Digital manufacturing seen as high-growth PLM segment

Product life-cycle management (PLM) strategies are helping manufacturers bring new products to market quicker. As part of that effort, PLM technology doesn't just accelerate what will be made, but also how it will be made.

The "how" is where a PLM subsegment known as manufacturing process management (MPM)—or "digital manufacturing"—comes in. Ken Amann, research director with Ann Arbor, Mich.-based analyst firm CIMdata, says MPM is an area of expansion within the collaborative Product Definition management (cPDm) portion of the PLM market.

Amann estimates MPM could be headed for 20-percent to 30-percent growth over the next few years. "MPM initially has been driven by use from larger companies, but over time, as solution suppliers fine-tune their offerings, adoption will flow down to the midmarket," says Amann.

Other analysts also are keen on MPM. Marc Halpern, PLM research director with analyst firm Gartner, Stamford, Conn., calls MPM and product portfolio management two growing PLM niches. In 2002, New York-based analyst firm Frost & Sullivan predicted MPM would grow by 35 percent in 2002, and at an even faster clip over the next few years.

MPM solutions organize information about build processes for upcoming products, and use simulation and analysis capabilities to optimize those processes. Because of its focus on how products will be built, MPM has a natural tie with manufacturing execution. One of the best-known MPM vendors is Tecnomatix (see accompanying story on previous page). Others include Dassault Systemes, with its Delmia package; Polyplan Technologies; and UGS, which has its own MPM functions, and partners with Tecnomatix on others. In the aerospace sector, vendors including HMS Software and iBASEt address aspects of MPM.

Amir Livne, an executive VP with Tecnomatix, says MPM is becoming a "strategic part of PLM rather than just a niche. Companies want to drive the manufacturing considerations upstream as much as possible to increase the flexibility of products and process, and to deliver new products at the right time and cost."

Livne says Tecnomatix offers an electronic bill of process to manage core data; simulation and analysis tools to optimize processes; and execution software to handle functions such as product genealogy. Industries where MPM has made the most inroads, he says, include automotive, aerospace, and high tech, yet with appliance or "white goods" manufacturers also showing interest.