Quiz question for you: What is the most viewed video on YouTube? The answer would be: the Gangnam Style Video from South Korean artist Psy, now viewed by over 833 million people. If you haven't seen it yet, get out of your cave and follow my link. Wouldn't it be nice if PLM in your company was as popular as this video? With the right PLM education, you can have a whole bunch of people in your company doing things "PLM-style".There are probably only a couple of people in your whole company that accurately understand the potential of PLM, if you're lucky. These few people are often trying to push PLM onto those who have a very limited understanding of the great potential that exists for companies that intelligently implement PLM. Many people look at PLM as an expense with questionable returns. There are ample case studies showing the many benefits of PLM, but not everyone is aware of these. By educating more and more people in your business, the number of people that want PLM will increase like a snowball rolling down a pile of old punch cards.
PLM education must be pervasive throughout your company because the effects of PLM are only completely realized when a majority of your company uses these tools. The content creators must use CAD, CAE, document management, PDM, and other tools. Reviewers must be able to use visualization, DMU, and workflow tools. The rest of the consumers in your company must be able to use viewers, web portals, dashboards, mobile apps, and other tools that make their access to information seamless and fun.
All of this effort requires a large group of people that understand the value of PLM and how it can help their business. True understanding of PLM can only come as people are educated, solutions are deployed properly, and benefits start to accrue. It is only over time that the benefits will be realized because PLM is not about technology, it is a strategic business initiative that must be understood at the highest levels of your company.
So, start educating people about PLM in your company, and you will see many people begging for the technology that makes it possible. Then you will really see the benefits of doing things "PLM-style".
What do you think? Is your company properly educated about PLM?
Go to the CIMdata website to learn more about PLM education.
Cheers,
Jim
Hi Jim,
ReplyDeleteAgree with you completely the fact that the potential of PLM is not clearly understood by everybody in the company. The real problem is that the end users in the company are reluctant to adopt "CHANGE" and always see PLM as an enforcement from the management. How to tackle this mind-set issue?
A co-relation of Gangnam style and PLM-style is really fantastic and very catchy.
Thanks,
-Ajit
Ajit,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments!
It has been my experience that once people are educated about PLM, they start to get the idea of how it will help them with their job. Users start to see the increased efficiencies and smoother working environment, and they want to get started with PLM.
There are also management issues like cultural change, rewards, and recognition, but that's a whole new blog!
Cheers,
Hello Jim,
DeleteMany people and companies are talking about PLM benefits. By the way what are those ? As for me, most of them sounds like buzz stuff (again and gain). And that is why people are fed up with that and do not have incentive to take a deeper look.
I think only new ideology and approach to work in PLM can attract attention from users.
Alexey
Alexey,
ReplyDeleteThere is a long list of benefits for PLM. We have a very detailed PLM benefits analysis that we have done with many companies in many industries over the years. In every case the benefits far out-weigh the costs by a large margin.
Benefits like reduced time searching for information, confidence in data that can be reused, stream-lined workflow processes, enhanced collaboration, earlier integration with ERP, fewer prototypes needed, and more. All of this support innovative products and processes.
Any company that makes a commitment to PLM will have success. We see failures when companies want to cut corners. If you look at PLM as just some additional cool software that you buy, then you will not be successful. PLM is a strategic business initiative, and must be approached as such.
PLM education is the key. People who do not understand what PLM is all about will not be able to comprehend the true benefits.
Cheers,
Jim
Jim,
DeleteI liked your thought on PLM as a strategic business initiative. That should be in the heads at managerial level. There are many talks on that, but not so many deeds.
How PLM education process should be handled with small and medium businesses ?
Best,
Alexey
Alexey,
DeleteThanks for your comments.
For small and medium businesses, the process of PLM education and making PLM work is still the same but the scale is different. There still needs to be up-front preparation for a significant PLM initiative.
The nice thing about smaller companies is that it is often easier to get all the business groups (people) together and agree on how PLM will be implemented.
All of the players still need PLM education, no matter how large or small the business.
Cheers,
Jim
Jim,
DeleteI appreciate your answers.
I am sure there are many interesting issues in PLM need to be explained, discussed, accepted or may be pushed (?).
I think big PLM vendor companies are the ones to start on this path. They have more resources to reach larger audiences and qualified/knowledgable folks who can deliver the right messages, start building success stories (in case if they occur), build further successes on previous ones and may the rest market participants will be turned into PLM path.
I think the challenge that PLM vendors have is shifting from approaching PLM as something big, complex, on-premise, expensive to offering solutions that are easy, cloud (?), affordable and easy to deploy. And go with that to the market.
I am sure many companies have heard about PLM many times and still did not accept bacause the message was not clear (or benefits), not very educated on topic, or are ok with current situation in the enterprise.
2 big issues in PLM - PLM education and cloud thing acceptance in PLM. What do you think on cloud ?
Thanks !
Best,
Alexey.
Alexey,
DeleteThe vendors are an important part of the overall PLM education activity, but often their view of PLM is skewed based on whatever technology they want to sell. That is why we think using an un-biased source (like CIMdata) to start your PLM activities is recommended.
An un-biased company can help you determine what you need from PLM for YOUR business BEFORE you start listening to the vendors. It's like going to buy a used car without any idea of what you need; they will sell you what they have, not necessarily what you need. You should be telling the vendor what you need from PLM, not the other way around.
It can be complicated, but we think the right education can make it much easier. Sadly, many companies skip this step and often pay the price later.
Cheers,
Jim
This comment has been removed by the author.
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Alex,
DeleteThank you so much for reading and commenting. I appreciate all who make this blog better.
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Jim,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment. I am always looking for input to make this blog better!
Cheers,