Can midsize manufacturers effectively use PLM?

Like larger manufacturers, small to medium-size enterprises (SME) focus product strategy on revenue growth in combination with cost reduction to achieve profitable growth. A recent study from Boston-based AberdeenGroup, PLM for small to medium-size enterprises benchmark report, addresses the challenges SMEs face in implementing product life-cycle management (PLM).

SMEs that seize the opportunity to improve product innovation, product development, and engineering processes receive tangible benefits on par with larger manufacturers, including increased revenue, reduced product cost, and decreased development cost.

To address increasing complexity of product-development environments and meet strategic goals for profitable growth, many SMEs are planning PLM implementations to control product data; better manage the execution of project, product, and program development; and support design and project collaboration.

SMEs face unique PLM challenges, including the cost of implementation, the effort required to change business processes, and a lack of internal resources. However, best-in-class companies are using predefined, best-practice workflows, data-configuration templates, and industry-specific software to deploy PLM solutions, enabling them to meet product-development targets.