Customer Reviews

Product Lifecycle Management: 21st century Paradigm for Product Realisation

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm very interested in PLM related issues and PLM as a concept has become essential for the company I work for. When I opened this book and tried to read it I became a little exhausted - more than 400 pages with no pictures or figures or charts - only text and pages of various kind of detailed lists. I wonder who are the ones in the core interest group of this book? Certainly not business readers, I personally don't have enough time to or effort to go this through even though I'm very sure that all PLM issues are in place and explained in great detail. From my perspective this is not something to read in a plane.

I like this book, it explains PLM well. It needed to be written. A lot had been said about PLM, but nothing authoritative put on paper. But its a long book with over 400 pages and for me it would have been even better with some clear break points. So let me propose some break points for you when you're reading it.

I propose you read it in three parts. The first part would be Chapters 1 to 6, Chapter 9 and Chapters 31 and 32 which would be about about 120 pages long. These chapters make a great introduction, description and justification of PLM. As the title has it, PLM is a new paradigm. These chapters cover the PLM paradigm, which makes sense, but because it is different from the previous view, has a lot of description and examples. This is useful to anyone involved with PLM. Its excellent, innovative and visionary.

Part 2 is the Chapters from 10 to 21. That's about 100 pages of description of how to prepare for PLM. They cover a lot of ground. The end result from these chapters is the PLM plan. They start from not having a PLM solution or strategy, just the need to do PLM. They'd be useful to anyone developing a PLM strategy/plan. Very good to read, and would help you run a company's PLM initiative.

Part 3 for me is the 150 pages or so starting with Chapter 22 and going up to Chapter 30 with a description of how to implement a component of PLM. The implementation of PDM is described. This is life in the trenches compared to Part 2 strategizing. Specific to PDM, but a lot such as financial justification would be similar for other components. Good for the PDM trenches.

Overall, a book I recommend.

This is a goldmine of high-value material with rich veins of knowledge and experience. It will be highly valued by readers in the Manufacturing sector handling the complexity of developing, supporting and managing products in the global economy.

Nuggets like the PLM paradigm lie on the surface. More highgrade material lies under the surface with even a 30 slide appendix to save you days of work.

Space shuttles, tires, SUV's, drug products, elevators, with collaboratively-developed, globally-used products the need for Product Lifecycle Management is omnipresent. Unless PLM is implemented expect even more problem products. But implementation will take more than management presentations of cool and colorful Powerpoint slides. PLM is a new way of thinking, flying in the face of century-old thinking, and isn't so easy to take aboard.

This is a profound book building the foundations of a new paradigm for product development, realization, use, management. Reading it is an enrichening experience.

Its about time a book like this came along. Sure it has strengths and weaknesses, like any other book. Read it for its strengths. But beware of its weaknesses. A weakness, it takes over 400 pages to describe all PLM. A strength, its the only book so far that covers 'real PLM' and not just a slice of PLM. Another weakness, its definition of PLM, 'PLM is the activity of managing a company's products all the way across their lifecycles in the most effective way' is more strategic than many others, this isnt weak-kneed departmental PLM for file management. Next strength though, this robust definition holds good over 400 pages and all the product lifecycle. A weakness of the book is it doesn't have the usual diagrams of PLM seen in many glossy marketing brochures. A strength, it has a set of slides you can build on to make your own presentations. A weakness, Stark the author doesn't offer a quick fix or a quick plug-in technology solutuion or a quick read. A strength, Stark's approach to PLM is innovative, far reaching, complete, business-oriented. A strength, Stark shows great understanding of what all manufacturing companies have in common, and uses it wisely. I see two main uses for this book. Long-term, on the PLM managers desk as a PLM reference. Short-term, great introductory reading for all members of a PLM implementation initiative. This will get them tuned up for a strategic PLM project.

I bought this book approximately one month ago. I hesitated because of the price, but finally took the plunge and dived in. Now I recommend it to everyone involved in Product Lifecycle Management. It changed how I saw PLM. If you're in PLM, then it's the book for you. It's good for PLM people whoever they are, users, managers, vendors, integrators, universities, students. It's more than 400 pages long and I consider there's not a page which isn't great value. What is so great? To start with the book is well-structured, readable, and full of useful information, experience and wisdom. There are all kinds of various sections and lists to help you to understand why PLM is necessary, what it includes, its components, examples in various industries, characteristics of a PLM project manager, systems and vendors, why PLM appeals to different managers, and so on.

The first few chapters contain foundation material about lifecycles, products, product data, processes, trends, developments, and are good and useful and could make a book in themselves, but that's just the beginning. Then the book moves on, and linked subjects such as engineering change management, enterprise change management, product liability, patents, intellectual property, lifecycle analysis, sustainable development, re-use, recycling, traceability, and so on, are brought in, and you start to see PLM in a new manner. Another theme in the book is PLM implementation. Along the implementation path there are many intermediate steps, and the book shows how to strategize, plan and implement them, and how to justify the all-important component of Product Data Management. Direct and indirect benefits, NPV and ROI are all covered in detail. A PDM maturity model shows typical steps and related achievements. The books loaded with great examples. It finishes with a great set of presentation slides you can use for your project team or manager today.

I personally appreciate it's not a book just about PLM systems, but on how organizations will manage products across their lifecycles from cradle to grave. The book looks at PLM from different views. It encourages you to think. It encourages you to think of the past, the present and the future. It describes the reality of a product development and manufacturing company. After a while, you begin to wonder how the author can understand so much about your enterprise without having seen it. As his view of the present situation conforms so closely to reality, his vision of the future of PLM is worth reading. The book gets you thinking about the future role of PLM. Eventually the author sees two principal fields of focus for manufacturing companies. These are the enterprise and the product, with ERP controlling one and PLM the other. PLM will give better control of the products, and make it possible for products to benefit the manufacturer and the customer without destroying the planet's environment. PLM will become just as necessary as ERP, which is why I recommend this book to a very wide audience.

A really useful, thoughtful book parts of which I've already read 3 or 4 times.

Great source of PLM Knowhow. I like the overarching way PLM is treated with all 5 phases of the product lifecycle included. Product idea, product definition, product realization, product support, and product end-of-life. This is cradle to grave plm, not only product development. The focus on the product is timely as manufacturers rediscover that product is king. The text is crystal clear, concise and complete. It has everything from PLM vision and PLM strategy to nuts and bolts of PLM implementation. Its holistic approach includes processes, applications, information and people. It is the most comprehensive PLM book I have seen. This book is a PLM reference before, while and after PLM is implemented. Great reading for a PLM Director, Director of Product Lifecycle Management, PLM Manager, PLM Project manager, PLM/PDM manager, PDM Manager and anyone else into PLM whether its with Agile Software, MatrixOne Matrix, UGS TeamCenter, SmarTeam, Softech ProductCenter. Useful links to web site www.johnstark.com and 2PLM ezine, a weekly zine about product lifecycle management.

I guess this book is of no interest to the general public, but a must-have for its target niche, folks managing products at whatever time, whether its products as ideas, product development, product realization, product support, product use, product retirement. The author reckons industry must now, twenty-first century, manage products in a joined-up way across the lifecycle from cradle to grave, else with high global competition and reduced timecycles, more and more stuff will fall through the cracks, products will fail, customers will complain and sue, managers and corporations will suffer. The author gives plenty examples of products misbehaving and problem sources like department walls, data silos, functional misinterfaces, unclear responsibility for a product across the lifecycle, customer input twisted, field feedback ignored, out-o-date standards, sales and engineering with different specs. Sure, we all know the problems. Whats new? First book I've read where the author goes beyond citing the problems and the business drivers, and comes up with a coherent solution. With Product Lifecycle Management you organize your processes, people, data, folks and systems so you can manage the product across the lifecycle from cradle to grave and be in control. Sounds simple, great concept. Implementing it should keep us busy the next 20 years

If you are looking for a way to justify PLM in your company, this book might be what you are looking for. But if you are rolling up your sleeves to work on a comprehensive PLM solution, this book will likely disappoint.
The information in the book is reminiscent of the numerous PowerPoint presentations I have been subjected to courtesy of multiple PLM vendors. Over and over are there reassurances of PLM's benefit. We just never seem to get into the details and mechanisms that show exactly how PLM works.
With most PLM books, the author seems like someone on your side. Their tone and presentation of facts are aimed at helping you solve the issues your are facing. Reading this book, I felt like the author was sitting across the table negotiating a case for PLM. The historical recounts as related to PLM are shallow and likely to mislead readers in an attempt to push PLM upon them. It is fair to say that many readers will already have made their mind up to go with PLM, and do not need to be preached at in an almost infomercial-like tone.
It is not that this is a bad book; it's just that there are so many better books on PLM and engineering configuration control, that time could be better spent. And after reading several books on the subject, I often find many to be useful references when information is needed later in the process. Not so with this book. Which explains why it has been sitting silently on the bookshelf throughout most of our implementation period.

I highly recommend this Book. A clear and complete Overview about PLM from Definition to Implementation. Strategy, Barriers, 'Reality Check' and a View into the Project Management of PLM.

We got 4 books on PLM for our project. This cost most but was best value. Lots of details about reasons and benefits for PLM, how PLMs evolving, helpful hints about how to run the PLM project, how to make the business case. Good case study examples, a maturity model to help positioning, explanation of difference between PDM and PLM, stuff about how and why people may resist. Lots of good material, lots of details, useful different views of PLM. This book is well structured and is a useful starting point for manufacturing organizations looking to implement PLM. It provided us with good direction and ideas and challenging questions to answer. Recommended reading and source of discussion and decision for a PLM Project team.