Describing the use of tools for design of the PLM process

But what concrete form does the use of tools take within the framework of PLM process design?

eTOM from the Tele Management Forum is a good example of the analysis and subsequent conceptualizing of processes. eTOM is primarily a generic framework which contains a process map for telcos. Processes ranging from strategy to billing are described in it. eTOM is the result of an initiative from various telcos, network vendors, and software companies. Their motivation was rooted in the desire for a description of an industry-wide process architecture of a “next generation telco” and the creation of a standardized vocabulary for terminology.

However, eTOM has its limits when it comes to designing PLM processes because there was never any intention to make eTOM a tool for the provision of process design with procedures and role descriptions. It merely describes process building blocks which can be combined individually in various ways according to the specific problem.

This prompted Detecon to enhance eTOM with project-specific experience. The first step was to define three views so that process areas could be distinguished from one another according to content and organization. This led to customer-centered processes (customer domain) which bundle the procedures in relation to the customer. Furthermore, processes were bundled from the standpoint of production (network domain). And in the third view, all of the activities which belong to the sector of product lifecycle management were bundled together (product domain). Especially the PLM process blueprints contain experience from a large number of products of varying sizes and complexity levels. The result is a tool which supplements the eTOM process descriptions with process know-how tried and proven in practice, providing in this way a more extensive process model for product management.  

The PLM process blueprints contain procedures and activities which describe the product lifecycle “from the cradle to the grave”.

- IBO product innovation: from the idea to the qualified, described business opportunity

- BOL product development: from the business opportunity to the market launch