- DR product management: from the product decision to the product relaunch

- DE product management: from the product decision to the product elimination

The consolidation and orientation of resources to cross-departmental work is decisive for the successful implementation of PLM concepts. As an example, we can look at the path from the product idea to the business opportunity (idea to business opportunity). Although innovative ideas are irreplaceable during the generation and evaluation of ideas, they must be analyzed from various angles with respect to market success. Cross-departmental cooperation is required so that the market and technology views can be integrated. Process blueprints can be used as tools in implementation projects to allocate tasks and responsibilities to departments and their staffs and to design the interfaces in the course of the process.

Advantages and disadvantages of process blueprints

Process blueprints are used as the starting point within the framework of process design, but during process analysis as well, of course. They have been developed for this purpose. But caution must be exercised, and a certain amount of diplomacy is required. Above all, the principle of turning the affected people into participants and making the procedures livable for as many employees as possible must be observed.

Among the advantages which speak in favor of the use of PLM process blueprints, the first is that they act as the “starting point” for analysis and conception which conserve valuable resources and promote the realization of “quick wins”, leading in turn to an increase in acceptance, faster process implementation, and shorter amortization periods. Moreover, process blueprints support fast knowledge transfer and aid users and managers in understanding how the processes should run under ideal circumstances. Third, they help to avoid the re-invention of the wheel and typical errors.   

There are challenges to be mastered in employee communication. Many employees entertain a certain bias against models. Employee conviction and “buy-in” for an unknown model and new terminology are critical for success. Then the awareness that a model is only as good as the people applying it must be created. It is a fact: models are generic and initially represent nothing more than orientation. Finally, there should be healthy skepticism about too much standardization: being too exacting can lead to employee dissatisfaction and the repression of creativity in the creative parts of the company – and that is counterproductive.

Let us explicitly point out here that only an experienced project team can master the challenges of PLM process design. That means: simply reading procedural models and process blueprints will rarely, if ever, be enough to realize the necessary changes in product management.    
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