UGS PLM: Machinery Companies Moving Toward PLM
August 23, 2007 // Published as a news service by IHS
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UGS PLM Software said it has experienced an increase in demand for its products among machinery companies around the world.
Nearly 15% of its customers operate in the machinery industry, a percentage that the company expects to grow even further.
The increased attention for product lifecycle management (PLM) in the machinery industry does not come as a surprise, according to Paul Vogel, senior vice president and managing director, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), UGS PLM Software, who cited globalization as one of the primary drivers.
"According to various industry reports, in 2004 China superseded the United States as the most important market for machine tools and absorbed a fifth of the world's products in this area. Machinery manufacturers realize they must transform their organizations if they are to benefit from the many partnering and selling opportunities in these markets," Vogel said.
PLM is an enterprise strategy that brings together all knowledge, data and processes related to a company's products. It lets distributed organizations develop, support and retire products as a single company by enabling real-time virtual collaboration and data sharing among geographically distributed teams.
According to UGS PLM, European machinery manufacturers appear to be leading the transition to PLM. "The attention for PLM among European machinery companies is understandable, as they were among the first to invest in offshore facilities," said Henry Seddon, vice president, EMEA marketing, UGS PLM Software.
"In addition, the European machinery market, which used to be highly fragmented, has in recent years seen strong consolidation. Not only does PLM help these distributed companies to manage their product lifecycle, it also enables them to get the most out of their existing resources," Seddon said.
Large machinery companies are not the only ones driving the shift toward PLM, UGS PLM said. Of the customers UGS PLM Software has in the machinery industry, more than 80% have fewer than 100 employees.
"We believe many of these are specialized companies that serve a particular niche market. They use PLM primarily to innovate faster and complete more effectively," Seddon said.
UGS PLM Software is a division of Siemens Automation and Drives.
Source: UGS.