Laboratory for Product Data Management

The new product development process (NPD) is to be regarded as part of the planning and development process. An important task in the NPD is to support the processes and the management of product data: this is the field of product data technology and product data management (PDM).

Product data management is one of the key concepts in modern product development process. PDM supports companies all the way from the initial idea through to delivery of the products. All data necessary for the description and configuration of a product or product family are stored structured, safe and ready to be evaluated in many different ways.

PDM systems allow the definition and the flow of processes that use the product data. For example, release, modification and data exchange processes can be optimally supported. The core idea of Concurrent Engineering, the simultaneous cooperation of many people at a product can be implemented with the help of PDM systems.

PDM systems can be integrated meaningfully in the IT infrastructure of enterprises. A central concept of PDM systems are product structures. This opens up the possibility to integrate PDM systems with ERP systems and other systems dealing with Bill of Materials (BOM). Even the Master Data Management (MDM) offers a variety of connectivity options for PDM systems. Modern interface technologies provide the technical basis for a powerful integration of PDM systems.

Often PDM systems can be used as off-the-shelf products with corresponding customizing. Technically, there are countless different ways to adapt processes and data models on a concrete PDM scenario. A challenge in scenarios with products is a comprehensive clarification of requirements of the participating departments and companies. A gradual, incremental approach is useful. The experience on the use of the product and the company-specific processes collected in the particular steps combine to form a PDM solution.