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PLM vs. PDM: Why Product LifecycleManagement IsRequired TodayProduct Data Management Solutions Only Solve Part of the ProblemWHITE PAPER

PLM vs. PDM: Why P roduct Lifecycle Management Is Required TodayMODERN PRODUCT DEVELOPMENTIn the past, mechanical engineers createddesigns and shared them with internalteams on the shop floor, often withinthe same building. Iterative changesto the designs were introduced duringprototyping, as needed. Throughoutthe process, mechanical engineering,manufacturing engineering, componentengineering, and procurement teamsworked closely together to ensure thatdesigns were manufacturable, costeffective, and compliant to regulations.We had to be ableto iterate quickly ondesigns, track changes,and link related productinformation to scale andspeed marketability.—Ratana Lee, Senior Manager,NPI Master Archivist, NEXTrackerHowever, connected technologies have changed product development dramatically.Fewer products involve mechanical-only designs as companies try to leverage many newtechnologies aimed at connecting people, data, and products. In addition, design teamsare more distributed and often involve external partners. As more products are built withsensors, software, and electronics, all designs—not just mechanical ones—must interactseamlessly. Global design and supply chain partners must collaborate in real time, aroundthe latest design, to establish and maintain a competitive edge in the quest to deliverinnovative products to market rapidly.02

PLM vs. PDM: Why P roduct Lifecycle Management Is Required TodayHOW WE GOT HERE Product complexity is greater than ever: Incorporating electronic and softwarecomponents into traditional mechanical designs has led to additional requirements,more complex integrations, and the need for interoperability. Mechanical engineeringteams must stay aligned with electrical and software design teams to avoid costlydesign errors and new product development (NPD) delays. The pace of innovation isincreasing: The Internet ofThings (IoT), robotics, augmentedreality (AR), virtual reality (VR),and other new technologiesare pushing the limits to designand manufacturing. Highlydispersed teams must be able tomove rapidly through the entireproduct lifecycle while avoidingproduct design, quality, andmanufacturing issues. Outsourcing is the norm:Today, most companies heavilyoutsource with multiple contractmanufacturing (CM) partners,suppliers, and design partners.While outsourcing allows formore specialization, it alsointroduces significant challenges. Without a way to securely manage, share, andcollaborate around the entire product design, teams risk confusion that can lead tobuilding or shipping the wrong revision of products. Regulatory and environmental compliance requirements are demanding andevolving: To ensure compliance with an increasing number of standards orregulations—including ISO, FDA, RoHS and REACH—today’s complex productcompanies need to track and manage compliance effectively.In this demanding global economy, companies must find innovative ways to optimize thepath from design to production to ensure success.Arena invented software-as-a-service (SaaS) product lifecycle management (PLM). Today,Arena offers a wide-ranging set of solutions to speed product development and launches.We understand the daily challenges companies face in turning designs into real products,and we have sold to more than 1,300 companies in the high tech, consumer electronics,and medical device industries.03

PLM vs. PDM: Why P roduct Lifecycle Management Is Required TodayTHE EVOLUTION OF TOOLSAs the nature of product development continues to evolve, manufacturers must keeppace with technology to deliver innovative, high-quality products fast. There are manytools and solutions used by design and manufacturing t eams, including mechanical CAD(mCAD), electrical design automation (EDA/eCAD), product data management (PDM), and enterprise resource planning (ERP). These solutions all play roles in the NPD andnew product introduction ( NPI) process, but none were designed to aggregate the entireproduct design comprised of electrical, mechanical, and software components, or theassociated suppliers, drawings, specifications, and files. Furthermore, these t ypes ofsolutions were not created to speed engineering change processes with secure, real-timecollaboration among distributed teams and supply chains.mCADMechanical engineers takeproduct requirements andtransform them into effectivedesigns using mCAD software.The design output is managed indrawings, 3D models, and otherfiles. The assembly can alsoinclude the bill of materials (BOM),but it’s the BOM for mechanicaldesign only.EDA/eCADFor products with electricalcomponents, electrical engineerscreate designs with EDAtools. These designs includeschematics, Gerber files, netlists,and electrical BOMs. Ensuring interoperability between mechanical and electronicassemblies is a complex and time-consuming endeavor.PDMPDM tools are often employed to manage mechanical designs within a sharedengineering workgroup. PDM provides a data repository for mechanical designs byallowing multiple engineers to collaborate, share files, control the checkout and check-inprocesses, and eliminate overwriting any version of the design accidentally. PDM toolsare primarily used by mechanical engineering teams to coordinate efforts with each otherduring the design phase.PLMPLM is designed to speed the entire concept-to-production process by bringing theengineering designs together and sharing these beyond the individual engineeringworkgroups. As the rest of the product team members get involved—from quality tomanufacturing to procurement—everyone can review the entire design and providetheir input before releasing the final product and starting the planning and product04

PLM vs. PDM: Why P roduct Lifecycle Management Is Required TodayExtended ProcessesIntegration to Design& ManufacturingSourcing & ComplianceSupply Chain CollaborationEngineering ChangeProcessesControl Files & DocumentsPre & Post Production RevisionsStructured RelationshipCore BOM Definitionprocess. The innovative designs, in the form of 3D models, drawings, specifications, andschematics, will be married together in PLM and transformed into products after manyiterative design changes have been made. Each member of the product team will do theirpart to make sure cost-effective and compliant components can be sourced, built, andshipped to meet the customer demand. PLM will manage all items, assemblies (BOMs),engineering change orders (ECOs), approved manufacturers and vendors lists (AML/AVL), and compliance status. For a product to be manufactured at a low cost, on time, andwith high quality, mechanical design teams must collaborate with electrical and softwaredesign teams, component suppliers, and even contract manufacturers. Everyone involvedin designing, testing, and producing the final product must be able to work together in asingle system. mCAD, PDM, and other design tools are not cloud-based or intended to beused by non-technical teams outside of engineering.SpreadsheetsSolutionsCADPDMERPPLM05

PLM vs. PDM: Why P roduct Lifecycle Management Is Required TodayTHE PROBLEMSpreadsheets, CAD, ERP, or pointsolutions are used by engineering andproduction teams. Companies that relyon patch-quilt solutions, ranging fromspreadsheets to documents to socialcollaboration or file storage apps, findthemselves with too many silos that aredisconnected from a controlled productrecord.PROCUREMENTSUPPLY CHAINOPERATIONSENGINEERINGTHE SOLUTIONPLM bridges the gap to ensure the entire design works well together with a high degreeof quality and under cost targets. Ensuring interoperability is easier when the electrical,mechanical, and software solutions are brought together into a single system for allteams to ocsERPMESSoftwareEDACRMQCSourceSCMMANAGING COMPLEX BOMSA typical BOM comprises thousands of electrical, mechanical, and software components.It is highly relational and includes everything needed (like a recipe) to build the finishedproduct. For complex BOMs, companies need more intelligent BOM managementsolutions that modern PLM systems can provide. Throughout the development process,the BOM and its components change often, requiring testing between each aspect of thedesign.Before cloud-based PLM, product companies relied on spreadsheets, documents,and repositories to manage changes to the BOM and related product information. Thisinformation was then shared via phone, fax, or email, with no way to ensure that the datawas current and accurate.06

PLM vs. PDM: Why P roduct Lifecycle Management Is Required TodayThis made remote collaboration challenging andslowed time to market considerably.In addition to spreadsheets, companies also used avariety of other static applications not specific to theneeds of manufacturers, such as Microsoft Word,PDF files, and plain text files, to record and shareproduct information. All fell short in effective changecontrol and information sharing.Though many companies have evolved theirprocesses from that point, there is still amisconception that enterprise resource planning(ERP) systems can be used to manage all productinformation after design—including changesand communication. Unfortunately, even thoughthe final production BOMs, the item master, andcosting information are ultimately loaded intoERP systems, these systems do not have integralprocesses for engineering change orders (ECOs)or fi le management. Therefore, they cannot beused to control BOM or item changes or to manageassociated files. Furthermore, as a tool primarily forinternal groups, ERP systems cannot be used byexternal partners and suppliers to obtain productinformation.Additionally, during the product development andmanufacturing process, it is often useful to traceback the changes to specific revisions of the BOMand make design or part comparisons. It is nearlyimpossible to do so with a collection of BOMrevisions in different spreadsheets.Securely Extend to YourSupply Chain TeamYour product processesinvolve multiple teams,locations, partners,suppliers, and vendors.These dispersed teamsmust comply with the latestregulations and standards.They need to work fromthe same design, stay onbudget, and respond tocustomer demands. Ensureprocesses are followed andeveryone is collaborating.Worldwide66%of customers and theirsupply chain partners useArena from outside theUnited States every dayIndustryStandard92%of top EMS providers inthe industry access Arenacustomer systems forproduct collaboration07