2.7 Summary

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Product design is a fast-paced process that requires rapid access to large quantities of valid, coherent, and accurate product information. Nowadays, distributed developments with developer teams geographically dispersed worldwide are common. During the development, for manufacturing and maintenance, all product information has to be stored, managed, and controlled to provide all of the different functions within the company with access to the information when needed.

PDM is the discipline of controlling the evolution of product designs with the aim to control and manage projects and products and to provide different relevant disciplines with accurate product information at the right time in the right format. It also supports the entire life cycle of a product, from conception to obsolescence.

This discipline is realized in PDM tools. The PDM tool is a tool providing people with assistance in managing both product data and the product development process. All of the PDM tools mentioned constitute a complex set of functionality. The functionality can be grouped into two sets of functionality for the users: user functions and utility functions.

User functions provide access to PDM systems for different types of users, including data storage and management. Functionality for document management includes data vaulting, support for check in and check out, and versioning and revisioning of documents. PDM systems provide workflow support for different critical parts in the product definition process (e.g., the change process and the approval process). To manage complex products, it is essential to assemble the total product in a product structure, which contains all of the relevant information—including all components. In the structure, the documents are related to the product to which they belong. The PDM systems provide integration with different project management tools. The integration provides the project manager functionality for work breakdown structures, as well as follow-up activities.

Utility functions provide the user with functions for, among other things, notification. All of the data is stored and accessed under the control of the PDM system (i.e., the user does not need to know where all of the data is stored). Any kind of image is managed in the same way as any other data. The user may view these files. To simplify for the end user, and to provide the right access to the right user, different kinds of roles may be defined in the system. The system administrator will set up these accounts, groups, and access rights. Integration with authoring, visualization, and other collaborative tools is important and supported by PDM systems.

Research in connection with material from Ford and Boeing targets certain trends and common characteristics of PDM today. Commercial PDM systems have proven their capabilities in large-scale implementations. Behind these implementations, time and cost reduction are important drivers. PDM is evolving toward PLC management and collaborative product commerce, with greater emphasis on information evolution and life cycle management, global access, control, and collaboration. Therefore, PDM can now be used successfully to support distributed development.

Standardization is a technical prerequisite for collaboration. Two main strategies for the exchange of data between systems have been observed: It is now possible to require partners to use the systems that your company uses, as exemplified by Ford, or to use a neutral formats in the same way that Boeing uses STEP.

The usage of PDM slowly introduces a more fine-grained control of information and a higher frequency of updates of information. To build a physical prototype (a physical model of the product as it will be manufactured) is time consuming. It is now possible to verify that the product components fit together directly in the computer, providing managers and project managers with immediate knowledge of the status of all geometry models in a project. This is somewhat similar to the daily build in software development and requires more frequent check in of new versions for the mock up to reflect the actual status of a project.

Information models and technical issues associated with PDM are subjects of intensive research. Product models are needed to represent products appropriately in information systems and are becoming increasingly important, as the use of information systems is a determining factor in product development today. Product models are also important to ensure compatibility between information models when exchanging data. Studies of implementation methodology issues, such as deployment and change management for organizations, are research topics awaiting attention.

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