Product life cycle, enhance business performance of PDM, CPC, collaborative product commerce

Section Acer computer to enhance the business performance of PDM

Product is the core of the manufacturing sector, and any experience of a product R & D, manufacturing, and even sales, improve, and even the final out of the complete life cycle, will the resulting information is hard to imagine the great, complex, effective control of information, it is equal to effective control of products; effective control products, but also to be successful ventures. Aberdeen Group was appraised as the world's top ten best CPC (Collaborative Product Commerce) Acer computer company, that is, PDM (Product Data Management) as a start and, indeed control the product to reach all the relevant information, before proceeding to enhance business effectiveness.

Acer Computer PDM into action, originated in 1998, can be said that Taiwan's electronics assembly industry in the first and most complete PDM application example. At first, Acer Computer Product Assurance Division would be to address material inventory management (BOM: Bill of Material) is part of the process to enhance product quality, but in-depth study, it was found to proceed by one system is not feasible; in undertaken to assess the at the same time, foreign markets PDM There are already many successful examples of application, Acer computer has recognized the urgency of PDM import.

Acer challenge mainly in three areas:

BOM degree of automation to enhance the accuracy
Self-developed documentation and process management solutions can only cover a limited level of PDM
Strengthen product development related to the effectiveness of inter-unit communications

Assistance of professional consultants tailored PDM application

Acer Computer analysis of the time, its business model is divided into ODM and own-brand product line, there are desktop computers and notebook computers, thus derived from four kinds of different combinations, equivalent to possession of four kinds of product development processes. Acer Computer executives believe that PDM is the enterprise-class program, not only listed it as 1998 and 1999 the focus of objectives, but also at the same time the user set the relevant units in the product development.

Prior to this, Acer Computer tried to develop their own programs to meet the PDM needs, but the scale is rather limited, both in the file or process areas, are unable to meet the actual demand. Precisely because of this, the import PDM process, the Acer computer want, whether documents or processes, are able to fully support their specific needs and processes.

In fact, all of the PDM projects are subject to the process of passing through the system in order to meet user needs, therefore, professional and excellent consulting groups in this respect play an important role. In the Acer into PDM the same time, they commissioned a consultancy firm McKinsey (McKinsey & Co.) For Business Process Reengineering (BPR) project to product output process (PGP; Product Generation Process) a clear definition of PDM systems and other related groups parts of the specification, so, PGP's follow-up work, it depends on the cause of HP's technology consulting group for their assistance.

It is noteworthy that, PDM must be associated with the organization's existing applications, such as: Supply Chain Management (SCM), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), CAD / CAM, and even office automation (OA), etc. to establish a direct interface to the system in order to give full play to product data storage, workflow control and a joint platform, the effectiveness of PGP. The HP Science and Technology Advisory Group at its addition to PDM team, and the other in the ERP, SCM and computer integrated manufacturing (CIM) and other areas have a dedicated team, is expected to the overall combat capabilities for the enterprise PDM into the course to play a strong synergy. Acer Computer IT applications on the environment, PDM in the import process, but also carried out simultaneously by the enterprise resource planning system Baan III upgrade to Baan IV work, and with the MCAD, ECAD and other multiple CAD / CAM systems to create an integrated interface.

PDM effectiveness, impressive PDM results, PDM project review process

PDM effectiveness of the application, with impressive results

Acer computers PDM project review process, in order of business process reengineering consulting, solution architecture, system design, system on-line in four phases, HP Science and Technology Advisory Group In addition to full participation in the cause, according to McKinsey consultants as defined by the establishment of PGP process model, but also enough to support the development of PGP and the BTCO solution. The implementation of BTCO (Build to Configure / Customize Order) is a PDM Acer, one of the key applications, for example, can be a complete implementation of the BTCO systems, OEM products only need to know the name and model, you can get complete configuration information, During this period the benefits are incomparable.

The effectiveness of the PDM does not stop here, shorten product development time to market, but also to seize the market opportunities for the enterprise, leading competitors in response to business opportunities. In Acer notebook computer product line is concerned, from the time required for R & D to market, from the original 8 months be reduced to 7 months; In addition, engineers can more quickly search for product information, while also lowering the communication errors caused by bad or erroneous loss; the other hand, began to want to upgrade to a BOM accuracy, but also a sharp rise from 60% to 95%, the real makers should have demonstrated the standards of international quality.

In order to assist the Acer computer PDM team development training to maintain the ability to support and follow-up, HP's technology consulting business group is also attached considerable importance to the transmission of skills and knowledge. To business process reengineering for the beginning, after 18 months of the process, Acer computer's PDM system in 1999 Zhengshishangxian; and thereafter, Acer computer more with PDM based on the information, and gradually adding collaborative features, to strings with customers and suppliers. Therefore, the Acer computer access to Aberdeen Group evaluation of the world's top ten best CPC (Collaborative Product Commerce) business honor really deserved.

So far, the Acer's PDM system, users have more than 800 people, the number of users in Taiwan ranks highest in PDM application examples. For the manufacturing sector, through the PDM application is expected to accelerate the product development process, but the consistency of the use of PDM information can be stored in the maintenance of product quality. In this way, the speed and quality of two key factors vital products, you can PDM through a good mechanism to achieve the best balance and no longer contain each other. Moreover, once the completion of PDM application deployment, follow-up to promote collaborative commerce, and further integration of upstream and downstream firms in product-related information system data movement, also can be a matter of course.

PDM is a long history, and after examples of global users to prove their effectiveness-critical applications, for manufacturing-oriented in terms of Taiwan's market is definitely one of the necessary infrastructures. Although the application of PDM in the Taiwan market, time is not long, but brought the benefits of PDM for the enterprise still bring immediate relief, Acer computer in PDM on the line immediately after the creation or upgrading of the efficiency is the best description.

Effectiveness of the application