Asia leapfrogging other regions in PLM adoption

In an interview with ECN Asia, Will Bosma, Oracle Asia Pacific’s Vice President of Specialty Sales, shared his insights on product lifecycle management (PLM) trends.

How long has Oracle been in the business of PLM solutions? What has changed since you first started?

Oracle has been in the PLM business since 1995. The company is distinguished by its industry-specific PLM solutions for industries including electronics and high technology, semiconductor, life sciences, consumer packaged goods, automotive, industrial manufacturing, and aerospace and defense.

The main changes we have seen over the years in the PLM market are driven by the evolution of our customers’ business models. There is an increased reliance on global design, manufacturing and supply infrastructure, creating a need for a holistic view into product portfolios and product success drivers. This means PLM solutions should allow for enterprise-wide collaboration around product-level data and processes throughout the product lifecycle.

Another trend our customers are experiencing is the further miniaturization and modularization of componentry in electronics, with the rampant use of IP libraries and SoC products. This has made managing product lifecycles within the semiconductor business more challenging due to the exponential volume of product information to manage.

To accelerate product innovation and maximize product profitability in today’s global environment, companies are demanding comprehensive, end-to-end PLM solutions that help them manage the information, processes and decisions about their products throughout the product lifecycle and across the global product network.

What challenges do companies face in coordinating R&D activities needed to support their evolving product line-ups?

Semiconductor and electronics companies face constant pressures to launch successful products on time and on budget, improve product quality, and ensure product compliance. To support their evolving product line-ups, the companies face challenges in coordinating and collaborating across engineering teams and environments; in accessing and finding product data (parts, IP, approved vendors, etc.) in actionable form; and in early collaboration with other stakeholders within the enterprise and within the product network.

How important is Asia as a market for PLM?

There is a great potential for growth in the PLM market in Asia due to the continued shift in manufacturing to Asia and the growth of Asian product giants. We see Asia leapfrogging other regions in the adoption of PLM, particularly in industries such as electronics, automotive design and manufacturing, and medical devices.

Asia will not only be a key factor in the growth of the PLM market, but will also help drive maturation of this technology.

What technologies or functions could play a role in future PLM products?

Future PLM products should include pre-built business process specific decision support tools, which will enable critical thinking for product success. Another one is the integration framework that allows multiple global stakeholders to seamlessly collaborate at every stage of the lifecycle to allow for true enterprise PLM. Last but not the least, future PLM products should possess incorporate customer and consumer needs and preferences to drive decisions around product portfolios and product capabilities.

Oracle recently released two PLM products. What makes these products unique?

The Agile PLM 9.2.2.4 and Agile PLM for Process 5.2 give manufacturers access to deeper, out-of-the- box industry best practices and next-generation enterprise PLM capabilities across engineering, design and manufacturing systems. These new releases are based upon customer-driven enhancements, a superior ownership experience and comprehensive industry best practices for enterprise PLM processes.

The Agile PLM 9.2.2.4 solution is designed for those in the discrete manufacturing industries. As companies are under increased pressure to deliver economical, reliable and versatile products, mechatronics support has become vital as it enables manufacturers to manage integrated design information across all types of components including mechanical, electronics and software. Our latest version delivers mechatronics support and enhancements to enable high-tech and industrial manufacturers to better manage complex, multi-type design objects and benefit from seamless integration capabilities to design systems including mechanical CAD, electronics CAD and software. It also enables engineering collaboration, visibility and control of design information through the product lifecycle both internally and externally.

For process manufacturers and private-label retailers within the food and beverage, health and beauty and household and care products industries, the Agile PLM for Process 5.2 provides enhanced, deeper formulation capabilities, including prototype traceability, calculated attribute support, label and ingredient statement tools and nutritional and compliance reporting. It has additional support for extended data in collaboration and formulation with tighter security to enable collaboration with supply chain applications and protection against counterfeits and copycats. All innovation processes and data are managed in a central repository, providing the enterprise with a single source of truth. With all relevant information that uniquely defines all aspects of a product at each stage in its lifecycle, the product record has all the information required by the extended enterprise, including the supply chain, to conceptualize, design, source, build, sell, service, and dispose of products.

How do both products fit into a design engineer’s work?

Oracle’s Agile PLM solutions enable a number of things that make “design for excellence” easy for the design engineer. These include the abilities to: collaborate on designs with other stakeholders including quality, manufacturing, supply chain, compliance; collaborate on design across product categories – electrical, mechanical and software – irrespective of the toolsets used; and gain early and continuous visibility into product and parts costs, quality, compliance qualifications of parts and assemblies, and manufacturability.



For semiconductor companies:

Agile PLM enables semiconductor companies to leverage industry best practices to improve product profitability throughout the product lifecycle – from IC design to production and customer support.

• Integrated Circuit Design

In the IC design phase, enabling efficient management and reuse of IP, thereby cutting design cycle times.

• Tape-Out

In the tape-out phase, reducing mask re-spins and costs through efficient management of mask changes and revisions.

• Foundry

In the foundry phase, linking processes to products, materials, equipment, and operators.

• Assembly, test, and packaging

In the assembly, test, and packaging phase, efficiently communicate and manage all chip probe test programs, specifications, and revisions, thus improving efficiency, lowering costs, and accelerating product qualifications. With that, companies will be able to collaborate with customers and suppliers to reduce direct material, scrap, and rework costs.

• Quality and environmental compliance

In the quality and environmental compliance phase, maintaining a centralized, revision-controlled repository of all product content, changes, and approvals for International Organization for Standardization and quality surveyor audits and compliance. PLM also helps to maintain all quality, reliability, and defect data as well as history for all products. This helps drive continuous improvements to product and process quality, while accelerating environmental compliance per customer and global requirements.

• Production

In the production phase, allowing the transfer of final product for volume manufacturing to foundries as well as assembly and packaging. Companies can more-effectively manage ongoing product changes and control the product cost. Internal and external customer account representatives can be better managed to drive continuous improvement in processes and products.

• Customer support

In the customer support phase, PLM helps maintain a global repository of all issues and corrective actions. By relying on a single source of all product information, semiconductor companies will be able to diagnose and respond to customer issues faster.

For electronics and hi-tech companies:

Agile PLM helps electronics and high-tech companies leverage industry best practices to improve product profitability throughout the product lifecycle – from product concept, development, and launch to volume production and phase-out.

• Concept

In the product concept phase, enabling effective management of product and program schedules, costs, and resources. Companies will be able to review defect and quality improvement information from prior products.

• Design and develop

In the design and development phase, enabling seamless collaboration internally with outsourced partners and key suppliers on product design. It ensures the company’s intellectual property can be further leveraged by reusing designs and components. With Agile PLM, companies will be able to design products right to market – with the right cost, right parts, right quality, and right suppliers.

• Pilot and prototype

In the pilot and prototype phase, facilitating collaboration with manufacturing partners while incorporating lessons learned from prototyping cycles.

• Launch and ramp

In the launch and ramp phase, supporting effective collaboration through structured processes to rapidly implement changes as well as manage performance and cost throughout the enterprise and supply network. With it, companies will be able to rapidly respond to supply changes, seamlessly transfer knowledge and plants to volume production centers, and effectively manage manufacturing and supplier relationships, thereby accelerating the new product introduction process.

• Production

In the production phase, gaining visibility into and control lifecycle product costs. With it, end-of-life parts can be more effectively managed.

• Service and support

In the service and support phase, PLM enables the provision of quality and defect information back to the engineering teams for next-generation products. With it, companies will also be able to more-efficiently and effectively communicate quality issues.

• Phase-out and disposal

Finally, in the phase-out and disposal phase, PLM helps to manage WEEE and ROHS to ensure lifecycle environmental compliance.