Advance PLM Software Solutions for
Complex Business Processes
Abstract
As customers world-wide clamour for more technologically rich products, be it a car, or a smartphone, manufacturers are having to contend with more complexities while pleasing their customers and staying abreast of competition. Right from conceptualization to design to manufacturing to distribution to aftersales to end-of-life, the pressure is always on the manufacturer to deliver products to match the customers ever changing needs. This need for innovation coupled with the mounting complexities that new technologies bring with them, the need for highly customized and individualised products, the quick time to market pressures, etc., are making manufacturers work with a large and perpetually expanding supply and distribution chain. These supply chains are often disparate and diverse and spread across geographies and cultures, so working in collaboration with such a wide network can also take a toll on the already tough task ahead. For example, in the final phase of an automobile assembly, over 4000 parts are brought from several suppliers and part manufacturers from various geographies for the final assembly, where it takes an average of 30 hours to assemble one single car (Arvidson). Assembly is just one part of the whole process, every part manufacturer has numerous processes to follow before his individual part is tried and tested for the next phase (Automobile). The total time taken for assembly of a Boeing-777 is approximately 83 days (Brown, 2012).
This paper explores, through a case study, how the most complex and critical of business processes can be brought under one roof, figuratively speaking, using PLM , which not only helps that manufacturer to take his product to his end customer faster but also at increased efficiencies and lower costs.
Contents
Abstract 1
Introduction - How Complex Business Processes Function? 3
Case Study: A Global Consumer Goods business 3
Solution: How did PLM Help? 4
Key Observations 5
References 6
Introduction -
Case Study: A Global Consumer Goods business
How Complex Business Processes Function?
Businesses are constantly looking at making their operational and manufacturing processes more agile and scalable, so that they are not only available and accessible on demand and across the organization but also help them to expedite their go-to-market and increase their core efficiencies. The need to deliver the product faster is making businesses re-examine their development cycles as well as their supply chains and create a logical and simplified pipeline that connects all the dots (A strong lever for flexibility and growth). Be it a manufacturing unit, a IT firm or a packaged goods industry, they all depend on the strength of their processes, the data and their resources, but given the fact that all business have gone global today, all resources, teams, source geographies and distribution networks are spread out, which makes it difficult for the company to cater to their customer’s needs in a timely manner. This naturally pushes innovation out of reach as well.
A large consumer goods company has a presence across the globe and has a diversified portfolio of 17 different businesses ranging from home products to apparels to branded labels to fashion products to electronics and home appliances. The biggest challenge that they are facing is the fact that each of these is equally profitable and hence requires them to concentrate on the minutest aspect of each business process right from design, sourcing, production, testing, marketing, sales, after sales and end-of-life, that too independently. They need to remain in close communication with not only the end customer for each product, but also with the disparate teams working on each of them, the parts/materials suppliers, the distributors, the marketing teams, the engineers, the manufacturing plant, the testers, the licensors and all the others who are involved closely in taking the product to the market. They wanted to ramp up production and start manufacturing in bulk, however they were faced with several challenges (Reducing time to market by unifying business processes):
l Lack of control on the individual teams and processes that were spread across geographies l Lack of a common pool of data/information that could enhance collaborative working l Lack of a centralized and standardized source of process workflows
l Lack of transparency and visibility into management of the samples and prototyping
l Lack of properly charted out compliance and country-wise regulatory norms with no point of contact who ensured that the compliances were being met
l Outsourced quality testing which again indicated a proper lack of control
l Lack of information on materials and processes availability to build bulk manufacturing capability
l Different manufacturing plants functioning in separate silos without much communication to the corporate office
The conglomerate was looking for a resolution that would not only help them in addressing all the above challenges but would also help in building a standardized system that would remove the need to micro manage several disparate processes and teams. They also needed the corporate headquarters to have better visibility into the working of each individual setup without having to manage every single detail and step.
The company brought in a team of consultants to understand the existing processes and create a workflow that would address each of the aforesaid challenges. The team undertook a study on the existing processes of each and every division along with the internal and external teams and created workflows for each. They then identified the commonalities and began to regroup the processes and workflows. Once they charted out all the workflows they mapped them to PLM services from a leading PLM solutions provider and this solution was seamlessly merged into the entire infrastructure, communication, data portals and process flows of the organization. The organization managed to get all of its processes and teams onto one common platform which helped them to communicate easily and work in tandem at all times.
The PLM solution helped them:
l Create a common business process by restructuring the existing ones across all their divisions
l Remove several process redundancies by developing common workflows for processes with commonalities l Seamlessly integrate with their on-site, in the cloud, and off site systems including the existing legacy systems l Standardize processes across geographies with easy accessibility even for the disparate and external teams
2
l Digitize the existing processes including BOM , compliance checklists, external supplier/distributor
requirements, testing standards, etc.
l Establish a proper hierarchy that clearly defined the flow of authority l Specify quality controls
l Common accessibility to all samples that had already gone through testing and compliance, thereby reducing 3
the need for retesting, which also ensured that there was company-wide consistency in QA
l Decrease in costs of communication, testing and product lifecycle due to lower redundancies l Better collaborative working hence better teamwork
l Improved process and people efficiencies due to better visibility into workflows 4
l Adopt technologies such as virtual designing using CAD l Build capabilities in bulk manufacturing
Solution: How did PLM Help?
2. Bill of Materials 3. Quality Assurance 4. Computer Aided Design
Key Observations
The company benefitted in several ways. Not only did they manage to create a common platform for all their divisions and reduce the need to micro manage, they also were also able to build better teamwork, better communication, better transparency, which helped them reduce operational costs and ultimately improve their time to market as well. The reduction in redundancies helped them optimise their resources and shorten their development cycles and gain better control over all the phases of development right from conceptualization and strategy to end-of-life.
References
A strong lever for flexibility and growth. (n.d.). Retrieved from cimpa.com: http://www.cimpa.com/fr/business-processes
Arvidson, E. (n.d.). How to build a car from start to finish . Retrieved from ehow.com: http://www.ehow.com/facts_7811332_long-build-car-start-finish.html
Automobile. (n.d.). Retrieved from madehow.com: http://www.madehow.com/Volume-1/Automobile.html
Brown, D. P. (2012, January 14). How long does it tale to build a Boeing-777? Retrieved from
AirlineReporter.com: http://www.airlinereporter.com/2012/01/how-long-does-it-take-to-build-a-boeing-777/
Reducing time to market by unifying business processes. (n.d.). Retrieved from ITCInfotech: http://www.itcinfotech.com/Uploads/GUI/knowledgecentre/Reducing_time_to_market.pdf
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