Perhaps PLM Vendors Need an Image Makeover
First, the reports from the inbox. PTC (a company that could use a little good news) says Samsung SDI, a division of the global electronics conglomerate, has deployed Windchill as its enterprise-wide PLM system. Siemens PLM Software, (nee UGS), announces that Burgmann Industries GmbH, a leading manufacturer of seals, is standardizing on Solid Edge CAD and Teamcenter PLM.
These two announcement, from manufacturers with two very different product lines, and many like them, are a regular reminder to us that manufacturers—particularly firms with more than 100 engineering seats—really do want the “single source for all product and process knowledge,” that PLM offers. The newer solutions, like PTC’s Windchill and the latest version of Teamcenter, use modern technologies and are much simpler to install and maintain than previous generations of PLM. The smaller PLM vendors are starting to sell Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), web-based PLM, and the big guys are hot on their heels. Why is PLM viable? Why is it a multi-billion dollar industry with good growth prospects? Consider is quote from the Siemens press release. “To convert development from 2D to 3D, we considered and tested solutions from several providers,” said Daniel Ketterer, project manager for Global Technology Management at Burgmann Industries. “During the testing phase, we were sold on the simple derivation option from 3D to 2D constructions offered by Solid Edge. We develop our seals in 3D, but most customers want to see the constructions in 2D. With the automatic 2D derivation, we are able to tighten our cycle times and optimise delivery times and costs in order to carry out our development processes more efficiently.”
The boom in mechatronics—the combination of mechanical and electronic design—opens up a particularly vein of opportunity for PLM vendors to mine in the coming years. The Samsung deal is one such example.
Perhaps PLM suffers from an image problem. After all, it is hard to get warm and fuzzy with a database that offers to give a manufacturing enterprise a single source of truth. So, in the spirit of what we do best here at 3D CAD Blog, we offer a few modest suggestions.
A global firm like Siemens PLM needs an image recognized all over the planet to sell their software as “a single source of truth.” Perhaps Siemens could commission themselves a PLM theme song such as “No PLM No Cry” and license the tune from the Bob Marley estate.
“In me rasta heart I say, PLM de only true way.”
PTC needs a particularly American image, one that stands for speaking truth to power (a real makeover), such as former slave and abolitionist Sojourner Truth. We doubt her fund-raising motto of “I sell the shadow to support the substance” will go over well as a way to promote Windchill. Consider this one a work in progress.
“Am I not a fellow engineer? Do I not also deserve the efficiencies of PLM as my birthright?”
Only a few miles separate the Venus de Milo from the front door of Dassault Systèmes, which makes this long-standing symbol of one artistic source of truth a possible marketing image for the French PLM vendor.
“The missing parts of our vision of PLM beauty will be along shortly.”
