Rosemary Grabowski of ENOVIA, Dassault Systemes on PLM

Figures vary, but it is safe to say that less than 10 percent of innovation is considered breakthrough, and 30  percent to 50 percent of new products do not stick on shelf. Now especially, companies must bring the right products to market in the most efficient way possible. Rosemary Grabowski, VP, business development and strategy, Consumer Products Group, ENOVIA, Dassault Systmes, shares insight around best practices for PLM, the enabler of the innovation process.


Describe the current business climate for consumer goods (CG) firms.

Grabowski: The globalization of business, combined with an international economic downturn, has created a difficult environment for CG companies. Compounding the situation, too many companies have inefficient processes for managing through these tough times. I estimate that only 25 percent of companies have effective innovation processes. This is due in large part to their inability to communicate effectively across a fragmented global enterprise and extended supply chain. Most large CG companies, for example, have as many as 750 disparate IT applications1 deployed throughout their global ecosystem. Users have no efficient way to collaborate because the applications are not linked.

Although providing many benefits, the extended supply chain has exacerbated the "spider web" of complexities. Managers need cross-functional project visibility, access to information in multiple systems and streamlined global processes. The dynamics of innovation are changing. There are environmental challenges, consumer involvement in product development, tighter supplier scrutiny and global communication frustrations that force us to ask several questions as we strive to innovate in this new paradigm -- "how do we deliver innovation better, faster and smarter in a global and challenging economy?"


How can a CG company innovate "better, faster" over its competition?

Grabowski: Innovation should be a defined strategic pillar for delivering organic growth. It should be intrinsically linked to business strategy and have the consumer at the core of its design. Even in an economic downturn, new market opportunities appear daily -- the challenge becomes how to harness them before they are lost. Infusing innovation into the marketplace fast and ahead of your competition requires strong business processes, global collaborative technology support and a cultural willingness to adapt. PLM provides the infrastructure for speed, greater individual accountability and transparency for production differentiation requirements throughout the development and implementation cycles.


How does PLM enhance innovation design and delivery?

Grabowski: PLM spans the entire lifecycle of a product, bringing together the people, processes and content necessary to conceive, design, manufacture, launch and retire products. By standardizing processes, PLM users address key issues across a collaborative environment. To realize its full benefits, PLM requires senior management support and focus. Effective PLM includes world-class business processes, defined governance, leadership and hurdles, technology to record, support and collaborate and a single change management system. PLM provides global visibility, cross-functional collaboration leading to faster innovation, a framework for decision-making that allows resources to work on the important projects, not just the urgent; and done right, delivers innovation that better links  to consumer  needs.


Are "world-class" business processes important for innovation?

Grabowski: CG companies need to define and standardize work processes across the global enterprise, leveraging best practices in ideation management, portfolio management, stage gate execution, project management, regulatory compliance, supply chain quality and sourcing and product and formula management. World-class business processes help answer the questions of how to capture ideas in the very early stages of innovation, infuse innovation into global organizations and manage from idea to commercialization -- all collaboratively with R&D, marketing, finance, supply chain, etc. An organization can measure the effectiveness of its practices only by executing them consistently over time. The result is an actionable set of process metrics that enables a CG company to measure the success of its processes against its innovation imperatives, and tweak those processes accordingly. PLM enforces the standard processes and over time creates world-class business processes for innovation.


How does PLM influence innovation?

Grabowski: One of the most significant challenges for innovative organizations is saying "no." As a result, innovation pipelines tend to look more like tunnels instead of funnels, wasting precious organization resources. PLM aligns the product pipeline with an organization's goals. A PLM strategy gathers data from a "voice of the customer" program, influencing the product pipeline choices, providing a more focused market impact. Governance provides common metrics for business-focused decision-making. Enforcing hurdle rates early in product development leads to developing only those concepts that align with a company's strategic goals, and most importantly, satisfies their consumers' needs.


How does using PLM affect the rate of innovation?

Grabowski: PLM capabilities remove many of the obstacles that influence innovation. Recording information enables companies to compile an accurate data record, resulting in an efficient reuse of information when appropriate, accurate formula specifications, supplier changes and regulatory compliance. Imagine the speed to be gained by reusing complex product design properties. PLM enables collaboration across all boundaries, resulting in the consideration of the best ideas at the fastest rate. Imagine driving efficiency in your own organization while reaching out to external resources for ideas and Intellectual Property (IP) as in an "open innovation" concept. PLM can provide this transparency while proactively managing and securing IP early in the development process and automating enforcement of context-sensitive business rules specific to the nature of the IP at stake.


Is change management necessary when instituting a PLM program?

Grabowski: As the most human aspect of implementing a PLM strategy, many companies dismiss the importance of change management. Cultural change is difficult and often makes managers wary. This quote describes the situation: "Change is hard because people overestimate the value of what they have -- and underestimate the value of what they may gain by giving that up." 2 It is important to inspire the people involved by providing them with a vision of what their new, collaborative, transparent world will look like after adopting these practices. This is key in enabling the successful implementation of any change initiative.


How can a CG company embrace the collaborative benefits of PLM?

Grabowski: First, evaluate your current processes for effectiveness and ensure alignment to your business goals. For example, if you are trying to standardize your brand executions worldwide and your processes do not reinforce collaborative behavior, you should consider an enhancement in the design of your business process. Articulate your governance metrics clearly and ensure that you have leadership buy-in. Consider strategic, consumer, financial and operational metrics for a common global decision platform. By linking your strategic vision to an enterprise-wide PLM framework, you will achieve "better, faster" innovation."

Second, inventory your IT systems and establish how a PLM investment fits into your overall business strategy. Address your business requirements across the PLM spectrum. Choose a system that is highly scalable, and supports connectivity to ERP and manufacturing resource planning (MRP). Finally, introduce change management best practices. Employees are your most important resource and not secondary to technology. Their willingness to change, adapt and explore new possibilities is critical to the success of an innovation strategy.


1 Prepared by IBM for the GMA Information Technology Investment and Effectiveness Report (2008)
2 James Belasco and Ralph Stayer, Flight of the Buffalo (1994)