Implementing a true approach to PLM, the cornerstone of manufacturing
What you’ll learn:
- Failing to fully implement a variable PLM approach risks not realizing all the benefits it can bring, often reinforcing siloed ways of working.
- There’s been an increasing shift in the market toward configurable and customized products. This includes the growth of ETO or CTO models.
- CLM connects CRM, CPQ and ERP in a closed digital loop, extending PLM’s reach across downstream systems in complex IT environments.
Product lifecycle management (PLM) has long been a cornerstone of manufacturing, managing a product’s journey from design and development through production, maintenance, updates, and retirement. It does this by centralizing product data, processes, and collaboration across engineering, manufacturing, supply chain, and business teams.
The result: higher product quality, faster time-to-market, stronger regulatory compliance, and better cost control. When it’s done correctly, PLM accomplishes all those goals, but the reality is that most organizations aren’t truly reaping the full potential of PLM.
By failing to fully implement the PLM approach, they aren’t realizing all the benefits it can bring, often reinforcing less productive, siloed ways of working.
An additional PLM challenge is customization. Many manufacturing processes were introduced to mass-produce standard products or product variants. But today, most manufacturers offer some form of customization.
This challenges both manufacturing processes and supporting systems, especially for manufacturers of configurable products.
Combining PLM with configuration lifecycle management (CLM) helps manufacturers to not only implement a true PLM approach but also address the challenges of managing the lifecycle of configurable products.
PLM: Vision vs. reality
The PLM vision is to manage the full lifecycle of a product. However, this isn’t what we always see in practice. If a manufacturer uses a PLM system today, there’s a good chance they are only using it for parts management and bill of materials (BOMs), focusing only on engineering challenges.
There’s typically little integration with ERP systems and separate service lifecycle management processes. And the sales process is often not considered at all. If it’s just a matter of offering standard products or a limited range of product variants, that can work, but when you’re dealing with highly customizable products, it’s not sustainable.
With configurable products, there may be thousands of different customizations and millions of configurations that must be taken into account.
A siloed PLM creates gaps
There’s been an increasing shift in the market toward configurable and customized products. This includes the growth of engineer-to-order (ETO) or configure-to-order (CTO) models due to increasing customer expectations for tailored solutions.
For manufacturers trying to meet customization needs using a make-to-stock strategy, they have experienced an explosion in product variants, thus increasing portfolio complexity.
Without the right tools and processes in place, managing all these variants can quickly lead to rising costs, long lead times, and bottlenecks.
Traditional PLM models provide a strong foundation, but as demand for customization grows, many organizations benefit from complementary capabilities.
Traditional PLM models provide a strong foundation, but as demand for customization grows, many organizations benefit from complementary capabilities that support greater scale and adaptability.
Historically, the sales team has not been involved in PLM because the engineering team didn’t see the need for their involvement. And that was true for standard products or variants. It’s only when a customer needs a customized solution that they need to be involved, but the PLM vision doesn’t cover this scenario.
The consequences of disconnected sales and engineering processes include:
- Unplanned expert engineering support in the sales process.
- Misalignment between what is sold and what can be built or serviced.
- Increased errors, rework and customer dissatisfaction.
Sales inclusion is essential because configurable products require real-time validation of options, and because sales decisions directly impact downstream lifecycle stages.
How CLM can help to fulfill the PLM vision
PLM is about managing products; CLM is about managing product configurations. CLM manages configuration logic across design, sales, manufacturing and service.
CLM addresses customization challenges in two primary ways:
- For manufacturers following a make-to-stock strategy, CLM enables a CTO approach that offers reusable configurable modules instead of proliferating variants.
- For ETO manufacturers, CLM saves time and cost, as well as freeing up experienced engineers and enabling scalability.
CLM also enables the combination of CTO and ETO, enabling reusable configurable modules that can also be customized.
A CLM approach captures and enforces rules, constraints and dependencies. CLM aligns engineering and sales intent, ensuring that only valid, deliverable configurations are sold.
This preserves engineering integrity throughout the sales process and reduces the need for expert engineering assistance in the sales process.
CLM connects CRM, CPQ and ERP in a closed digital loop, extending PLM’s reach across downstream systems in complex IT environments. This creates a sturdy digital spine that enables organizations to meet demands for more variants, digital offerings and regulatory compliance with greater precision and agility.
It lays a foundation for digital threads, capturing and connecting product configuration data across the lifecycle. This ensures data continuity, traceability and actionable insights, empowering strategic decision-making.
CLM also helps manufacturers to address modern demands for customizable products, digital offerings, and innovative business models like product-as-a-service and smart services. Manufacturers can embrace new strategies while maximizing the potential of their existing PLM infrastructure.
Adopting a CLM approach transforms PLM into an enterprise-wide, scalable framework. This integration not only streamlines product configuration but also drives business value, ensuring manufacturers remain competitive in highly dynamic markets.
“True” PLM is a strategic imperative
For about four decades, the vision of the PLM approach has been full lifecycle management of products from requirements through engineering, manufacturing and service. But today, manufacturers are still using PLM systems for parts management and bills of materials.
The sales process is not considered at all, which can’t meet the requirements of customizable, configurable products, which are increasingly common.
By combining PLM and CLM, manufacturers can not only manage the full lifecycle of complex configurable products but also align engineering intent with sales intent in an automated and scalable manner.
About the Author
Daniel Joseph Barry
Daniel Joseph Barry is VP of product marketing at Configit, which provides software that enables manufacturing companies to manage complex, configurable products.
He has over 30 years of experience in the telecom and IT industries. Educated as an electronic engineer, he progressed from research and system development roles to leadership in business development, sales, product management, marketing and strategy in global multinationals like Ericsson as well as startup and growth companies.
After several years as an independent consultant, he joined Configit in 2023.