The Enterprise Business Value of PLM (cont.)
Continued from February 2005 Main Page
PLM's ability to contribute to these goals has been clearly proven in a variety of case studies, but its business value grows exponentially when a sponsor at the CxO level adopts PLM as an enterprise strategy.
PLM is a transformational business strategy built on common access to a single repository of all knowledge, data and processes related to a company's products. It overcomes the sequential segregated processes that inhibit innovation and slow a product's time to market. An enterprise deployment involves all the functions that ultimately contribute to the successful development, launch and evolution of a new product - design, engineering, manufacturing, purchasing, marketing, sales, maintenance and service, the supply chain and the customers who will buy the product. This collaborative knowledge environment fosters innovation and improved repeatable business processes that can reliably speed a product's time to value.
PLM at an enterprise level also creates a foundation that enables companies to integrate other initiatives such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), and supply chain management (SCM), giving management maximum control over both top-line and bottom-line results. Traditional enterprise technologies, which focus on how a company runs its business, help wring surplus costs on the operational side, contributing to bottom-line savings. PLM complements these efforts by bringing products - what a company delivers - into the mix. It opens an untapped frontier of broader, deeper business value. PLM controls bottom-line expenses by slashing product re-work, and cutting material, structural and warranty costs, while fueling top-line growth through its ability to foster time-to-market compression, breakthrough product innovation and continuous quality improvement.
There is no arguing that innovation fuels growth, but innovation involves more than just a good idea. It requires a process for developing, testing and managing the idea to quick and successful fruition. PLM at the enterprise level provides that ability, and positions the product's maker for market leadership in ways no other technology can.
