Empowering Quoting and Program Execution for Automotive Suppliers - Part 1 of 3

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Empowering Quoting and Program Execution for Automotive Suppliers - Part 1 of 3

The tiered automotive supply chain is one of the more challenging business environments in industry today.  Suppliers face mounting pressure from OEMs, competitors, and regulators alike.  Increasing product complexity, shorter program timeframes, and supply chain complexity are making it difficult to react to the latest consumer tastes and OEM requirements. These dynamics are squeezing margins tighter than ever and leave little room for error. In a recent survey (Figure 1), 65 tier one and two suppliers were asked to rank 12 activities based on their importance for helping the them stay competitive in 2017 and onward...

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Applied PLM: Design Automation

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Applied PLM: Design Automation

An Interview with Scott Heide, CEO of Engineering Intent - PPLM:  Welcome, Scott.  Thank you for spending some time with us.  We are happy to have you bring additional perspective to our topic of CPQ.  Before we start, give us a quick backgrounder as well as what you are doing today.  Scott:  I started out with an interesting educational combination, both engineering and computer science degrees.  After I graduated with a master’s in science from MIT in the mid-80s, I immediately joined a company that was a pioneer in engineering automation called ICAD.  They developed the concept of what was then called “knowledge-based engineering,” now more often called “engineering automation,” and were able to deliver some eye-opening applications to a wide variety of high-end customers.

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Building a Case for CPQ Operating on PLM

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Building a Case for CPQ Operating on PLM

No Other Platform Provides the Needed Single-Source-of-Truth like PLM.  CPQ draws on a wide variety of data and is critically process dependent.  If ever there were applications that could use “single source of truth,” it is CPQ.  But, for many companies, spreadsheets, file folders, email exchanges and various home grown and internally maintained applications are their “CPQ-lite.”  On top of all of this, the “change train” keeps barreling along.  Data is never static.  Change does not stop.  Time-outs don’t exist.  And, undoubtedly, the “intervention cycles” will be high and unsustainable.  Let’s recall the presentation from an earlier issue as a step toward making the case...

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Application Integration Technologies Primer

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Application Integration Technologies Primer

The drop zone concept is to export a data file from a source environment into a neutral area (file folder) that the target application retrieves and reads.  The direct connect model leverages application program interface (API) modules.  There is an API specific to the source and target applications.  These APIs talk to each other. Then there is the enterprise service bus (EBS), referred to as the “hub and spoke” model.  BizTalk from Microsoft and WebSphere from IBM were some of the solutions developed years ago that popularized the hub and spoke idea...

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Pursuing the Promise of PLM – Part 1

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Pursuing the Promise of PLM – Part 1

Personally, one of my go-to content sources is TED talks.  In particular, I have enjoyed Simon Sinek.  He’s an author best known for popularizing the concept of "the golden circle" and to "Start with Why.”  In one of his talks, Sinek encourages us to understand “why” we pursue an idea, and then dig into the “how” and “what” later.  By doing so, the result is a vision and energy that transcends the morass of tactical details.  A prime example … Steve Jobs is the iconic “why guy.”

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Requirements Management - An Interview with Dave Ewing of Aras

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Requirements Management - An Interview with Dave Ewing of Aras

Requirements Management is another one of our applications that pairs with Aras Innovator and is part of the subscription model.  Its primary capabilities are twofold.  You can create individual requirements and requirement documents that are a collection of requirements.  Typically, you are generating a requirements document or documents as you are designing a product or perhaps documenting regulatory requirements.  That is the type of usage we see from our various customers.

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Don’t Mind the Engine Light

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Don’t Mind the Engine Light

Autodesk Vault was used for the CAD workgroup.  Once designs were released, renditions were manually created and then loaded into SharePoint.  The bills we exported to a spreadsheet and manually entered into their ERP solution.  Purchasing would go to SharePoint to access and print the rendered drawings.  These would be associated to purchase orders.

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Recent Interview with Dick Bourke, Industry Analyst and Iconic Figure in Industry - June 2, 2015

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Recent Interview with Dick Bourke, Industry Analyst and Iconic Figure in Industry - June 2, 2015

If we look at ERP and PLM, we can see some parallels in their development and maturity.  Before ERP there was MRP, or material requirements planning, which was strictly the core modules necessary to plan material requirements, quantities, inventories and due dates.  Properly structured bill of materials for manufacturing planning purposes or what’s now called the M-Bomb were critical along with inventory accuracy.  Then, as a broader set of applications began to emerge, the name ERP or enterprise resource planning took hold.  This now includes CRM, financials, HR, and many other applications meant to run the business. 

 

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