Understand and Capture Requirements across X-functional Teams

As we discussed in previous post about PLM Implementation and egoism, it kills the whole project jointly. The first and most important phase to post sales of PLM tool is to “Understand and Capture Requirements across cross functional Teams in the Organization”. What does it mean by “Requirements” in PLM and how we can define requirements? , are the main concerns.  Requirements come from any organization and its management from beginning of its product establishment. I meant to say every organization have their own objectives with respect to their product output that as product should be Qualitative, competitive, economical, market best etc.

While fulfilling these objectives there are lot of challenges to overcome and for any organization there is a need of strong solution to overcome challenges around the way of their product development. To setup a strong solution in place organization must know their necessity, needs, wants to match and establish a solution to make work to overcome challenges. 

Collecting information on the above said necessity, needs and wants are called as Requirements Phase. As PLM tool will be finalized based on organization basic visionary requirements and post sales of PLM tool is very much important to collect technical requirements across cross functional teams (Design, Production, Suppliers, Inventory, Sales etc.) to defines As-Is and To-Be process documentation which will help to define base of PLM implementation Scope as what and how to configure the PLM Software to address their requirements.

One simple live example from an Organization: Total 100 members in Design Department and in that 50 Design engineers are working concurrently on complex product assemblies and generates various types of 3D models and 2d Drawings with their standard Part Numbering system, having modification writes. 20 Engineers are working in Quality Departments and they check the models generated by Design Engineers only in viewers and do comments and notify design Engineers for changes, 10 engineers are from Supplier Coordinators and they responsible for BOM generation and 10 people are Team Leads they acts as reviewers and for all deliveries from Design Departments and 10 people Project Managers which they approve the Design and delivers to Production Team. Design engineer should send their work to review Team Leads after QC and TL will review for accept or reject. Mangers to approve finally to Production Manager.

In the above scenario we need to identify every need of engineers to fulfill their working ways and it should increase the productivity and efficiency while working with PLM system,

Design Engineers needs various Attributes to create a 3D model, Unique Part Number, User friendly working methods, secured data to save in central server, better performance, quick sharing and viewing others design data, drafting standards in 2D, attributes mapping to 3D to 2D, various drawing templates, BOM generation templates, various report formats, quick viewing of reports, Reviewing workflows, quick change communications, change history track for future references, various reviewing processes: Check Process, Change Request and Order Processes, Release Processes, BOM creation & Modification processes etc.

Collecting all the above important requirements and need to develop As-Is process to get to know the To-Be process. This phase is the first step for good start up of PLM Implementation.

Next post we will discuss about what is To-Be process and how we can build it.

Bye for now,

Anil Kumar J R

Need Management Engagement instead of involvement - PLM and EGOISM

As we discussed in last post regarding PLM Implementation processes, we need to understand engagement of management in PLM Implementation in which it goes towards successful PLM Implementation. PLM is continuous change and continuous improvement system in an organization, where there is change there will be uncommon difficulties comes up. For example in an Organization that too in a mechanical industry, people working from long time with their fully adjusted processes and working styles are more focused to work as they work from long time. When PLM comes into picture there will be surely some process developments and working procedure changes happens. And in most of the cases people are definitely not ready to accept the new CHANGES. Here is EGOSIM comes into picture that Technical people (Tech Leads, Senior Engineers, Technical Managers, Engineers) demands and thinks that thier process is fine and PLM should work as per their process and procedure.

Off course Organization's present process and procedure might be perfect and in most cases it should needs to be tuned to give more productive results. In that case senior level management should engage in defining the requirements, processes development and methodologies as per their strategy by considering joint working the Implementation service vendor. Otherwise the whole PLM implementation mgiht go in wrong path and finally it goes huge loss to organizaiton and repetitive work to carry to come back to correct way.

And main focus in this early phase of Implementation is, key technical persons from management team should have proper understanding of their organization strategy in their area (Design Team, Sales team, Production Team etc.) and some amount of PLM domain knowledge will be added advantage. Defining proper AS-IS process and TO BE processes along with proper Technical Scope in carrying out good PLM implementation is foundation for whole PLM project and it is responsibility of both management and service provider to come up with rigors engagament and discussions across cross functional teams.

If it is new domain to establish PLM system, then for both management and service provider complexity increases and important is to understand PLM tool from management team and as well it is more important to understand new domain for PLM Implementation service provider.

In a real case example where I started a PLM implementation for an organization where it was new domain (Plant Design for Energy Industry) in our area and as well new to organization.

Domain knowledge is key factor to carry out any PLM implementation as working processes are entirely different for various industries, as I was from Automotive and Machine Design Background and Plant Design doamin was totally new to me, and the Implementation Project plan was very tight, I would have to complete in tight time plan. And project started with requirements capturing AS-IS Process across cross functional team and later defined Technical Scope, as mentioned before we both were new to domain and after lot of discussions, analysis we started configuring the Testing database for the same. Due to tight schedule, unclear understanding of processes and poor engagement of management, PLM Implementation completed with no use. Even though there was lot efforts and time spent on the project, it was driving in various directions. Finally it was failure of project. As management was telling this was the way we have to go and we service provider stating management was wrong. In between Clients and Vendor lot of miss-communications, Technical EGOSIMS and lack of doamin knowledge, no idea of objective of PLM in Plant Design, and bad project preparations made Implementation went into bad shape.

We will discuss how we over come with this situation and finally how we succeeded in bringing the PLM implementation to succes right path.

Bye for now,

Anil Kumar J R

PLM Implementation Processes

Last post conveyed How PLM Implementation starts and who involved in starting the process, we discussed things mainly presales of PLM software. Once an Organization buys software, post sales activities are very important in PLM implementation, now we can discuss PLM Implementation Processes and its phases.

Once after sales, management will plan the activities and day to start PLM Implementation by diverse meetings with PLM Software Vendor / Implementation service vendor to understand tool and to provide the requirements.

Some Service vendor (Seller) will circulate Questioner as per understand with their sales team to Organization Management calling as Client (Customer) and, Clients reply for the Questioner as per their strategy and plan to implement PLM tool.

After several discussions and mutual understandings Implementation date and plan will be ready.  This Project plan majorly contains, Resource Allocation, Activities and Time plan, Statement of Work, NDA, Separate commercial Proposal (Implementation Service charge including tax if not decided at presales order). 

There are few phases in the PLM Implementation and it includes different processes which needs to be addressed successfully, following are main phases of PLM Implementation,

1.       Interaction and Requirements phase

a.       Understand the vision/objectives of the organization strategy

b.      Interact to cross functional team to understand the requirements

c.       Gather the requirements and start preparing AS-IS process documentation

2.       Study & Analysis

a.       Study & Analyze the present system with respect to bought out PLM system

3.       Technical Scope definition  

a.       Define the Scope of Implementation

b.      To-Be process preparation

c.       Sing-off both sides 

4.       Technical execution Planning

a.       Plan the activities and define roadmap of configuration

b.      Define Baseline and Methodologies

c.       Sign-off

5.       Implementation and Configuration

a.       Installation & sign-off

b.      Test Environment configuration & sign-off

c.       Test cases preparation & sign-off

6.       Testing phase

a.       Testing with Vendor’s & Client’s representatives

b.      Sign-off

7.       Production Environment

a.       Configure Test Environment to Production Environment

b.       Pre-production test & sign-off

8.       Roll Out and Go-Live

a.       Deployment and Rollout

b.      Sign-off

9.       Training

a.       Users Training on Implemented functionalities

10.   Support

a.       User Handhold support

And I am collecting my own experience and processes followed in my two PLM Implementations and other service vendors might have different roadmaps and processes.

Next post we can discuss deep into each processes and phases.

Bye for now,

Anil Kumar JR

What, Why, When & Who will do PLM IMPLEMENTATION?

In previous post we discussed about the PLM architecture and different layers of modules and their connections as Multi-Tier architecture. Now it is time to know what this PLM Implementation is? Why we need it? When we need it? Who will decide and choose it? And where it will be implemented and finally who will implement PLM tool across an organization? Lot of questions,,,, and answer is here,

Firstly what is PLM Implementation?

Implementation is very simple term that execution of things/tasks. PLM Implementation is carrying out and establishment, setup, configuration of PLM software tool and its modules across an Organization's departments to address their needs to get more profit.

Many companies develop and markets PLM software solutions. These companies’ develops PLM solutions as per different engineering domains requirements across the globe to fit into organization business strategic plans. There are various PLM software tools available in market which will suitable for an organization different working domains, such as Automotive, Aerospace, Energy, Process, Machinery etc. PLM software will be built for these work and processes as per their domain standards.

One industry example: Automotive Industry uses more into APQP and Change Management Processes and for these PLM software modules addresses the best in practice APQP standard processes and related activities; all these processes developed in PLM software and kept as ready to use solutions. And PLM software companies markets & sales these solutions for Automotive Industry Organizations.

How organization will come to know there is need of a PLM Tool?

Earlier days there was not much digital work mode i.e. most of the design and planning work was doing by manually and in turns prone to more human errors. And also in any engineering work; there is recurrence of task is common.

Example1: document numbering: - Engineers were assigning doc number manually for all the parts and document in the design department mandatorily for identification purpose and there was no other way around; users manually had to write or fill the document number, it was really very much common error creating & repetition of work daily.

Example2: All engineers were working in different regions and locations and they didn’t have proper communication between them and there was always duplication of work and no transparency, its caused huge cost for an organization.

Few Visionary People in an organization had thought on these issues and thinking to automate to replace manual works daily to reduce human errors and to reduce time consumption and make them work with centralized data for better communication and transparent way of work to avoid duplication of work. These are few good examples to understand how PLM domain started evolving in all the way of Product Development Processes to get rapid ROI and profit oriented processes.

Now visionary management decided to address above said problems with strong system in place. They started making strategy and finding possible ways to trading off wastage of resources, time, miscommunication and they wanted to build their strong system in their Product Development Stage to give qualitative product output with Faster Design to Market Plan.

So what next, started finding suitable software to address all the above said requirements and with respect to Business and Technical Challenges what we discussed in earlier posts, then PLM software came into picture. Management started looking and approaching to different PLM vendors in the markets, discussed the problems and solution needs with PLM vendors. Finally compared various PLM software tools, their effective solutions to problems, services & supports, cost etc. At the end management finalized suitable PLM software to implement in their organization as strategic Business Tool.

In next post we will discuss How PLM Implementation starts and PLM software post-sales activities?

Bye for now,

Anil Kumar J R

PLM system - Multi-Tier Architecture

Friends,

  

In previous posts we discussed about the overview of PLM, its functions and its path to reach organization’s strategy. Now it is time to understand the technical background of PLM architecture so that it will be helpful to understand the PLM implementation and configuration methodologies in Engineering Domains. As you know PLM tool is a platform for various software tools and varied technology base of an organization and it interacts with different departments in by integrating people and process by the base of centralized and single source of data concept. Now a day’s almost all PLM tools are Multi-tier Architecture.

Multi-Tier architecture is very simple to understand that there will be different Computer server machines connecting each other to run the various modules of PLM tools, let’s say main PLM software for an organization need to serve in different departments requirements and strategy, so there are various modules are split as software modules with respect to varied needs, example: for design department, engineers need CAD software and to manage CAD data there will be s module called PDM CAD Integrations in PLM software, it will mainly manage the data generated from CAD departments. To manage the various BOM; PLM BOM modules will address, for connecting suppliers; PLM Suppliers integration modules, to manage whole project; PLM Project Management modules will address, to work online; PLM Web modules, to store all the information there should be Data Base software to PLM tool integration, to store all the files saving in PLM system there will be File servers.

Like these there are various other modules to address whole Enterprise Requirements, to enhance performance and build strong PLM system, its divided into different layers of PLM modules as Multi-Tier architecture, whatever the configurations and setup of PLM system is in one layer called Servers and the same will reflect to front end users called Clients by connecting through LAN/WAN, this we called 2 Tier Server & Client Architecture, now adding to that there will separate Server Machine to manage the Meta information of data in Data Base Server and all other application services will be installed in one server machine called  Application Server and it will control the other  module  of PLM tools,

And also PLM connects external and internal employees together with same Network WAN/firewall Layer, totally we called PLM System as Multi-Tier Architecture by combining different PLM modules in various servers and network connection.

In next post we will discuss what PLM Implementation is and how it will implement? Who will define the strategy to select PLM to address solutions?

Bye for now,

Anil Kumar J R