PRODUCT LIFECYCLE MANAGEMENT
The Increasing Dynamic Between Product
Design and Strategic Sourcing
Product and engineering design focuses more on the technical feasibility of a product, and
strategic sourcing works more on the commercial feasibility of materials of the same product.
The two together are what product development is about. Product lifecycle management
(PLM) comprises the management approach and the technology used to increase the dynamic
between the two feasibilities.
—Kurt (Yu) Chen, research analyst, Technology Evaluation Centers
EC has found that business users selecting PLM
solutions currently have higher expectations in
terms of achieving more interaction between
product design and sourcing are not sequential processes (sourc-
ing following design), nor are they parallel processes (occurring
independently). The reason PLM is capable of increasing the syn- T
design and sourcing processes.
ergy between design and sourcing is not only that PLM manages
This trend represents the growing importance of the bidi- the processes involved in generating product definition informa-
rectional interactions that take place bet ween design and tion but facilitates the distribution, consumption and exchange of
sourcing. On one hand, efficient sourcing activities rely on product information and sourcing knowledge.
accurate and synchronized product definition information that
facilitates communication, internally and externally. Sourcing
The Outlook
employees and suppliers both need to have a concurrent view PLM provides a management framework that brings all prod-of product definition information as designs evolve.
uct stakeholders closer during product development. How-On the other hand, designers need input from sourcing and ever, due to the limitations of technology and IT infrastructure,
procurement processes to optimize their design work. The ear- traditional PLM systems lack a convenient way of capturing
lier that sourcing employees’ and suppliers’ knowledge can be and distributing information throughout the entire extended
captured and routed to designers, the easier it is to make better enterprise environment. Cloud computing, Web 2.0, and better
product design decisions.
visibility and interoperability of product definition information
In fact, the technical feasibility and commercial feasibility of a will make PLM systems more capable of twisting the “two
product are the two tightly twisted plies of a strand of yarn— plies” more tightly together.
