Full support for PLM – even at management level

Mastering the connections between roles, processes, data and tools

Product lifecycle management (PLM) is successful when it is understood by management as a strategic measure and supported accordingly. But how do you get management on board with PLM projects?

Companies have always practiced some form of product lifecycle management, working with product data and somehow passing this data through the lifecycle. But globalization, product diversity, digital twins, and other developments make a professionally implemented PLM a prerequisite for sustainable business success today. Growing competitive pressure, ever shorter time to market, and increasingly complex compliance issues can only be adequately addressed with a suitable and broadly supported PLM system.

Management support is essential

Experience shows that without management support, PLM is not perceived as a relevant issue and there is a lack of assertiveness in cross-departmental processes. Another sensitive issue is that PLM often entails profound changes in processes, responsibilities, and data management. Without leadership, companies are usually unwilling to break with tradition and tackle things in a new way.

6 PLM benefits for companies

• Time to market: Shorter development times, better data consistency, fewer coordination problems
• Less risk: Traceability, compliance, stable processes
• Higher quality: Uniform data, consistent approvals
• Scalability: Preparation for new markets, company acquisitions, digital services
• Securing innovation: Knowledge can be networked, mapped, and reused within the company
• Foundation for digitalization: PLM is a prerequisite for digital twins and Industry 4.0

Why is PLM often not a topic at management level?

The advantages are obvious, as is the urgency in today's market environment. Nevertheless, the strategic importance of PLM as a business process platform is often not recognized by management; product lifecycle management is classified as a purely technical IT issue or software project. But PLM is always also a cultural issue that influences collaboration, transparency, lifecycle thinking, and other aspects throughout the entire company. Another obstacle to the acceptance of PLM projects is that PLM has often been associated with negative experiences in the past: projects were lengthy and expensive, and the benefits were often barely recognizable from a management perspective. As a result, management is hardly open to further PLM investments.

In addition, PLM is a complex and sometimes abstract topic that is not immediately apparent and offers few tangible use cases or best practices. PLM has an indirect impact on quality, development times, and ultimately business success, and cannot be directly linked to revenue and margins. Management generally prefers projects with a clear return on investment or a direct impact on EBIT.

5 common obstacles to successful PLM projects

• Unclear responsibilities and ownership: As an interdisciplinary project involving a wide variety of areas, PLM is not clearly positioned in top management and ownership is delegated. This also raises the question of who makes decisions in the event of conflicts between development, production, or IT.
• Confusion with other systems such as ERP: PLM is seen as just another system and not recognized as a process issue. Without management support, investments in systems, migration, consulting, and change management are not approved, and only the bare minimum is implemented.
• Lack of a business case: Often, there is no convincing strategic business case that can be presented to management in understandable language—market leadership, innovation, risk reduction, employee attractiveness, etc.
• PLM is not recognized as an enabler for digitalization: There is a perception that digitalization is driven by marketing, sales, or production. The end-to-end consistency of PLM as a driving force for digitalization is underestimated.
• No orientation without a target vision: If the vision and target vision are not clearly formulated, PLM is perceived as a purely technical project – with implications for the entire company.

Proving the importance of PLM for business success

Against this backdrop, how can management be persuaded to get on board with a successful PLM project? The first step is to highlight the strategic importance of PLM for the long-term success of the company. This includes understanding that PLM is the business strategy that can be used to manage all product data, processes, and decisions throughout the entire product lifecycle. It is also important to note that PLM is a continuous improvement process that must be planned accordingly for the long term. In addition, PLM connects people, systems, and data across departments, locations, and companies.

Achieve strategic business goals more efficiently with PLM

A good way to make the benefits of PLM tangible for management is to highlight the impact on defined strategic corporate goals. If a company wants to offer digital services through retrofitting and additional services, for example, relevant PLM topics can be filtered out. Important PLM topics for this goal would be, for example, “structure and transparency,” “consistency and traceability,” “reuse and standardization,” or “efficient development processes.” Without PLM, many corporate goals and specific use cases in everyday business can only be achieved with disproportionate manual effort.

It can also be worthwhile to demonstrate the benefits of PLM based on potential cost or time savings in the past. For example, costs due to missing parts or incorrect variants could perhaps have been avoided. Or regulatory penalties or requirements could have been avoided and duplicate or parallel developments identified more quickly.

Our experience shows that convincing arguments, consistent, benefit-oriented communication, and, last but not least, patience are crucial to securing management support for PLM.

PLM Open Hour Slides & Recording

PLM and Management Attention: How does it work?

Why does PLM remain a key element for the manufacturing industry? Why does the success of PLM projects depend largely on the active involvement of top management? What factors make it difficult for management to properly classify and understand PLM? And what can we do to better establish PLM in management?

We addressed these and other questions in this Open Hour. Using case studies and best practices from the industry, we highlighted the importance of PLM and provided practical insights.

This webinar was aimed at both PLM managers and decision-makers at the executive level.

Click here to view the presentation:

We recorded the webinar “PLM and Management Attention: How Does It Work?” Register here to receive the access link: