Written by author John Stark, book provides broad understanding of PLM, insight into components
Birmingham, AL — September 20, 2004 — John Stark Associates this week announced the publication of Product Lifecycle Management: Paradigm for 21st century Product Realisation. According to the author, John Stark, the book was written to provide a business-oriented framework for the introduction and use of product lifecycle management (PLM.
Having implemented supply chain management (SCM), customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP), Stark said companies are now looking to PLM to help them develop, control, maintain and upgrade products and related services. In future global markets, with many product development, production, logistics and support operations outsourced and commoditized, they see PLM as the strategic differentiator. Without exceptional products and lifecycle support, they will lose customers to more innovative and lower-cost competitors.
Stark said the book provides a broad understanding of PLM and insight into its many components. PLM manages each individual product across its lifecycle from the very first idea for the product all the way through until it is retired and disposed of. Additionally, PLM allows a complete portfolio of products to be managed in an integrated way. Stark said the book shows how to take full advantage of PLM, how to prepare people to work in the PLM environment and how to choose the best solution for a company's specific situation.
The book explains the importance of PLM, from both the business and technical viewpoints, supported by examples showing how world-class engineering and manufacturing companies are successfully implementing PLM. Additionally, Stark said it would help readers understand if PLM is relevant for their company's particular situation of market, customers, competitors, technology and available resources.
Stark noted that PLM is expected to have a big impact on industry because it is a new paradigm that enables full control over a product's lifecycle. Much of manufacturing industry still works along the lines of Henry Ford and Frederick Taylor, but today's manufacturing environment includes such challenges as global competition, high-tech products and services, increasing customer demands, and regulations.
Additionally, today's extended enterprise, where suppliers and customers play a key role, can lead to a loss of control over the product, Stark said. Losing control of a product during its development stage can lead to the loss of millions of dollars through late market availability and product recalls. Losing control of a product during its use can lead to danger and death for users, and liability claims of millions of dollars.
PLM joins up many previously separate and independent processes, disciplines, functions and applications — each of which, though addressing the same product, had its own vocabulary, rules, culture and language.
PLM, therefore, is designed to extend and bring together previously separate activities such as computer-aided design (CAD), product data management (PDM), configuration management, group technology, sustainable development, product portfolio management, lifecycle analysis and recycling. By preventing things from falling through the gaps, PLM also enables companies to adapt to the needs of today's global markets, getting products to market faster, managing them all the way across their lifecycles in the most effective way, providing better support for product use, and supporting end-of-life better.
Stark noted that PLM leads to benefits during all stages of the product lifecycle, for example: 25 percent reduction in time to market, yet 500 percent increase in the number of easily configured products; 30 percent less scrap and pollution during realization; 40 percent increase in product and service revenues from tailored in-field upgrades to mature products; and recycle levels approaching 90 percent.
John Stark is the author of many books and articles in the fields of PLM, PDM, CAD, and information sharing (IS) in manufacturing. He writes 2PLM, a newsletter in the PLM field. In his long consulting career he has worked with many companies including ABB, BMW, Braun, Coca-Cola, Eaton, Ford Motor Company, HP, IBM, Kodak, Legrand, Nestle, PSA, Renault, Saab, Schindler, Sikorsky, Valeo and Xerox.
Stark received his B.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from Imperial College, London University.
