Product Lifecycle Management Framework Research Articles

Industrial blockchain based framework for product lifecycle management in industry 4.0

• An industrial blockchain-based PLM framework is proposed for achieving the openness, interoperability and decentralization in era of industry 4.0 . • Customized blockchain-information-service-enabled is used for multi-source and heterogeneous data automatically processing and broadcasting. • Smart contract-enabled transaction executions and alert services facilitate product flows in the product lifecycles. • Four blockchain-enabled key services are illustrated, including co-design and co-creation service, QAT 2 service, proactive maintenance service and regulated recycling service. Product lifecycle management (PLM) aims to seamlessly manage all products and information and knowledge generated throughout the product lifecycle for achieving business competitiveness. Conventionally, PLM is implemented based on standalone and centralized systems provided by software vendors. The information of PLM is hardly to be integrated and shared among the cooperating parties. It is difficult to meet the requirements of the openness, interoperability and decentralization of the Industry 4.0 era. To address these challenges, this paper proposed an industrial blockchain-based PLM framework to facilitate the data exchange and service sharing in the product lifecycle. Firstly, we proposed the concept of industrial blockchain as the use of blockchain technology in the industry with the integration of IoT, M2M, and efficient consensus algorithms. It provided an open but secured information storage and exchange platform for the multiple stakeholders to achieve the openness, interoperability and decentralization in era of industry 4.0. Secondly, we proposed and developed customized blockchain information service to fulfill the connection between a single node with the blockchain network. As a middleware, it can not only process the multi-source and heterogeneous data from varied stages in the product lifecycle, but also broadcast the processed data to the blockchain network. Moreover, smart contract is used to automate the alert services in the product lifecycles. Finally, we illustrated the blockchain-based application between the cooperating partners in four emerging product lifecycle stages, including co-design and co-creation, quick and accurate tracking and tracing, proactive maintenance, and regulated recycling. A simulation experiment demonstrated the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed framework. The results showed that the proposed framework is scalable and efficient, and hence it is feasible to be adopted in industry. With the successful development of the proposed platform, it is promising to provide an effective PLM for improving interoperability and cooperation between stakeholders in the entire product lifecycle.

PRODUCT LIFECYCLE MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK FOR BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION

The role of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) in business change varies in scope and impact. PLM initiatives range from Information System (IS) change to strategic business transformation, and capabilities to implement PLM successfully are unclear. The paper identifies a PLM framework for transition and related variables. Understanding these variables influence successful PLM transformation. The methods used in this paper include a literature review on existing frameworks available for PLM initiatives. This paper is based on a PLM case study done 2011 – 2015 when the company’s strategy transformed it from an engineering company to a product and service company. The results show strategy driven PLM transformation impacting a company at many levels, and PLM focusing on IS driven process harmonisation fails due to limited knowledge of the business models, products and services. The conclusions are that PLM is at the core of business transformation and cross-functional impacting products, services and customers.

Multi-level management of discrete event simulation models in a product lifecycle management framework

Discrete event simulation (DES) models imitates the behavior of a production system. Models can be developed to reflect different levels of the production system, e.g supply chain level or manufacturing line level. Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems have been developed in order to manage product and manufacturing related data. DES models is one kind of product lifecycle’s data which can be managed by a PLM system. This paper presents a method and its implementation for management of interacting multi-level models utilizing a PLM system.

Project-based collaborative engineering learning to develop Industry 4.0 skills within a PLM framework

Training and learning methods for engineering students, in the disciplines of product design and manufacturing, are becoming more difficult and complex since they have to integrate theoretical technical knowledge, skills in computer-aided applications (CAx) and skills in collaborative work practices. Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) tools support structured collaborative practices and CAx supports engineering content creation. Both types of software applications are key in the Industry 4.0 development. They also evolve over time, incorporate new functionalities, and change their graphical user interface (GUI), adding complexity to the learning process. Traditionally, engineering education addresses the learning of CAx and PLM tools separately, hindering a holistic learning experience to the students. This communication presents a structured integrated vision of these tools and their learning. Project-Based Learning (PBL) is proposed as a learning approach suitable to provide a learning experience that facilitates the development of Industry 4.0 skills and competences.

探索新品开发使用者偏好实施框架—面向产品生命周期管理

在服务经济之主导下，产品必须从消费者自身需求发想创意与创新商品，企业纷纷转型从商品主导到服务主导观，构思如何以产品作为服务载具，或是以具体服务融合不同产品，转变为以黏着消费者为主要之经营策略，一般产品生命周期管理概念必须加以延伸，方能达成今日产品经营目标；为此，本文提出一套具体可行之市场导向产品设计框架与产品功能评价机制，避免研发重点失据，丧失市场切入时机，进而使产品设计更贴近市场。 Nowadays, under the service-driven economy, to a successful product design, the creativity and the innovation are usually inspired from the observation of the consumers’ needs. Many firms began their business model transformation from the good-dominant to the service-dominant logic. They are seeking the new business model to improve the customers’ intimacy by either using the good as the service conveyer or providing a composite service that integrates a number of goods; this new mode change has become a major trend of strategy of firms. Therefore, this paper presents a feasible, comprehensive, market-driven product lifecycle management framework to let products more toward to the market and to avoid the potential loss because of the misleading development angle and the delay of product time-to-market.

A reference framework following a proactive approach for Product Lifecycle Management

Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) has been identified as a key concept within manufacturing industries for improving product quality, time-to-market and costs. Previous works on this field are focused on processes, functions and information models, and those aimed at putting more intelligence on products are related to specific parts of the product lifecycle (e.g. supply chain management, shop floor control). Therefore, there is a lack of a holistic approach to PLM, putting more intelligence on products through the complete lifecycle. In this paper, a PLM framework supported by a proactive approach based on intelligent agents is proposed. The developed model aims at being a first step toward a reference framework for PLM, and complements past works on both product information and business process models (BPM), by putting proactivity on product's behavior. An example of an instantiation of the reference framework is presented as a case study.

Supplier-oriented and product life cycle management framework to support virtual organisations

Throughout the Product Development Process (PDP), collaborative decision making is a key task in Virtual Organisations (VOs). This task can specifically support the interactions between Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and suppliers. The paper proposes an integrated Product Life Cycle Management (PLM) framework enabling VO and collaborative working. The proposed PLM framework is applied to enhance the evolving suppliers' role in the design process of manufacturing equipment. This framework improves the innovation abilities and technical expertise of suppliers. It also reinforces the horizontal collaboration among members of the new Global Supplier Network (GSN) and provides suppliers with an effective tool to support their collaborative processes with OEM.

Product lifecycle management for automotive development focusing on supplier integration

The past years have seen growing investments in the area of product lifecycle management (PLM) by the automotive sector. Due to its complex development cycle, the automotive OEM has begun to adopt the supplier integration into its product development process. To respond to this new trend, the PLM system needs to evolve to support the collaboration and partnership management between the automotive OEM and associated suppliers. Regarding the depth of collaboration, the integration of supplier into OEM process chain has been defined in two ways, quasi-supplier integration and full supplier integration. To enable the success of supplier integration, one of the PLM tasks is to control the collaboration between the automotive OEM and its suppliers, through deciding on an appropriate supplier integration way. Meanwhile, aiming at reduction of the expenditure for partnership management and coordination, the automotive OEM tends to have direct connections with limited number of capable and effective suppliers, called system suppliers. Other suppliers, called sub-suppliers no longer directly communicate with the automotive OEM, but instead with a system supplier who works closer with the automotive OEM and deals with the task of sub-supplier management and coordination. To keep up with these tasks above, a PLM framework is established in a broader perspective in this paper, enabling supplier integration and partnership management in the automotive development process all along the life cycle. Finally, an automotive case study is presented to illustrate the PLM implementation procedure focusing on supplier integration.

PLM roadmap: stepwise PLM implementation based on the concepts of maturity and alignment

Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is increasingly important for organisations acting in dynamic and competitive markets. In practice however, companies struggle with implementing PLM. Because PLM is rather a concept than a system, as its main premises are to improve sustainable advantage through agility and innovation. The concept implies structural, cross-functional and long-term cooperation between actors in- and outside the firm. This complexity hampers the achievement of successfully implementing PLM that truly integrates all organisational aspects and levels. The central aim of this paper is to develop a PLM framework to assess and guide PLM implementations. This framework builds upon insights from capability maturity and business/IT-alignment. The results of a first empirical assessment of 23 Dutch organisations are presented, which were used to empirically validate the framework and to provide benchmark data. Based on the framework and benchmark organisations can develop their own PLM Roadmap to increase the success of their PLM implementation.

Data Modeling for an Integrated PLM and CSP Framework for Configuration Design

AbstractConfiguration design is an important strategy for achieving rapid mass customization in product development. Constraint satisfaction programming (CSP) is known to provide a general tool for configuring a product (i.e., configuration design in this case). Product life cycle management (PLM) is an important strategy for management of products. Integration of these two strategies is a very promising concept towards an effective computer support for life cycle configuration design. This paper discusses the data modeling issues for an integrated PLM and CSP framework for configuration design. These issues, not well addressed in the general engineering design literature, include (1) inter-relations among design requirement, product structures, and design knowledge, and (2) the concept of structural and semi-structural data and their integration.