This is nothing to do with the ‘real message of Christmas’ or anything like that. Instead, it’s down to an article by Angela Raini on the BBC last week.

She is a technology journalist who does not feel the need to be the early adopter, ahead of the pack constantly replacing and updating her gadgets. Instead, she is much happier to stick with what she has until has completely outgrown its use or it cannot be repaired any longer.

“If this sounds like wartime Britain – make do and mend and all that – that’s because, in a way it is. Fixing things and recycling in some places is a necessity, not a choice. In the developing world you can see it everywhere.”

After reading the article, I have to admit that I started to feel a little bit greedy. Much of the stuff that was on my list was there to replace something that I have already. Not even things that need much fixing, just things that I wanted a shinier version of.

When did all this happen? I’m not that old but I can remember a time when you wouldn’t lightly scrap something and replace it without seeing if it could be repaired first. Once, we waited a whole week while our VHS player was at the repair shop! Admittedly, it was hardly the blitz but still …

This desire to rip out and replace things in need of repair is not exclusive to individuals. Many organisations have their own list of things that they want and are running initiatives to replace what they already. Don’t get me wrong, looking at ways to improve is definitely a good thing but some approaches can be more drastic than they need to be.

I was speaking to somebody the other day who had been challenged with coming up with a replacement for one of their company processes. After getting everybody in her team together to start from scratch and writing up the work, she found the documentation for the original, only to find that it was virtually the same as her new version.

As austerity hits, more people are looking for ways to save money by repairing their essentials; resoling shoes, mending clothes, etc. How are you looking for ways to ‘make do and mend’ the things that are important to your business?

A few facts…

• Products are the lifeblood of all companies
• We now operate in a global market
• Our desires as consumers are remarkably similar, despite geographic location and culture
• You do not buy things in the same way your parents did
• Your children are not going to buy things in the same way you are
• Today’s consumer demands innovation and continual product progression

Execution

As a company you will have already decided your strategy. Innovator, recognised brand leader, happy to reap the rewards of copying with pride, whatever the strategy clean execution makes the difference.

There is a need to link processes and tools creatively around innovation, brand development and product delivery to achieve that clean execution. This can be defined as; generating the required speed, flexibility and cost of getting the right product, in the right market at the right time consistently. Of course companies that do this survive all market conditions.

We see more examples now of products that generate such desire they transcend all normal classifications (social class, age, sex, geographic location, etc) e.g. mobile phones, flat screen TV’s, laptops, MP3 players. These products can be applied globally with alarming speed.

Those who find ways to combine entrepreneurial intelligence with the obvious benefits of standardisation will be the winners. Creating a dynamic chain reaction which balances creativity with the structure and discipline required for clean and cost effective execution within a network that can operate globally, is the new utopia.

Weak Points

PLM software tools focus on making product delivery efficient. They are a mirror of your process that cries out loud when something is not happening correctly! Doing this makes it very visible where the weak points are in the chain:

• Product portfolio planning?
• Strategic business planning process?
• Communication of direction?
• Innovation process?
• Brand development?
• Project management?
• R&D?
• Marketing?
• Supply chain?
• Sales?
• In market execution?

Practically it is usually a combination of several of the above coupled with business legacy issues such as data integrity, roles & responsibilities, skills and capabilities and organisational reporting lines.

Building Blocks

The building blocks of implementing a PLM software tool are specific:

• Capture best practice
• Provide a knowledge backbone
• Enable global collaboration
• Improve project visibility

Benefits

The benefits are an enabler to the delivery of hard financials that come from:

• Sales through faster and right first time NPD
• Margin through standardisation, quality, control and global sourcing
• Strategy through supporting a networked organisation that allows rapid roll out of best practice and product knowledge
• Risk management through improved legal and customer compliance

If you treat PLM implementation as an IT project, you will go through the upheaval of a software implementation to give people a fantastic tool, that after launch becomes a frustration because it serves to highlight many of the things people already know are wrong.

Surely, a better way is to focus on what PLM is to your business first?

Examine PLM in the context of what the business is trying to deliver and why?

3 keys stages

The diagram below shows PLM within the 3 keys stages of product planning.

Our Approach

Our approach integrates business planning and strategic direction with innovation as the essential feeds into the PLM software which becomes the efficient delivery mechanism. Without doing this you will create a very fast and transparent way of delivering garbage.

Partnering the stage and gate process with key project management tools bridges a gap that so often exists in NPD project delivery where the temptation to “JFDI” pushes people away from process and usually ends up taking longer!

This process is flexible enough to cover pure NPD, margin improvement projects, extensions, brand re-energising or a simple label change. Of course to complete the cycle you have to know what you are going to do with it next and moving back to the product portfolio plan and business plan provides that direction.

This is underpinned with a behavioural change programme focusing on key roles and responsibilities that are required to drive this model:

• New Activities Filter
• Project Board
• Project Leaders / Managers
• Functional Heads
• Project Team Members (cross functional)

Engaging people in behavioural change early has had a dramatic effect on adoption of the new process, model and software. In fact at the point of software go live we have experienced 100% adoption rates because the IT becomes the last piece in the puzzle.

Is PLM an IT project? Not in our experience.

For more information and or to discuss your PLM implementation call Nina on 07837 536979