Vacation is a great time to work
. Finally, you can have time to think about variety of topics that you are missing during your workdays. Here is the one I picked today – multiple bill of materials and synchronization. For those of you in PDM / PLM space even for few years, this topic and question is not new. The traditional approach in many PDM and PLM implementation is to have multiple data representations to describe product structure and data in different phases (Design, Manufacturing, Built) as well as in various configurations. It is often called multiple bill of materials (multiple BOMs).
The problem the implementation of multiple BOMs creates is related to the fact you need to synchronize it. Think about making pictures with your digital camera these days. You can make pictures, sync it to your computer, backup for storage, convert it with different resolutions and processing techniques, sync it to your social net accounts, share with people. This process is much simpler than decide about some product with few configurations, manufacturing in multiple places. Nevertheless, I’m sure you most probably hate it. How many pictures you lost during this process? I’m sure the number is large enough, products like instagram and some others can continue to innovate in this place.
The synchronization logic is a killer
The synchronization itself is not a big problem. When it simple takes data from one place and put it in another place. Think about emails. Finally, (after many years) we succeeded to synchronize emails between online and offline locations. The logic of this synchronization is simple – yes/no + date. However, addition of devices can immediately make this problem complicated. Therefore, Apple had a disaster with mobile.me and continue to struggle with iCloud. The situation with multiple BOMs is much more complicated. Product structure is not simple, the logic of transformation is complex. We end up in the process that has no chance to succeed rather than require super skills and super intelligence.
What is my conclusion? Synchronization complexity is a killer. PLM industry is probably near the dead end in our effort to improve "synchronization". The process of synchronization is painful, cumbersome and creates lots of additional "process complexities". The new methods need to follow data referencing techniques. It doesn’t mean data is located in a single place. I can synchronize it for different purposes between multiple locations. However, logic of synchronization cannot be dependent on people. It is very complex and won’t work for a long run. I didn’t talk much about actually Bill of Materials. It will be a topic for one more blog. I’m looking forward to your comments. For now, you can enjoy few photos that I successfully synced between iPhone, my computer and the cloud.
Best, Oleg


Posted by olegshilovitsky
Dear friends! I’m glad to share the news with you –
I screw up my promise to stop blogging during my vacation. I’m in Israel these days with my family. You are probably asking what this picture of Pink Lady apple does on my blog. I made yesterday evening in the hotel in Tel-Aviv where I’m staying. Of course, I appreciate the hotel for complimentary welcome service. At the same time, what struck me is that this apple was absolutely identical to the apple from local Costco store in Brookline, Mass I ate just before leaving home. Amazing example of global supply channels. What potentially can make apple made in USA travels all the way down to Middle East. I found hard to find the answer on this question. Is there a chance future PLM data services will be able to answer these questions? If you have an idea of explanation, speak your mind. Now, let me turn it back to a traditional top 5 post.
I’m preparing myself for
The discussion about cloud security is storming. You can see it going wide, and everybody wants to add something about how future CAD or PLM cloud solutions will be either secured or unsecured. If you want to spot some bad predictions about the cloud and engineering software, navigate to
Migration. This is a word any IT and PDM/PLM manager is afraid to hear. In my view, it is one of the most painful things in enterprise software. The obvious reasons for migrations are related to IT infrastructure upgrades, need to move to the next PDM / PLM version and decision to switch to another vendor. The last one is not rare in the world or PDM/PLM mergers and acquisitions.
As you probably know, Excel (or spreadsheets) is one of my favorite topics. Despite the multiple efforts of software vendors in PDM, PLM and other enterprise domains, Excel remains very sustainable. Back in 2009, I put my top reasons
Despite hot weather and summer vacation time, I can see quite many cloud discussions trending around. I was following
I think the agreement about importance of the data model among all implementers of PDM / PLM is almost absolute. Data drives everything PDM / PLM system is doing. Therefore, to define the data model is the first step in many implementations. It sounds as something simple. However, there is implied complexity. In most cases, you will be limited by the data model capabilities of PLM system you have. This is a time, I want to take you back in history.
Think about the most overused term in PDM/PLM software for the last decade (or even more). Collaboration. It was developed and sold in different flavors and packages. Remember CPDM – Collaborative PDM? Later it became Collaborative PLM. Moreover, don’t forget e-Collaboration and many others. If you want to refresh your memory, navigate to the following 
