New generation PDM avoids the pitfallsNew generation PDM avoids the pitfalls

February 2, 1998

8 Min Read
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February 2, 1998

PRODUCT DATA MANAGEMENT

New generation PDM avoids the pitfalls

Lessons learned during the 'early adopter' phase of PDM technology are bridging the gap to mainstream engineering

Michael Puttré, Associate Editor


Product data management (PDM) software is poised to cross that chasm dividing "early adopters" from the market mainstream. This view is expressed so fervently by PDM software providers (all of whom, it seems, have read Geoffrey Moore's book, Crossing the Chasm), that it gives one pause. Particularly since so many companies attempting to implement PDM have, like Evel Knievel drifting down into the Snake River Canyon, failed to make it across.

"Up to 80% of PDM installations fail," reveals a consultant for Sherpa Corp. (Milpitas, CA), a company that pioneered the management of engineering data in a comprehensive way. Out on point, Sherpa was on hand to bask in the victory of some early adopter installations and take heavy fire during a few notable defeats. The consultant concludes candidly: "The problem was that we were providing PDM as a toolkit rather than as a packaged solution, but many customers perceived it as the latter or had no idea how difficult it was to implement."

Sherpa's response, "PDM II," strategy takes the form of focused turnkey applications for handling specific engineering functions, all tied together under an "Extended Enterprise" architecture. Some PDM vendors are taking a similar approach, notably Metaphase (and SDRC), Matrix One (formerly of Adra), Parametric Technology Corp., and IBM. Others are doing so on a smaller scale, emphasizing easy access and a Windows-based approach, among them Agile Software and SmartSolutions. Still other vendors are stressing the importance of tackling specific functions, such as Tower, PC Docs, and Cyco for document management and Workgroup Technology and Concentus for workflow management functions.

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Kalthoff International says nearly 60% of manufacturing companies surveyed have PDM installations or are in the process of purchasing one.

The proliferation of PDM approaches and products suggests significant interest in the engineering community. And the numbers indicate healthy growth: According to CIMdata, an Ann Arbor, MI, research firm, sales of PDM software will grow at a compound annual rate of 23% between 1996 and 1999, and it will be a half-billion-dollar industry by the end of the decade.

Nevertheless, this is not the astronomical growth generally observed in "chasm-crossing" technologies. By way of comparison, the very mature CAD market is growing at a brisk 18.5%, according to Cambridge, MA-based research firm Daratech. In fact, Kalthoff International, (Cincinnati, OH), a sponsor of PDM conferences, reported in a recent survey the number of manufacturing companies having or purchasing a PDM system was down in 1996, although 1997 has seen an upturn.

Look before you leap. One of the fastest ways for companies to see a return on their PDM investment dollar is to identify specific tasks to automate that promise quantifiable results. This is the approach taken by PC DOCS Inc. (Burlington, MA), which specializes in document management systems.

The company positions its flagship product, DOCS Open, as the solution to everyday challenges faced by manufacturers, such as achieving ISO 9000 certification for product quality and implementing OSHA 1910 safety procedures. In each case, the manufacturer must present documentation to the appropriate organization in support of certification or as proof of compliance. DOCS Open provides users with the ability to store, track, and retrieve data in a variety of formats, including text, spreadsheet, CAD, and image files, in support of regulatory compliance. It also provides a template-driven method for streamlining application, review, and audit processes.

This latter function guides users through the sequence of forms and steps required to achieve and prove compliance. In this way, management software is providing an identifiable benefit. The typical audit schedule for ISO 9000 registered companies is twice yearly, so users of DOCS Open in this category will have ample opportunity to see if their system performs as advertised. According to Union Switch & Signal, Pittsburgh, PA, a manufacturer of railway signaling and control systems, DOCS Open has made document management a day-to-day activity, eliminating the flurry of activity around ISO 9000 audit time.

Tower Technology Inc. (Boston, MA), specializes even further, offering its Tower Knowledge Management System for handling high-volume imaging data requirements. Tower systems provide for scanning documents, archiving data on servers and optical jukeboxes, and making them available over a network. While the systems are designed for image-oriented data, they also handle text, spreadsheets, and computer files. Tower says its architecture is scalable to thousands of users, terabytes of storage, and millions of transactions per day.

Sydney Water is responsible for the provision and upkeep of water and waste water facilities throughout Greater Sydney, Australia. Imaging systems store more than 1.5 million sewerage service diagrams in addition to boundary and environmental information on more than 1.4 million properties. Richard Gordon, senior image consultant for Sydney Water's Information and Communication Services Division, says the utility was able to reduce transaction times on its imaging systems from an average of 37 minutes during peak times to three minutes by implementing Tower software.

Managing information as discrete units is a fairly straightforward problem, even if the number of such units can be problematic. However, one subset of PDM specializes in managing workflow and other procedural issues. While this can be a nebulous concept, managing how people work can produce tangible results.

Workgroup Technology Corp. (Lexington, MA) is incorporating its Collaborative Work Management technology into the company's CMS software specifically to manage the lifecycle evolution of project deliverables. By focusing on the procedural elements of product development in the context of deliverables, Workgroup is attempting to provide a means of managing the typically unstructured aspects of design.

Due to the difficulties in selling the concept of workflow management directly to customers, Concentus, a subsidiary of Computer Vision (CV; Bedford, MA), developed its KI Shell workflow management kernel as a component to be incorporated into PDM systems. The kernal can currently be found in CV's Optegra PDM system. A spokesman for Concentus says Parametric, which purchased CV, is interested in KI Shell's workflow technology, although its role in PTC's Pro/INTRA-LINK software has not yet been defined.

Smart Solutions (Givat Shmuel, Israel), built its SmarTeam family of PDM products as Windows applications, in part to make them more accessible to engineers. In concept, it is an 'out-of-the-box' PDM system, perhaps the antithesis of the toolkit-type systems from the early days. As such, it is positioned as a departmental engineering data management solution that can tie into enterprise-wide systems.

SmarTeam provides both document and lifecycle management features. It uses a document check-in/check-out system to help maintain version control. The new SmartWeb extension will permit SmarTeam data to be distributed over the Internet and company intranets.

All in all, the new generation PDM systems enable engineers to take gradual, definable steps toward mastering their data. This to avoid the nosedives of the past.


Vendor suggests how to go beyond workflow

George LeBlanc, vice president, Workgroup Technology

Studies have shown time-to-market has a greater impact on company profitability than any other factor. Competitive pressure will force development times in some industries to be reduced by a factor of three by the year 2000. Increasingly, businesses are relying on process initiatives to achieve their time-to-market goals. Yet, despite their promise, new processes tend to be very time-consuming to define, roll-out, and administer. And they are difficult to change once in place.

This is why it is important to manage the actual work output of product managers, change coordinators, engineers, and other professionals during the concept, planning, and early design phases of product development. Managing workflow is not enough. Management systems must define and track project deliverables while introducing minimal burden on individual members of design teams.

A focus on design controls during the pre-release stages of the product development process, which is an area that had been largely ignored by PDM providers, offers an excellent opportunity to get off on the right foot. By identifying key product stages, the gates required to move from one stage to another, and the product definition deliverables due at each stage, design teams have a clear map to follow.

Three key features differentiate this "Collaborative Work Management" approach from conventional workflow management systems:

The process steps for each deliverable are embedded in its definition so that each step in its lifecycle required to bring it about is spelled out.

  • Individual processes are aggregated into a hierarchy enabling project managers to assemble and synchronize processes while defining dependencies between them.

  • The progress of each deliverable through its lifecycle is recorded, enabling participants to better understand how their work affects others and vice versa so that ever more efficient processes can be devised in the future.

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