Currently in the field of China's manufacturing information technology, there are two hot spots that cannot be ignored: one is ERP and the other is PLM (Product Lifecycle Management). At the same time, recent mergers and acquisitions cases of ERP vendors acquiring PLM vendors are also emerging. For example, UFIDA Software has just acquired Chongqing Matt Technology Co., Ltd., and Oracle acquired Agile.SAP in 2007. Although there is no M&A activity in the PLM field, Through the self-developed system, it gradually penetrates and erodes the PLM market.

So, what is the relationship between ERP and PLM? Today, when IT system integration is getting more and more attention, how can users in the manufacturing industry integrate these two seemingly close systems when implementing PLM and ERP?

PLM is still in its infancy

PLM is becoming a new hotspot in the field of manufacturing informationization after ERP and CRM. According to the statistics released by CIMdata, a well-known consulting company in the field of enterprise information consulting, the global PLM market has increased by 6% in 2008. The report of CCID Consulting, an IT consulting company, shows that China's PLM software market is growing rapidly in 2008. The growth rate is close to 20%.

CIMdata believes that PLM is a strategic business model that applies a series of consistent business solutions that support the creation, management, and management of product information throughout the enterprise and product lifecycle, from concept generation to end of life. Distribution and use, integrating elements such as employees, processes and information.

But this is not a recognized definition of PLM. At present, the industry has not reached a consensus on the definition of PLM, but it is generally believed that PLM technology and solutions are a new generation of product innovation and collaborative management solutions developed after CAD/CAM, which can not only bring products to the enterprise. Information, but also allows the various departments / business segments of the enterprise to manage, share and reuse these product data.

In essence, PLM focuses on the product data of manufacturing companies, and comprehensive management and process management of different types of data from user requirements, order information, product development, process design, manufacturing to maintenance and repair throughout the life cycle. Collaborative work across departments, regions and supply chains. PLM uses information technology as a means to change the traditional design, manufacturing and management modes of enterprises, providing enterprises with a unified platform for information integration and business collaboration in the whole process of product innovation, thus ensuring the security of enterprise product data and the comprehensiveness of knowledge management. Effectiveness accelerates the speed at which companies respond to market demands.

Yang Weiming, marketing department of PLM supplier Beijing Digital Dafang Co., Ltd. (CAXA), said that more and more manufacturing companies are using information technology as an important means to promote their own development, and have done a lot of work in information construction, but there are still some Challenge: First, how to deepen the application of various unit technologies that have been informatized, such as how different 3D technologies are combined and applied together, how to combine 2D technology and 3D technology; second, how to share and reuse product data. It becomes isolated and integrated, and it becomes static and dynamic, so that the historical data of the product can be changed from the original beam to the current designer. When designing new products, you can realize the whole process of digitization of product design and manufacture. Third, introduce new technologies or In the system, how to be compatible with the original system and product data to protect the existing assets of the enterprise; Fourth, how to make the product data better help the enterprise to play the role of the ERP system that has been or will be implemented. All these factors drive the continuous development and application of PLM.

At the same time, in China, we propose to take the road of independent innovation, adhere to the integration of informationization and industrialization, extensively apply high-tech and advanced applicable technologies to transform and upgrade the manufacturing industry, and strive to achieve the background from "Made in China" to "Created in China". Manufacturing companies pay more attention to product development and technological innovation. Extensive promotion and deepening of PLM applications can comprehensively enhance product innovation and R&D management capabilities.

Although PLM is getting more and more attention from manufacturing companies and has become a hot spot in manufacturing informationization, Axel chief engineer Chen Qiang pointed out that PLM is still in its infancy in China, whether it is a manufacturer or a corporate user. Well, the understanding of PLM is not very clear, do not understand what PLM can really solve for the enterprise.

Chen Qiang believes that PLM mainly solves the following four problems: first, how the product data is organized in order; second, how the product data is generated, how the process is controlled; and third, who is the design of each stage and each component; Fourth, information integration and services.

PLM and ERP complement each other

Will, vice president of professional sales operations for Oracle Asia Pacific. According to Will Bosma, PLM manages the development of new products and the entire life cycle of products, from product design, mass production, listing to delisting; ERP pays more attention to material management, manufacturing management, financial management, and cost. Management, that is, managing the logistics and information flow of the enterprise from the perspective of cost.

Speaking of the difference between ERP and PLM functions, Yang Weiming believes that PLM is a business strategy centered on product innovation, focusing on profitability and creating value; while ERP is a business strategy centered on resource management, focusing on eliminating defects. save costs.

Yang Weiming believes that the integration of ERP and PLM is a significant trend. He revealed that CAXA is now cooperating with ERP vendors such as SAP, Oracle, UFIDA and Kingdee on the project. Because the integration needs of ERP and PLM are getting stronger, he pointed out that UFIDA's acquisition of PLM suppliers is reasonable.

If companies integrate PLM and ERP systems, they can share design and manufacturing data through an automated process, eliminating heavy and error-prone manual entry, improving data integrity throughout the organization, and ensuring participation in all product development and manufacturing cycles. The department has access to the latest and most accurate product data. The design team is able to obtain business-level data from the ERP system that optimizes the design process, while the manufacturing department can increase productivity by providing up-to-date design information in a timely manner. It can be seen that the value of ERP and PLM system integration is to reduce data duplication, speed up product development and improve new product turnaround time, and improve the overall management level of the enterprise design chain and supply chain.

In the past, China's enterprise information field has paid more attention to the implementation and application of ERP. In the process, we found that although the stage of “seeking death on ERP” has already passed, the proportion of cases of ERP failure is still very large. The reason is that the lack of basic data preparation or inaccurate basic data before the ERP is still a major problem, because the preparation of the basic data is a very complicated job. And if the underlying data is incomplete or inaccurate, doing more work is in vain, and ERP system construction can only be reinstated. Chen Qiang believes that the reason for this situation is that the ERP project leader front-end manager can't respond in real time according to the full-end design when performing data maintenance; and PLM can provide accurate and real-time data source for ERP. The success rate of ERP implementation and application will be greatly improved.

At the same time, in order to meet the rapidly changing customer needs, the manufacturing company's operation mode is changing from production to single assembly and order design, which requires enterprises to extract orders, inventory and other information from the ERP system for the design department to use. In order to meet the needs of manufacturing companies to achieve low-cost production, provide high-quality products, shorten time-to-market, and improve product applicability, the integration of ERP and PLM is becoming more and more urgent.

Therefore, how to introduce PLM based on the protection of original information assets, so that ERP and PLM can fully exert their maximum value, becomes a common challenge for enterprises and system suppliers.

Think of ERP and PLM as a whole

Then, in the era when ERP and PLM coexist and complement each other and integrate into one, should enterprises implement ERP first, or implement PLM first, what problems should be paid attention to in the process of implementing ERP or PLM?

Yang Weiming believes that whether the enterprise is first on the PLM or on the ERP first, it must be judged according to the actual situation of the enterprise: on the one hand, it depends on whether the enterprise pays more attention to research and development, or pays more attention to the integration of resources; on the other hand, it depends on the enterprise itself. Information level. Yang Weiming said that even if it is not integrated, the basic data generated by PLM can be provided to the ERP system through manual input, but this increases the workload of many manual inputs.

Chen Qiang believes that ERP and PLM are originally a whole. There should be no integration problem. Whether the enterprise is first ERP or PLM first, ERP and PLM should be considered as a whole, according to the overall planning and step-by-step implementation. Carry out construction. For example, if a company wants to go to the PLM system first, it should take full account of what data the ERP system might need in the PLM.

According to Chen Qiang, the key to realizing the integration of ERP and PLM is that enterprises have a deep understanding of ERP and PLM, and from the beginning, they use integrated ideas for IT planning. But for many enterprise users, PLM itself is a new thing. It is impossible for enterprises to deeply understand PLM and the relationship between ERP and PLM in a short time. In this case, what should the company do?

Chen Qiang believes that the choice of suppliers is very important. Only suppliers who understand the system and understand the needs of customers can really help enterprises to solve the problem of integration of ERP and PLM. He added that ERP vendors such as SAP, Oracle, and UF, who have been working hard in the field of enterprise information, as well as well-known PLM suppliers such as Dassault, PTC, Siemens, CAXA, and Exeter, are very familiar with users of ERP and The integration needs of PLM.

In addition, Chen Qiang pointed out that when selecting suppliers, users should not be blinded by the propaganda concept proposed by the supplier, but should pay attention to the following five factors: First, whether the supplier can give a solution to solve specific problems; Second, does the supplier provide the service background for ERP and PLM integration; third, there are no successful cases; fourth, whether the functions mentioned by the suppliers in the promotion can be realized; fifth, whether the suppliers understand the difference Differences in demand between industries and different companies.

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