Choosing a way to manage product data

Good product development will prioritize customer needs to deliver just enough functionality to the market before the window closes or you run out of cash. There are no prizes for a technically perfect product delivered too late to an uncaring market.

Product Development is part of Product Life-cycle Management (PLM). Today we are talking about a subset called product data management or PDM.  Product data can be drawings, documentation, bills of material, component data, supplier data, or product cost data.

Why bother with PDM? Essentially because it can help you get your product to market faster and with less risk of costly errors. PDM can improve collaboration when working with a dispersed team, outsourced partners, or a demanding customer.  You can spend less time trying to manage the data, and more time doing value added work. Ever heard this:  "Sorry dude, I was working with the wrong version of the file."? For larger companies and larger volumes the drivers become more diverse and more complex.

For many people, PDM is synonymous with the tools like MatrixOne, Agile or Arena or the extended offerings of the CAD vendors.  These are just tools. You could just continue to use MS Excel and some shared folders.  Again, life cycle management, product development, or even PDM are not about bureaucracy or applications. Focus on the thought process and accountability.

Today we will talk mainly about hardware. Software is a little different, although it is very likely that you will need to manage a certain amount of software in most hardware companies.

A common fault is to select the tool before determining your objectives and preferred operating mode.  Information technology is not a silver bullet, people will manage your product data, not a software application.

Too many times we have seen systems unused or underutilized after the selection, installation and training.  One typical reason is that the initial system configuration, or even the system itself, proved unsuitable for the task. The second key reason is that key staff don't use the system, leading to a breakdown in the overall usefulness of the system for all staff.  For these reasons, the implementation process should start before the tool is selected.  Make sure the key people understand the need and are involved in designing your mode of operation. Then get them involved in the tool selection.

There are a range of factors to consider in deciding how to manage your product data:

• Markets. Who are your customers? How demanding are they? Do your customers have a preference on what systems or data exchange formats you use? When is the launch date? How will you scale? When do you need to scale? Are you working with European markets in the near term?  If so then RoHS may be an issue.
• Product characteristics. Simple or complex? Is the product standardized or highly configurable? Does it have a high proportion of electronic components?  Are the product life-cycles long or short?  Is it a highly engineered sale? Often these considerations will lead to trade-offs between tool selection, system configuration and implementation.
• Business model. Do you use outsourced partners? Do you have a dispersed team? Are you a large or small organization? Do you have a single site or multiple sites? What are the roles of suppliers, customers and channel partners?
• Systems Strategy. What other systems do you use?  What PDM systems cater to your vertical? What level of integration is required? What will be the master for various types of data? How will you scale? When do you need to scale?  Should you get a hosted system? What is the disaster recovery plan?
• Functionality. Do you want basic PDM or do you want work-flows for engineering change and procurements? Do you want reporting? When do you really need all this extra functionality?
• Implementation.  Who are the users? Are they design or operations centric (They have a different mentality on product data). Do you want to highly configure or buy an out of the box system? (I have some strong opinions on that!). How fast do you need to do it? Where is the data now? Change management will be important. Even in a small org you need to get your team on-side.
• What is your budget? Can you invest or do you prefer to expense?

If you have not done it before, consider getting some help. It is easy to make mistakes in PDM process, selection and configuration.  Better to get it right at the start than when you are 3 months from launch with a lot of data in the system.

Bottom Line:  You know you must manage Sales and Finance, make sure you look after your Product.  Decide how to configure your product data, systems and work-flow upfront. Think first, buy later.