Product Lifecycle Management

Product Lifecycle Management

“Product lifecycle management is an integrated, information-driven approach to all aspects of a product’s life --from its design inception through its manufacture, deployment and maintenance, culminating in its removal from service and final disposal.” 

University of Michigan PLM Development Consortium

Product Lifecycle Management

• Provide collaborative data environments that manages the intellectual property associated with the evolving engineering, construction, and maintenance definition

  • Provide an accurate technical knowledge foundation and detailed history of the configuration throughout the entire lifecycle, from concept to disposal, while continuously coordinating complex interdependent changes initiated by various technical and business stakeholders

  • Strong relationships between PLM (Product Lifecycle Management), MES (Manufacturing Execution System), and ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) offers the ability to build a comprehensive closed loop information system

• PLM is unique from other enterprise software solutions, byproviding the application depth and breadth needed to digitally author, validate and manage the detailed product and process data, PLM supports continuous innovation

Challenges in Manufacturing and Lifecycle Maintenance 

1.  Pressure on Cost and Delivery Time:

• Design cost and design rework
•  Manufacturing cost and manufacturing rework
• Procurement cost and information exchange
•  Penalties for delays
•  Penalties for not met requirements
• Operating costs  

   

   

  2.    Drivers for OEM’s customers:

•  Total lifecycle costs
•  Availability of the asset 
•  Costs / time / flexibility for conversions
•  Pressure to improve operating efficiency
•  Regulatory constraints
•  Rapidly changing enabling technology
•  Increased market volatility
•  Tightening of growth opportunities
•  Diminishing size of skilled resourcesx

Communication and Collaboration

1.  Removing the Silos of Communication 

– Information silos separate an organization along departmental boundaries, creating challenges when integrating work

  • Managing continuous changes 

  • Working in parellel vs. sequential 

– Silos inhibit integrated decision making, affecting budget and on-time delivery of the vessel    

2. Defining the “as-is” business state

 – Diagram current business processes

 – Analyze to determine those that are value added and nonvalue added

– Use of technology to automate non-value added processes and ensure better communication throughout the organization

– Leveraging industry expertise to support analysing and mapping business processes  

3. Managing Intellectual Property

 – Creating a single source of truth

  

    • PLM collaboration technology streamlines the ability to securely share technical data amongst groups of people

    • Provide transparency to who is doing what, when, where, and how, to the configuration and technical documentation throughout the entire lifecycle

4. Integrating Enterprise Solutions

 – Understanding the value and function of key technologies and how they interface   

Standardized Processes and the Capture of Best Practices

• Capturing Tribal Knowledge (the experience and expertise that have been passed down from one generation of workers to the next)

 • Create a Library of Re-usable Processes
    – Continuous analysis of best practices and process improvements
    – Configuration controlled to support traceability and visibility to what was done where, when, by whom and with what resources 

• Process Validation – Simulate the assembly sequence to ensure fit, form and function – Perform ergonomic studies to ensure worker safety and feasibility

• Manufacturing Validation – Validate NC programming code prior to machining a part – Store code in association with the relavent machines for future re-use  

Production Optimization

• Having a top down view allows industrial engineers and production planners the ability to capture what is happening at any given time and explore options for future projects or improvement to existing production 

• Key Elements to Managing Production 

 – Layout of facility

 – Material flow

 – Scheduling of production 

 – Inventory control  

• Drivers for the use of software technology to optimize the facility layout can range from:

  – Determining scenarios for yard expansion
  – Modernizing existing facilities
  – Re-architecting where various equipment and inventory are stored
  – Incorporation of additional programs into an existing production schedule
  – Resource demand and utilization
  – Equipment demand and utilization