Product Lifecycle Management (PLM): Critical Issues and Challenges in Implementation - Information Technology and Product Development - page 101

5.5.1 Embracing Product Engineers as Implementation
Team Members
Many of the issues discussed earlier imply the challenges associated with partnering
with product engineers in PLM implementation projects. At the same time, engi-
neers have the potential to make crucial contributions to the success of the project.
As such, a key question is how should PLM project managers engage with product
engineers in implementation projects? Future studies that focus on this issue could
provide valuable insights on managing the relationships with product engineers.
Such studies should also consider how the engineers' culture impacts or shapes the
PLM implementation project outcomes and identify the organizational mechanisms
and practices that might enhance the overall success of the project.
5.5.2 Business Impact of PLM Applications
There is very limited understanding of why PLM applications are not delivering
the expected business value. Have the application vendors simply automated the
wrong set of functions? Is the problem that the processes are not commoditized
and therefore implementation teams comprised of primarily technical resources are
incapable of effectively delivering world-class process automated by technology?
Should the skill composition of the teams change for PLM implementations to be
70% process and content experts and 30% IT experts? Future research that focus
on identifying the factors (such as team composition, project activities, nature of
process, and data standards) that would critically determine the extent of business
value derived from PLM solutions would be very valuable as companies increase
the level of investments made in these projects.
5.5.3 Application Customization
Although seemingly a very tactical, technical area of PLM implementation, cus-
tomizations have the potential to be an early indicator for the maturity of the
PLM applications and a measure of the product development process consolidation.
Also, customizations have a broad and varied impact on PLM implementations. For
example, a reduction in customizations will reduce implementation costs, increase
solution stability, reduce internal support costs, improve software upgrade paths, and
increase the frequency that the client is willing to upgrade. These are all good exam-
ples of important variables for customers and vendors alike. However, developing a
deeper understanding of when customization is needed for the business is important.
Studies that contribute toward such an understanding by examining the key business
drivers of PLM customization and comparing those with PLM solution character-
istics will be valuable. Such studies should ideally develop a framework that could
guide business managers in deciding the nature and extent of PLM customization
(and the associated trade-offs) in varied product development contexts.