The Stardust imploded in 2007
Many of the companies we speak to have come to the realization that their legacy PDM solutions can no longer service their needs. In fact, they’ve reached a point where they believe that “rip and replace” is their only option.
It occurred to me that this is a viscous cycle of evaluate, procure, build, use, and deprecate. PLM is certainly not alone in this kind of cycle. It is displayed on a grand stage in the adult playground of Las Vegas. Casinos have been built, used up and thrown away for years - all of the classics of the Rat Pack era have been demolished to make way for the next great thing.
But Vegas Magazine feels that trend is changing, noting "…in today’s world of less costly renovations and revamps over complete re-dos, it is quite possible that the era of the implosion is over."
The same holds true for a Legacy PDM system which falls short in areas such as through lifecycle BOM management, requirements management, change management, variant management, collaboration and so on. A PDM system is simply not built to do these things. Its data model is too inflexible to effectively manage an organization’s constantly changing business processes.
However, the legacy PDM system has something going for it! That static data model is exactly what is needed to control Science of Engineering data like CAD. So the PDM system has value.
Instead of a complete write-off consider retaining the PDM system to manage the CAD data. On top of that overlay Aras Innovator to manage the items previously noted - what we call the Business of Engineering. Our Platform and Connectors make it a straightforward task to integrate to Legacy PDM systems. Many of our customers like Xerox and Magna (formerly GETRAG) have already realized that they can accelerate their transition to a modern PLM system by utilizing the PLM overlay concept to manage the Business of Engineering instead of blowing up their PDM system.
-Dave
-Image credit Vegas Magazine & Gene Blevins/LA Daily News