Product Lifecycle Management for Discrete

In a highly competitive global marketplace, manufacturers need to constantly innovate the way they manage the staggering complexities of product development. Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is the tool that has evolved to become one of the core foundations of the manufacturing IT landscape. The core of PLM lies in the creation and central management of all product data and the technology used to access this information and knowledge.

Consider an example of a typical PLM workflow:

A new part (an engine rotor) is envisioned by a design engineer. When the engineer produces a technical drawing for the new part, the drawing is uploaded to a PLM system. Then the designer notifies a manufacturing engineer of the new technical drawing; the manufacturing engineer easily pulls up the drawing and makes their manufacturing plan based on that document. After the manufacturing engineer uploads their manufacturing plan, an NC programmer produces a part cutting program based on that plan, and then uploads that program in the PLM system.

Now, our part has a technical drawing, manufacturing plan, and NC program all attached as relevant information. As time goes on, ERP forms, CAD models, and a part-cutting simulation movie are also stored in the PLM system for this part. Different units and roles within the manufacturing organization can seamlessly collaborate and share information to validate the part’s design and manufacturing. The result is a much faster and lower-cost time to market than would be possible without a centralized information platform.

This simple example illustrates the power of PLM to the manufacturing organization.

Engineering is an expert consultant of PLM solutions.