TECHNOLOGY

Everything You Need To Know About PLM Software

Published

7 months ago

April 24, 2023

Everything You Need To Know About PLM Software

PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) is a set of software solutions for managing the lifecycle of an item, from its conception to its obsolescence.

Although PLM is often associated with large structures, it can also be leveraged by small and medium-sized companies, as well as business partners. Here is everything you need to know about the use of PLM software.

What is Product Lifecycle Management?

Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is a comprehensive approach to managing the entire lifecycle of a product. It involves the integration of people, data, processes, and business systems to achieve a common goal of improving product quality, reducing costs, and accelerating time-to-market. The PLM process begins with the conceptualization of a product idea and extends all the way through design, engineering, production, and disposal. Throughout the lifecycle of a product, PLM tools help teams collaborate, streamline workflows, automate tasks, and track data to ensure that all stages of the process are managed effectively. PLM enables organizations to bring better products to market faster and at a lower cost.

Benefits of PLM Software in the Industrial Sector

The industrial sector is the preferred domain for the use of PLM software. Whether it’s automotive, aerospace, electronics, defense or engineering, all branches of industry use technology for various purposes. Indeed, these entities have a common process that boils down to the development, expansion, construction and maintenance of items.

By using PLM tools, industrial organizations can perform many tasks more easily including:

Controlling the exchanges around the development of the articles
Integrating of contributions to the elaboration
Improving administrative management
Enhancing the manufacturing process
Verifying quality
Maintaining supply chain

PLM software also helps companies proactively manage regulatory compliance risks. Regulations are complex and evolving. Large companies need to ensure that their products are compatible with current standards. With solutions such as cloud plm, managers can set up tools to ensure that regulatory requirements are met in production. This is a very efficient way to make quick one-click changes from the production source.

Challenges of PLM Software

While PLM software offers numerous benefits to companies, there are also some challenges associated with its implementation and use. Here are a few challenges of PLM software:

Integration with existing systems: One of the main challenges of implementing PLM software is integrating it with existing systems such as ERP and CRM software. This is because these systems may have their own data models and business processes that can be different from those in PLM software. Integration can be time-consuming and complex, and requires a significant investment in terms of both time and money.
Data management: PLM software generates a lot of data, which can be difficult to manage. The challenge lies in ensuring that the data is accurate, up-to-date, and easily accessible to all stakeholders. In addition, companies must have a strategy for backing up and archiving data to ensure that it is not lost in the event of a system failure.
Change management: Implementing PLM software can require changes to existing business processes, which can be difficult to manage. Companies must ensure that all stakeholders are on board with the changes and that they have the necessary training and resources to adapt to the new system.
Cost: PLM software can be expensive to implement and maintain, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Companies must carefully evaluate the costs and benefits of implementing PLM software to ensure that it is a worthwhile investment.
User adoption: User adoption can be a challenge when implementing PLM software. Some employees may be resistant to change, and may not fully embrace the new system. Companies must provide adequate training and support to ensure that employees are comfortable using the new software.

PLM Software Integration in SMEs: Overcoming Resource Constraints and Improving Supply Chain Efficiency

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) typically implement technology advances later than the industry. However, they face unique challenges when it comes to product management. With limited resources, they must be quick to respond to the needs of the competitive marketplace.

PLM technology enables savvy entrepreneurs to meet these challenges by providing built-in automation to their product management. In addition, the implementation of these solutions in SMBs helps to improve the efficiency of their supply chain. They now have real-time, fixed data on the status of their materials and manufacturing processes.

Finally, SMBs are using PLM software to identify bottlenecks in their supply chain. This allows them to implement mitigating measures to minimize disruptions in production. It also ensures a watertight security in the production chain and gives a straight line of evolution of the services.

Enhancing the Product Lifecycle Management with Digital Twins

Digital Twins

Digital twins are computerized models of physical assets that provide a virtual representation of the object’s behavior throughout its lifecycle. To have the greatest impact, digital twins need to be supported by interconnected systems that reference the same information through the digital thread, enabled by modern PLM software. This way, any changes to the digital twin can be made quickly and accurately in real time, ensuring that decisions are based on the most up-to-date information.

As data is collected from various sources, including customers, factories, IoT sensors, AI, machine learning, PLM, and operations, it is woven into the digital thread to create a more accurate digital twin. This allows the use of digital twins to make higher-quality products, ensure optimal performance, run virtual scenarios, or predict the cost/benefit of product modifications without actual implementation.

One of the main advantages of digital twins is the ability to simulate changes without having to prototype or physically modify the object. For instance, if you want to change a product’s design, you can simulate it on the digital twin to see its impact before implementation. Similarly, if you want to reduce production downtime by changing a machine’s ball bearing, you can simulate the change on the digital twin to see the result. The use of digital twins supported by PLM software allows for more efficient and effective product lifecycle management.

The Right PLM Software Can Improve Partnerships with Better Product Design and Development

PLM solutions are also useful in partnerships, especially in collaborations with suppliers or agreements between companies. PLM software is used by entities to collaborate on product design and development. More simply, they share information related to intellectual development and then manufacturing processes. This is a great asset to work more efficiently together and reduce time to market. This new method will allow each partner member to better control the production line. A succession of steps that remains explicit at the level of each partnership.

Companies can also use PLM tools to cooperate with suppliers by giving them accurate information about product requirements. These requirements typically include design specifications and delivery times. This allows suppliers to better understand the company’s needs and respond in a more satisfactory manner. Managers can use these tools to monitor their suppliers’ regulatory and quality compliance.

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HCLTech and Cisco create collaborative hybrid workplaces

Published

18 hours ago

November 29, 2023

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Digital comms specialist Cisco and global tech firm HCLTech have teamed up to launch Meeting-Rooms-as-a-Service (MRaaS).

Available on a subscription model, this solution modernises legacy meeting rooms and enables users to join meetings from any meeting solution provider using Webex devices.

The MRaaS solution helps enterprises simplify the design, implementation and maintenance of integrated meeting rooms, enabling seamless collaboration for their globally distributed hybrid workforces.

Rakshit Ghura, senior VP and Global head of digital workplace services, HCLTech, said: “MRaaS combines our consulting and managed services expertise with Cisco’s proficiency in Webex devices to change the way employees conceptualise, organise and interact in a collaborative environment for a modern hybrid work model.

“The common vision of our partnership is to elevate the collaboration experience at work and drive productivity through modern meeting rooms.”

Alexandra Zagury, VP of partner managed and as-a-Service Sales at Cisco, said: “Our partnership with HCLTech helps our clients transform their offices through cost-effective managed services that support the ongoing evolution of workspaces.

“As we reimagine the modern office, we are making it easier to support collaboration and productivity among workers, whether they are in the office or elsewhere.”

Cisco’s Webex collaboration devices harness the power of artificial intelligence to offer intuitive, seamless collaboration experiences, enabling meeting rooms with smart features such as meeting zones, intelligent people framing, optimised attendee audio and background noise removal, among others.

Want to learn more about cybersecurity and the cloud from industry leaders? Check out Cyber Security & Cloud Expo taking place in Amsterdam, California, and London. Explore other upcoming enterprise technology events and webinars powered by TechForge here.

Tags: Cisco, collaboration, HCLTech, Hybrid, meetings

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TECHNOLOGY

Canonical releases low-touch private cloud MicroCloud

Published

1 day ago

November 28, 2023

Max

Canonical has announced the general availability of MicroCloud, a low-touch, open source cloud solution. MicroCloud is part of Canonical’s growing cloud infrastructure portfolio.

It is purpose-built for scalable clusters and edge deployments for all types of enterprises. It is designed with simplicity, security and automation in mind, minimising the time and effort to both deploy and maintain it. Conveniently, enterprise support for MicroCloud is offered as part of Canonical’s Ubuntu Pro subscription, with several support tiers available, and priced per node.

MicroClouds are optimised for repeatable and reliable remote deployments. A single command initiates the orchestration and clustering of various components with minimal involvement by the user, resulting in a fully functional cloud within minutes. This simplified deployment process significantly reduces the barrier to entry, putting a production-grade cloud at everyone’s fingertips.

Juan Manuel Ventura, head of architectures & technologies at Spindox, said: “Cloud computing is not only about technology, it’s the beating heart of any modern industrial transformation, driving agility and innovation. Our mission is to provide our customers with the most effective ways to innovate and bring value; having a complexity-free cloud infrastructure is one important piece of that puzzle. With MicroCloud, the focus shifts away from struggling with cloud operations to solving real business challenges” says

In addition to seamless deployment, MicroCloud prioritises security and ease of maintenance. All MicroCloud components are built with strict confinement for increased security, with over-the-air transactional updates that preserve data and roll back on errors automatically. Upgrades to newer versions are handled automatically and without downtime, with the mechanisms to hold or schedule them as needed.

With this approach, MicroCloud caters to both on-premise clouds but also edge deployments at remote locations, allowing organisations to use the same infrastructure primitives and services wherever they are needed. It is suitable for business-in-branch office locations or industrial use inside a factory, as well as distributed locations where the focus is on replicability and unattended operations.

Cedric Gegout, VP of product at Canonical, said: “As data becomes more distributed, the infrastructure has to follow. Cloud computing is now distributed, spanning across data centres, far and near edge computing appliances. MicroCloud is our answer to that.

“By packaging known infrastructure primitives in a portable and unattended way, we are delivering a simpler, more prescriptive cloud experience that makes zero-ops a reality for many Industries.“

MicroCloud’s lightweight architecture makes it usable on both commodity and high-end hardware, with several ways to further reduce its footprint depending on your workload needs. In addition to the standard Ubuntu Server or Desktop, MicroClouds can be run on Ubuntu Core – a lightweight OS optimised for the edge. With Ubuntu Core, MicroClouds are a perfect solution for far-edge locations with limited computing capabilities. Users can choose to run their workloads using Kubernetes or via system containers. System containers based on LXD behave similarly to traditional VMs but consume fewer resources while providing bare-metal performance.

Coupled with Canonical’s Ubuntu Pro + Support subscription, MicroCloud users can benefit from an enterprise-grade open source cloud solution that is fully supported and with better economics. An Ubuntu Pro subscription offers security maintenance for the broadest collection of open-source software available from a single vendor today. It covers over 30k packages with a consistent security maintenance commitment, and additional features such as kernel livepatch, systems management at scale, certified compliance and hardening profiles enabling easy adoption for enterprises. With per-node pricing and no hidden fees, customers can rest assured that their environment is secure and supported without the expensive price tag typically associated with cloud solutions.

Tags: automation, Canonical, MicroCloud, private cloud

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TECHNOLOGY

AWS and SoftwareOne collaborate on RISE with SAP

Published

1 week ago

November 22, 2023

Max

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and SoftwareOne Holding AG, a global provider of end-to-end software and cloud technology solutions, have partnered to help customers transition to RISE with SAP on an AWS cloud environment.

Called the Ready for RISE on AWS bundle, it combines SoftwareOne’s deep SAP advisory and implementation knowledge with AWS technologies to expedite a client’s SAP transformation journey.

The collaboration comes at a time when there is growing pressure on organisations to decide how to modernise their SAP environments driven in part by the end of mainstream support for SAP ERP Central Component (SAP ECC) in 2027. Despite the imminent deadline, many organisations are still confused as to which path to take, including when to adopt RISE with SAP, SAP’s bundled offering of cloud solutions, infrastructure, and services that helps migrate SAP ERP to the cloud.

Ireneusz Hołowacz, Director of Application Development Center at GAVDI Polska, said: “A stable, efficient, and cost-effective environment for consultants and programmers is one of the most important priorities of our daily work. Thanks to the migration of our SAP systems to the AWS cloud with the help of SoftwareOne, GAVDI Polska has achieved all the goals set for this process.

In a survey recently conducted by SoftwareOne with Americas’ SAP Users’ Group (ASUG) – the full details of which will be revealed in January 2024 – showed that while 42% of respondents were familiar with RISE with SAP, 40% had heard of it but weren’t familiar with the details and 18% had never heard of it. Over half (52%) said they were still unsure how RISE with SAP would impact their existing relationship with cloud service providers.

“SAP customers have implemented some of the most comprehensive and complex enterprise systems in the industry and moving them to cloud services like AWS requires many important decisions to be made to optimise these investments,” says Joshua Greenbaum, Principal at EAC. “SoftwareOne’s extensive experience in the SAP ecosystem, combined with its unique capabilities around system rationalisation, cost containment, contracts and licenses, and cloud service management, among others, will provide customers deploying on AWS with the ability to make the most of RISE on SAP and other SAP offerings. Ready for RISE on AWS is an important offering for SAP customers at this critical moment in their business transformations.”

The Ready for RISE on AWS bundle will help clients understand their SAP transformation options and offer a comprehensive solution to organisations who consider RISE with SAP. It includes advisory data preparation, conversion services, data and AI, cloud innovation platform, supporting the entire journey to RISE on AWS. Clients will benefit from accelerated Return on Investment (ROI), optimal data management, and cost-saving strategies while laying the foundation for ongoing innovation and long-term business success.

Matt Schwartz, worldwide director, SAP Alliance & Partner Network at AWS, said: “As a valued AWS Premier Consulting Partner, AWS is working closely with SoftwareOne to offer SAP customers comprehensive assistance through each step of their journey to RISE with SAP on AWS. SoftwareOne’s ability to bundle Advisory, Data & AI, Cloud Platform, and Operations considerations can be of high interest to customers who are seeking to understand RISE with SAP as well as the cloud native and operation considerations that surround and support the RISE with SAP construct.”

PF Grillet, SAP Business Lead at SoftwareOne, said: “There are many choices available to SAP clients who know they need to modernise but aren’t sure of the best option, particularly given the business-critical nature of the applications.

“All of our services are centered around our customers and what is right for them. This includes supporting and optimising RISE with SAP in scenarios when it’s the right decision based on their requirements. Our extensive knowledge of and relationship with AWS means we can help them better prepare and achieve a seamless transition to S/4HANA using RISE with SAP on AWS with reduced costs and risks. This collaboration goes beyond preparing businesses for change; it’s making transformation and becoming innovation-ready a reality using AWS technologies.”

The offering includes SNP tooling to reduce a customer’s data footprint and accelerate migration. SoftwareOne will migrate selected data to an AWS data lake, accelerate innovation readiness and ensure SAP data is suitable for broader data analytics and AI use cases. Clients gain access to innovative tools like AWS’ Sagemaker for Machine Learning, continuous data management and optimisation within the AWS environment. The AWS innovation platform also includes Amazon Bedrock that helps organisations accelerate adapting Large Language Models and deploying GenAI use cases that leverage the extended data set.

“While the future innovation opportunities are exciting, clients need to balance these with a pragmatic approach to costs,” explained Marilyn Moodley, Country Leader for South Africa and WECA at SoftwareOne, “We integrate ‘Cost-Out’ recommendations into the core of our services, providing a more cost-effective solution for customers, like reducing the data footprint size and optimising storage and archiving.

“Our expertise in the complexities of SAP licensing further drives cost savings while our FinOps capabilities enable customers to optimise their AWS cloud spend and effectively manage their AWS cloud environment, ensuring full transparency in their budgets. The overall result is a significantly reduced time for RISE migration, which translates into a quicker time to value.”

Tags: AWS, partnership, SAP, SoftwareOne, transition

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