Next on the PLM horizon: The bill of process

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: The need to get more products to market faster has driven manufacturers to distribute production over many, often geographically remote, plants and contract manufacturers. The strategy to “plan anywhere, build anywhere” requires technologies and methodologies that allow manufacturers to efficiently author, simulate and manage manufacturing information throughout their organization and with each other.

Some call it as digital manufacturing; others call it manufacturing process management (MPM). What ever could be the label, it is a software niche getting more attention recently considering the UGS’s recent buying of a MPM vendor Technomatix Technologies. Being a leader in Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) market, every move from UGS are well scrutinized in the industry and this move certainly reflects that UGS is looking at MPM as an important leg in its PLM strategy.

MPM is defined as ‘planning and enabling the timely manufacturing of products at the lowest cost and quality needed to achieve profit and business growth’. MPM addresses “how” a product has to be manufactured and provides the link between product design systems that address “what” has to be manufactured, and shop-floor execution systems that address “when and where”.

MPM software covers two functions

• To manage data for complex processes, including assembly steps and tasks like welding and drilling

• To validate-some times via graphical simulation tools- that processes are effective.

For example, MPM tools could discover a hard-to-reach place in an assembly step-say, the tightening of a bolt. Reconfiguring a part slightly or re -sequencing the assembly operations can eliminate this problem. Which leads to significant labor costs. Also, MPM tools could reveal collisions with equipments. This is the important feature as it is a common problem all the manufacturing companies face, some times they need to design a special tooling at the 11th hour to eliminate the tooling collision.

The pressure for manufacturers to cut costs has led to fewer available resources, such as designers and engineers, and to the need to maximize the investment in existing, legacy hardware, software, and IT infrastructure. MPM helps to make the most of this by allowing efficient, interactive collaboration among the manufacturing team. For instance, changing an element of a product already in production has traditionally been a major stumbling block.