You should benchmark your PLM performance to position it against that of other companies, and to understand how to improve it. But how do you benchmark performance in something as complex as PLM? This question was addressed at a 3-day PLMIG Workshop in November 2004.

The resulting PLM Benchmarking Handbook embodies a flexible, open, and industry-independent Benchmarking Methodology that can be used to conduct PLM benchmarks, internally or with external partners, at any desired level.

Every organisation that wishes to benchmark its PLM performance will have a different PLM environment and different areas that it feels are most important to measure, understand and improve. By the nature of PLM, some of the measures may be exact or quantitative, but many will be qualitative. The Handbook has been designed to overcome this problem, yet be usable in any PLM benchmarking situation.

The Handbook guides its users through the process of identifying, selecting and generating the relevant high-level and detailed questions so that the Benchmark reveals the information that is required. It provides a mechanism to enable two unrelated companies to benchmark their PLM environments against each other in a thorough and revealing way, but it is equally applicable to an organisation that would like to get a first internal appraisal of its PLM situation.

• Avoid reinventing the wheel. The Handbook already exists, and was developed by several PLM user companies in different industries.



• Save time. The Handbook took several months to develop. You can start using it immediately.



• Build on industry knowledge. The Handbook was developed by people experienced in PLM benchmarking for their companies. Benefit from their input.



• Follow an industry standard. Any PLM user company can use the Handbook. As a result, you are much more likely to find a suitable benchmarking partner if you use it too.



• Standard, but customisable. The Handbook can be used 'as-is' in all industries, but you can customise it to your particular circumstances if that is what you need.



• A common communication tool. Using the Handbook makes it easy to benchmark with another company that’s also using the Handbook - same approach, same questions, same language.



• Neutral. The Handbook provides a neutral unbiased environment for a group of companies wanting to start a joint benchmark.



• Benchmark all, or part, of PLM. The Handbook can be used to benchmark the overall PLM environment, or just one component such as a PDM system.



• An on-going tool. The Handbook will be updated to take account of user experience.

0. Executive Summary
1. Background
2. Introduction
3. Definitions
4. General Principles
5. Benchmarking Principles
6. Overview of the Methodology
7. Level 0 Benchmark
8. Level 1 Benchmark
9. Level 2 Benchmark
10. Detailed Subjects and Issues
11. Annex: Reference Examples
12. Annex: Detailed Benchmarking Questions per Level 2 Area
13. Terms and Conditions

The PLMIG PLM Benchmarking Handbook Version 1.0 is a single 58-page document containing nearly four hundred questions and is normally supplied via email as an unzipped Microsoft Word file of 1.2MB. Other formats may be available on request.

The Handbook is provided as a complimentary PLM tool for PLMIG members in 2010.