PLM Platforms

Oleg Shilovitsky posted a blog about PLM Platforms.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/article/20140829141304-949935-the-foundation-for-next-plm-platforms

Of course, I have to comment. In addition to the  two major foundations of the current PLM platforms, these platforms were also designed to address file proliferation and the need for collaboration. CAD tools need file management. They are single user, meaning people cannot collaborate on a design and they produce a file that contains the geometry for a single part or collection of parts. PLM platforms (or in the early days EDM and PDM) was developed to address the deficiencies of CAD: file management and assembly management.

PLM has still have not solved the problem of providing control for multiple parts in one file. PLM systems do not cross file boundaries very well.

PLM has not provided very good collaboration capabilities either. Using check-in / check-out for collaboration is very inefficient and results in disjointed, unsynchronized knowledge development.

And don’t get me started on the inability to find information in PLM or the fact that so much critical product knowledge is stored on drawings and MS word documents.

The next generation PLM platforms must be a design platform. Files must be eliminated and replaced with ways to capture and manage detailed data about products and components. Geometry is just another way to describe a product. It should not be separate from the design platform.

A couple of us at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) designed a multi-disciplined, collaborative CAD system back in the 1980’s. The idea was that people would design with objects consisting of geometry, schematics (for electrical), data, performance models, etc. The objects would know how to interact based on solid model interactions and other conditions. The problem was the hardware and software infrastructure didn’t exist to support our design and the project never really got off the ground. If only it had...