A PLM global overview by integrating data, costs and processes.
Often PLM is considered as document management and BOM management, or simply the CAD integration with a PDM.
This limited vision about what is PLM can endanger the company's performance because there is no clue from management about activities and status of Product life cycle-related information.
Having a platform that manages integrated information you can monitor your new products projects workflows, either mass-produced or made from order.
When you can manage production costs, activity schedules and product data, you are using the full potential of the PLM process.
Having an updated view of activities, budget and development issues can occur during production, avoid wasting time in searching and you can react quickly to prevent delays.
We are Fourteen TEC, a SAP PLM leading company specialized in the integration of Product Management and Project Management.
We have implemented PLM processes for big corporations in the Industrial Automation, Automotive, Aerospace, CPG, Fashion & Energy industries, focusing on business processes, efficiency, collaboration and productivity.
Integrate Project Management and Product Management
Many times we have faced clients that needed to plan and register product development times and costs.
In most cases, something really important was missing, that is that the product development embraces two fields:
Project Management, or the cost, activity, schedule and resources management for the creation of the final product.
Product Management, or the integration of product information through Engineering, Manufacturing, Sales and Services departments and all the relative changes.
The integration of these two fields will allow you to define a complete new product development process (NPD) in your company.
What is the New Product Development (NPD) process?
New Product Development (NPD) is a collection of best practices that make an idea or a market request into a new marketable product that satisfies customers’ requirements.
The development of a new product it’s different based on the product that your company sells:
MASS serial production, or the creation of new non-existing products that will be put on the market in serial production.
ETO engineering to order, or the creation of a new product to order, in other words, the result of a single product for a specific client.
First, your company must identify which kind of production it’s using.
By having a well-planned process with activities and milestones, you will prevent your company to make some typical mistakes that can easily make an NPD process fail, like:
Market size overestimation
Wrong interpretation of the client's requirements
Wrong product launch timing
Poor product design
Price too high
Unsatisfying product advertising
High development cost due to messy management
No risk evaluation
Defining a stage/activity order and defining responsibilities for each one will avoid resource overload and chaotic management.
Nevertheless, well-defined procedures help in cost planning and comparison with the actual costs while Product Development and Lunch.
So how to effectively plan for New Product Development?
Managing time, costs, resources, and activities alone are not sufficient to achieve a fully efficient solution.
You must remember that in addition to the "managerial" aspect of developing the new product, there is an "operational" aspect as well.
The “operative” aspect includes the management of CAD documents, Materials, BOM, Technical Specs, Quality Specs and Serial Number generation that will identify your final product.
To make this happen, it’s necessary to integrate SAP PPM Portfolio Project Management and
SAP PLM Product Lifecycle Management.
What are the SAP PPM Portfolio Project Management and SAP PLM Product Lifecycle Management integration benefits?
There are multiple benefits, but mainly:
efficiency increase: transversally integrated data through different platforms and departments
risk reduction: defined best practice with clear tasks and objectives and real-time project monitoring
cost reduction: information enhances communication between people e reduces development times and error occurrence.
Starting from the product type identification, it is possible to define the process for everyone which will allow your company to gain benefits that will affect all your departments.
Fourteen TEC is the only SAP Partner that can make SAP PPM and SAP PLM work together, customizing the integration for your needs.
In all these years we have created application models, based on the industry and the products that your company sells.
Want to find out the details of this integration?
Schedule a meeting with one of our experts.