Product lifecycle management (PLM) is a more complex ideology than what meets the eye. Many companies assume that IT departments should be responsible for PLM although this should be reconsidered. For example, you wouldn’t have your engine rebuilt at a place that specializes in oil changes. This same logic applies to PLM systems for numerous reasons. Here are five reasons why IT departments shouldn’t internally manage your PLM systems.
1. PLM is not an IT specialty
“This is not something I learned in school.”
Just because your IT department is educated and certified does not guarantee they will follow the best system practices and the most cost-effective maintenance. After all, PLM systems are engineering-centric. They are complicated and unrelated to any marketable IT certification.
In order to support these systems, a great level of expertise, specialized knowledge and know-how is required. Ultimately, these systems are complicated because they require information outside of your technology department’s core focus.
2. IT Departments are unfamiliar with PLM
“I don’t know anything about it.”
Once again, let’s look at this in a completely different perspective. Imagine you are in critical condition and a specialized piece of equipment is needed for your survival. Would you let a nurse perform this task without proper training and experience?
Similarly, your IT department does not want to be held responsible for a system they know virtually nothing about. These enterprise systems are different in comparison to the products they are trained to maintain. In order to uphold a stable environment, many PLM systems require extensive knowledge and management. If your IT department is unfamiliar with your PLM, you could be jeopardizing the top and bottom line of your business.
3. IT departments are understaffed
“We are a small team with an entire company to support.”
According to a recent study, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported companies having an average of 4.2 individuals in every IT department. In larger companies, there is on average 11.9 IT staff supporting more than 500 employees. In smaller companies, less than 3 IT professionals are left to support around 250 employees.
Despite the increasing complexity of the IT business function, IT departments have remained small. Many of these departments are even lacking the resources needed to employ help desk technicians and system administrators. If this is the case, who is watching over your specialized PLM system?
4. IT departments don’t have enough time
“There is not enough time in the day.”
Fixing end-user issues and general day-to-day activities take up a considerable amount of time for any IT department. Their labor resources are only able to stretch so far.
Aside from keeping up with their extensive workload, many find it next to impossible to avoid larger projects from being delayed. Performing proper maintenance and implementing any new software is out of the question. This leaves the enterprise environment to suffer, and in most cases, fail.
5. IT departments are unable to give recommendations
“I’m not sure how to do proper system maintenance.”
Accurately running and managing PLM systems involves a high level of patchwork. When problems arise and improvements are needed, many IT professionals are unable to make recommendations due to their limited experience and expertise. Unlike trained professionals, your IT department has limited knowledge and understanding of the diverse environmental factors that should be utilized during implementation. When a system goes down an IT department is forced to relearn everything. This results in longer maintenance. Instead of knowing the ins and outs of PLM systems, an IT department struggles to properly fix the issue.
As you can see, managing a PLM system is no walk in the park. In order to have a high rate of success with these systems, one must have an active approach in place. Despite the persistent idea of reducing costs by internally managing systems, companies often find themselves wasting time and decreasing the chance of success. The reality is, it is just not that simple.
Risk… what does it mean?
For some, it is crossing the street. For others, it is starting a company with the last of their own money, or money from an expectant and hopeful investor.
But, what does it mean for companies/customers? Ultimately, I think it drives everything at a company. For some companies, often publicly traded, risk is not an option. Everything they do must have a strong business case to produce more revenue with little or no risk. Smaller companies tend to be much more willing to take risks. Sometimes it’s the only way to get the growth they so desperately want and need. In between you’ll find many companies along the willing-to-take-on-risk spectrum.
How do you convince your company or customer to take a risk?
One way is to downplay the risk. Not a good idea. It can, and likely will, bite you in the end. No, you must address risk head on. You must out weigh the risk with the potential benefits. Show examples of success. Find and present metrics from those that have gone before you. Show the potential benefit the customer/company can recognize if they accept the proposed risk. Even after all that, you may only open the door to considering an improvement project. It does not guarantee a person or company will proceed.
You must address the risk
Address the risk head on. Show how you, or your company, will mitigate risk throughout the venture. Always keep in mind the customer’s or your company’s view on risk. It could be as simple as a loss of the investment into a project. On the other end of the spectrum could be lost customers, lost revenue, or even lost jobs. By not dismissing the risk, but acknowledging it and trying to prevent it, it shows your commitment to the customer, whether internal or external. It shows you are a partner, not just someone trying to sell an idea and run.
In the end, everyone wants to grow. Very few want to take the risks needed to grow. If you’re trying to help your customer or company grow and improve, you must prove you will do everything possible to manage risk, but not dismiss its existence in the first place.
Assessments help organizations avert risk
Are you in the process of accepting risk in order to improve, grow, or move in a new direction? We offer many solutions that can help mitigate risk — solutions and services with proven track records that adhere to best practices. We also offer a Product Development System Assessment (PDSA) and Functional Group Assessment (FGA) to help align organizations, define strategic direction, and help map the best course forward. Download our PDSA brochure or FGA brochure to learn more. Please share your experience and thoughts about accepting and managing risk in the comments below.
Cheers.
In preparation for the LiveWorx 2017 conference in Boston an amazing team of EAC, PTC, and RCR folks worked to create an entirely new experience for NASCAR fans. The experience was unveiled at the entrance of the Xtropolis exhibit hall floor and allowed LiveWorx attendees to interact with an actual RCR race vehicle using augmented reality (AR). The experience wowed show sponsors and attendees alike.
Racing provides many traditional experiences; the race track, the stands, concessions, meet and greets, etc. You may get to
see a car from a few feet away, but rarely will anyone get a chance to see inside a car or what’s beneath the sheetmetal. Our development team created four ThingWorx View “experiences” for people. Each one allows them to interact with a different part of the car in a different way using nothing but their smart phone or table and the ThingWorx View app that is available for free on both the Apple App Store and Google PlayStore.
In the picture below you will see one example. On an iPad we are able to scan a ThingMark and launch an AR video that shows the fuel system and how a car is fueled.
Another experience lets a viewer watch the official tire change process. It’s really cool stuff.
Moving to the other side of the car lets you see the roll cage structure and displays some really interesting facts and information across the top of the screen.
EAC, RCR, and PTC are using technology, available now, to engage customers and fans in an entirely new way. Let us know if you’d like to know more about how AR and the IoT can transform the way your internal and external customers engage with your products.
Our friends at Formlabs recently announced their newest dental resins to add a range of new capabilities to Formlabs printers, including crown and bridge models, splints, retainers, and soon dentures.
If you walk into a dental lab or clinic today, and you’ll find a completely different set of tools than you would have just few years ago. Dentistry is well on its way to fully embracing digital workflows, replacing messy alginate impressions with digital scans and complicated manual techniques with computer-aided manufacturing.
This should come as no surprise. Every set of teeth is unique, meaning that every dental appliance has to be custom-made. The need for mass customization, and the small size of the final products, makes this a perfect application for 3D printing. While material properties were a barrier to broader application of this technology, new biocompatible materials are enabling dentists to 3D print a growing range of products.
To date, Formlabs dental users have completed over 150,000 prints. Today, with the launch of two new Dental Resins, Formlabs is greatly expanding the range of dental products that the Form 2 can produce. With prints every bit as accurate as larger machines that cost $75,000 or more, the Form 2 is increasingly the go-to 3D printer for the dental professionals.
Use Case
Matt Roberts, CDT, talks about his experience running 4 Form 2 3D printers for various applications in his dental lab here: The Future of Dental 3D Printing, with Matt Roberts from CMR Dental Lab.
Meet the New Resins
Dental Model Resin
Dental Model Resin is designed for crown and bridge models with removable dies, it is a high precision, high accuracy resin. It prints crisp margins and contacts within ± 35 microns and removable dies with a consistently tight fit. It has a smooth, matte surface finish and color similar to gypsum make it easy to switch from analog to digital model production.
Dental LT Clear Resin
A Class IIa biocompatible resin, Dental LT Clear’s high resistance to fracture and wear make it ideal for splints, retainers, and other direct-printed orthodontic devices. This clear material polishes to high optical transparency for beautiful final products.
3D Printed Dentures
We’re pushing the boundaries of digital dentistry and developing the first integrated, end-to-end workflow for manufacturing high-quality 3D printed dentures. Clinical studies and workflow tests are currently in development at Formlabs and partner dental labs, with the new biocompatible Denture Base and Teeth Resins coming in fall 2017.
The Internet of Things (IoT) poses unique challenges when it comes to protecting smart, connected devices. If devices are hacked, they could cause serious problems. It’s critical to understand what these challenges are and how you can overcome them. A secure IoT solution requires complete collaboration among the infrastructure, platform, developer, and device controller.
Some of the security challenges the IoT faces include user management in the cloud, device variety, and application vulnerability.
User Management in the Cloud
Cloud permissions are typically granted to one human using one application, there are firm boundaries around the authentication and authorization processes. When the IoT is in the cloud as well, devices can authenticate themselves as a human or on behalf of a human. This means a much more complex permission process as well as a trust model must be put in place to maintain security.
A big difference between the cloud and the IoT is that the IoT (typically) has more devices than the cloud. For a hacker to do serious damage, they don’t need to penetrate all of the devices, just a small number of them or even a single weakly protected device.
Variety of Devices
The varying types of smart, connected devices present immense opportunity for damage if a hacker successfully overtakes them. Organizations must ensure their devices and applications are secure from attackers even with knowledge of IoT operations.
Researchers have found they have could interfere with driving an automobile, the functionality of a pacemaker, and even changing the position of rifle’s aim. Your device security is critical.
Application Vulnerabilities
Hackers could go as far as gaining instant access to high-level IoT deployments. They can do this by targeting security weaknesses in the firmware and/or applications running on embedded systems. If your IoT implementation is not properly managed, a compromise of a single device could compromise your entire system.
Environments where devices are deployed through other organization’s networks are especially important. Your organization’s ability to lessen security issues among devices will decrease if you lose control leaving your applications vulnerable.
Now that you’ve read through some of the security challenges the IoT faces, you may want to take a moment and continue reading to learn how to protect your digital data, as well as security best practices: authenticate, authorize, and audit. Security risks associated with the IoT are growing, but you can take preventative action to ensure the security of your IoT devices and deployments.
Rob Black, CISSP Senior Director of Product Management at PTC wrote the White Paper, “Protecting smart devices and applications throughout the IoT ecosystem,” where he reviews IoT security best practices. You can read it here.
One challenge when working with technical information is that publications can be very large. Several hundred pages is not unusual and in some cases over a thousand pages are necessary to describe complex service procedures and part catalogs.
Authoring and assembling large books can be a painful process as the sheer size can be taxing to software. XML, DITA, and managing content objects do ease the pain, it is what industrial strength publishing software is designed to do. However, there is only so much information the average workstation can process.
Many creative solutions have been implemented to meet unique business requirements for book assembly. The business requirements and data sources vary from company to company, such as selecting lessons individually to create a complete custom course; or selecting individual part list and image pairs to create a complete part catalog. As an application expert, I have personally coded many custom solutions to support cobbling books together over the years and I know that many other equally creative solutions exist.
PTC’s Service Information Manager adds three advanced capabilities to the XML authoring and content management system:
- Translation Management
- Part List Generation
- Publication Structures
Publication Structures are the least sexy of the three and the one that truly revolutionizes the book assembly process. Publication Structures are used to assemble information objects that are to be published. Essentially each Publication Structure represents a book. You can add a table of contents, a parts list, or any other XML content object or images to the book right in the Windchill SIM web browser user interface.
Without Publication Structures, books are typically assembled manually in Arbortext Editor. Someone would still have to assemble the book manually in a Publication Structure, but the user experience is very different. To get a sense of this, in Arbortext Editor, if a writer wants to move a chapter to a different location, they would edit the document, select content, cut it, move to the new location, and then paste. In a Publication Structure, the user can drag and drop chapter or section objects in the structure without ever opening the book to edit it.
Publication Structures provide an out-of-the-box method of assembling publications for the technical documentation community without customizing. As a result, organizations are able to greatly improve the process of information delivery and are able to leverage dynamic publishing capabilities to bring products to market faster, and keep customers better informed.
Learn More
Refer to PTC’s web site for a complete description of Service Information Manager.
EAC information solution experts have decades of reliable XML solution experience. Explore the EAC website to learn more about our products and services or review the Product Development Information Services Brochure.
