Integrated Product Lifecycle Management in the Era of IoT

Integrated product lifecycle management (PLM) separates manufacturers that hit their launch dates from those that miss them. In this Aberdeen Group report, Best-in-Class firms used PLM as a platform for digital transformation, connecting engineering data, processes, and suppliers into one digital thread. For electronics teams, the same principle applies to ECAD data. Altium Agile Enterprise extends the connected Altium platform into PLM, so PCB design, BOM and release data reach the wider business verified and traceable.

Key Takeaways

• Best-in-Class firms are 47% more likely to meet product launch targets. They also cut development time by 19%, compared with an 11% cut for all other firms.
• PLM is becoming the system of record for release and change. 40% of Best-in-Class manufacturers use PLM as their primary application for release management, and 33% for change management.
• Integration drives the results. 63% of Best-in-Class firms integrate PLM with application lifecycle management (ALM), and 70% integrate supply chain management (SCM).
• Electronics data needs a place in the digital thread. Altium Agile Enterprise connects ECAD data, BOMs, workflows and approvals to your PLM system, so release data does not depend on manual re-entry.

What Did the Aberdeen Group Research Find?

Aberdeen’s PLM: Benchmarking New Product Development Processes study ranked manufacturers on five measures: product quality, launch dates met, cost targets met, revenue targets met, and change in development time. The top 20% became the Best-in-Class group, and the other 80% became All Others. Best-in-Class firms beat their peers on all five, and the gap was widest on launch dates.

Source: Aberdeen Group, April 2017.

Aberdeen gives a reason launch dates matter so much: much of new product introduction success is simply getting the product to market on time.

Why is Product Development Getting Harder?

Smart, connected products combine electronics, software, and mechanical design, and each part is growing more complex. Over the two years before the survey, respondents reported these increases:

• Software: lines of code up 34%
• Electrical components: up 21%
• Mechanical components: up 14%

The top development challenges follow from that mix. Respondents named collaboration across locations and suppliers first (39%), then disconnected processes and siloed departments (30%), frequent engineering changes (26%), product complexity (25%) and data quality (18%).

How does PLM enable the digital thread?

PLM enables the digital thread by representing the product definition across every lifecycle stage and variant, and by tracing every input, decision and data change back in time. Aberdeen calls this traceability, and it positions integrated PLM as an innovation platform for digital transformation.

Traceability also has measurable effects on compliance and visibility:

• Leading manufacturers are 30% more likely to have full component and item traceability, both upstream and downstream.
• Firms with traceability are 2.7 times as likely to have real-time visibility into process status.
• They are almost three times as likely to be able to monitor regulatory compliance.
• 34% of manufacturers cite regulatory compliance as a top pressure.

Which PLM capabilities do Best-in-Class firms prioritize?

Best-in-Class firms put process and data management first, because it ties upstream design to downstream production. Aberdeen found that:

• BOM management is wanted by 76%.
• Requirements management is wanted by 61%.
• Configuration management is wanted by 58%.
• Collaboration tools and visualization are each wanted by 48%.
• Systems engineering tools are wanted by 36%, to manage the mix of electronics, software and mechanical content.

These firms also close the loop between design and manufacturing. Manufacturing feeds data and feedback back to design engineers, which improves manufacturability and drives continuous improvement.

How do Best-in-Class Firms Integrate PLM with Other Systems?

They treat PLM as an open platform connected to the rest of the business. Aberdeen’s integration findings include:

• ALM: 63% integrate PLM with application lifecycle management, which matters as software content grows.
• Supply chain: 70% have integrated supply chain management into PLM, and another 30% plan to.
• Sourcing: one third have integrated sourcing and supplier relationship management applications, and 50% more plan to.
• Core business systems: 94% or more integrate, or plan to integrate, PLM with ERP, SCM and CRM.

Respondents also named lower cost, faster implementation and scalability as the top benefits of cloud-based PLM.

What Does This Mean for Electronics Development?

The Aberdeen findings describe a gap that electronics teams know well. PLM can hold the product record, but PCB design data, component data and release outputs often reach it by manual entry. Each manual handoff adds time, risks inconsistent data and weakens the traceability that the digital thread depends on.

How Does Altium Agile Enterprise Connect ECAD Data to PLM?

Altium Agile Enterprise is an intelligent, governed, and extensible platform for electronics development at scale, built on the connected foundation of the Altium platform. It brings ECAD data and processes into the broader product development environment instead of leaving them beside it. In terms of the Aberdeen findings:

• Digital thread: Altium Agile Enterprise preserves connected context from intent through release, linking design data, BOMs, workflows, approvals and release readiness to the business systems that depend on them.
• Release and change management: Altium Workspace publishing sends released design data to PLM, so up-to-date ECAD data is available for procurement and production. Data is verified before it is released, and manual PLM data entry is removed.
• BOM and part data: Live connections to component supply chain data and a managed component library keep BOM and part information consistent between design and PLM.
• Traceability: Project history and audit-ready records document what was released, when and by whom, which supports downstream regulatory reporting.
• Open integration: The platform can be extended to match your workflows, rules and PLM environment, including the ALM, ERP and supply chain systems Best-in-Class firms connect.
• Scale: Altium Agile Enterprise supports multiple teams, sites, product lines and suppliers on one platform.

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