The Future of the Product Lifecycle

The future is often described in buzzwords: smart products, Big Data, globalization, mobility, the cloud ... These phrases help engineers, analysts and executives as they try to pinpoint and prepare for the most important trends. At this year’s Autodesk Accelerate conference, held in Boston September 1-2, presenters and attendees made good use of buzzwords as they predicted “The Future of Making Things.”

With the emergence of smart, connected devices and the shift to a service-oriented economy, it’s no secret that the way engineers design products is rapidly changing. But how does this new design process fit into current practices, such as PLM (product lifecycle management)?

A New Lifecycle

In his kickstarting keynote, Scott Reese, vice president of Cloud Platforms at Autodesk, said “We’re seeing a lot of disruption, a greater amount than we’ve ever seen. One of the fundamental things is [company] size alone does not guarantee sustainability. We’re seeing the little guys take on the big guys.” Reese also cited Big Data and smart products as contributors to disruption.

With these smart, connected products, “the expectation of customers and demands on products has changed in the past few years. And part of it is generational. The younger generations are less brand loyal, somewhat cost conscious and want a product that speaks to them in some way,” says Reese. This mindset not only puts new demands on product designers and manufacturers, it changes how the lifecycle helps support product design of items that can offer mass customization and connectivity to each consumer.

This approach to product design, Reese says, calls for a more cyclical approach to lifecycle management. Now that products can provide real-time usage data, and produce more data during production, companies need a PLM system that can help effectively manage data and collaboration processes, and also be flexible enough to grow with the organization.

To accommodate for consumer’s demands, integration of innovation and smart products, Autodesk has taken a new look at the product lifecycle deemed “The Future of Making Things.”

With this more cyclical approach, companies can start to move toward incorporating more innovation into product development, according to Reese. “Innovation is required. It’s always been a part of what we need to deliver to our customers,” he says. He noted that he hears from customers how they simply redesign parts since it’s easier than finding them in the company’s archives. This not only detracts from innovation, but ends up creating more work and duplicated designs.

PLM in the Cloud

In a chat with Mark Halpern, research vice president at Gartner Research, Autodesk discussed challenges, opportunities and trends for PLM. A large part of the innovation for PLM, Gartner predicts, lies in technology.

A quick #XLR8PLM fireside chat with Gartner Research. pic.twitter.com/Fa3TU9juSa

— Desktop Engineering (@DEeditor) September 1, 2015

“Innovation and globalization are major drivers for business and complexity. We need a new set of tools and what’s really enabling it is the IT,” says Halpern. The major IT behind globalization, Halpern states, includes mobility, social networking, big data and the cloud. With these trends, PLM technology can help support growing complexity and provide ubiquitous access to users and engineering teams located all over the globe. “Mobility is vital,” Halpern says.

But, Halpern notes, there’s still some work to integrate PLM into the cloud. This is largely attributed to the fact that there needs to be systems that are specifically architected for the cloud instead of simply brought onto the cloud as an afterthought. “I’ve never seen a bigger opportunity for disruption. We’ve had since the 1990s, software that was simply hosted on the cloud and the performance was absolutely terrible. Software really needs to be re-architected for the cloud to be able to take advantage of multi-tenant environments.”

The Changing State of PLM

During this year’s “What’s Shaking in Product Development,” panel, participants examined just how PLM is changing and what it means for the next generation of lifecycle management. Overall, panelists noted that the emergence of platforms such as Autodesk PLM 360 provide accessibility and the ability for smaller organizations to build customized platforms — a theme repeated throughout the event.

“Software [is] getting easier to use. Price of entry is [also decreasing]. There’s a change in dimensions of what people find acceptable and useful and practical to their business. And the newer models of software make [these platforms] much more viable,” says Allan Behrens, managing director at Taxal. Furthermore, these more modest platforms can help organizations choose a platform that can provide all possible capabilities.

Also included in the discussion was the idea that PLM has evolved into more than simply data management — it’s something that’s helping with business processes and management outside the hard data. “We’re not talking about technology anymore. Part of it is the shift in technology. But part of it is the way we’re looking at systems these days. [At Accelerate], there’s been a lot of good business decisions. Technology is the enabler, but it’s not the lead. It’s not [just] about which mainframe we’re pushing right now,” says Jim Brown, founder and president of Tech-Clarity. Brown then explained a lot of his discussion with conference attendees centered around the fact that they’re implementing PLM from a project, requirements and quality management viewpoint.

The panel also discussed topics such as how to make a business case for PLM and for whom exactly PLM is intended. Overall, panelists agreed that its use is expanding and it’s important to recognize current systems in place for lifecycle management so organizations can see what to improve. 

#PLM can be about problems avoided, which can be tough for ROI. Instead focus on better, faster and more accurate. @monica_schnitge #XLR8PLM

— Desktop Engineering (@DEeditor) September 1, 2015

What’s Next?

With the emergence of new technology like the cloud, the need for more flexible management systems and mobility has brought attention to the need for change within PLM. “A lot of this stuff [for PLM] has been around for a very long time. That’s good since it means a lot of the bugs have been taken out and it’s got a track record. On the other hand, how adaptive can it be to include the technology that will be pervasive in a few years?” said Monica Schnitger, president, Schnitger Corporation.

Jared Sund showcases potential and coming integrations for Autodesk PLM 360.

To adapt, Autodesk PLM announced its new beta program for the platform to get customer feedback. According to Jared Sund, senior manager for PLM Product Management, Autodesk plans to eventually add more tools for simpler CAD data management and increase integration with third-party platforms. This means plug-ins for Jitterbit, Autodesk Vault, Slack and more. “Autodesk feels [collaboration] is access to everything,” says Sund. “We want to help bring back innovation into design. Softwares and workflows can make that happen.”

For videos of key presentations at Accelerate 2015, visit Autodesk’s Livestream.