Pushing SAP PLM

For some time SAP has been promoting its product lifecycle management (PLM) solution. We should say at the outset that we don’t find the term PLM very useful. Yes there are lifecycle implications to the software, however this category of software could more accurately be described as bill of material management software. However, there is no fighting city hall, so PLM it will continue to be known as.

Analyzing SAP PLM

When we did an analysis of SAP PLM for a client, we learned that PLM was not an actual product, but was in fact a “solution.” What his means is that various pre-existing modules have been Jerry-rigged around the material master in order to meet PLM requirements. This is much like SAP’s non-existent digital asset management solution – where digital media are entered as materials into SAP. Actually digital asset management and PLM have a lot in common because both solutions require a lot of functionality in terms of multi-media files. For PLM these files take the form of images and schematics, while in digital asset management the files take the form of images, music and video. However, the material master functionality in SAP is not designed to manage these files, or make them easy to find or reference. There is no big surprise why. The material management functionality was first and foremost designed to hold textural data on products for the purposes of accounting and supply chain management. Changing this functionality around to meet the needs of asset and document management is no easy task.

Lifecycle Planning in SCM

SAP lifecycle planning exists in the supply chain planning suite offered by SAP. For instance, in Demand Planner, which is the forecasting module of SAP SCM, lifecycle planning exists. DP allows you to introduce an existing product at a different location – using profiles to base historical data from current locations. Phase in profiles allows the reduction of the forecast for the period of introduction. We describe this more fully here:

http://sapplanning.wordpress.com/2009/04/21/plm-and-lifecycle-planning-in-scm-dp/

However, this capability in DP, and the product interchangeability functionality that is available in other modules of the SCM suite (notably SNP, CTM, PPDS and GATP) is quite a bit different from the integrated PLM solution that SAP pitches to clients. Again, this gets back to the problem we have with the term “PLM.” PLM functionality can exist in different areas of supply chain applications, however, it does not mean that the solution is offering advanced bill of material management functionality which includes:

• Multimedia file management
• Document management
• Engineering change management
• Collaboration management (between marketing, engineering and production)

SAP Has Had Its Shot in PLM

SAP PLM has not taken off, and it does not appear to be an area they have or intend to put real development effort behind. However, they still make their white papers available on the topic, but the white papers and literature ring a bit hollow at this late date. SAP entry into the PLM market’s main effect has been to discourage companies from implementing real PLM solutions and hurting PLM’s image more generally.

Here you can see one of the main graphics for SAP PLM (listed under Life-Cycle Data Management at the top). However the flaw in this diagram is apparent. PLM is based upon document management, but SAP does not have any serious document management capability. The best evidence of this is the state of SAP Solution Manager that is causing project heartburn on SAP projects globally as we write this. We have first hand experience with Solution Manager and consider only Microsoft SharePoint to be a worse document management solution. (see this link for details)

http://infoknowledge.wordpress.com/2008/12/17/why-sharepoint-for-rss/

This is a market SAP would be wise to cede to other vendors and strengthen their core offerings which more development attention. Our recommendations for how to do this are listed here.

http://sapplanning.wordpress.com/2009/04/10/sap-should-stabalize-functionality-focus-on-quality/

PLM and Service Parts

PLM is of course extremely important for service parts. Many of the service parts planning applications have built in control fields in the form of things like shelf life; and of course supersession is a manifestation of product life cycle needs (out with the old – in with the new). While doing some research on PLM for service parts we came upon a company called Arena Solutions and we have tested their software extensively. We think its time many other companies gave it a try. It is extremely easy to use, offers hosted solutions and just has tons of PLM functionality.

SAP’s Approach

As for SAP PLM, its time to give up on it if you have significant PLM needs. It is dysfunctional for these different software verticals for SAP to use marketing literature and personal relationships with executives and major consulting companies to push their way into software areas for which you really have either no product, or a vastly inferior product to offer. Our view is if many companies had adopted Arena Solutions several years ago they would be way ahead of the game and would have a real solution for their BOM management and life-cycle issues. If these companies are concerned about integration issues with SAP ERP, it is most definitely worth the extra effort given all of the functionality your gain.

For more details on Arena Solutions see this post.

http://spplan.wordpress.com/2008/12/12/arena-solutions-and-where-used-view/

References

http://www.amazon.com/Sales-Inventory-Planning-SAP-APO/dp/1592291236