Understanding the new complexity of digitalization needs a new form of simplification - A small example from PLM projects

 Today’s world is changing rapidly and becoming more and more digitalized. The scope of possibilities is growing fast beyond imagination. However while these new possibilities open unknown potentials, there's also a growing risk of people being lost in the clouds of the new complexity. While skilled digital innovators may fully understand the digital scope and can push new disruptive technologies, the majority of the workforce stays behind, lost in the clouds. For this, it becomes even more important to simplify new technologies, their application purposes and benefits on an easily tangible level. One way of doing this can be by simplifying the names we use when discussing those new technologies.

 A recent example that I can share from my experience is coming from PLM projects. PLM can provide an important backbone for many Industry 4.0 and Internet of Things (IoT) use cases. In essence PLM projects transform the way a company manages product data, majorly impacting on the core business processes. Apart from designing and rolling out (including the necessary organizational change management) PLM IT systems, which support the realization of PLM in practice, an important conceptual aspect of a PLM project is the development of different product data models (BOMs - Bill Of Materials) that support the different phases of the product lifecycle.

Industry well used BOM terminology include the engineering BOM (eBOM), manufacturing BOM (mBOM), As-built BOM, As-Maintained BOM, Service BOM, and the Bill of Processes (BOP).

 However those concepts are difficult to understand and represent truly complex structures.

In order to limit the complexity I tend to move away from the conventional naming and simply consider those data models as complementary views that each however focus on different aspects of  available data:

• eBOM => Product view
• mBOM => Assembly view

• BOP => Process view
• As-built BOM => Factory view
• As-maintained BOM => Customer view
• Service BOM => Repair and Spare Part View

  Not directly linked to the BOMs:

• Operator Work Instructions => Human view
• Machine Control MSMQs => Machine View

With this minor adaption I help myself to cluster the different data models, visualize their purpose better and enable myself to communicate with a broader audience.

 Feel free to comment below and share your own experiences.