As more and more companies understand the strategic business potential of PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) to improve product innovation, development, and competitive advantage, the scope of PLM initiatives has increased dramatically. Indeed, research from Tech-Clarity and PTC shows that, on average, companies implementing PLM in the last few years typically involve three or more departments across the organization (e.g., manufacturing, supply chain, quality), not just engineering. As such, the complexity of planning and managing successful initiatives has increased dramatically...

1. Global Services Insights
Slowing Down to Speed Up:
6 Steps to Effective PLM Planning
As more and more companies understand the strategic
business potential of PLM (Product Lifecycle Management)
to improve product innovation, development, and
competitive advantage, the scope of PLM initiatives
has increased dramatically.
Indeed, research from Tech-Clarity and PTC shows that, on average,
companies implementing PLM in the last few years typically involve
three or more departments across the organization (e.g., manufac-
turing, supply chain, quality), not just engineering.
As such, the complexity of planning and managing successful initiatives
has increased dramatically.
With multi-year, multi-departmental, and multi-million-dollar PLM
programs now common, the challenges of minimizing program risk and
accelerating time to value have emerged as core priorities for senior
corporate management and boards of directors.
Simply put, when you`re betting a chunk of the company’s future on
PLM success, you can’t afford to leave any element of that success
to chance.
About the Research:
PTC Global Services and Tech Clarity, an analyst firm that specializes in product life cycle management, interviewed 190
senior business and IT leaders in April 2012 about their experiences with PLM. The goal of the telephone survey was to under-
stand key success factors in planning, implementing, and adopting PLM solutions in complex manufacturing environments.
The survey highlighted four issues: PLM strategy and approach, programmatic challenges, implementation and adoption
techniques, and adoption. Survey participants included representatives of a wide range of manufacturing companies across
Europe and North America, including automotive, aerospace, industrial, and consumer products.
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2. A recent blog post, Aligning Your Organization for PLM Success, high-
lighted two keys to aligning your organization for PLM success: detailed
implementation roadmaps and business value scorecards. The general
About PTC Global Services
idea is to invest the time up front in creating an operational plan that The 1,400 professionals at PTC Global
ties the sequencing of solutions implementation to business priorities with Services help the world’s leading manufac-
practical consideration of organizational constraints, process change, turing companies gain product and service
and technology capabilities. advantage through solution strategy and
More specifically, there are six steps in particular which companies with design, process transformation, technology
complex programs have found to be essential to creating effective plans, configuration, and organizational training
roadmaps, and scorecards: and adoption. Our in-house experts and
premium services partners work overtime
1. Business Value: Define and align on concrete measures of business to ensure the best possible results and
value, such as accelerating time to market, increasing product maximum return on investment.
innovation, reducing product development cost, or improving
product quality. Learn more at PTC.com/consulting
2. Process Priorities: Define and align on specific process changes For more Insights from the Global Services
required to achieve business objectives, such as product design team, please visit:
collaboration, compliance review, or supply chain management. blogs.ptc.com/category/strategy/
Or scan this code with your mobile device.
3. Technology: Define and align on specific technology capabilities
required to support process improvements.
4. Tradeoffs: Identify critical decisions and tradeoffs for program
implementation, including technology deployment, data migration,
quality control, and organizational learning and adoption.
5. Roadmap: Create detailed deployment roadmap based on
program priorities, investment requirements, and resource capacity. About the Author
6. Ratification: Ratify the roadmap and metrics with key business Rob Leavitt is Director of Thought Leadership
and IT stakeholders to ensure full alignment on priorities, timeline, at PTC Global Services, the consulting arm
responsibilities, and tradeoffs. If this all seems like a lot of work of PTC. A long-time advisor to top tech-
before even beginning any actual deployment, it is. Smart compa- nology and IT services firms, Rob works with
nies take three to six months or even longer to get the roadmap right. PTC consultants, partners, and customers
But the effort is well worth it. Top performing companies are twice to advance understanding of key issues and
as likely to create this kind of roadmap, and the payoff is five to 10 challenges in product development, manu-
times the benefit in critical areas such as time to market, product facturing, and after-market service.
development efficiency, and product cost. Sometimes you really
Contact Rob at rleavitt@ptc.com
do need to slow down in order to speed up.
Follow Rob on Twitter at @PTC_Consulting
If this all seems like a lot of work before even beginning any actual
deployment, it is. Smart companies take three to six months or even longer
to get the roadmap right. But the effort is well worth it. Top performing
© 2012, Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC). All rights reserved.
companies are twice as likely to create this kind of roadmap, and the Information concerning the benefits and results obtained by customers
payoff is five to 10 times the benefit in critical areas such as time to market, using PTC solutions is based upon the particular user’s experience and
testimonial, is furnished for informational use only, and should not be
product development efficiency, and product cost. Sometimes you really
construed as a guarantee or commitment by PTC. Due to the varying
do need to slow down in order to speed up. degree of complexity of our customers’ products and/or their design
processes, typical or generally expected results are not available. PTC, the
PTC logo and all PTC product names and logos are trademarks or regis-
tered trademarks of PTC and/or its subsidiaries in the United States and in
other countries. All other product or company names are property of their
respective owners.
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