PLM : Emerging solutions and challenges for Global Networked Enterprise

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From PDM systems to integrated project management systems: A case study G.Pol1,2, C.Merlo1, G.Jared2, J.Legardeur1 1

LIPSI - ESTIA Technopole Izarbel, 64210 Bidart, France F: (33)5 59 43 84 01 - T: (33)5 59 43 84 00 E-mail :{g.pol|c.merlo|j.legardeur}@estia.fr 2

SIMS, Cranfield University Cranfield, Bedfordshire, MK43 OAL, UK T: (44)1234 754 788 E-mail : [email protected] Abstract: This paper deals with the introduction of a PLM system into an SME. The main objective is to evaluate how such a system is able to help actors and especially project managers to improve their product development process. This work results from a case study realized in an innovative company where a PDM system prototype has been developed. We demonstrate that it is necessary to take into account not only product data structuring and management, but also project co-ordination. We propose a model that allows the integration of organizational aspects as well as actors’ skills and product development process management. A second PLM prototype is then developed and compared to the proposed model objectives. We discuss the pertinence of this prototype and future work to fully implement this model. We conclude on the correlation between the functionality of PLM systems and the needs of management of product development in SMEs. Keyword: PLM system, design process management, project co-ordination

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Introduction

Nowadays, companies focus on continuous product innovation and process improvement in order to reduce the time to market and the development costs. Ensuring the coordination of the whole development of a new product is a challenge for managers at the different levels of such projects, especially in SMEs (Fenves and al. 2003). In the SME in this study, the project manager’s task includes the organization and the planning of design projects around an appropriate structure. Coates et al. (2000) suggest that task management, scheduling, and planning, together with resource management are the most important issues when it comes to operational co-ordination. However, this means that the design process can be rationalized and organized using a prescriptive approach. In an SME respecting deadlines is the main performance target. The project manager must ensure that the results of designers converge and do not interfere with any of the others. According to integrated design methodology (Tichkiewitch, 1996) models, tools and methods must be developed to control the exchange and sharing of data during

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the design process in order to reduce risks of redundant or contradictory data and to facilitate effective collaboration. Many design models referring to sequential, iterative, cognitive and socio-technical points of view have been proposed by, for example, Perrin (1999) and Love (2000). Engineering design can be viewed as a system (Girard and Doumeingts, 2004) where a decisional sub-system coordinates and controls a technological sub-system which transforms product and process knowledge through an information sub-system. The most recent works demonstrate that it is necessary to integrate product, process and organizational points of view in order to control the performance of engineering design. Merlo and Girard (2004), then Nowak et al. (2004) have proposed such an integrated model that must be modified to suit the needs of an SME in order to allow project managers to control their design processes. PDM (Product Data Management) systems are intended to support product data structuring and management throughout the product development process. According to (Cimdata, 2001) they manage information through document management and especially product data evolution using predefined workflows (Liu and Xu, 2001). As an extension, PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) systems introduce project management functionalities (Saaksvuori and Immoen, 2004). Actual PLM systems integrate Internetbased technologies and offer groupware-like functionalities (Johansen, 1998, Eynard and al., 2002) for collaboration between actors. We carried out a case study for an SME which, in the 1990’s, had developed an innovative manufacturing process for structures using honeycomb sub-assemblies. This new technology confers lightness and significant vibration absorption on products whilst maintaining a similar rigidity to steel. The company reached new markets and has grown strongly in recent years, from three persons to forty now. So it is involved in a period of organizational change in order to rationalize its information flows, which is the primary concern of our study. Our approach is based on action-research and reflective analysis. A workgroup has been created and different steps have been defined: firstly, an analysis step based on interviews and observations; and then modeling steps leading to an implementation step based on a PDM system. Our role is to participate in this workgroup by introducing an external point of view and by defining together the new product development environment (Conroy and Soltan, 1997): organization, design process and information structuring. The workgroup mainly involved the chief executive, the quality manager, the technical department manager, designers and manufacturers. So this paper deals with the introduction of a PLM system into an SME whose objective is to reorganize itself and to manage its growth by rationalizing its product development process (Filson and Lewis, 2000). In the first part we present a classical prototype based on Windchill PDM Link. As a document-oriented PDM system, we demonstrate that it offers an incomplete solution to the project management needs of the company. In the second part we define the different elements that must be taken into account in this case such as, the organization of the company, the generic process of product development and the specific product specifications. We also highlight the need to add flexibility within this generic process in order to promote continuous innovation and development of actors’ skills. We then introduce a model to manage projects and product information and to co-ordinate design activities at the project level. Finally in the third part we describe a second prototype based on Windchill Project Link. We discuss aspects specific to the introduction of a PLM system in an SME and its ability to match with its project management requirement.

From PDM systems to integrated project management systems: A case study 453

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PDM integration in a SME

We first introduce results of the study completed in the company concerning its organization and its information system. Then we present the resulting implementation of a PDM prototype dedicated to information management.

7.1 The product development process We now introduce some results by describing the organizational structure and the product development process in the company which was formalized during the study by the workgroup. The development of new products is managed by a project manager from the technical department in order to co-ordinate the whole design process. The technical department is in charge of the technical and financial quote for a new product, and then its design and its manufacturing. Figure 1 presents an overview of the main concepts of the formalized design process which is set down in accordance with the quality department of the company. Figure 1

Overview of the product development process

In Figure 1 the position of each step shows its association with phases and departments. Milestones control the realization of several steps and can introduce predefined variability for succeeding steps. More than its sequential characteristic, the main limitation of this process is located at transitions between phases: the milestone controlling the transition allows only one way to end a phase then to start the following one. At this global level the process is not flexible considering the different kind of projects and design situations that occur in such an SME. So, this formalization is not sufficient to control efficiently the daily product development process. The coordination of the design process from the project manager must be defined at a more detailed level. Product information used during this process is stored as physical documents or numerical files by each actor involved in the design process. This “information

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management” was defined when the company was composed of three persons. At this moment, with a head-count of forty persons, finding information requires knowing who has generated or used it the last in order to retrieve the right place or the right folder. So the first PDM prototype has to structure and centralize information to avoid duplication and corruption of data, while helping actors to share information and to control design process.

7.2 PDM first prototype The introduction of a PDM system within the SME followed a traditional approach (Eynard et al., 2004) but required specific actions (figure 2). Figure 2

IDEFØ diagram of the 4 steps for PLM introduction in a company

Firstly, the analysis of the design process allows the characterization of a human activity oriented model that can be formalized with, for example, the construction of IDEFØ diagrams (Eynard et al., 2002). Figure 1 is came from the company’s internal representation and was associated with a detailed description of each step and milestone. Secondly, as a PDM system such as Windchill PDM Link is document-oriented, we have to isolate each document, identify those that are necessary for the design process, and characterize all the actors and activities that are associated with them. The result is a model describing the “life” of each type of document. Thirdly, the PDM system is specified. So roles (i.e. functions in the company) and users are defined then the necessary document life cycles and workflows are formalized. Fourthly the specifications (users, roles, workflows and lifecycles) are introduced into PDM Link. This tool allows the definition of “document types” to manage standard workflows and life cycles, and also standard “document models”. The necessary predefined documents are stored in a folder structure that will be the main view of the future users: “department” folders contain internal documents linked to the product under development and general folders hold the product data to be shared (document, CAD files and product configuration). The whole configuration is stored as a “product development model” in order to become a generic configuration. By applying this generic configuration, document types can be instantiated when required by actors. Within this prototype product data and associated documents are structured and managed in order to control their evolution: it manages the different revisions of a product data and a document. It allows also sharing information through a centralized storage. So users have access to secure and up-to-date information. This result was the main objective expressed by the company concerning information management.

7.3 Synthesis This configuration has been evaluated with our industrial partner. The first result is that the management of information is centralized and standardized according to well-defined

From PDM systems to integrated project management systems: A case study 455 quality procedures. The company is then able to control its information flows: the different types of information are predefined and controlled by workflows and lifecycles during the process; and product information is shared by the different users. Nevertheless, within this prototype control of the information flows still depends on human actions. For example, even if each document evolution is managed, the project manager is not able to use the PDM system to define when a document has to be generated. This means that he does not have a global view of the design process and that he is not able to anticipate expected events: product data is not correlated with a global design process, as shown in figure 1. In the next part of this project we must consider this point to rationalize and control the product development process.

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From product data management to project co-ordination

We take into account the SME context and we shall propose a model dedicated to project management in SMEs. This model is compared to Windchill Project Link data structure and functionality in order to prepare its implementation for the company and its experimentation by the company stakeholders.

8.1 Towards product data and project management integration Concerning organization modeling, enhancing performance in engineering relies on the ability to create design environments suitable for / appropriate to each design situation during product development. In this context a design situation is defined as a state of the system to be coordinated, characterized by parameters related to product knowledge, engineering process, human and material resources or designer’s skills. We must first define a global organization to formalize each department’s objectives and related roles. Then the main design process activities are assigned to a specific role and not necessarily to a nominative expert, i.e. a particular person having long experience of a specific specialist area within the company. This implies that human resource must be managed considering people skills. Specific criteria must be defined in order to promote crosscompetencies sharing and skills acquisition by experience and training. As a consequence, the project manager’s role must be extended. He has to assign actors to tasks whilst considering these criteria and making the best compromise between the best skill for one job and the skill which must be improved for future projects. We have formalized a project manager’s tasks at several steps of the design process using UML sequence diagram in order to facilitate a future implementation. As an example figure 3 represents a project manager’s tasks when scheduling the design process for the “Customer Needs Identification” (shortened to CNI in figure 3) task and milestone which are the first tasks of the predefined product development process in figure 1. It shows that a task is necessarily linked to input and output information (product data or documents) and to a trigger (mainly project manager’s action or specific information state). In the SME milestones are considered as meeting reviews where a phase composed of several tasks is completed and validated before starting a new phase. Generally specific documents produced during the previous phase are analyzed before project and/or technical decisions are taken.

456 Figure 3

G.Pol, C.Merlo, G.Jared and J.Legardeur Process scheduling by project manager: sequence diagram Information system

CNI

CNI Review

Project manager Initiate process Define task

New task

Define input inf. Display information

Identify inf.

Select information

Associate input inf.

Define output information

Associate output inf.

Define Trigger

Associate trigger

Validate task Define milestone

New milestone

Define inf.

Associate input inf.

Define Trigger

Associate trigger

Link to task

Associate milestone

Validate milestone

Such diagrams allow the identification of the necessary concepts for this SME to manage its design projects. Figure 4 synthesizes these concepts using UML class diagrams. The project manager is able to formalize the organization of the design system of the company, characterized by departments, functions and actors (as human resources), which are represented as grey boxes. At that time human resources are characterized by a skill attribute before competencies management can be really studied and implemented. At the beginning of a project, the project manager uses the organizational structure to define the team (functions and selected human resources) of the project (design process). During the project the project manager defines a schedule based on “process elements” sequences (tasks or milestones) allowing sub-sequences. For each process element, he selects the right person according to the objectives, constraints, criteria and performance indicators that will be used later to control the project’s progress. For milestones the project manager must keep track of decisions taken: he will be able first to improve the decisions he has to take, which are often based on informal information or experience. Secondly he will be able to introduce flexibility in the predefined global design process by formalizing explicitly constraints, criteria and indicators. Finally the project manager will be able to capture project information and decisions to improve his own skills. This is a great challenge in this SME as the project manager is a young engineer. An important point is that the project manager has to plan then control tasks related to human activities, even when these tasks use or transform product data. In this way he can ensure the coordination between project-oriented process and document-oriented process.

From PDM systems to integrated project management systems: A case study 457 Figure 4

Conceptual model for project coordination

Such a model must be implemented and tested in order to evaluate its appropriateness to the company’s method of product development process management. The next part details the implementation of the proposed model using Project Link.

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Experimentation

We first introduce the correlation between the concepts proposed and those available in Windchill Project Link in order to identify the right specifications. Then we implement a second PLM prototype. Finally we discuss this experiment and propose extensions of this work to allow a real management of design projects in SME companies.

9.1 New PDM specifications Considering the organizational dimension, “users” (i.e. human resource) are members of an organization. But roles are not predefined at this level. At the project dimension, a “project” (i.e. design process in Project Link) is a concept that allows the management of documents and parts in a traditional way, by defining a team, i.e. “roles” and “users” and also a “project plan”. This project plan is composed of “summary activities” i.e. activities containing other activities, “activities” i.e. basic activities and “milestones”. The two types of activities can be correlated to our task concept, but only the “activity” can be

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associated to a “deliverable” (i.e. an output methodological/information resource). A milestone can also be linked to a “deliverable”. Considering these limitations we implement our model to manage a standard SME project.

9.2 PDM second prototype First the team is defined by selecting corresponding roles and actors involved in the product development from all relevant departments. The project plan (figure 5) is implemented to represent the product development process as introduced in figure 1: phases / “summary activities”, tasks / “activities” and milestones. The decomposition of a task into several sub-tasks can be defined within Project Link but not direct synchronization of several tasks followed by one task. Figure 5

Project plan within Windchill

Del iverables are associated with each necessary activity or milestone. It allows the project manager to control specific document-oriented workflows by defining deadlines for the corresponding deliverables: that means that the complete realization of a document workflow is controlled by this deadline. To control the way that actors work (before the deadline), he must define basic tasks with a detailed description of objectives, expected actions and document production or modifications. The first prototype described in section 2.3 with PDM Link is correlated to this project implementation by associating previous main documents as deliverables. The project manager may control task end date then task status and its level of realization during the control of the project progress. Finally he may modify project plan.

9.3 Synthesis and discussion First of all this prototype brings two important benefits to the company. Firstly users can view and manipulate the new structure of project development process. They will understand better the benefits of such an organization and project management concepts. Secondly users can evaluate the potential of a PLM system to improve their information flows and the control of their design projects. At a global level the prototype seems to answer to the initial needs of the SME for information structuring and management. It demonstrates shared concepts such as roles or formalized process through a single environment useable by everyone.

From PDM systems to integrated project management systems: A case study 459 Nevertheless the project implementation reveals strong limitations if correlated in detail with the proposed model. Obvious limitations are concerned with: management of actors and skills, triggering events but also recording the planned/realized/modified process for reuse. Task concept implementation is too limited: defining input and output information is impossible, except using deliverables; the element of decisions cannot be formalized. At the whole project level, the project plan concept is too sequential. Convergent links between tasks are not possible. Moreover alternative sequences of tasks do not exist which is, however, possible in a workflow. In this PLM tool, when a project manager plans an activity, he may link it with a support document (deliverable). When controlling the planned activities, he may need to modify the initial schedule. But he cannot modify the schedule of the activities from the workflow of the linked document. In fact these document workflows are not under its control and this may lead to incompatible constraints on the process activities completion. A PLM tool integrating project and workflow dimensions should allow project managers to manage workflows as a sub-process of the project process and so to control the related tasks: e.g. by modifying the end date, or the users allocated to it. These two last points highlight the necessary flexibility of a design process in an SME, especially in this case study where innovation is a constant concern. The formalization of the organization is a critical factor for the optimal management of resources. If the process is predefined at a global level as it is required by a PLM system, this is rather incompatible with actors from all departments working daily in a context of “mutual fit”. The processes of cooperation are quite unstructured and the confrontation of the various project teams’ points of view leads to informal and unofficial information exchanges (Baumberger et al., 2003). When establishing specifications in a SME it is an important issue to identify what must be really controlled and so predefined through a workflow, and what must be encouraged and not detailed. The management of the product development processes requires greater flexibility in the activities (Weber et al., 2002). The project-oriented approach must be improved in order to integrate document workflows and to introduce flexibility into such workflows (Saikali, 2001) for a global project coordination. So future work will extend existing concepts by customizing the Windchill database and implementing our proposed model directly.

10 Conclusion This paper aims at design project coordination in SMEs. This work is realized with a SME developing products based on innovative materials and processes. Its main objective is to improve its information flows in a global context of product development process and organization rationalization. Using Windchill for prototyping we first demonstrate the interest of such a tool for managing product data and document-oriented flows. To improve design coordination at a global level we propose an integrated model that takes into account organization, process and product information dimensions appropriate to an SME context. We then demonstrate that Windchill is not able to implement this model adequately even if most concepts are shared at a global level. This point leads us to define future work concerning the study of multi-level flexible workflow in order to improve the control of the whole design process.

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