Constructive Collaboration

In order to take PLM forward there needs to be a new level of collaboration within the industry.  It used to be said that PLM should link 'islands of automation', but the real challenge has become to link 'islands of expertise'.

There is now a vast amount of implementation experience held in the minds of many very skilled people, but as it is fragmented it cannot be formalised, and as it cannot be formalised it cannot be built upon.

The most powerful and effective way for user companies to collaborate is for them to share their experience and methods over an extended period of time, so that they can apply the combined knowledge in their own implementations.  This is the aim of the PLM User Initiative, in which the PLMIG provides the managed framework and documentation and the participants generate the improvements.

Experience at recent PLM Summit events shows that while delegates value the contact with each other, the discussions can remain relatively superficial due to lack of time. There is a pent-up need for a platform or conference in which users can do real work with each other on their shared problems.  The PLMIG kick-started this process in November by running two PLM User Forum events in Europe and the USA.

Industry Collaboration

At a much wider level, the subject of PLM can only be advanced by the collaboration, or synergistic working, of all of the major industry players.  It is now widely agreed that the level of PLM needs to be raised in several areas: articulation of the message; agreement on what are the hard "exam questions" that PLM is trying to answer; enhanced methodologies in themes such as configuration management and interfaces to manufacturing, on which millions of dollars are spent sub-optimally; standards and reference models for PLM best practice; and removing the common disconnect between the board room and the shop floor.

The PLMIG aims to address this in two ways.  Firstly, by extending the User Initiative into a structured industry programme that will map a common PLM approach into many regions of the world, to produce predicted and measurable results.  On a smaller scale, there are plans for a rolling workshop programme hosted by the major suppliers that will build into a set of implementation tools that are of immediate practical use.

Competition

Collaboration does not remove competition.  Everyone who takes part in PLM collaboration does so with the aim of improving their own position, and this outcome must be maintained.  The PLMIG has a long track record of managing events in which participants from different companies work together in a neutral environment.

Neither does a formalised body of PLM knowledge supersede what is already known - it stands alongside current knowledge as a reference point.  Thousands of man years have been invested in proprietary material, with excellent results.  The purpose of reference models and formalised best practice is to give everyone a common base from which proprietary knowledge can be applied.

The Way Forward

Since 2004, PLMIG initiatives have enabled PLM practitioners to work together to develop new knowledge in a completely neutral environment.  We are now moving towards collaboration on a much larger scale, giving the PLM industry as a whole the chance to formalise and perhaps even standardise the best knowledge and practice that currently exists.  If PLM is ever to mature as a business methodology then this is the way forward.