Integration of the PLM system

with other applications

Different ways to integrate PLM systems
• In a PLM project, it is necessary to decide what kind of information
will be updated in each system.
• The central question to be examined is the ownership of the
information in various life-cycle phases.
• A reasonable objective is that information should always be updated
in one place.
• Other systems can read information directly from the PLM databases,
and if necessary, the required information can be replicated on the
databases of other systems.
System integration and related problems are often the
most difficult and most laborious parts of a project.
It is not necessary to integrate the PLM
system with all other systems in the
company.
1. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems
2. Document management systems
3. Mechanical or electronic CAD systems
4. Other design applications, image editors
5. Applications for cost accounting and bookkeeping
6. Customer relationship management (CRM) or other sales applications
7. Reporting systems
8. e-Mail programs
9. Office applications
10. Viewers
11. Internet browsers
•The level of integration can vary considerably.
•Information can be moved between PLM and other
applications in several different ways,
•from the manual transfer and copying of files to
sophisticated database or middleware integration
between systems.
APPLICATION - TWO OPPORTUNITIES

•An application has two opportunities to acquire the

information it needs:
• information transfer
• information sharing
•Information transfer involves copying the information prior
to moving it.
•Shared information involves the use of one common
database.
•Many different applications have access to a single database,
if necessary at the same time.
 Three commonest ways to integrate systems

❖Transfer file integration

❖Database integration
❖Middleware integration
• It is often easier to transfer information than to share it,
• because sharing information requires an exact knowledge of the basic
mechanisms of the software in use and sometimes involves
application specific tailoring.
• However, the problem with information transfer is that it is often
extremely difficult to ensure the harmony of information after
copying and transferring files.
• Later changes in moved information are not necessarily updated in
the original database.
• One could say that the transfer of information is suitable for
communication between separate companies and organizations.
• The sharing of information is a good solution inside a company,
where applications can be more tightly integrated.
Transfer file
• Information is usually moved as a so-called transfer file, which is
created either manually or automatically in the application from
which the information is exported.
• The generated transfer file is read, manually or automatically, by the
application into which the information is imported.
• As always in integrating applications, common terms and concepts
must be clarified carefully
• There must be exact agreements on:
• What information is moved?
• How is the information moved?
• In which file format is the information moved?
•The transfer file can be,
•for example, a *.txt or *.csv-type text file in which the
fields to be moved are distinguished from each other
using a separator character, such as “;” or “|”.
•The example might create the following line in a
transfer file:
•465259; ; PLATE; S=20; pieces; P004310; A;
465259; ; PLATE; S=20; pieces; P004310; A;

XML
Language
Database integration
• This is still a case of transferring information, but the method used is
database integration instead of a transfer file.
• Database integration is often carried out through a so-called API
(Application Programming Interface).
 • A PLM application could offer, for example, the following API
functions as services to other applications:
- Retrieval of information, for example searching for documents or
items with a certain code
- Free text-form search of information using AND/OR/NOT functions
- Retrieving the structure of a certain item
- Adding information to the database
- Editing information in the database
• Advantages of transfer file integration
■ Easy to implement
■ Inexpensive solution
■ Easy to make changes
• Disadvantages of transfer file integration
Slow, does not operate in real time
Information has to be replicated over several databases
Timing/launching of the transfer file often involves manual work
Management of several transfer files can be difficult
• Advantages of database integration
• ■ Speed
• ■ Ability to use common databases for several applications
• ■ Information in one place
• ■ Automatic
• Disadvantages of database integration
• ■ Implementation can be quite heavy
• ■ Making changes is more difficult
• ■ Expensive
EAI - Middleware integration
• Many companies began to develop large-scale integration for
transferring information between systems.
• However, this development led to a huge amount of work due to the
large number of specialized systems and to the ineffectiveness of
tailored integrations.
• Integrations have to be built individually in the form of tailored links
from system to system.
• Maintenance of these integrations is quite laborious
EAI - Middleware integration
• Enterprise Application Integration - process like data transfer and
distribution possible between different applications in a company’s
data network.
• Helps in moving information more effectively within and between
companies.
• It integrates different systems with each other with the help of a
common generally functioning layer.
•Instead of separately integrating specific systems,
•the EAI adds to the IT architecture of companies a
software layer (middleware) that transmits and moves the
required information between different systems
•Advantages
•The need for integration between the systems decreases
•Reduce the amount of work needed for the maintenance
of the integration
•EAI is multiform and still a little open.
•The exact nature of the concept can therefore vary in
different connections
•Many people said definitions for EAI, but is simple it is
•Middleware (EAI) software can be used to reduce the
number of integrations and make them easier to manage
• When integrating information systems with each other, it is necessary
to think profoundly about the roles of the systems in the first place.
• The properties of new systems have perhaps not been used to the
maximum possible extent.
• Example –
• A Company acquired new ERP application to manage spare part items
• The focus of the project might be elsewhere
• Long term infrastructure planning
• lack of skilled people
• The company’s few experts cannot always participate in every development
project.
• From an overall viewpoint, the result is not always perfect.
ERP
• Traditionally,
PLM ERP
Used for product development process Used for production process

for product data producers for product data consumers

• The PLM system manages product items and item structures,
• but seldom the stock levels for warehouse items.
• This information is controlled with the help of ERP systems but the
basic information on items may be read into ERP from the PLM
system.
• ERP developed from MRP (Material Requirements Planning) systems
• MRP - used for calculating material needs for production
•Modern ERP are module based; different modules
have different user interfaces and different user
groups
•Manufacturing module
•Procurement module
•Logistics module
•Financial module
•Maintenance module
•Sales module
• Different modules manage different operative functions within their
particular fields, covering all kinds of issues needed daily
• customer data,
• purchases,
• backlog of orders,
• warehouse items,
• bill of materials,
• delivered products,
• billing,
• procurement control data,
• sub-contracting data, and so on.
• However, much of the necessary basic information, and the updating
of that information, may be located in the databases of a PLM
system.
• The ERP system must often be integrated with a PLM system.
• Depending on the databases and the needs of the company, the link
can be by transfer file, database or middleware integration.
• Organizations that work largely with
• purchase transactions,
• orders,
• inventories,
• deliveries and
• similar operations (production, purchase and maintenance)
• will probably work more with ERP systems.

• For those involved in

• producing product information,
• such as product development and marketing,
• the system is more likely to be PLM.
CAD
• Many PLM systems have developed from software intended for the
management of CAD drawings.
• Modern PLM systems are no longer CAD system additions, it operates
very widely with all kinds of applications.
• information that has been produced by a CAD system is controlled by
a PLM system
• The PLM does not contain any features related to the actual modeling
and engineering work.
• At its simplest, a PLM system can serve as a file vault for
documentation produced by a CAD system
• CAD system connected to PLM so that the created documentation is
saved directly into PLM without any intermediate stages.
• The PLM user interface can be integrated into the CAD user interface.
•Integration is not restricted to drawings; it can cover
all other created information including:
•Individual 3D-models
•Structures of models: Assemblies and subassemblies
•Items
•Item structures
•Drawings: workshop drawings, assembly drawings,
exploded drawings, etc.
The information lines of a workshop drawing have
been filled in from the PLM system database.
 Configurators
• Configuration is a method of arrangement.
• In the view of IT - Configurator is an application that manages the
structure of a product and its variations,
• When speaking configurators – terminology – different suppliers & IT
consultants can interpret the term differently
• The following applications
✔ which differ very clearly from each other in their operation and
content
✔ are often mixed up:
Sales configurator
Product structure configurator
 Sales Configurator
• A sales configurator controls the sales properties of a product and the
rules relating to sales properties.
• The rules define the allowed combinations of sales properties and
prevent the choice of forbidden combinations
 Sales Configurator

• For Example,
• A car factory may have decided for technical or other reasons that a
car equipped with a 70 kW engine is not available with an automatic
gearbox.
• In other words,
• if the sales item, engine power, has a value of 70 kW,
• then the sales item, transmission, must not have the value
automatic.
 Sales Configurator

• A sales configurator can also control other kinds of customer

information, such as market area or customer-specific price lists for
different sales properties.
• The sales configurator produces a so-called sales structure,
• in practice a group of features that determine the technical
structure of the product.
 Sales Configurator

• The following properties, for example, could be configured for a car:

• Here, the sales configuration for the selected car on the feature level
would be as follows:

CHASSIS OF THE CAR: a three-door coupe

ENGINE: 50 kW

GEARBOX: automatic

COLOR: red
 Sales Configurator

•A sales configurator can be integrated with PLM software,

when the configurator uses sales items that are managed by
the PLM.
•In addition, based on a chosen sales configuration, a physical
product structure can be created in the PLM with those
items and item variations that fulfill the selected product
properties defined in the sales configuration.
•This requires that the PLM system have product structure
configuration features.
•Not all PLM applications support the configuration of the
product structure very well yet.
 Sales Configurator

A PRACTICAL SALES STRUCTURE

 Product Structure Configurator

Product Structure Configurator

• A product structure configurator can be part of a PLM system or it
can be an independent application that is integrated with PLM.
• For the product structure, the configurator is fed the sales
configuration as an input value after which it produces a product
structure matching the sales configuration in question as an output
value.
 Product Structure Configurator

•Management of the product structure with a configurator is

programmatically challenging because it is possible quickly to
accumulate thousands of different variations of the product.
•If all possible combinations of the four different features in
the car example were allowed, the combination of
• three different chassis,
• three engines,
• two transmission and
• four colors
•would alone be enough to produce 72 different
configurations.
 Product Structure Configurator

• Usually a product contains many sales properties that affect the

product structure.
• The number of different structures can easily rise to thousands or
even hundreds of thousands.
 Product Structure Configurator

• For a configurator automatically to create a product structure for all

these thousands of different variations requires a carefully designed
product model that combines sales features with physical item
structures.
• The configuration software must also have a very advanced user
interface for the maintenance of the product model.