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Out of the misunderstanding of PDM

I. preface

objectively, a manufacturing enterprise with independent R & D capability must have two business cycles: one is the product sales and manufacturing process composed of market, sales, orders, design, manufacturing, service and other links, and the other is the product development and manufacturing process composed of product development, design, manufacturing, customer feedback and other links. More and more people realize that these two business cycles will be supported by ERP and pdm/plm information systems respectively. The two software systems manage and optimize the business of enterprises from different perspectives

at present, various journals, magazines and stations have published many meaningful suggestions and views on the misunderstanding of ERP, but such discussions on pdm/pdm are still relatively few. Due to the large number of concepts and views, and various names related to PDM, such as EDM, PIM, PDM, PLM, etc., the understanding of enterprises has been very confused, which is easy to cause "literal meaning" or insufficient understanding of it. Either the implementation of PDM is too academic, complex, empty, and not realistic enough; Or he is too technical, "only technology", and does not pay attention to the combination with management practice, and does not pay attention to the analysis of long-term informatization construction. It can be seen that it is important to correct people's wrong concepts and understandings first. The following analyzes and corrects several common typical misunderstandings

II. Common misunderstanding analysis and viewpoint elaboration

2.1. Misunderstanding I: PLM is a software product of a higher generation than PDM

in recent years, the concept of PLM has been publicized more, and even the name of some PDM software products has been changed to "xxplm". So far, people in many enterprises have this illusion, "PLM is a software product of a higher generation than PDM". In fact, PLM is not a software product, but a solution composed of a series of software to achieve enterprise level business goals. PLM solutions include CAD, CAE, CAPP, cam, PDM, etc

of course, PDM, as an important supporting management platform in PLM solutions, plays a very important role. To achieve the enterprise level business goals proposed by PLM, PDM itself has higher requirements than before in terms of software architecture and technology. However, no matter how advanced PDM is and how to extend the application scope of PDM, PDM is PDM, which is only a part of PLM. In addition, the Chinese side of PDM sends cultural relics restoration experts to assist Mongolia in repairing the historical and cultural sites of ancient pagodas in the Liao Dynasty. Good progress is emphasized on management, while the advantages of high efficiency, energy saving and high cost performance are not a unit technology

the current mainstream PDM manufacturers define the new generation of PDM products as "PDM products supporting PLM", which is accurate and responsible. PDM products supporting PLM generally have several characteristics, such as: having relatively perfect enterprise modeling functions, flexible software, which can change as needed, good development and scalability, and the scope of application can be extended downward to the process and manufacturing departments, and upward to the marketing and sales departments. However, no matter what progress is made, the essence of PDM determines that its core is still the design technology center, which is still the management of product R & D data and process

2.2. Myth 2: it is believed that PDM system is PDM, which can "send carbon in the snow"

in fact, PDM is a product of the combination of software technology and product development methods. It cannot be considered that if a commercialized PDM system is used, enterprises can do a good job in product data management, nor can it be said that if a commercialized PDM system is not used, enterprises cannot carry out effective product data management

pdm software system itself cannot "send carbon in the snow". If enterprises can truly understand the essence of the accelerated growth of PDM lightweight materials in the process of implementing PDM, and take advantage of the "east wind" of PDM to carry out a reform of R & D system, then this is the real "carbon in the snow" for enterprises. There are many changes, such as standardizing design data from the source on this platform; Standardize behavior in management; Combine urgent work with important long-term work from the configuration of the R & D system. There should be not only a market-oriented rapid response force - product development project team, but also a research department that has long been engaged in basic work, studying product commonalities, and accumulating and sharing core technologies of the enterprise. However, this "carbon" is not "sent" by software service providers, but obtained by the enterprise itself from management innovation

in addition, it is suggested that before implementing commercial PDM software, enterprises should first carry out some work to improve the level of product data management under the conditions of the existing IT technology. For example, formulate the coding system of parts and drawings of the enterprise, formulate the standards of design and process data, formulate and implement the product development process required by ISO9000, etc. no matter whether these works can be successful or not, I believe these works will play a great role in the successful implementation of commercialized PDM software in the future. Don't always wait for the so-called "carbon in the snow"

2.3. Myth 3: thinking that the implementation of PDM is only a matter for IT personnel, which is "icing on the cake"

in some enterprises, the implementation of information systems is an image project. In this context, the implementation of PDM is really only a matter for IT personnel, which is indeed "icing on the cake", and what is added is a "fake flower"

if the enterprise implements PDM to improve the product development of the enterprise in a down-to-earth manner, then this thing is not a good-looking "flower", and sometimes it needs a little "pain" in the enterprise. And this "pain" is definitely not it personnel, but more enterprise managers and product developers. Especially when the current manufacturing industry is relatively prosperous and orders are relatively abundant, which means that the task of product development is relatively heavy, the implementation of PDM still requires enterprise leaders and managers to have a certain courage and strategy, and R & D personnel to be more patient and dedicated. But such investment is worth it. What the enterprise will get is a brand-new product research and development platform, a warehouse that can continuously accumulate enterprise technical knowledge, designers can more easily reduce repeated design, departments can timely and accurately obtain product data, reduce the cost caused by the timely and accurate data transmission between departments, and more importantly, the enterprise has built a product technology learning platform for newcomers

for example, if designers can query and use a standard and common enterprise parts on the PDM platform, enterprises will reduce a set of self-made parts process, reduce repeated process work, reduce the design and manufacturing of many tooling fixtures, and reduce a large number of useless inventory. This is not "flowers", but real "real gold and silver"

2.4. Myth 4: I think PDM is a one-time investment project, and I hope to "finish the work in one battle"

many enterprises need to establish a project before implementing PDM, and only after obtaining approval can they have funds to carry out the selection, purchase and implementation of PDM. Many enterprises have plans for PDM funds, but these plans take PDM as a one-time investment, just like enterprises purchase a certain equipment. For example, once an enterprise purchases PDM software, it hopes that PDM service providers can implement all functions at once, and it feels like it can "finish its work in one battle". Some people even tabulate the description of PDM functions in textbooks to correspond to the success of a PDM implementation project

however, since PDM is a management software, management improvement is not a short-term work, or a work that can be "achieved in one step". The purpose of implementing PDM in enterprises is to help enterprises solve the problems they face in the process of product development. The implementation of PDM pays attention to "overall planning and distributed implementation", and before some problems are completely solved, implementing more PDM functions can only add more troubles

for example, an enterprise has just implemented the drawing document management and product structure management of PDM, and the design approval and change process of drawings has also begun to run in PDM. The enterprise has tasted some sweetness and hopes to implement the product configuration management immediately, but at this time, there is not much data accumulated in PDM, the enterprise has not summarized the standard parts and common parts, and the principles of the serial design of various commonly used assemblies have not been summarized, In particular, the enterprise has no special people to do these things, and the implementation progress is slow. In addition, the product configuration has many connections with previous implementations. After the implementation of product configuration, the design change process of the enterprise will be more complex, involving the change of various basic product structures and the change of component configuration conditions, and this work is not the work scope of specific project developers. Finally, the early implementation work was not consolidated, and the application personnel had to deal with the implementation of PDM for a long time. The application enthusiasm was lost before it became an application habit, and finally the implementation was stopped for various reasons. Obviously, when the enterprise has not consolidated the achievements of the early PDM implementation, there must be higher risks in implementing modules with higher requirements for enterprise management

a leader of Lenovo once said, "sprinkle a layer of soil, then tamp it, and then sprinkle another layer of soil on it". I think this is particularly in line with the law of information projects. Every time we carry out a project, we should make the project real. We would rather put aside the unrealistic part first, not seeking perfection, but seeking truth and stability

this also requires enterprises to recognize the objective law of informatization projects. PDM is not a one-time investment project. Improving the management level of enterprises requires a long-term process. Enterprises may wish to include PDM investment in the regular IT investment budget, and then give a certain budget and goal every year, a goal that can be consolidated, and then strictly implement and continue to invest. I believe that enterprises will achieve good results

2.5. Myth 5: misunderstand the true connotation of PDM's so-called "top leader project"

many articles have mentioned that PDM is a "top leader project", which is a good starting point. Any informatization project involving enterprise management reform is difficult to implement if enterprise leaders do not pay enough attention to it. However, many people misunderstand the "top leader project" and think that in the process of implementing PDM, the top leader should participate in the whole process and check it in person. When encountering difficulties in any project, they immediately hope that the "top leader" will solve them, but the actual situation is that the top leaders of most enterprises cannot invest too much energy in this matter. As a result, many people attributed the failure of the project to "insufficient attention of enterprise leaders" and so on

in fact, the "number one project" does not necessarily require the enterprise leaders to pay attention to it personally. Even if the enterprise leaders have the energy to do it, the method of enterprise leaders' paying attention to it personally is not appropriate. The key role of enterprise leaders in PDM projects is still "employment", "authorization" and "motivation". As Mr. Drucker, the father of modern management, said, an excellent leader should be like a "bystander" who is good at listening and thinking

if the enterprise leaders dare to designate the really suitable "generals" as the project manager and let them devote all their energy to the PDM Project, then the project will be half successful. This requires courage, because enterprises often "one will be hard to find"