PLM Interest Group

Read why Why Your PLM is Failing and summarise honestly how your implementation measures against these criteria.

Cross-check against the absolute basics by reviewing the requirements of Demystifying PLM.

When you have done this, run a formal PLM Self-Assessment, using the Toolkit's Pass/End gates to produce written evidence of where the major obstructions lie.

Apply the PLM Governance Standard.  This may seem to be an over-ambitious step if PLM is not going well, but it highlights to everybody the areas where the management structure may be letting the PLM initiative down.  It also specifies some of the documentation that is required for Step 3.

Lack of documentation is always one of the first problems when trying to improve a PLM environment. A PLM implementation should be documented with as much care and coverage as the products that it covers.

Wherever there is a lack of documentation there is a lack of accurate agreement and understanding, and there are people working at cross-purposes.

PLMIG tools and standards indicate the document types that should exist, but the minimum for Recovery purposes is a set of documents that would explain the current scenario, and its aims and its problems, to a third party PLM practitioner who is not familiar with your implementation. This can be encapsulated into a single Company PLM Overview Document.

Creating this base-level of documenation means that everyone is on the same page when it comes to the Rethink.

The PLM Team needs to create space to reimagine, or 'Re-Vision' how PLM affects and may improve the business.  If there is time pressure, then a breathing space can be gained by making this a formal activity, such as running an internal workshop.

Preparation and an Agenda for such a working session can be found in the Self-Assessment Toolkit.

If more depth is required, the PLM Team can carry out a Level 0 Internal Benchmark using the Benchmarking Handbook.

There now needs to be a practical, pragmatic restatement of PLM priorities and goals.

As well as restating the PLM position, this Step must prioritise the Recovery actions and define the upward management that will be needed to get approval.

These can be written into a concise PLM Discussion Document.

If the first 5 Steps have been carried out thorougly then the overall PLM infrastructure will have been diagrammed, documented and understood.

In this step there is a specific effort to incorporate as much as possible of the work done on PLM so far, together with the investment in software and services, into the Repositioned scenario.

PLM improvements are rarely pointless or valueless - they are just rendered ineffective because of technical inaccuracies or because other necessary parts of the implementation may have been overlooked.

In this Step, the first-pass Repositioning is updated to maximise the re-use of current material and projects.

The PLM Team needs to believe in PLM; colleagues and management need to have faith in PLM; and PLM needs to become relevant and necessary again for the business.

There is bound to be some residual antipathy to PLM, but the Recovery Process itself can be the means to overcome this.  You have carried out a structured review; you have involved stakeholders and listened to their concerns; and you have a new Roadmap that makes optimal use of the PLM investment that people thought was lost.

If you have used the PLM Governance Standard wisely, then you will also now have a workable management structure to support your new plans.  You can now action the Recovery.