Chapter 8: Case Studies

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As a rule, software systems do not work well until they have been used, and have failed repeatedly, in real applications. —Dave Parnas

8.1 Introduction

In this chapter, six case studies from international companies based in the United States, England, Switzerland, and Sweden are presented. They serve as practical examples of how PDM and SCM are actually managed and thus complement the more theoretical part in earlier chapters. The products developed and manufactured by the companies described range from pure software products to mixed products containing both hardware and software. Also the issues discussed vary from development processes and PLCs to a description of the tool sets used to support these processes from an information flow perspective.

The information presented was acquired through interviews and discussions with one or many persons in the companies who had responsibility for or experience using their PDM or SCM solutions. The case studies focus on particular topics and do not have ambitions to describe the companies in general. Furthermore, the cases do not follow the same pattern or format and cannot be used for any type of benchmarking. Each case study focuses on some important issues from the company, ranging from technical descriptions of tool interfaces to descriptions of the development process. At the end of each case study, there are cross references to chapters in the book that discuss these issues further and more generally than in the specific case. The case studies are not official statements from the respective organizations. For each case, some of the terminology used within the company was used, and in some cases this differs from terminology used in the rest of the book. Because both PDM and SCM are under continuous development and change within the companies, all of the studies represent a snapshot from when the interviews were conducted.

Here are short outlines of the cases described in this chapter:

• Sun Microsystems, Inc. The case study describes Sun’s PLC, which is one of its core business processes. The four key process elements—structured process, product approval committees, product teams, and phase completion reviews—are explained. Also, a short description of the tools supporting PLC and how they have been deployed is given.

• Mentor Graphics Corporation. The description of the case is focused on the development process and PLC at one division at Mentor Graphics Corporation. The requirements management, development process, and change management are discussed. Currently, a simple tool support during the development phase is implemented, but the company is in a phase of deploying a new SCM tool enabling better support for distributed development and traceability.

• Ericsson Radio Systems AB. Operational PDM/SCM concept from a concrete project is described. The process supporting the PLC is well defined. However, due to lack of integration between the tools, many procedures must be manually performed, transferring data between the many tools.

• Ericsson Mobile Communications AB. The study discusses the importance of the PDM tool acceptance among developers. The development of a new, more user-friendly Web interface on top of one of the existing PDM tools is described. The development and the deployment are divided in two phases; in the first phase only nonproduct data is managed, and in the second phase the support is enlarged to also include product data.

• ABB Automation Technology Products. The case discusses the management of hardware and firmware—how the product structure is designed to efficiently manage different product variants that are realized in different ways, depending on the manufacturing volume. The advantage in flexibility and limitations in traceability are discussed.

• SaabTech Electronics AB. A case is described in which there exists a need to replace the current PDM system. A specification of the new planned process and the architecture of the new PDM system are discussed.

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