Exploring the Benefits of PLM ERP Integration

Streamlining business processes with PLM ERP integration

Integrating PLM (product lifecycle management) and ERP (enterprise resource management) systems is fundamental for modern businesses aiming to streamline their operations, improve data accuracy, and enhance collaboration. By bridging the gap between product development and business management, PLM ERP integration ensures that all departments work with consistent, up-to-date information, leading to more efficient and effective processes. To successfully answer those demands, businesses must quickly and transparently be able to access and produce every little piece of data on both the products they manufacture and the business processes they apply.

How can poor integrations between PLM and ERP affect your business?

Today’s businesses are under a lot of pressure from just about every corner. While customers are growing smarter, industry watchdogs are becoming stricter, and competition is getting stiffer.

• Data Inconsistencies: Discrepancies between systems can result in errors and miscommunications, impacting product quality and delivery timelines.
• Increased costs: Manual data entry and error correction can be time-consuming and costly.
• Reduced efficiency: Inefficient processes and a lack of real-time data can slow down decision-making and hinder productivity.
• Collaboration challenges: Poor integration can lead to silos within the organization, making it difficult for teams to collaborate effectively.

Benefits of PLM ERP integration

• Improved data accuracy and consistency: Integrating PLM and ERP systems ensures that data is consistent and accurate across both platforms. This reduces errors and discrepancies, leading to better decision-making and higher-quality products.
• Cost savings and increased efficiency: Automating data transfer and synchronization between PLM and ERP systems reduces the need for manual data entry, saving time and resources. This leads to increased operational efficiency and cost savings.
• Real-time visibility into product lifecycle and supply chain: With integrated systems, businesses gain real-time visibility into the entire product lifecycle and supply chain. This enables better planning, faster response to market changes, and improved overall performance.
• Enhanced collaboration and communication: PLM ERP integration fosters better collaboration and communication between different departments. Teams can access the same data and work together more effectively, leading to improved product development and faster time-to-market.

What’s the difference between a good integration solution and a bad one?

A good integration solution is reliable, scales well, and ensures data quality in downstream systems by keeping track of all integration events. All events should be logged and easily accessible for statistics and deviation follow-up purposes. In cases where security aspects and protection of core business IP are vital, secure data transfer must be possible. A good solution stays robust and stable even during heavy workloads.

Best practices using common integration technologies should be built in and allow for integration setup without relying on specific individuals. General basic competencies should be enough to allow us to focus on the content, not the details of the integration protocol used.

A bad solution has none of these qualities, but is clunky, next to impossible for new individuals to take over and maintain without significant instructions and handover from the author. It doesn’t separate content from technology. Simply switching from one protocol to another becomes a bigger task with a risk of affecting the whole solution. To detect deviations in a bad solution, administrators have to search through various logs, and in order to fix problems, information from many places is needed. Ultimately, this means that deviations might pass unnoticed, and fixes will most likely be based on incomplete information or not understanding the full picture, resulting in data mismatches between systems and unnecessary costs.

Essential capabilities for PLM ERP integration software

• Creating engineering items: One of the essential capabilities in an ERP and PLM integration is to sync a unique number on an engineering item creation in either system. This unique identifier enables searches within your other systems and ensures data integrity.
• Sending EBOM or MBOM: Sending the physical product structure to ERP when the parent object is validated is crucial. This capability enables the Bill of Materials (BOM) structure to be available for ERP users.
• Converting and sending PDFs: Converting documents to PDF and sending them to your ERP system when the physical product is released ensures that these documents are available for material reference in your ERP.
• Synchronizing attributes: When an engineering item is released, synchronizing attributes from your PLM to ERP is critical. This functionality ensures that these values are accurate and available for ERP users.
• Change management: Synchronizing changes of release and revised designs enhances collaboration between departments and improves data quality.
• Updating from ERP: Synchronizing attributes from ERP to PLM when the ERP information is changed ensures that these values are accurate and available for PLM users.

How can you ensure that PLM ERP integration contributes to your success?

• Define integration goals such as data accuracy, streamlined processes, and improved collaboration.
• Analyze existing processes to identify integration opportunities.
• Assess the technical requirements and integration capabilities of PLM and ERP systems.
• Establish data mapping strategies and consistency rules for effective data synchronization.
• Implement measures to protect data during transmission and storage.
• Involve change management practices, provide training, and address resistance to ensure smooth adoption.
• Engage experienced vendors for integration support and collaboration.
• Thoroughly test the integrated system to verify data integrity and functionality.
• Consider long-term scalability to accommodate growth and evolving business needs.
• Monitor, gather feedback, and optimize the integrated system for ongoing benefits.

How can TECHNIA help?

Enterprise systems integrations are critical to the success of modern organizations. By integrating various systems and processes, businesses can improve their efficiency, reduce errors, and improve collaboration between teams. This integration can also provide greater visibility into business processes, better decision-making capabilities, and the flexibility to scale operations as the business grows.

Choosing the right ERP and PLM integration solution will enable your business to manage product development, engineering, and production processes efficiently. With the right solution, you can streamline operations, increase efficiency, reduce errors, and improve collaboration between teams.

Integration Framework is tailored to integrate ENOVIA with ERP systems such as SAP, containing ready-made templates that ensure fast and efficient implementation. The administration user interface is simple and straightforward, providing a clear overview and consistently providing vital statistics on, for example, usage statistics per integration, the number of integration jobs currently in the pipeline, and success and error rates. It also allows users to quickly and easily stop or pause integrations, track errors, and resend or process integration jobs that might have failed. And – perhaps most crucially – it’s built for scalability, allowing for future add-ons. And it’s easy to upgrade, which means the total cost of ownership is kept low.

Pre-built connectors for PLM and ERP systems

• 3DEXPERIENCE ERP Connector

The 3DEXPERIENCE ERP Connector ensures secure data exchange between ERP and PLM systems with robust authentication measures, including OAuth 2.0, 2FA (two-factor authentication), certificate-based, and basic authentication. It supports various protocols for flexible security configurations. For communication, the connector uses the OData standard, based on RESTful web services, to enable efficient data transfer using HTTPS and JSON. As an ISO/IEC-approved standard, OData ensures compatibility and secure, seamless data communication across enterprise platforms.

• 3DEXPERIENCE SAP Connector

Ensure and secure the digital process and data continuity with the 3DEXPERIENCE SAP Connector. Allow enterprise teams to collaborate seamlessly on information sharing, while continuing to use best-of-breed platforms for PLM and ERP. Enhance cross-functional processes with secured and synchronized master data. As development processes evolve over time, the connector has built-in flexibility to change data and process mappings on the fly, to meet new business requirements with the smallest delay possible.