PLMIG Initiative

Internationally-agreed standards and qualifications for the PLM profession are much needed, and long overdue. They will never happen without some kind of coordinating initiative to bring people together so that discussions can begin. The PLMIG launched this process in December 2009 and held the first PLM Standards Workshop in March of this year.

Workshop Result

The Workshop generated the PLM Concept Set, which is the set of definitions and principles that everyone needs to know in order to understand PLM correctly.  It also confirmed the first release of the Product Structure Standard, which is the cornerstone of any PDM architecture.

The Power of Standards

Not only will PLM standards enable user companies to save the massive amounts of effort that are wasted in rationalising PLM across geographies, subsidiaries, and the customer/supply chain, but they can also clarify much of the current confusion about PLM.

The longer the PLM Standards initiative continues, the more it will clarify the "intractactable" or "unquantifiable" issues of PLM, and enable people to work together faster and more effectively.

The PLM Concept Set contains the formal definitions of 7 basic concepts of PLM:-

• PLM Definition
• PLM vs PDM Definition
• 'Enterprise Down' Concept
• PLM Permeation Concept
• PLM Traction Concept
• PLM Maturity Definition
• PLM Best Practice Definition

The PLM Concept Set is a significant development because it formalises, in a very simple way, a standardised base point for PLM expertise. It embodies fundamental PLM ideas into an industry standard grouping, and encapsulates what experienced PLM people know but people new to the role may not.

The Product Structure Standard is a neutral, accurate and robust standard that follows the natural rules of PDM.  It is therefore easy for large corporations to align with their own in-house structures; and because it is simple and concise, it provides an effective template for SMEs to set up their PDM architecture.

Product Structure is an area of massive complexity for many companies, and it may be hard to imagine how a single standard could apply throughout PLM.

The key to finding a standard is to set aside the "product shape" or "product configuration" viewpoint and to focus instead on the fundamental rules that apply to products in an industrial or commercial environment.  These rules apply to every product type, in every industry.

The Product Structure Standard is described in full detail in the Q1 2010 issue of the PLM Journal.

Next Steps

The process of developing PLM standards has now started.  The PLM Concept Set is set out on this web site for general reference.  The detailed standards will be published in the PLM Journal, starting with Product Structure in the Q1 issue.

There will need to be international cooperation to take this forward and to align standards across countries and regions, and the next step may be to form a Steering Committee to guide progress.   There may also need to be a new industry grouping of professional experts from PLM organisations that will act as the appraising authority.

More Details

More about the background to the PLM Standards initiative can be found via this link.

How to Participate

[Top]