carry out an open and structured review of where PLM is, and where it ought to be.  The Steering Group provides a platform for organisations from all parts of the industry to combine their expertise and decide the new scope and parameters of PLM. Users, vendors, integrators and consultancies all have a stake in this and should all have an influence on the way that it changes.

The Future PLM Steering Group will give guidance and direction to the industry that will actually steer the future - and as its Members collaborate over 12 months they get a host of direct benefits: high-level cross-fertilisation of ideas and methods; a re-appraisal of PLM aims and strategy; visibility of the current and 'successor' vendor marketplace; and a stream of ongoing findings from the Body of Knowledge.

However, the world won't change just because a Steering Group says so.  It will change because of the deliverable.

Over its 12-month lifespan the Steering Group will produce a written PLM Blueprint - a comprehensive document incorporating all of the new thinking, and spelling out the advanced scenario that will meet the needs of modern manufacturing into the mid-term future.

At the end of the Project the Blueprint will be globally available, and thus will be on the table at every major PLM selection.  It is only natural that User companies will use it as part of the process.  So, along with the specific requirements, a question for every vendor that responds to the Tender will be:-

              "How does what you are proposing support or differ from the Blueprint?".

Over time the Supply Side will adapt, and PLM will become what Users want.

The Future PLM Steering Group is forming now.  If this is your main interest in the Project you can download a streamlined Proposal from the links immediately below.  You can find out the latest developments via steering_group@plmig.com.

Download the SG Proposal [Word] >>>                              Download the SG Proposal [PDF] >>>

This is a global process that will bring together PLM-oriented organisations from different countries and different industries to reshape the future of PLM.  Discussions are happening around how to form the Steering Group, and we are starting with a Registration stage to introduce everybody and find the common ground.

Registration carries no cost or obligation - it simply means you would like to be part of the discussion to see how it will all work.

You will receive the briefing information, see which other companies might be involved, and what the benefits of the Project would be in your case. It is also a neat way to share ideas and learn about where PLM actually is in India.

If you are actively interested in the Future PLM Steering Group or either of the two parallel streams
(Body of Knowledge and AI) then you can Register On-line.

Register for the Discussion >>>

PLM is a global discipline, but India has a kind of secondary position - somehow seen more as a resource to be called upon rather than a source of world leadership.  Yet the whole concept of 'Offshore', where PLM is subcontracted and delivered for 'Onshore', is contrary to all the aims and principles that we work to.  There should be no difference between the calibre of practitioner and the application of PLM skills in any part of the world.

Now we can do something about it.  We can reverse the polarity and move India to the top of the pyramid. There is a surge in engagement from Indian practitioners driven by two major market trends: the expansion of Global Capability Centres (GCCs) and accelerated domestic PLM adoption.

It needs a driving force to bring all this expertise together and build on it. That is why we are forming a regional PLM Steering Group that will focus on and act on behalf of India.

Of course the PLM 2025-35 Project will eventually have a globally-based Future PLM Steering Group, but at this moment Indian practitioners are ahead of the game.

If we form an India Steering Group it can go right ahead, and merge into the Future PLM Steering Group as the wider world joins in.  It will become a model for what comes next.

The approach for India needs to be tailored specifically for India's PLM market.  India has enormous potential in PLM, but the ecosystem is still quite diversified.  There is a strong opportunity to bring together global technology providers, Indian manufacturing organizations, engineering companies, academics and other branches through stronger local leadership with greater collaboration.

The kind of changes we aim to make to the India PLM market are those that directly benefit businesses. There are financial benefits for everyone, but the way they happen is slightly different for providers and users.

For consultancies, integrators and service providers it is a way to actively develop the market - increasing its size and effectiveness, while also positioning its members as prime movers.  Members get the first sight and use of the new knowledge and Blueprints, which help build and strengthen client relationships.  The Project becomes the constant news stream in PLM for a whole year, with continuous global attention as published findings from the PLM 2025-35 Project effectively export the findings.  Steering Group members become the first port of call in their sphere.

For user companies the story is slightly different.  More than 45 user companies are following the 'India and PLM' initiative, and their practitioners are carrying out real-world roles at the heart of the PLM action.  This represents a huge body of PLM experience, if it can be connected.  Now all of India's user companies can learn something from each other, in a way that is easy to do. One of the most convincing arguments for any PLM justification is "This is what other companies are doing", and now we can get an up-to-date picture of what that really is.

It is an opportunity to show your upward management a picture of what could be done, with the credibility of multi-company input, and is bound to generate ideas that you can use in your own implementation.  For everyone, it will uncover the true PLM scenario.

Forming a Steering Group that will "improve the PLM market in India" sounds like a marketing ploy, but it isn't.  It is a surprising consequence of the thoughtful feedback gained from the Inaugural sessions.

The overwhelming consensus is for improvements and actions that will make the market work better - in every aspect, from CEO confidence down to spreading best practice across the regions.

That is why the PLM 2025-35 Project has a specific Proposal for the India PLM Steering Group. It explains the national focus and the impact that this will have - and it also shows how the benefits will raise Indian PLM globally. The Proposal is currently at its first release, and will be raised to Version 2.0 to incorporate the Inaugural Meeting findings.

The India PLM Steering Group Proposal has been kept as concise as possible, with the focus on India.  It is fully integrated with the overall PLM 2025-35 Proposal, which explains the complete Project structure.

Download the ISG Proposal [Word] >>>                              Download the ISG Proposal [PDF] >>>

The theme of 'PLM and India' has been running for several weeks and has attracted a large following.  Now is the time to start moving.  Discussions are happening around how to form the Steering Group, and we are launching with a Registration process to introduce everybody and find the common ground.

Registration carries no cost or obligation - it simply means you would like to be part of the discussion to see how it will all work.

You will receive the briefing information, see which other companies might be involved, and what the benefits of the Project would be in your case. It is also a neat way to share ideas and learn about where PLM actually is in India.

If you are actively interested in the India PLM Steering Group or either of the two parallel streams
(Body of Knowledge and AI) then you can Register On-line.

Register for the Discussion >>>

The PLM 2025-35 Project has 3 clear objectives:-

• To define the future of PLM over the next 10 years
• To create an internationally-agreed Body of Knowledge
• To establish and prove the best way of implementing AI

There will be a Future PLM Steering Group that covers PLM globally, and a parallel Steering Group that focuses on India.  Both are forming via the same two-step process:-

• Part 1:  Registration
• Part 2:  Project Membership

We are currently at Part 1.

To Register for the Future PLM Steering Group or the India PLM Steering Group, follow the links below.

Register for the Future PLM Steering Group >>>                Register for the India PLM Steering Group >>>

In the meantime, if you would like any other information about the Initiative, you can request it via
plm2025-35@plmig.com.

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