redefining plm t - · pdf filequickly and easily lay out plant-floor equipment and test...

An Airbus A380 readies for takeoff. Airbus recently signed a deal with Aras for the aircraft builder to use the Aras Innovator PLM

platform for up to 30,000 users for enterprise-wide engineering business processes.

September 2015 | AdvancedManufacturing.org 117

PLM SOftware

Redefining PLM

Patrick WaurzyniakSenior Editor

PLM software developers face many new

challenges, including the impact of Big

Data and the Internet of Things (IoT) on

the manufacturing industryT

o keep pace with the breakneck speed of

product developments, manufacturers demand

the utmost performance from product lifecycle

management (PLM) software. With the latest

advances in PLM’s core technologies, manufacturers

can trim costs, improve product designs, and speed

time-to-market on new product developments.

Enterprise software that makes up PLM consists

of a wide range of systems, from product data man-

agement (PDM) to CAD, CAM and CAE engineering

applications. In addition, PLM includes the critical

digital manufacturing tools that allow manufacturers to

quickly and easily lay out plant-floor equipment and test

factory-floor processes prior to finalizing plant designs.

The PLM market has flourished in recent years,

particularly in the area of advanced 3D visualization tools

and CAE multiphysics simulation software, and the PLM

market’s growth in 2014 increased by 6.8% over 2013

Photo courtesy Aras

to reach a total of $37.2 billion, according to recently released

statistics from market researcher CIMdata Inc. (Ann Arbor,

MI). “Calendar year 2014 was a solid year for PLM,” said

Stan Przybylinski, CIMdata’s vice president of Research. “The

result was total revenues above our forecast.” Companies

continued investing in PLM to achieve short-term benefits as

well as long-term strategic value across the product lifecycle

and across their extended enterprises. “There was growth in

all segments,” said Przybylinski, “and simulation and analysis

continued its strong showing of the last few years.”

Morphing PLM Into Something New

In order to fully realize digital manufacturing’s potential,

PLM developers and users need to rethink PLM, finding new

ways to employ these key tools for manufacturing, noted

CIMdata President Peter Bilello at last year’s CIMdata PLM

Road Map 2014 in Plymouth, MI. “We must rethink PLM,”

said Bilello. “The way we do PLM today really isn’t cutting it.

What should PLM be? The product lifecycle is changing.”

In its “Aerospace and Defense Industry PLM Value Gap Sur-

vey,” CIMdata concluded there is a significant gap between the

vision for PLM tools—CAD, CAM, CAE and digital manufactur-

ing factory-layout software—and the reality of what most com-

panies can actually accomplish with their PLM systems. This

2013 survey concluded that only a few aerospace and defense

builders come close to fully realizing the vision for PLM, and it’s

a similar story for many automotive OEMs and suppliers.

Today’s PLM developers are trying to balance a blend of

their traditional PDM and CAD/CAM/CAE tools with newer

technologies including analytics for dealing with Big Data’s

huge volumes of information, as well as for the “smart

products” that incorporate Internet of Things (IoT) functional-

ity, with sensors and software that can communicate with

enterprise software systems via the Web.

“The industry trends to develop ‘smart’ products, IoT, mass

customization, etc., are creating a compelling requirement for

PLM systems to expand beyond the traditional 3D CAD file

management role, and begin to manage the complete product

PLM SOftware

including embedded software, electronics and services,” said

Peter Schroer, CEO and founder of Aras Corp. (Andover, MA),

developer of the Aras Innovator PLM software. “For most

manufacturing companies, this is a significant change in how

product compliance, configuration manage-

ment and design validation is achieved.”

One of the major trends in PLM, Schroer

said, is the expansion of configuration manage-

ment and product structure control mechanisms

to handle the complete product definition includ-

ing the embedded software content. “Of the

intriguing changes driven by increase in software

content is a new understanding of where the

‘factory’ ends and where maintenance begins,”

Schroer noted. “With software, we are seeing

an almost continuous upgrade process, on the

factory floor, in the supply chain and even during

end-user operation of products.”

PLM systems traditionally have man-

aged product information only through design phases of

the lifecycle, he added. “In the last 5-10 years we’ve seen

increased requirements for PLM to manage product con-

figuration through the manufacturing phase as well,” Schroer

The Aras Innovator PLM includes 3D visualization tools for easy global

collaboration on product development designs.

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120 AdvancedManufacturing.org | September 2015

said. “Now, PLM will need to handle the entire product life

span, because we are continuously engineering products to

improve performance, and updates are being pushed out to

operating units in the field in real-time. Brave new world.”

An IoT Explosion

Though a relative newcomer, IoT is expected to take off

big-time, as market researcher IDC (Framingham, MA) re-

cently released a forecast showing the worldwide IoT market

is expected to grow dramatically, at a

16.9% compound annual growth rate

(CAGR), from $655.8 billion in 2014

to $1.7 trillion in 2020. Several PLM

developers have made significant IoT

investments, including the December

2013 purchase of ThingWorx by PLM

developer PTC (Needham, MA) for

$112 million, and in May, PTC made

a $105 million acquisition of predictive

data analytics developer Coldlight.

Smart, connected products are

driving manufacturers and, subse-

quently, PLM vendors, said Kevin

Wrenn, PTC’s divisional vice president

and general manager, Product Life-

cycle Management. “Once composed

solely of mechanical and electrical

parts, products have become complex

systems that combine hardware, sen-

sors, data storage, microprocessors,

software, and connectivity in myriad

ways,” Wrenn said. “These ‘smart, con-

nected products’—made possible by

vast improvements in processing power

and device miniaturization and by the

network benefits of ubiquitous wireless

connectivity—have unleashed a new era

of competition.”

Such smart, connected products

are transforming industries, customer

relationships, and the nature of com-

petition, said Wrenn. “With the right

strategy, manufacturers can capitalize on

these new opportunities to unleash real

economic value,” Wrenn said. Examples

could be farming equipment controlled

by GPS that plants seeds and fertilizer

in the same place, reducing waste, he

said. Products designed with applica-

tions controlled through easily configu-

rable, cheaper electronic interfaces can

PLM SOftware

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reduce the number of physical components that

need to be developed and manufactured, such as a

Tesla car with all-electronic controls, Wrenn noted.

“SCPs [smart, connected products] require

manufacturers to evaluate their current PLM strate-

gies so they manage the full definition of smart

products—mechanical, electrical, software. Plan-

ning, production and quality must follow suit and

account for testing and manufacturing of products

that require coordination across these disciplines,”

Wrenn said. “PLM software must include traceability

from early requirements, through the systems engi-

neering, design, production, and out to testing and

validation for complex, smart connected products.”

In July, PTC introduced its new IoT offering, the

Integrity product family of software and systems

engineering solutions. Wrenn said that Integrity is

a key part of PTC’s solution suite for managing the require-

ments, system modeling, testing, and validating that are

required for smart, connected products and their systems-

of-systems. “For companies designing new generations of

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With Internet of Things (IoT) sensor data, a manufacturer tracks its assets in

the field with real-time data tracked in PTC’s PLM systems.

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IoT products, they need a clear definition of requirements

linked to a full system model,” he said. “System models

ensure mechanical, electrical and software definitions work

together. Manufacturers can no longer wait and simply test a

physical prototype without some early validating of the entire

smart design. PTC’s Integrity manages requirements, system

definitions, as well as systems-of-systems, and the software

development need for next-generation products. Integrity is

also able to deliver quality with traceability from requirement

definition out to testing and validation.”

Big Data, IoT and additive manufacturing “absolutely will

have an impact on PLM’s roles in the enterprise, and the road-

map of most of the PLM vendors,” said Aras’ Schroer. “For

example, the rapid growth of additive manufacturing is driving

a growing concern over IP protection, compliance, and design

validation. When end users at the edges or fringes of the

design value chain are able to ‘print’ products, rapidly, from

raw digital information, how do we know if those designs have

been validated for the intended end-user application, do they

meet FDA requirements, FAA? How do we know the ‘printer’

has the correct version of the CAD file? As the rate of data

flow increases and the simplicity of translating digital ideas to

hardware becomes almost frictionless, this makes PLM an

increasingly strategic solution for managing risk.”

The interest in IoT is also driving electronics and software

content into products that have been traditionally 100% me-

chanical, he added. “PLM systems now need to manage the

complete configuration of product data, including the soft-

ware, and for many legacy PDMs this is just not possible.”

“Drivers like the IoT with machine-to-machine communi-

cations, Big Data, the cloud, 3D printing and advanced ro-

bots are creating valuable new possibilities for smart, flexible

production systems that combined with PLM will create new

opportunities for manufacturers,” said Aaron Frankel, director

of product marketing, Siemens PLM Software (Plano, TX).

Some key capabilities from PLM developers, Frankel noted,

include intelligent models—a full digital product model that

contains a rich set of intelligence and can be used directly in

manufacturing; Digital Twin—fully digital product and produc-

tion definition that accurately simulates reality; and optimized,

distributed production systems that operate by themselves,

make their own decisions and learn from the past.

As for “rethinking” PLM, Frankel said that companies are

going beyond simply digitizing for the benefit of automation

to digitalizing how they run their businesses. “Digitalization

fundamentally changes the process to create new value,” he

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said. “More companies are now using virtual commissioning

to reduce risks and save time. We’re seeing an increased

use of vision systems attached to robots to increase flexibility

and drive even higher quality results.” Manufacturers also are

starting to use data from production systems to feed digital

models of production systems, Frankel noted, in order to

analyze the impact and need for process changes, and de-

termine system parameters based on production forecasts.

Simulating the Factory with Realism

Highly accurate 3D visualizations of

the factory floor, equipment, and work-

ers have become critical for users of

PLM systems in recent years, enabling

great improvements in compress-

ing product development times and

reduction of physical prototypes while

boosting overall product quality. Today’s

PLM systems employ high-fidelity simu-

lations for 3D factory-floor planning and

layout, and 3D ergonomic simulations

and immersive virtual reality for more re-

alistic views of factory-floor processes.

“Simulation, immersive experiences,

augmented reality and mobility tools give

engineers the means to gain a better

understanding of how the manufactur-

ing system works and what can be

improved,” said Frankel. “One trend is

using point clouds created by scanning

the actual factory floor in manufacturing

planning applications. Point clouds help

to plan in the context of the scanned

factory, visualize the planned assembly

processes and verify the ‘as-built’ plant

to 3D CAD layout.”

Simulations also can help compa-

nies reduce energy utilization and CO2

emissions of manufacturing processes,

Frankel said. “Digital models can help

analyze various energy-saving sce-

narios without disrupting production,”

he noted. “Lastly, companies are con-

necting PLM and MES to merge the as-

planned and as-built worlds of manu-

facturing. With a digitalized definition

of the process and production system,

companies can directly connect to their

manufacturing ecosystem and establish

feedback loops.”

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PLM SOftware


“The world is a visual place and we will continue to see a

proliferation of advanced visualization technologies and ca-

pabilities,” said Garrett Miller, vice president, SAP (Newtown

Square, PA). “Engineers will be able to continue honing and

refining design techniques. However,

I believe much of the advancements

with visualization will be realized

beyond the R&D/engineering depart-

ments and labs.

“As visualization becomes more

accessible to the rest of the enterprise,

improvements will be realized in most

areas,” Miller said. “We already see that

happening with our customers as they

adopt our technologies for visualized

hand-over to manufacturing, visual

work instructions and the benefits as-

sociated with visual navigation for asset

management and maintenance.”

Great progress has been made in

managing 3D product content over the

last decade, said Aras’ Schroer. “We

are especially proud of our Visual Col-

laboration solution which leverages the

standard PDF format to simplify com-

munication of critical product informa-

tion,” Schroer said. “While we applaud

the progress made in 3D and mechani-

cal CAE, we caution customers that

having a too narrow focus on the 3D

mechanical content in their products is

a recipe for risk and disaster.

“Leading companies with some of

the best simulation and design valida-

tion practices in the world do not have

a complete picture of the mechani-

cal with the electronics, software and

firmware that truly represent the Digital

Twin to the physical world,” Schroer

added. “We believe this narrow focus

on only the 3D experience really is not

in the best interest of most companies.”

Broadening PLM’s Reach

Strengthening PLM’s links with the

shop floor is key to developers deliver-

ing what manufacturing users need to compete effectively.

“We see PLM as what we’ve done in the past, plus adding

capabilities for handling Big Data analytics into our 3DExperi-

ence platform,” said Patrick Michel, Dassault Systèmes vice

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president. Dassault last updated its 3DExperience platform in

January and now offers users 12 distinct industry experiences.

“We’re true to our roots, and we’re working on delivering 3D

instructions to the shop floor,” Michel said. “In the last release,

for the first time you can run anything in what we call ‘near real

time’ and anyone in engineering can see it. The manufacturing

KPIs are no longer top secret, and it’s simple and powerful.

Sometimes it’s the simple visibility that goes a long way.”

Dassault is also working to expand

into the areas generally considered out-

side of the PLM aerospace and defense

or automotive strongholds. “We’ve

defined 12 industries, and while they’re

not all the size of the biggest ones, every

customer, whatever they do, has some

level of PLM,” Michel noted.

Last year, Dassault introduced its

latest brand, Biovia, created from the

company’s earlier acquisitions of Ac-

celrys and BioPLM. The Biovia solution

focuses on biological, chemical and

materials modeling and simulation,

research and open collaborative dis-

covery, enterprise laboratory and quality

management, and process manufactur-

ing intelligence.

“One of our visions is that the devel-

opment of new drugs should have the

same tools that we have for developing

airplanes,” Michel stated. “We have an

aggressive vision for this, and we like

to say that we have a couple of Nobel

Prize winners using our tools.”

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