Immersive CAD data management – is it the CAD/PDM future?

January 15, 2009

For many years, data management was considered as something that burdens the activity of designers and engineers focused on CAD system work as their daily activities. I believe many people will say that this is still true. On the other hand, with the growing amount of information many users have started to ask questions such as: Where did I save my files?, Which is the latest revision of my work? Who is working on these product files now? etc. Additional changes have arisen with the shifted perception related to the place of search technologies in our life. You can hear from many people phrases like  “you can Google it!”… and sometimes this seems to have become the most reliable way to find answers or information.

 I definitely see a growing needs for the adoption of PDM, or simply data management, becoming part of the standard function set of the Designer’s and Engineer’s environments. For example, the latest releases of SolidWorks PDMs presented consolidation on a short list of data management functionality and user experience related to this function set, embedded in SolidWorks User Interface. Major changes in SolidWorks Enterprise PDM task pane shows the need to integrate data management tasks into the regular daily work of users.

solidworks-enterprise-pdm-task-pane

 Another example is the CATIA V6 release. Starting from V6, CATIA data management functionality is completely integrated. Together with lifelike experience introduced in V6 and previewed last year in the Dassault Systemes 3DLive product, this environment does not differentiate completely between CAD functions and data management. 

dassault-systemes-3dlive-product

Both examples show that data management has become a standard function of the environment of CAD and Engineers. So, what we can see in the future of CAD/PDM? In my view, standardization of CAD data management will allow better use of design and engineering data in downstream environments, as well as improved usability in general. Data interfaces behind CAD systems will make the development of new technologies possible, based on data availability and reuse. 

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World CAD and PLM Market in 2008

January 15, 2009

Even though, 2008 was year of financial crisis and instability, I still regard it as a remarkable year for the world of CAD and PLM. I will point out my view on the main technological, product and business achievements of the past year: 

1.    Importance of PLM technologies for the development of innovation product and processes

In the last year, we’ve heard a strong voice from companies reporting about product innovation and usage of PLM systems in this process. Innovation is considered as one the most important part of product development process, allowing to companies to invent new products and services. “In today’s challenging global market, enterprises must innovate to increase their market size, to bring significant value to their shareholders, customers, and employees, and in many cases to survive” ,said Peter Bilello ,a senior consultant with CIMdata, an Ann Arbor, MI-based PLM consulting and research firm.

 2.    Recognition of PLM value together with fast growing PLM industry sectors

The value of PLM products has been reflected in significant business growth of main PLM vendors as well as segments of the PLM market. Last year, I think, showed an increased awareness on top-executive levels about how PLM products can enhance product development process, increase profit, lower cost and improve quality of products. Analytic company, IDC, predicted beyond average market growth for the SMB segment of the PLM market. “Small and Medium-Sized Business Enterprise Applications Market to Grow to $80.3 Billion by 2012, IDC Finds“. Industry focus and PLM success for new industry segments like apparel and high-tech presented awareness and adoption.

 3.    Consolidation of PLM vendors

At the time of poor financial market performance, big vendors in the PLM space continued the process of consolidation and acquisition in order to improve their offerings. Multiple, relatively small acquisitions made by various companies has shown that vendors conducted market research and followed their plan of portfolio growth.

 4.    Remarkable technological achievements

Together with business achievements and market growth, I’d like to highlight a few remarkable technological trends and deliveries that companies made in 2008.

 ·         Delivery of PLM 2.0 t presented a new concept for the future of PLM. In the same way Web 2.0 and social networks changed perception and presented a completely new concept for how people interact with viand through the internet (moving from static web pages to user-generated content and collaboration), PLM 2.0 is going to change the role of PLM technologies regarding how people l develop products in the future.

 ·         CAD User Experience – this topic drew a significant interest by many manufacturers seeking to improve user adoption of 3D technologies. Direct modeling technologies released by existing PLM providers and product development by new companies definitely has shown a high interest of users and industry to popularize 3D technology and make it available for a wider user audience.

 ·         Cloud computing. Even if this technology does not belong to PLM, I’d like to emphasize the significant importance of cloud computing and announcements made by large vendors in this area. Establishment of cloud services together with quality data centers will change the future of IT and the ability of companies to collaborate. Multiple technological demonstrations made by companies in this area has shown that vendors are learning this space, taking into account the user feedback in order to act upon this feedback  the future. 

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PLM Today and Tomorrow: Tighten Your Belts … and be open to new technologies

January 14, 2009

The financial crisis possible can hit PLM companies… but remember, many successful and well-known companies were established during times of economic crises.

LexisNexis (1973 oil crisis), FedEx Corp. (1973), Microsoft Corp. (1975), CNN (was a very small company in 1980), MTV (1981), Wikipedia Foundation Inc. (post 2001 recession), HP (Hewlett-Packard Development Company LP, was established at the end of this recession) – this is only a short list of companies established during various crises.

In my view, a crisis always opens people’s minds in terms of delivering something new or innovative within their space, in order to be more attractive for existing and potentially new customers. In this post, I’m going to try and change my seat from the point of view of a PLM developer to the PLM user’s standpoint.

So, what would a PLM user find attractive?

1.     Popularize easily what engineers are doing. When the average game controller provides a better look-and-feel compared to the PLM systems, whatever companies will do to make My Content available will be beneficial. I’d like to be able to show my latest product on iPod, race new cars available for my games, try a new kitchen environment in my SIMs™ or animate my process nicely on Wii, xBOX or other devices.

2.     Communicate easier and faster with  relevant people. At the end of the day, I want to make my working environment more comfortable. When I need to search, I’ll go to Google. When I  need to speak with colleagues, I’ll chat or IM. , When I need fresh news or opinions, I’ll go to blogosphere. Now, when I want to design and/or create something new – where should I go?

3.      Reuse technologies… This is most efficient way to create something new. Experience, Reuse, Change, Improve. Today, we hardly can find anything on our laptops. What about questions like  “do you remember a similar problem”, “similar part”, “something that the customer wanted”;, “how can I reuse an existing design?” and “What did we decide last year when faced with a similar situation?”… all these “reuse topics” can be hit top ranks in user communities.

4.       Breaking silos… Today’s enterprise organizations are very siloed.: Openness, Interoperability, Connectivity, Intelligence – although none of these words are new, the issue of siloed enterprises is still unresolved. I think that a crisis will definitely help to climb steps in this direction. Innovating technologies and people will break silos and find technologies, business models, and products that will allow PLM users to move forward.

5.       Information explosion?… We have finally produced more information that we can consume. This doesn’t seem to be a passing trend. Although this subject might not be specific to PLM, it can this is not something specific for PLM, but can really help  people in enterprises organize their work more efficiently.

So, I’m really looking forward to your comments, ideas and the next innovative products in the PLM world. 

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PLM Process Management Technologies

January 12, 2009

 Last month, I started a series of “PLM Glue Technologies” posts which I would like to continue. I titled my Recipe #1 post ‘data modeling’ and Recipe #2 ‘Rules’.

 Today I bring you Recipe #3 is about processes or what we refer to sometimes as business processes. Process technology is definitely something that makes a lot of sense in the context of PLM. Since we like to see a typical organization as something that is “process oriented”, describing processes in the context of an enterprise manufacturing organization is very important, in my opinion. Also, a process-oriented approach can provide many methodologies for organizational improvements.

Today’s Process Management technologies are represented in the market by many platforms and tools. Process Management is part of large IT platforms provided by IBM, Microsoft and other large vendors. Process Management is also included in the portfolios of ERP vendors such as SAP, Oracle and others. PLM providers also have process management in their array of capabilities. With the wide selection available in the market, how do you know how to choose the right technology?  What is important for PLM? How many process management technologies you need to have in your organization?.

So what is important for PLM? There are two aspects of process management: process model and supported content. Process model is not very different if you compare multiple providers, but ability to support PLM content is one of the keys.

I have mentioned that one of the PLM differentiators from other enterprise systems (like ERP and CRM) is the ability to model a product together with all organizational aspects related to this product model – internal organization, extended enterprise. In many cases, the ability to create this model correctly is one of the main advantages that a PLM system can provide. Process Management technologies can interoperate with PLM content – this capability is must for providing PLM process support. It starts simple in the way a PLM system can support CAD structure, Document Structure and BOM and route these documents among people. We end up with a system that allows to create processes between people and involve organizations in this process.

So, CAD document routing is first level of PLM process support. System will be able to manage automatic document assignment based on CAD documents and other CAD data dependencies. The second level is to be able to create a human-oriented process. Human oriented-processes do not always involve data but incorporate more of a business understanding of how an organization works. These human-oriented processes need to have access to product models and content, to get information for routing and rules. In many cases, this connection allows you to manage business process flows, depending on the product context. The third level is the ability to have mixed document, human and application level processes. In this application level, processes, products/applications act even more actively than people. Applications communicate between themselves by sending messages and transferring control of the data. They require a deeper level of integration between processes and the product content /data model.

Another aspect of process management is the ability to provide information about processing, monitoring and administration. These capabilities are different depending on what technologies and packages are used for these purposes. On the simple side, workflow and document routings provide a very small amount of capabilities for monitoring and process metrics. As we move to more sophisticated process management tools, we will see more capabilities for process administration and KPI monitoring. Sophisticated process management tools provide capabilities for process re-engineering and optimization.

Last, but not least is the standards. As you expand your discovery of PLM process management capabilities for the whole organization, the importance of standard compliance will also grow. Without getting too deep into a review of process management in this post, let me just say that in today’s process management world, BPMN and BPEL are ranked at the top.   Most systems support these standards while adding their specific flavor of implementation.

So, to sum up my PLM Glue Technologies for Organization posts, I think that the following three technologies provide the top needs in order to successfully build a Product Lifecycle Management foundation in your organization: (1) data modeling; (2) rules; (3) process management.

 

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Which technology can convert multiple PDMs into a single PLM?

January 9, 2009

In today’s product landscape, almost all CAD manufacturers have developed their own data management tool. I think that basic PDM capabilities such as data revisions, changes, and support for multiple locations have become very connected to a particular CAD system. The main reasons for this are customer needs and the growing complexity of CAD tools. This means that very soon we will find ourselves in the world of CAD+PDM bundles.

 Will CAD/PDM bundles affect PLM in any way? My assumption is that the standardization of CAD/PDM bundles can provide the next steps in the development of Product Lifecycle Management in an organization. When this happens, basic data management problems will already be resolved and manufacturers will start looking how to organize a single product development process  and single product lifecycle process for an organization.

 In my opinion, the following four technologies are good candidates to resolve these challenges: (1) Business Process Management; (2) Enterprise Search and 3D Search; (3) 3D Technologies (4) Mashups.

 Let’s talk about them in more details:.

 1. Business Process Management focuses on definition, execution and monitoring of processes. The definition portion is important –  if a meta model of Business Process Management tools will be able to support product and related organizational models, it will be capable of serving as  a technological layer to keep product lifecycle in an organization. The key problem of today’s BPM(s) tools is that they are rather agnostic with regards to content. As soon as meta-data modeling capabilities of BPM technologies will improve, t we will probably see them connect well with CAD/PDM bundles.

 2. Enterprise Search and 3D Search will be able to coordinate product data and lifecycle data. Enterprise Search technologies were boosted during the last year or two. The main reasons for this boost  were the increased amount of data and a very proactive position of Google and its GSA offering. Enterprise Search technologies have become more vertical – together with a cheap GSA offering and the growing interest of vendors like Microsoft providing ES as part of MOSS, are  very promising. Another part of search technologies is the 3D search. This can add a special flavor for CAD-related models and engineering activities. Just imagine maintenance people being able to find part numbers by scanning the picture of the defected part…

 3. 3D technologies is another valid technological option. Since most of product development can be presented in 3D, this 3D experience can absorb and provide a single organizational view for the product lifecycle.  One example of such a technology is Dassault Systèmes’ 3DLive product which continues  following 3D Lifelike experience in V6. Future connections to gaming and other 3D technologies can create a solid platform for unifying all CAD/PDM product bundles used by designers. 

4. Mashups technologies combines data came from different sources. Initially, heavily promoted by GIS and map based products, this technology has improved and become useful for combining various pieces of data. This also provides required functionality when a product is developed by multiple CADs systems and managed by multiple PDM systems. 

Bottom line – I believe that the technologies I mentioned (and may be some other technologies) can take Product Lifecycle Management from multiple PDM systems to a single PLM environment. Who will actually do it? This is an open call… 

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Can we use 3D Gaming Technologies in PLM?

January 8, 2009

While looking at the amazing development of 3D Gaming Technologies recently , I’ve been wondering – is it possible to use all this experience for PLM? 

I think today’s Gamers will will approach enterprises and will expect similar experience from enterprise systems. Although I’m not sure we are there yet, I’d like to start putting into practice some initial ideas for convergence between 3D Games and PLM. 

I’d like to bring one particular idea for discussion today – COLLADA. COLLADA is a royalty-free XML schema that enables digital asset exchange within the interactive 3D industry. What if this framework were be available to communicate between Design and Development systems on one side, and gaming controllers and new video devices on the other side. Such convergence can open huge opportunities in bringing gaming experience to PLM. 

Today, COLLADA has initial support by a relatively long list of systems. Dassault Systèmes and Virtools can also support COLLADA;.. SolidWorks Labs created a product called  Collada Export. Other vendors have also added products supporting COLLADA.

 I’m sure you may have other practical examples of the merge between PLM and 3D Gaming. I will be interested to hear your feedback, receive links and other examples.

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PLM Persistent Content and Dynamic 3D PDF

January 7, 2009

When I posted about my Dream PLM Technologies for 2009 , one of them was  Persistent Content. In today’s word, I think that PDF is the most widely used format to keep information for a long period of time. Combined with 3D capabilities, 3D PDF is a very attractive option for users for this purpose.

Adding 3D to the latest capabilities of PDF have allowed 3D PDF to be dynamic make and even more exciting than before. Not only can you retain information, but your users can browse this information dynamically.

Now, let’s get back to Persistent Content. Dynamic 3D PDF allows the resolution of many issues related to the presentation of product information:  visualization, finding relationships using bookmarks, and browsing capabilities. From this standpoint, 3D PDF is a good candidate. So what’s missing from this option, you may ask? In my opinion the advantage of PDF as a widely accepted file format – is also its disadvantage! It’s still a file! So, if we continue to package product information into PDF files, we will end up with a huge amount of files to manage.

 I predict that the future will bring some enhancements that will allow us to manage information in multiple PDF files , but currently, this is still not something available out of the box. I have seen some examples of PDF usage for content storage. SolidWorks Labs released Presentation Studio for SolidWorks, allowing you to create 3D content in PDF format. 3DVIA Composer allows you to publish lots of content into PDF. Other PLM companies also provide capabilities for transferring content in PDF. Another interesting example I found is being able to keep non-traditional 3D Content (i.e. as a molecular structure) in dynamic 3D PDF files produced by companies in the life science domain. With the emerging PLM influence in this industry sector, I expect an increased customer interest in having 3D available for a long period of time.

 

 I believe that customers and companies have developed capabilities of larger content storage in PDF. If you have this experience I’d appreciate it if you share your comments and other thoughts on this topic.

 

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How can PLM leverage Social Networks to marketing with customers?

January 6, 2009

I think that staying in contact with your customers is the number one goal for all organizations today. And this is ultimately one of the goals of CRM.

 But nowadays, things are changing… and our customers are very likely involved in various social networks in which they speak with colleagues and friends, reference products they are using, and talk about their likes and dislikes.

 I’m thinking about the ability to leverage existing social networks  - such as Facebook, and maybe others  LinkedIn is, for example, is very business-oriented.  – in order to get feedback and other valuable information from our customers.  The Facebook pools feature looks exactly like what is needed.

 You can raise Facebook Polls with different questions related to what your product is doing such as What are customer demands? What problems do your customers have? All are online, and what’s especially important, as they are connected and open within a social community, the potential social effect is huge.  In addition, you can see some tools that have been developed to support Facebook Polls – Widgets, Wizards etc.

 I would be interested in your opinion. Actually this feature has existed in Facebook since 2007, so maybe some of you have already tried it.

You can see good selection of Facebook Polls following this link. 

 

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My favorite PLM and PLM-related technologies for 2008

January 5, 2009

At the end of the year and at the beginning of the new year, there are a log of posts that are generated summarizing the past and predicting the future. Since I’ve already covered the future in my first post of 2009,  “PLM Dream Technologies for 2009”, now I’d like to talk about the past.

 The following is my top 5 list for the “PLM technological jungles” in 2008.

 1.    PLM 2.0 concept

Technologically, PLM 2.0, in my view, takes product lifecycle management to the next level of capabilities by adding “openness”. My main concern about Enterprise PLM today is about the disconnection of people and processes within an organization.  PLM 2.0 breathes new, fresh air into this space. Now all data is available online for all, with transparent tools. Although there are still a  lot of issues related to interoperability that need to be resolved, the technical achievements presented today in PLM 2.0 allow users to work online on the same components and assemblies.  These  (technological achievements) are very interesting and impressive.

 2.    Direct Modeling

This technology is trying to make 3D more user friendly and, as a result, widely available for people. This technological trend was presented by multiple existing, new and leading providers in the CAD/PLM space. Overall, this technology, popularizes 3D to the masses and definitely takes CAD/PLM downstream. With the development of this technology, more users in CAD/PLM eco-systems will be able to use 3D in their daily lives – manufacturing, marketing, customer support etc.

 3.    Web 2.0

Rather than being a  particular technology, Web 2.0 provides a specific set of technological capabilities that has changed the Web into a ‘Web of participation’. One of the top technological needs in PLM, in my view, is the ability to connect people. The Web 2.0 technological trend majorly impacted and influenced PLM 2.0 definitions. The success of Web 2.0 technologies and awareness (such as blogs, Wikis etc.) has impacted and will continue to impact the PLM community significantly.

 4.    Mashups

The peak of excitement around Mashups came from Google maps. This is the first and foremost example of successful and practical Mashups. There are additional vendors in the Mashup world such as Yahoo Pipes, Microsoft Popfly and others. In my view, Mashups is heavily under-invested in PLM. Moreover, there are some very serious technological and community oriented influencers that are preventing some Mashups from succeeding . I’m excited about it, but this still needs to happen.

 5.    RIA

Rich Internet Application is a very important technology. In my opinion, RIA marks the end of discussion regarding what’s the best Web or Desktop solution. RIA moves the Web from an application name to technology, allowing access over Web only. What’s more, it also provides an overall agreement about users’ needs regarding user experience and user acceptance – this is one of the top priorities of PLM

 This sums up is my “top -five”. I’d be interested in knowing if you agree with my ranking, or what other technologies to add to this list.

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Non-PLM Think Tank: Why Teenagers Need Twitter?

January 4, 2009

On behalf of Ronni… Inspired by recent family events and PLM Think Tank recent posts :) . 

Another case for Microblogs or a collaborative social software platform.

 How did I become the single point of access for transportation to and from a movie theater during the holiday season?  It started innocently enough.  A gifted class of thirty, residing geographically within 30 kilometers or so of the Tel Aviv metropolis, went on a week of winter vacation from school. Their platform of communication with each other is text messaging and emails.  Although they may be the most technologically talented group of teenagers, able to grasp new ideas at a rate much higher than their parents (who were also born before personal computers existed), their inherent organizational skills lag far behind their IQs.

 So what’s a parent to do?  Suddenly I found my cellphone being the central point of contact for this group of teenagers.  One of them initiated an evening at a movie theater but left the task of getting back and forth from the cinema ‘open’.  They decided to call me and ask if I had room in my car back and forth from the cinema.  I had already relayed the information about my son’s transportation to two people, and yet the phone calls continued.

 Would a Microblog be a solution? Or some sort of platform where the children would communicate with each other throughout the day, accessing one Microblog where they would know the number of children attending, which cities they were coming from, number of movie tickets to purchase, and number of places vacant in their parents’ cars in both directions.

 I am familiar with www.airset.com and have heard of Twitter, but it seems like these teenagers know more about the technology regarding the animation of the movie they have chosen to see than the logistics regarding collaborating on their destination and transportation. 

 This is just one example of one community collaborating on what should be a simple task, and yet the factors affecting this community are only some of those challenges affecting an small organization in its day-to-day operations – short deadlines, not all have access to computers  and the same data during the day, no license to drive cars (have to outsource transportation to their parents or older siblings), no authorization to use credit cards independently in order to purchase tickets in person (thus losing out on 2 for 1 discounts, etc.) and geographical dispersion within one country. 

 Microblog or Mommy to the rescue?  I’m not sure.

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