Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) White Papers

This white paper is geared towards those decision makers in all types of product development companies that are looking to improve business practices, global competitiveness and the bottom line.

In today's competitive global market, companies are implementing PLM to streamline processes, which positively impacts productivity, quality and time to market. Within this white paper SofTech identifies three essential elements of justifying a PLM initiative, the 3R’s:

1. Recognize the Need
2. Retain your Intellectual Property
3. Realize the Return on Investment

ProductCenter The 3Rs of PLM

By managing part numbers in a Product Lifecycle Management system such as SofTech’s ProductCenter PLM solution, you create a competitive advantage in your product development process and downstream applications by providing early visibility to part number specific information such as material, cost, vendors, physical properties and contractual requirements. ProductCenter as the central source of your company’s Bill of Information, as defined by your intellectual property and business processes, not only improves productivity but also accelerates and reduces the cost of delivering products to market.

The goal is to be able to drive measurable benefits from every aspect of your technology investments. The following are among the many benefits of incorporating a part number generation process into your comprehensive PLM strategy:

• Ensures best practices and corporate standards
• Promotes part number and design re-use
• Changing vendor information is easy
• Global, 7x24 product information availability
• Shorten Change Management processes
• Eliminates bottlenecks in the number assignment process
• Assures that duplicate part numbers are not assigned for different parts

ProductCenter Automating Part Number Generation

Companies that adopt a Bill of Information (BOI) approach with their Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) implementations will achieve the biggest gains. The BOI enables the real-time management and reporting from the entire collection of information at any point along a product’s lifecycle - from concept through retirement.

SofTech, Inc.’s latest white paper, The Comprehensive Bill of Information, provides insight into the fundamental concepts that make up a BOI, which serves as the “blueprint” that describes your finished product. To fully define your company’s intellectual property it is essential to capture, document and retain the BOI.

ProductCenter The Comprehensive Bill of Information

This paper reveals the top 10 reasons to implement PLM in your company. As you read through it you may identify some areas of your company that could potentially benefit through the use of a solid PLM solution.

In order to deliver you the best resource of information, SofTech, Inc. has once again teamed up with the leading PLM authority, consultant and speaker John Stark of John Stark Associates. Top 10 Business Reasons for Implementing PLM also addresses ways to keep your product data under control, maximize resources, and increase revenue.

ProductCenter Top 10 PLM Business Reasons For Implementing PLM

An Executive Briefing PLM White Paper

This paper is a follow on to the Top 10 PLM Pitfalls to Avoid white paper summary, which has been downloaded by thousands of leading manufacturers and covered in major industry publications around the globe. Like its predecessor, this new paper is designed to be an easily-read but powerful educational tool on PLM, geared to you as a busy executive to help you prepare for PLM in your business.

Written by leading PLM authority, author, consultant, and speaker John Stark of John Stark Associates (www.johnstark.com), this paper will quickly bring you up to speed on PLM. It lays out what PLM is, it isn’t, and what PLM can realistically do for your businesses in terms of financial and business performance. It encapsulates John Stark’s experience, providing practical knowledge on how to get your PLM initiative staffed, organized, up and running and delivering maximum business benefit in as little time as possible. Download this paper today to find out more:

• How PLM improves management of your products at each phase of the product lifecycle from the first spark of an idea, when a product is created/defined, produced, in use with your customers, and finally disposed of - but in a much more congruent fashion, with better visibility at every stage, and repeatable success time after time.
• How PLM can make your company more nimble to respond to business pressures, from increased competition, globalization, regulatory compliance, shareholders or the most consistent pressure - to make more money.
• What realistic BUSINESS benefits can be achieved from PLM in terms of increased revenue, profit margins, faster product introductions, and more. What measures of improvements are other companies realizing with PLM?
• What PLM can do to help you minimize product risks; very costly risks ranging from customer annoyance to injury or even death of product users that can occur if you lose control of your products.
• That PLM can’t be implemented willy-nilly. It will take time and must be run with clear leadership roles supported from the top down. What are these roles and how do you get your PLM initiative off the ground?
• That you don’t have to be overwhelmed by the enormity of PLM. There are ways to implement PLM that can deliver immediate benefit, spread out the cost, and improve your results and success with PLM, such as a PLM Needs Assessment or Pilot Program.

ProductCenter 10 Critical PLM Facts

John Stark Associates and SofTech White Paper Summary

This newly updated easy-to-digest white paper summary will help you avoid the pitfalls to save time, money, and aggravation when launching a PLM initiative.

We are pleased to announce an update to the Top 10 PLM Pitfalls white paper summary. This paper was first produced for a joint Web seminar series developed by SofTech and leading PLM authority, Dr. John Stark, (www.johnstark.com). Since its first issue in late 2005, people from over 1,000 companies around the world have requested copies. In addition, it has been reprinted in a number of publications where it was called “irresistibly practical” and sparked a number of discussion threads.

Based on years of experience, guiding thousands of companies to PLM success - well before PLM was even acronym, Dr. John Stark and SofTech have laid out 10 simple but very powerful “PLM Pitfalls to Avoid”. This paper has helped many companies. It can help you steer your PLM initiative around common hurdles and pitfalls that might otherwise cost you money and time, and stand in your way to PLM success.

ProductCenter Top 10 PLM Pitfalls To Avoid v2

A CIMdata review of SofTech’s ProductCenter PLM

This paper provides CIMdata's analyst review of SofTech’s ProductCenter PLM solution offering, which is intended for mid-sized manufacturers that are considering a PLM deployment or expansion of their existing PLM implementation.

It covers how and why mid-sized companies are implementing PLM in record numbers by explaining PLM and its benefits. The paper then reviews SofTech’s ProductCenter PLM product offering, and includes results of interviews that CIMdata has conducted with a number of SofTech’s customers.

The results of the customer interviews are impressive and indicate that SofTech is successfully supporting these mid-sized manufacturers with its offerings.

ProductCenter Analyst Whitepaper