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Manufacturers have been faced with the challenge of how to manage their documentation to define,
design, produce, and service their products since the dawn of the Industrial Age. What first started out as a
challenge on how to best organize physical file cabinets used for paper storage evolved into a similar digital
challenge with the onset of personal computers and software for word processing, spreadsheets, etc.
The most common example of this are the files created by computer-aided design software (or CAD), which is
used to define products, sub-assemblies, and/or parts depending on where the manufacturer is located within
its industry’s supply chain.
To manage complex product files, companies often use Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems, which
have connectors for various advanced engineering software applications such as CAD and many others.
However, in order to provide the more complex management of product-centric files, PLM systems also
provide the foundation for managing the simpler file types.
Surprisingly, despite solutions being available to
organize and manage digital content (or files) for
well over 30 years, manufacturers are still faced
with a difficult decision on what approach is best
for managing enterprise-wide documentation.
The reason for this is based on a fundamental
difference between service and manufacturing
industries. For service industries, digital content
is often simple in nature with a single file
capturing a complete idea.
Is PLM the correct approach for enterprise-wide document management?
Given that manufacturers clearly need
PLM for their complex files, they are
now faced with the following question:
DETERMINING DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT NEEDSThere are 3 categories of document management functionality most manufacturer’s needs can be grouped under:
Lastly, there are some common more advanced functionality and IT needs that could be included during a document management evaluation. To determine if PLM is correct for a manufacturer, it is necessary to understand these needs in more detail.
File storage or vaulting
Process or workflow management
Document control
© 2020 Adaptive Corporation. All rights reserved.
Manufacturers have many examples of digital
content that are this simple, but because they
produce products, manufacturers also have digital
content that is complex in nature with files that
reference other files
For end user acceptance, the vaulting of documents in PLM must be similar to the Microsoft user experience
The PLM licensing cost for enterprise-wide use needs to be low-cost for document vaulting
Ideally, the PLM license for basic document vaulting also delivers capabilities that the Microsoft alternative cannot. A common example of this could be 3D CAD viewing and mark-up
VAULTING NEEDS
Most PLM systems on the market today provide the above list of basic file storage (or “vaulting”) capabilities needed for an enterprise-wide document management solution. However, many of these needs can be closely replicated by using a well-thought out file naming convention with organized Microsoft Windows directories or Microsoft SharePoint. The “Microsoft Alternative” leads to the following additional considerations:
© 2020 Adaptive Corporation. All rights reserved.
Vaulting of Office and PDF documents
Integration to the tool that authored the vaulted documents
Revision control of vaulted files
Version control within a vaulted file’s revision level
Classify and/or organize documents for different use cases and end user communities
Full-text search of document text content and/or metadata
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It is probably clear that all functions related to a product development project should be using PLM to vault
its documents. However, companies may feel these projects exclude people from functions such as Legal,
Finance, Human Resources, etc. Should these functions be using PLM for their document management?
Again, Microsoft SharePoint is an alternative for many companies for the simpler workflow processes and
approvals from these functions. As such, the SharePoint cost and user experience are often the benchmark
when PLM is considered as an alternative for these functions.
PLM will certainly be more expensive than SharePoint from a licensing perspective. However, costs are not
just software licensing. Companies must consider the ongoing IT costs that for maintaining a robust
SharePoint implementation in parallel to PLM.
Another consideration is whether it is accurate to assume that functions like Legal, Finance, Human
Resources, etc. are really not part of a product development project. One can certainly envision Finance staff
being part of the return-on-investment analysis of a project during its concept phase. HR may be involved in
the review of manufacturing work instructions to ensure compliance with company policy or government
regulations. Legal staff may want to review customer-facing documentation used for servicing the product.
If these functions need to participate in a robust cross-functional product development project, then the
decision to standardize solely on PLM for enterprise-wide document management becomes easier to make.
The need to manage a process or workflow for
how a document gets created, reviewed, and
released is often when a company realizes it
needs a “system” for document management.
For many manufacturers though, their process is
not just about the creation, review, and release
of a single document. As its name suggests, PLM
systems excel at how they organize content from
a product-centric perspective.
© 2020 Adaptive Corporation. All rights reserved.
PROCESS/WORKFLOW NEEDS
Release process(es) for vaulted files
Workflow processes for reviews and approvals
Ability to standardize processes and accommodate ad hoc needs
Electronic signatures during review and approval
Authentication of electronic signatures
Apply security to limit access to managed documents
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A manufacturer’s process is about the development
of a product that may generate many documents and
certainly the more complex content like CAD
Once a manufacturer decides that its document management approach must address the concept of
“document control”, the need for a “system” beyond SharePoint becomes obvious. For many manufacturers,
its Quality organization is stressing the need for document control. This is because the Quality organization
is responsible for ISO 9001 certification and document control is a key aspect of this certification. From an
ISO perspective, the needs listed above build upon the foundation already established for vaulting and
process/workflow management.
Given the alignment between Quality and document control, another class of software is often considered –
Quality Management Systems (QMS). One can make a strong argument for either system being more
appropriate for document control and the chosen approach for enterprise-wide document management.
The chosen direction like most things in life is one of trade-offs. If the goal is to have only one system, then
which system satisfies the majority of present and future needs the best? Such an evaluation will probably
require expanding the criteria to other quality and product development processes. For quality, this could
include CAPA and nonconformance reporting (NCR), statistical process control, and hazard and risk
management. For product development, this might include requirements management, simulation
management, configuration management, and systems engineering to name just a few. Deciding upon QMS
or PLM for document control is not easy because PLM has started to include some QMS capabilities like
CAPA/NCR and some QMS systems provide simple CAD connectors. Most assessments of QMS and PLM
capabilities would probably conclude though that the process coverage of PLM exceeds that of QMS in
satisfying a majority of a manufacturer’s needs.
© 2020 Adaptive Corporation. All rights reserved.
DOCUMENT CONTROL NEEDS
Audit trail or history of all actions performed
Formal change processes for controlled documents
Assign training records for controlled documents as needed
End user acknowledgement of assigned training records
Convert managed documents to PDF during check-in, promotion, or as needed
Full-text search of document text content and/or metadata
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6Retention periods for automatic purging of data7
QMS vs. PLM?
© 2020 Adaptive Corporation. All rights reserved.
Optical character recognition (OCR) was a very important capability for manufacturers as they were
making the transition from physical to digital documentation. Now, for most companies this is no longer very
important given how so much of the content from the past 20 or more years has been created in a format
that can be queried or indexed. However, if a manufacturer still has a physical documentation challenge, then
OCR support will still be a need. It is not common for PLM vendors to support this capability with their
out-of-the box solution. However, when OCR was a more common need in the early days of PLM
implementations it was common for processes to be set up for physical content to be scanned and vaulted in
a format with metadata that could be easily searched and retrieved. These approaches are still valid today.
Automatic off-line archiving and retrieval is the ability to move older data that is not accessed very often
from the primary server disk storage to a less expensive storage medium while still making the archived data
accessible. Again, most PLM vendors will not support this need, but it can certainly be setup as long as there
is a repeatable way to identify and isolate the data that is to be moved to the offline archiving media.
Ease of administration is often dictated by the chosen solution. As has been stressed often, SharePoint is
often the benchmark for any “ease of” comparison. However, SharePoint is not as capable as a PLM system.
As such, an IT staff has to be prepared to allocate more resources for supporting an on-premises or even
hosted PLM implementation. However, multi-tenant cloud options are becoming increasingly available from
the PLM vendors. As with any multi-tenant cloud option though, the ability to tailor system behavior to meet
specific needs is limited compared to an on-premises or hosted deployment of PLM.
Another aspect of ease-of-administration is support for different device types. For a manufacturing
company, it is common for its users to need access to product information when not at their desks. For
instance, sales engineering teams need access to product information when visiting clients and prospects.
Manufacturing engineers will need access to product information when working on the production floor or
visiting suppliers. Ideally, the PLM licensing will provide nearly the same functionality to desktop and mobile
devices.
Data federation is the concept of mapping multiple content storage systems into a single federated solution.
The constituent systems can be anywhere on the WAN as long as they are accessible to the primary system.
This is a popular approach to making content available enterprise-wide from a single solution when it is not
possible to do data migration from a constituent system due to cost, timing, or technical reasons.
ADVANCED AND IT-RELATED NEEDS
Optical character recognition (OCR)
Automatic off-line archiving and retrieval
Ease of administration and support on-premises or cloud
Support different computing devices (desktop/mobile)
Federation to other document repositories
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Clearly, PLM is a viable alternative to a manufacturer’s enterprise-wide document management needs.
However, it is not a clear decision for all companies and some sort of return-on-investment (ROI) model will
be needed.
To get started with this model, establish the annualized cost of a PLM system from the perspective of
licensing, initial deployment, and on-going IT costs. If the licenses are obtained with a perpetual model
instead of an annual subscription, then it will be necessary to annualize the initial license acquisition cost
over the ROI time horizon (probably 3-5 years).
CONCLUSION
Lastly, since every company has unique needs, perhaps some of the advanced and IT-related capabilities will
translate into cost savings. When all of this is considered, the ROI model looks like the following:
Since SharePoint is the low-cost alternative, the same cost analysis should be done for it. While SharePoint
will start at a lower cost deficit and have some of the savings discussed in the model, the same total value will
not be realized since SharePoint excludes engineering and design content and lacks the same collaborative
process and document control capabilities of PLM. If the results of the model for PLM exceeds that for
SharePoint, then the best direction for your company has been determined.
© 2020 Adaptive Corporation. All rights reserved.
The annualized costs are then offset by the following savings categories:
Savings from enterprise-wide access to content including engineering and design
Determine the value of employees being able to go to a single system to access needed content for reuse and not using outdated information.
Savings or increased revenue from collaborative, multi-discipline process management
Determine the value of faster and less error-prone processes due to multiple disciplines working together. This is often reflected in productivity improvements and faster time-to-market or customer delivery. Being able to execute faster could lead to increased revenue.
Savings from document control improving quality
Determine the value of ISO certification and reduction in nonconforming designs and processes.
RO
I Bre
akev
en
1. Cost of PLM Licensing, Deployment,
and IT
2. Savings from enterprise-wide access
to content including engineering and design
3. Savings or increased revenue from collaborative,
multi-discippline process management
4. Savings from document control improving quality
5. Miscellaneous savings
[email protected] • AdaptiveCorp.com • Phone: (440) 257-7460
Adaptive’s unique Digital to Physical product portfolio includes CAD/CAM, CAE, PLM, business analytics, metrology, and 3D printing solutions from leading IT providers. Leveraging these tools helps you accelerate cycle times throughout product planning, development, manufacturing, and after market service. This allows you to drive revenue growth by pursuing new markets, additional opportunities, and an expanded product line.
The Adaptive team works closely with you to understand your business challenges so we can deliver the appropriate software, hardware, and professional services to help you overcome them. Join the more than 500 of our customers including leading discrete and process manufacturers of industrial and consumer products and their suppliers who have benefited from the Adaptive Advantage.
Bringing a product from concept to customer requires a collaborative approach that enables key players tocontribute the right information at the right time. The Adaptive solution allows you to unleash innovation at reducedcosts by streamlining business processes andimproving efficiencies in the product lifecycle.
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