If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
This is pretty sound advice in most cases. But it’s probably the worst strategy a company can adopt when it comes to managing its products, according to a recent Supply Chain Brain article “Keep Your Supply Chain Up and Running with PLM and EAM” which highlights the importance of being proactive.
When you’re not dealing with your supply chain proactively, compliance can be overlooked, risk can be elevated, time can be lost, and ultimately enterprises lose money. As a result companies are starting to move their focus from the operations and logistics side of production to strategy and planning, where potential problems can be addressed before they happen.
Cutting problems off at the pass is what Product Lifecycle Management is all about. A strong PLM system can help manage asset documentation and organization while increasing communication and access to information among different players in the production process.
PLM provides value by helping manufacturers to prevent financial loss, address compliance issues, and lessen operational disruption, all at different stages of the product lifecycle.
- Planning: It is imperative that businesses create detailed implementation roadmaps. This planning and alignment ensures that products will comply with regulations, potential problems are addressed early in production, and business goals are met.
- Operation: During the time a product is being manufactured it is important to be able to monitor its progress step by step. This helps manufacturers to predict potential points of failure that affect cost, compliance, and sustainability. By enabling constant visibility and enterprise-wide sharing, risk is reduced and all the key players are able to weigh in during a product’s production.
- Services & End of Lifecycle: The high costs of maintenance can be mitigated if technicians are able to use PLM tools to search for the technical specifications of the product and its components. And because all data is recorded within the PLM software, manufacturers have visibility into how a specific product can be tweaked and improved while taking into consideration new compliance rules and standards.
Read more about Supply Chain Management.
