The growing trend in the use of PLM as an evironmental tool has increased with the announcement that IBM is launching an Environmental Product Lifecycle Management consulting service. The offering will help clients make their products more eco-friendly from development and manufacturing through delivery and use to end-of-life reclamation and recycling.
With the ability to analyze every phase of a product’s existence, IBM will ensure the design be environmentally friendly from the beginning. This includes considering the materials used to make and package it, the energy needed to produce it, transport and use it, and designing it to be refurbished or recycled when it’s no longer useable.
“The days of using inordinate amounts of energy, toxic chemicals and wasteful packaging to create throwaway products that just get tossed in the landfill are coming to an end,” said Mark Wilterding, IBM’s global leader for product lifecycle management consulting.
“Governments, environmental advocacy groups, and most of all consumers are demanding that companies do better, and designing a product from the start to be eco-friendly throughout its lifetime is the most effective way to do that.”
Full press release at CSRwire.
Aberdeen Group, a leading research and market intelligence company, have released a new study entitled “The Best Kept Secret of Top SMB Product Developers? Finding the Shortest Path to PLM”.
The report reveals that while there is still a relatively modest adoption of PLM by SMEs, there is a clear performance benefit to those that are using it. Specifically, product profit margins are claimed to be 18.5% higher. In addition to this, the report claims that misconceptions of PLM are extensive which prevents many smaller companies from recognising the value, or indeed exploring PLM as an opportunity at all.
“Prior to implementing PLM, Best-in-Class SME companies focus on understanding their current product development processes so they can identify where PLM will offer the most benefit. Starting with the problems they need solved clarifies how PLM will help them. They are also sure to have executive level involvement from the very beginning,” observes Michelle Boucher, Research Analyst in Aberdeen’s Product Innovation & Engineering practice. “Their approach pays off as their implementation costs are 74% lower than the Industry Average.”
A complimentary copy of the report has been made available by IBM, Siemens PLM Software and the Aberdeen Group. This offer remains open until 26 September 2008.
IBM has rapidly increased its PLM capacity in the last few years, now employing more than 3,000 PLM practitioners across the company. IBM will continue to sell and support Dassault Systemes products with the emphasis on V6, the latest release of Dassault’s core offering.
IBM has grand hopes for PLM, anticipating that lifecycle management solutions will expand beyond the current engineering focus and become an enterprise wide set of applications. The company now has 10 PLM Centres of Excellence around the World.
Further coverage of IBM’s PLM vision can be found on Desktop Engineering and Manufacturing Computer Solutions.
