Product Data Management (PDM) is the requirement that has come up based on product life cycle management, various numbers of products, variants, and the complexity of managing the data in a systematic order. There are various standards that certify the quality of the PDM systems and a few of them are ISO 13584, STEP, IEC 6130, etc., The PDM has become the need of the hour for organizations. Small-scale companies might not require the PDM system, but medium and large-scale industries definitely require the PDM system.
The retail and apparel companies and the companies who manufacture more variant products should have the PDM system to track and trace the sales and the status of their products. Usually, companies engage third-party companies to take audit their product and the global count is the concept that happens every six months. This study gives the concept and the overview along with the strategies which help organizations to set up their PDM systems based on their requirements.
Objectives of the Study:
- A deep understanding of the concept of PDM
- Analyzing different models of PDM
- To analyze the various Components of PDM
- To understand the various Phases of PDM
- To analyze how PDM helps organizations
- To know the frameworks and the bodies which certify the standards of PDM
Scope of the Study:
The scope of the study is related to PDM and its design and implementation in manufacturing industries. The theoretical concepts along with the case studies of manufacturing industries is been covered. There are cases where organizations struggled because of not having well-defined PDM systems and policies and there are companies who have transformed and restructured their policies where the special emphasis has been given on PDM and they came to success track with these systems and the scope of this study covers all aspects of PDM.
Need of the Study:
The competition in every business is increasing and companies have to sustain in this competitive environment there is a need for companies to manufacture various different types of companies and managing the data of the products is important to have track of the products and hence there is a need of PDM system and that is the reason and need for study on Product Data Management (PDM) System and that is why this topic is been selected for the research study.
Limitations:
Every research shall have limitations for this study the major limitation is the practical approach. Time is one more constraint. The live study in companies who manufactures more types of products in bulk quantities. The study could have been done in a pharmaceutical company that manufactures more types of drugs for every drug the data sheets are different and there are expiry dates that vary from product to product how do pharmaceutical manufacturing companies manage their product data, what are the systems which they have designed and how does it work for them, are there any chances to make them much more competitive, etc., are the areas which shall have been made this study much more productive one.
Research Methodology:
Every study or research has to follow a systematic approach, which is called methodology. The research methodology which is been adopted in this study is qualitative research. The primary and secondary data is been collected from sources like the internet, books, articles, and journals. There are few case studies and data collected from people working in different organizations and the data collected is verbally noted and it is not been recorded or documented as the data collected is not structural and not formal. The collected data is been analyzed and based on which findings and conclusions are derived.
Conclusion & future Scope:
There are many types of Product Data Management software, technologies, tools, and solutions available in the market but integrated solutions like SAP, Oracle, etc., are preferred as the data pertaining to a company and individual product are used by different departments for different purposes and the data should be available in customizable formats to generate analytics and metrics, etc.,
There is a concept called STEP which describes the standards and the quality of the PDM system. The key components of STEP are Language Expression, Classification of entities, the alignment of attributes to objects, Arrays and relations between data sets, Data Representation, Data Visualization, Integration of data sources and resources, etc., There are certifications available for PDM for quality standards and they are IEC 6130, ISO 13584, etc., Data security and the access control are very important and crucial elements in PDM. Technology is evolving at a faster phase and it is helping organizations to grow it is the organization’s tactic to adopt and update to new technologies to have sustainability and growth as the competition is very high.
Designing and maintaining product data in multiple languages which suits the respective country is also very important this concept is called localization and many companies are maintaining data only in English language but it is very important to maintain a website, product details, etc., in all countries languages where they have their business operations and this strategy does not cost more but the security is the concern, If companies adopt this and secure this shall definitely yield very good results. Product data management is only one part where this part plays a very important role in product manufacturing techniques and processes as well as in maintaining product life cycle.
There is a lot of scope for future study as the PDM varies from organization to organization and even from industry segment to industry segment. Every industry has its own work flows and data flows and it is necessary for an individual organization to have its own technology and product-related data management.
The markets are evolving, more and more new products are getting introduced to the market, and competition between products and organizations is increasing hence the scope for further study of PDM has a larger scope. It’s not only Product development but along with PDM, there are also concepts like Product life cycle management, Design for manufacturing techniques, and the process which are an integral part of PDM all these are interrelated, and the scope in huge for future study.