Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) platforms allow for a high degree of freedom when it comes to the design and development of tech packs for your products. They require a collaborative effort between team members to execute appropriately and get to a final design. While these platforms are great to get these initial steps completed, they do not allow for the level of connectedness that is necessary for a steady supply chain in today’s market. Let’s take a more in-depth look at the weaknesses utilizing just a PLM presents.
As the work-from-home era continues, the importance of connectivity has never been stronger. While PLMs allow for technical designers to access the information or work within the system, a majority of supply chain participants are unable to connect to the PLM. Restricted access to the system doesn’t allow for the rest of the supply chain participants to check progress or ensure that timelines will be met. Additionally, if team members are out of the office (physical and virtual alike) or leave the company, it is now up to the other team members to either find approved and finished files or go through the process of recreating them. These delays kill effectiveness and speed-to-market and are avoidable if standard PLMs were connected to the rest of the supply chain.
As we discussed last week, the importance of data integrity can transform the trajectory of your business. When data points become siloed, the integrity of your data decreases as you’re unable to understand how each point impacts the big picture. PLMs only measure tasks that are completed within the system and don’t account for any of the back and forth that happens once a tech pack goes off to the next team in the supply chain. With the data separated from the rest of the processes within product development, it is difficult to determine if core KPIs are met at the design and development level. While it might be simple to measure some metrics, such as the number of completed designs, it is not as easy to measure if action items were completed on time or if all feedback was accounted for when edits are made.
