February 23, 2005

Dassault Systems and IBM, who partner in the product lifecycle management (PLM) area, have released Aerospace Supplier Collaboration (ASC), a PLM solution for the vertical aerospace industry.

What's particularly interesting about ASC is how it reflects some of the changes that have been going on in PLM.

PLM is an e-business application area that has usually been associated with the niche requirements of engineering and manufacturing.

But for some years now, vendors have been expanding the power of PLM, adding workflow engines, collaboration, and integration to inherent product data management (PDM) and CAD. Their goal is to convince the marketplace that a PLM system is where all product information and processes belong, either natively or via integration from other systems of record.

The resulting repository can then be shared internally (not just with engineering and manufacturing but also, e.g., with sales, marketing, and legal) and externally (suppliers, partners, and customers) alike.

This is part of ASC's proposition, points out analyst Bruce Hudson of META Group. "Aerospace has a great variety of suppliers and sub-suppliers," he says. "You have to manage product information changes across the supply base. And, since companies are designing more aircraft digitally, you have to get everyone involved before you get into the first physical manifestation."

This involves workflow, collaboration, and a host of functionality not always associated with PLM.

Hudson points out that plenty of vendors have an interest in going in this direction. "Agile and MatrixOne are focused a lot on extended PLM processes, and SAP also plays there, because they control lots of information. IBM is in that because they do an incredible amount of integration work."

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