An Approach to Determining the Need for Integrating Quality Management into Industrial PLM Implementation

Abstract

In practice, companies use different tools and systems to plan and manage product and process quality. Most of these tools and systems are disconnected from product data/information management systems. The downside of disconnected tools for quality management is that the repeating issues that appear in multiple systems can obscure root cause investigations by isolating related data elements, with no means to understand relationships among them. Redundant work identifying and resolving quality issues can happen in multiple tools without an automated way to communicate knowledge learnt to other teams. This leads to inconsistent and incomplete problem resolutions that impede, not improve, product and process quality. In the recent development of new technologies, many IT tools have become available on the market and among them are the PLM systems proving very popular among companies which enable the creation and maintenance of complex industrial products. A comprehensive solution in the PLM Platform is presented in this paper that aims to link quality to product design, manufacturing planning, and business-critical processes such as change management. The approach provides cross-disciplinary teams and the extended supply chain with powerful closed-loop capabilities to identify and manage risk, improve quality, meet customer requirements, and attain environmental, safety, and information management compliance.