Title: PLM implementation guidelines – relevance and application in practice: a discussion of findings from a retrospective case study

Authors: Mattias Bokinge; Johan Malmqvist

Addresses: Department of Product and Production Development, Chalmers University of Technology, SE-412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden. ' Department of Product and Production Development, Chalmers University of Technology, SE-412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden

Abstract: In this paper, a recently conducted product lifecycle management (PLM) implementation project is analysed. The aims are to investigate whether published product lifecycle management (PLM) implementation guidelines are relevant to and used in practice, and, if so, to assess how useful they are for guiding project execution. This paper presents an examination of how a real PLM implementation project was conducted, mapping out the rationale for different courses of action and the effects they had. This paper evaluates the degree of relevance and application of existing PLM implementation guidelines. It is found that while most of the guidelines were highly relevant to the project, they were not applied in full. Potential reasons for why the guidelines are not followed are discussed. It is suggested that projects review their plans with the guidelines in mind, evaluating their degree of relevance and including a plan for how to apply the guidelines.

Keywords: product lifecycle management; PLM implementation; product data management; PDM; empirical study; implementation guidelines.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPLM.2012.046442

International Journal of Product Lifecycle Management, 2012 Vol.6 No.1, pp.79 - 98

Received: 04 Mar 2011
Accepted: 07 Feb 2012
Published online: 16 Aug 2014 *

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