NPD/PLM

Chapter 1: Introduction

Introducing a new product to the market involves plethora of activities from conceptualization to launch, spanning various departments in a company. The path to successful launch is fraught with challenges.

Short glimpse of these corporate challenges will be explained in this article and many PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) tools are being utilized to tackle the same

Plenty of product and service based IT firms, interact with manufacturing firms and OEMs to help them streamline and automate their process, using PLM tools

There is a huge demand for Functional Consultants (especially from Mechanical or Automotive streams) in IT firms who can understand the business of the client and should be able to quickly revert with process solutions

I personally feel that concepts of new product development and PLM should be known to budding engineers before they graduate. This document attempts to cover basics of PLM and make students realize its significance. Students should be able to answer following questions, once they glance through this document.

?What are the stages of an NPD cycle and what data is generated during each cycle?

?How many tools are used during various stages of NPD?

?What problems arise if data is not managed and organized?

?How many communication channels a sample NPD project may have?

?What is Product Data Management (PDM), Product Change Management (PCM) and Deviation Authorization (DA)?

?What is PLM? What are sample PLM tools?

?How advanced technologies are impacting PLM tools and NPD process?

NPD and PLM are very closely related and this subject is so vast that covering everything in this article is impractical. I thought of covering very surface level elements just to give an idea of length and breadth of this field.

So let’s begin!

Sample College project

Just imagine a sample college project where you or your friends are part of a team that is building a race car. Just assume that you are leading the same team. Now the question is, how will you lead a team so that the end product is a fully functional and competitive race car? What process will you follow? What tools will you choose? How many team members will you have?

I think you will agree that you will have a team of students not more than 20 or 25 max. There are 300 communication channels possible if you have 25 member team. It means person 1 can talk to person 2, person 3 to person 4 … so on and so forth 300 combinations are possible

I remember that we faced issues due to miscommunications many times, however we were able to manage and build a vehicle

We designed it using CAD (Creo), Simulated it using ANSYS, fabricated the chassis in college workshop, procured many components, assembled it, did some basic tests, corrected the flaws in design, tested it again and voila vehicle proto was ready! (This is NPD in nutshell J)

We were able to manage all of this with very basic tools (Shown in the image below)

I felt that proto building was not so difficult after all. I realised how wrong I was when I started working for an OEM.

Guys, I remember that we were able to design and develop a vehicle proto, just by using above mentioned tools. We had one common desktop where all the data for every component was stored in the respective folders and we took periodic backups into 2-3 drives, just in case desktop stops functioning. We also gave those drives to 2-3 different folks, just in case anyone decides to quit the team and clear the drive :)

Do you think we can use same method for managing data in OEMs? I know you want to say No, because it feels like the right thing to say, but why? Why this approach cannot work?

Let’s understand why!

College project V/s OEM project

These are just few examples of how college projects are different than OEM projects, although in both cases vehicle is developed

Let’s consider the very first difference of mass production. Just because vehicle needs to be mass-produced, OEM gets into activities like Bill Of Process, MBOM, Plant design and plant process simulations, PFMEA, Tool Sign-Offs, Mass negotiations with vendors, Vendor Part quality audit, Supply chain, etc. At college level these activities are not needed

Likewise if all above points are considered, the new product development at an OEM is a very different ball game as compared to that with college level new product development activity. The way we manage and develop product in college therefore does not work in an OEM.

I know we are not discussing anything related to PLM yet, I request you to hold on. Understanding NPD complexity at an OEM is a pre-requisite before getting into PLM

Chapter 2: New Product Development overview (Helicopter level view :))

Objective of this Chapter

Now let’s understand NPD (New Product Development) from an OEM’s perspective. Following aspects will be covered in this chapter

?What are various stages of NPD?

?What are the tools used in various stages of NPD?

?What type of data comes out of various tools?

?Which departments are getting involved into various stages of NPD?

?Is this similar to that of a college project? If no, what are the differences from the process and data perspective?

Simply put, ‘Ideate > Design > Develop > Validate > Launch’ is NPD, however devil lies in the details!

Please note that in each and every phase there will be lots of processes and activities involved. True vastness and complexity of NPD is realized only when all of those activities are understood in detail. I will be naming couple of such activities, but I won’t be explaining them in detail. The reason is to keep this article short and simple.

Let’s assume that an Indian Automotive OEM wants to launch a new vehicle in European market. Our focus now will be to understand data getting generated from various NPD stages and remember this usually remains the same in any industry. (Automobile and Ancillaries, FMCG, Medical, Hi-Tech, Aerospace, etc.)

I will have one image slide, followed by a slide containing explanation of the same (Again the explanation will be very brief just to give an overview!). I hope this approach works.

So let’s try and understand NPD and more importantly ‘data’ getting generated during various stages!

Chapter 2.1: Ideation, Conceptualization and Planning

This is the phase where What and How for a product is determined. What will be the product and How will it be developed? Activities shown in previous slide are briefly explained. Please make note of all this data that is getting generated. All of this will become base for next stage of NPD.

QFD (Quality function deployment) :Quality Function Deployment (This involves in depth study of customer requirements and then converting the same into technical requirements, thereby defining a conceptual product boundary). Output is usually a product data book with high level requirements about the systems, their features and attributes

Benchmarking :Document that contains information regarding similar products in the market

Business Case :Document that explains the organizational level objectives and cost benefit analysis if the said project is pursued

Government norms :Studying the law of land to ensure that the product will not get into any legal issues, thereby stopping its launch

Target definition :Document having various product target. For example weight target of every component of a product, cost target for the same, Quality metrics, etc.

Design (Sketch) :The drawing data regarding how the product would look like

CBOM (Concept BOM) :List of systems needed for putting together a final product. It contains conceptual information regarding look and feel and parameters of these systems

Project Charter, Core Team, Project Plan :Document that contains information regarding the core team, leading various aspects of the project and list of milestones to be achieved from the beginning till the launch

Patents :Documents to manage patents and ensuring that product does not get into legal controversies over similar looking designs with competitors

These are just sample activities, there are many more in this phase. This results into lot of data generated by all these departments involved. Now let’s move on to next phase and let’s look at data generated thereby.

Chapter 2.2: Virtual Design, Validation and Procurement

Apart from Component design as shown in this image, Plant team starts working on the process to be followed for mass producing the product

They identify process failures and fool proof the plant design for the same (Lot of simulations are run to ensure various parameters are met)

?Tools and consumables needed are identified

?Poke Yoke and process controls needed are identified at every stage of process cycle

I won’t again get into too much of details here, but notice that lot of data is generated here, depending on the design of the component, which in turn was dependent on the concept and product requirements.

This is the phase where designing and virtual testing of the product takes place. Not every system of a product is designed from scratch, some components are acquired and that decision takes place in this phase (Make V/s Buy decision). Basic activities that takes place are as follows

CAD :Each and every component will be designed and its CAD model is made available for visualization and analysis

DFMEA :Almost every component will have its failure mode defined based on company’s knowledge base, customer complaints, etc.

DVP :Every component will have its validation plan in place to ensure that it is tested for its failure modes before building the product

Simulation :Almost all components are virtually tested for heat impact, vibrational impact, mechanical loads, etc depending on components failure modes

Make/Buy :This contains information on which parts will be designed and fabricated internally and which will be procured from vendors

Cost :Material costing of every part is determined and is used for negotiations with vendors

BOM (Bill of Materials) :BOM contains list of each and every part that will go into building of the final product. There are various types of BOM depending on use cases viz: Engineering BOM, Cost BOM, Procurement BOM, Service BOM, Manufacturing BOM, etc.

Plant and Process design :Depending on the design of components, plant team has to ensure that plant has all the tools and technology in place for mass production. Sequence of production, failure modes of process(PFMEA), plant simulation, etc are few of many activities involved in this area.

Procurement Management :Defining parts requirements, getting quotes from vendors, Qualifying vendors, getting sample parts, quality audits, LOI, invoice clearance, etc. are few of many activities in procurement management

Now that you have understood this phase, next logical phase is to develop proto and validate the vehicle physically. Let’s move on to that!

Chapter 2.3: Proto Build and physical Validation

This is the phase where prototype is developed to validate the viability of the design. In this phase proto building takes place for spatial, look & feel and packaging analysis. Proto then matures and is redeveloped for functional testing. Proto further matures and is then used for rigorous testing like durability, safety, etc.

All of this can be done in single phase or in multiple phases depending on industry or product complexity. Following are some sample tasks during this phase

Procurement :Sample parts are procured for building a proto. Design, Tool, Quality and process audits are conducted to ensure that parts supplied are as intended

Instrumentation and Vehicle preparation :Once proto is ready, vehicle must be equipped with needed sensors and loggers for doing various types of validation

Validation :Physical validation takes place depending on the driving cycles defined by government or industry standards. Reports for every component is shared with designers for improvisation

MTBF and RGA :Mean time before failure and Reliability growth analysis for every component. This is vital for reliability and warranty analysis

Government Certification :Needed certificates from government is sought for qualifying the product for launch. Certificates related to safety, emission, dimensions, load carrying capacity, etc.

In this phase again, lot of software tools are used for various purpose and lots of data gets generated for given component, which needs to be stored, accessed and maintained.

In college I remember once designing and virtual validation was done, we started fabricating vehicles ourselves :) . In an OEM we have departments for doing the same. Once the designer submits the design he might start working on designing the same component for a different project, rather than moving on to the next activity after designing.

Every department is therefore formed with engineers doing only specific tasks, thereby achieving acumen in the same rather than being an all rounder!

Chapter 2.4: Mass Production and After Sales

Validation team qualifies product’s proto post which, product enters into mass production phase where initial batch is dispatched to chosen customers for their early feedback and then aggressive production starts depending on the consumer demand.

This phase involves lot of activities related to logistics, inventory management, process control, Quality checks, sampling tests, MBOM, Plant maintenance, tool maintenance, etc. We will not get into details of all these activities. You must note that this phase generates lot of data from various tools for various components.

So guys we have touched upon NPD at extremely basic level. Based on my experience, a typical vehicle development project involves around 800 major activities spanning across all these phases, out of which we have discussed hardly 15 to 20. So far my efforts were only to make you realize that we are dealing with lot of data here and all phase are dependent on the previous phase.

For example, If concept changes even slightly, it has its rippling effects on few components which may have to be re-designed, re-validated, re-certified from government authority and thereby effecting its Cost, Quality metrics, weight, Plant processes, Supplier quotes, service parameters so on and so forth! You can imagine that this can effect not only designer but people from so many departments viz: Cost, Quality, Homologation, Plant team, Validation, Build, Procurement, etc.

We will now just quickly look at amount of data single component is associated with and also what data related challenges an organization faces.

So let’s move on to next chapter!

Chapter 3: Data and associated challenges

So what you are seeing here is data associated with one component

?This data can be in various formats namely Excel, Pdf, Ppt, .JT, .IGES, .Prt, .Msg, etc.

?All of this data can be stored in designers machine or it can be scattered in the organization lying in various machines

?Different versions of this data can be lying in different silos across organization

These data packets are just sample. You need to remember that lot of such data is generated and I am not showing to keep the article short.

In APQP itself there will be more than 100 potential documents for a given component, likewise overall data generated is humongous.

Points to ponder

So, now I am sure, you would have realised that there is lot of data getting generated for a given component right from the conceptualization phase till it’s End of Life!

All of that data is generated for hundreds (if not thousands) of components, which when assembled together will form a final product. Now let’s think of following points.

?Let’s say the project is in validation phase. What if designer changes the design and build engineer is unaware about the change?

?Let’s say project is in design phase. What if product planner adds new feature and forgets to inform the designer?

?Let’s say the project is in mass production phase. What if one vendor gets excited with new technology and modifies one of the part (with good intention) and informs the manufacturing Engineer of an OEM, but forgets to keep the designer in loop?

?Lets say designer is involved in designing component for 3 different projects. What if the designer sends component details designed for project A, mistakenly to supplier of project B (exposing the design to wrong eyes!) ?

?What if lead designer calls in sick and is not reachable? Design documents are in his laptop, how to continue the work from where he left off?

?How do I generate a consolidated product report if information for all the child components is with different team members, in their respective machines?

?Before releasing the product documents for mass production, how do I ensure that all components are certified and have gone through validation cycle? Should I physically go and check with each and every designer, homologation and validation guy ?

I can go on and list down hundred’s of such possible communication blunders and process challenges which looks quite trivial on the surface, but impact of such mis-communication and tedious process can cost OEMs dearly. It can even lead to entire project failures if they go unnoticed for longer duration.

Why there is a possibility of such issues related to data mismanagement and poor communication? Answer is simple > Communication channels involved and data explosion.

200 member team in a project including suppliers is very common in an OEM, which means there are approx. 19900 possible communication channels. If project manager is not aware about who is talking to whom, the project can very easily go out of hand!

This challenge needs to be handled for which we have tools known as “PLM tools”. Finally :). We are now going to understand PDM, PCM and DA at very broad level.

Let’s begin!

Chapter 4: PDM, PCM, DA (Pillars of PLM)

Solution to Data Problems

So from all previous slides it must be evident by now, that we must have a tool that can centrally store all the data related to a specific component.

Let’s take an example of suspension. Its weight, cost, design, quality metrics, virtual test results, physical validation results, government norms, supplier information, tools needed for assembly, etc must be available in a central location

All this information must be accessible by the right person and not everyone must have authority to change the data content. This calls for proper access definition

Again if any of the information related to suspension changes all the stakeholders impacted by the change must get notified and the change must get implemented post approval of relevant stakeholders. This calls for proper change management process in place

So I would like to conclude here that we must have Product data management, Product change management and Deviation authorization in place for successfully managing the data and thereby entire NPD cycle. Deviation authorization I will be covering in a bit!

We will now briefly discuss PDM, PCM and DA. This will help in understanding the PLM conceptually

?Next slide clearly explains PDM. It is nothing but a tool that enables customer to store and manage data centrally. It can contain product data as well as project data.

?Many a times project data is stored using different tools and is linked with PDM tools where product data resides

?Ideally however a single software tool must provide both product and project management related features

Interesting History (When I googled PDM History)

One of the first recorded applications of PDM was in 1985 by American Motors Corporation who were looking for a way to speed up the product development process of the Jeep Grand Cherokee.

?The first step was using CAD tools, with the primary objective of increasing the productivity level of the draughtsman.

? Accuracy and consistency was enhanced because drawings and documents were stored in a central repository in their database

?This in turn facilitated the engineering change process with easy access to correct documentation, allowing quick and effective resolution of design errors

This novel approach was so effective that when Chrysler purchased American Motors in 1987 they retained it, and this helped to make them the lowest cost American manufacturer in the next decade. This was very nascent phase for PLM!

Prominent PLM Tool Suppliers

Product Change Management (PCM) and Deviation Authorization (DA)

PCM > How to Change ? (Typical Process)

BPM Tools and Software Products

Product Change Management and Deviation Authorization

In entire NPD cycle request for change can come anytime. What can change? and What can cause change? These 2 questions are answered in the images above, however they are just examples for explaining the concept of change

In college projects, implementing change was lightening fast as the impact was never quite high. In an OEM though a minor change can prove catastrophic for entire project. Imagine a nuclear power plant building project and a minor change in it can be disastrous if implemented casually

In an OEM therefore for different types of change, different processes are laid out, following which can prevent communication gaps and hence ensure project’s success!

For example, after releasing a suspension design, if designer wants to change it, he must follow ‘Design Change Request’ process. This process automatically ensures that the change is communicated to all impacted parties, hence no surprises erupt in later phases

What I am trying to highlight here is that, the tool that ensures that this process is followed is known as BPM tool and nowadays it comes built in as part of PLM tool itself. BPM stands for 'Business Process Management'

So we have seen how all data can be centrally stored using PDM and how the change can be implemented without causing any disruption using PCM process. Both of these are vital pillars of a PLM Tool. Sample standalone BPM software products are also shown in the images above

Now let’s discuss Deviation Authorization! It's very simple. Let’s say you are in mass production phase and you realize that there is a minor glitch in engine bracket design. Now during this phase if you follow regular design change management process then it may take time and lot of components may get fitted with retro part

So depending on the urgency of the change, sometimes a short process is defined for quick action and this is nothing but deviation authorization process (This is deviating from the regular flow, hence the name)

A good PLM tool comes with features that allows us to configure DA!

Chapter 5: PLM Pillar, Architecture and Implementation challenges

PLM Pillars

In industry, product lifecycle management (PLM) is the process of managing the entire lifecycle of a product from inception, through engineering design and manufacture, to service and disposal of manufactured products.

PLM integrates people, data, processes and business systems and provides a product information backbone for companies and their extended enterprise

Basic PLM Architecture

PLM Bullet Points

I think by now we should be having conceptual clarity on what PLM is and it's significance. I would now like to add following bullet points related to PLM

?PLM ensures that entire data related to a component is available in one place and ensures a single source of truth for that component

?PLM helps in eliminating Data silos for a component, thereby enabling a digital thread for a component right from the ideation till the 'End of life'

?PLM ensures data integrity by allowing access to the right person for modification

?PLM provides release process for a document, so that proper history can be maintained and latest version is available for everyone to refer

?PLM ensures that proper process is followed for change through its BPM layer, thereby eliminating the disruption that can cause due to abrupt changes

?As single PLM tool cannot have all the features needed to navigate through entire NPD cycle, it can provide connectivity with other software products for seamless flow of data between them

PLM is vital tool for successful implementation of NPD project, however devil lies in the implementation details. If PLM is not configured and implemented properly it can cause lot of chaos and can prove detrimental to project’s success. Next slide gives just a glimpse of sample implementation challenges that organization faces while implementing PLM.

Challenges faced are not explained in detail, just bullet points are mentioned to keep it short and simple.

Major challenges in PLM Implementations (Top 10)

?Lack of Skilled resources for PLM configuration. Lack of resources with ample OOTB (Out of the box) knowledge

?Integrating multi-CAD tools with single PLM Tool

?Mergers and acquisitions adds to the complexity (Multi-PLM/Multi CAD complexity)

?Legacy Data migration

?PLM data migration while switching PLM Tool

?PLM Upgrades (Complexity increases due to customization and integrations)

?Organizational cultural issues (Ensuring that engineers use the tool and come out of excel based working culture)

?PLM Integration with other Silo applications and BPM tools

?Cost (Overhead as well as Tool annual maintenance cost(AMC))

?Maintenance and Support issues

Chapter 6: Advanced technologies affecting PLM arena

PLM tools have evolved a lot since inception and are still getting evolved at a rapid pace, due to democratisation of following technologies!

Cloud Technology :

?Due to increasing globalization and data explosion, having data centres everywhere, wherever business lies and vertically scaling them is impractical and costs dearly. Data sharing securely across countries during NPD cycle also is challenging. Thanks to cloud these problems are now getting resolved

?Many PLM tools are getting redeveloped with modern architecture to ensure that data sharing across geographies becomes seamless

?‘Pay as you go models’ for small scale industries is becoming a new norm

?Teamcenter X, Aras PLM, OpenBOM are some of the examples of PLM tools which are cloud native

AR/VR Technology :

?Visualizing design models in real space using AR is much more exciting than viewing the same using CAD models on flat monitor screen

?AR is maturing at a rapid pace and will soon become part of NPD cycle, especially in virtual design and virtual validation phase

?Data then coming out of AR gadgets will go and sit in PLM with which it will be integrated or data from PLM will flow into AR gadgets for quick visualizations

?Same goes with VR, only difference is the visualizations happen in a virtual world and user get’s disconnected from surrounding reality. For example VR enables me to experience how my vehicle fits in narrow Mumbai roads without actually going to Mumbai. (You need immaculate CAD model and road simulations of course)

IOT(Internet Of Things) and RPA :

?IOT is now penetrating manufacturing industry and IOT integrated with PLM, RPA and AR tech is giving birth to industry 4.0.

?Data flowing from various sensors monitoring manufacturing processes will get into PLM and data from PLM will be used by sensors for quality checks (This is just one example, where IoT will play a role, there are numerous such use cases which can reduce manufacturing errors and improve product quality)

?Robots are now capable of doing tasks where high precision is needed (paint, welds, etc.). Data from this can also be integrated with PLM for future reference whenever needed. For example if a weld joint fails in a component at customer end, we can get the component ID and trace it all the way back to robot data logs (attached with the component in PLM) to check if weld process executed was as expected

Machine Learning and advanced analytics:

PLM is storehouse of all the information of a given component in its entire lifecycle. This enables us to analyse the data and use algorithms that can predict failure trends in a component if it deviates from its normal functioning pattern. This however is a vast field where apart from quality even quantity of data matters, for generating actionable insights

Chapter 7: Career Path, Conclusion and Industries where PLM tools are used

One of my colleagues prepared this guideline and I was quick to notice and borrow the same :)

The image clearly explains how as a fresher, you can enter into this domain and what would your career path typically look like

I however suggest a person to have following interests to choose PLM as a career path

1. Should have keen interest to interact with people from all departments and understand how they do what they do
2. Should have curiosity and willingness to understand how IT technology works (Basic coding skills and basic understanding of network related concepts)
3. Should have interest to understand processes and how an organization functions
4. Should have curiosity to understand process dependencies and should be able to communicate the same eloquently with simple diagrams

It is important to note that once you get into this field, you won’t be a designer or validator or quality checker or some other guy from core department.

You will however work with all these department’s, study their data and processes and ensure that digital thread cutting across these departments is in place!

You will eventually be a go to guy for consultation related to ‘Digital technology’!

Industries using PLM

?Aerospace and Defense

?Automobile and transportation

?Customer products and Retail

?Electronics and Semi-Conductor

?Energy Utilities

?Industrial Machinery and Equipment

?Marine

?Medical services and Pharmaceuticals

?Oil, Gas and Refinery

Conclusion

I hope this document gives basic clarity on what PLM and NPD is all about and how they are interrelated

To understand these concepts better we need to deep dive into concepts like BOM, Part creation, Part release process, Part nomenclatures, APQP, Workflow creation, Organization structure creation, Issue management, Risk management, Design methodologies (DFMEA, PFMEA, IFMEA), validation methodologies, etc.

I have a syllabus content created which should suffice for any college student or a novice to pick on the terms needed to navigate through PLM world! Let me know if anyone needs the same

There are lot many PLM blogs which you can subscribe, to keep yourself abreast with technologies in this arena