Chapter 9: A Survey of PDM Tools

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Overview

Competition creates better products, alliances create better companies. —Brian Graham

Commercial PDM systems have been on the market since the middle of the 1980s. Many different systems with a wide range of functionalities and sizes are available today. A common characteristic of these tools is the complexity and constant changes in technologies and business. In their marketing, most of the producers ofPDMsystems do not refer directly to the PDM systems; rather, they focus on the support of PLC of all of the activities of an enterprise. This support is classified as PLM, customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain management, and ERP [1, 2]. PLM is an approach to the management of the creation and dissemination of engineering data throughout the extended enterprise. According to this definition, PLM is very similar to PDM. The difference is the emphasis on processes within PLM, with PDM originally focused on product data. ERP systems manage such enterprise operations as contract management, production, procurement, cost accounting, and finance. This flow of information concentrates on logistics data associated with parts (e.g., schedules, quantities, quality, and costs) [3]. CRM focuses on the customer interface and all related activities, such as marketing management, human resource management, and production management. Supply chain management is a process for managing all materials, components, and finished products, and in general the flow of information between customers and suppliers. It supports sales, purchasing, production, and delivery activities. PDM is often identified as a support for the underlying structure and processes and as an instrument for integration of different tools and processes, as shown in Figure 9.1.

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Figure 9.1: Different management tools and PDM systems.

Large vendors usually cover all of these areas with their own line of products, of which PDM is only one. Some vendors concentrate their support on PDM and on a particular tool (e.g., a CAD/CAM tool). Integration capabilities are an important factor in this type of system and very often modern integration technologies are used. Many vendors also focus on particular tools. These can be large ERP tools, particular tools such as change management tools, supply chain tools, or tools used in particular domains. It is worth mentioning that many vendors traditionally related to a particular domain show a strong tendency to also cover other areas of the PLC. For example, some ERP tools (such as SAP R/3) may include functions for supply change management, project management, change management, and similar.

This chapter gives a short overview of certain PDM tools, with emphasis on their integration capabilities. PDM resources on the Internet, which provide information relating to PDM tools and tools from associated areas, are listed in Section 9.1. A list of PDM tools is presented in Section 9.3 at the end of this chapter.



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Implementing and Integraing Product Data Management and Software Configuration[... ]ement
Implementing and Integrating Product Data Management and Software Configuration Management (Artech House Computing Library)
ISBN: 1580534988
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 122

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