Everyone knows that a PLM journey can be a long and expensive path, with frustrations at every turn. The question an organization often asks is: is it worth trying to walk that path?

Effective and correctly implemented PLM can significantly impact several business costs, resulting in large organizational savings. Take a look at the list below and consider how your costs look right now – you may be able to answer your own question.

10 Business Costs Directly Impacted by PLM

1. Factory Rework and Scrap. These costs can be substantial in a manufacturing organization. Not all rework and scrap is caused by insufficient or miscommunicated engineering and design, but a sizeable percentage is traceable back to this root cause. An effective PLM setup will reduce engineering-originated errors by providing timely and accurate information to the factory floor.
2. Supplier Quality. Getting timely and accurate information to your suppliers can ensure that they deliver quality parts to your production line. PLM correctly configured can make this happen.
3. Expedited freight costs. How many times does a product get out of your factories late? In order not to incur penalties, the shipping is expedited at a huge premium. Can any of these incidents be traced back to delayed engineering data? Then a PLM system can help.
4. Effort to process bids. To win business, you need to respond to RFQs by preparing bids. This effort does not directly generate revenue, and so the preparation process must be as streamlined as possible. Are your key people distracted by bids? Automating the process with a PLM system will reduce the effort required.
5. Time to create reports. Management requires reports that need to be reviewed. Are these created manually from disparate sources? Why not use a PLM system to generate these reports automatically on demand? There are huge time savings to be had from this enhancement.
6. Time preparing data for downstream users. How much time does your valuable engineering resource spend extracting, converting, and transmitting engineering data to downstream users? Hours per week? This cost can be avoided completely by setting up a PLM system to deliver this data with no effort from the engineers.
7. Effort to process engineering change. Your company struggles to process engineering change requests and notices. Many are late and require multiple rework cycles. A PLM can fix that by automating the process and ensuring accurate information.
8. Cost of physical prototypes. Do you spend a lot of money on building and testing physical prototypes as part of your design process? Do you have to build them all or could some be eliminated by better engineering tools and virtual simulation? A leading-edge PLM system can reduce this dramatically.
9. Your suppliers deliver parts that require rework. You are constantly getting incorrect parts from your suppliers. But do your suppliers have the right information to begin with? PLM technology can bridge this gap
10. Wasted development effort. Do you spend funds developing products that go nowhere? This problem can be addressed by a PLM system that manages your development portfolio more accurately.

Do you have more than three of these costs that concern your or that are out of control? Then you definitely need to take a serious look at implementing or reworking your PLM system. We can help – just let us know.