PLM and ERP – Their Respective Roles in Manufacturing Enterprises

PLM and ERP – Their Respective Roles in Manufacturing Enterprises

In today’s complex environment, companies are meeting more challenges than ever to stay competitive. Designing the best products is simply not enough, increased complexity in products, product variants, supply chain disruptions, logistics and service of products create a new reliability to control and own enterprise master data.  

Leading companies are aligning their processes and people from the initial state of product development through manufacturing, device connectivity and field service. Providing access to the right data, at the right time and in the right context for the right people is crucial to stay competitive. To gain speed and synergies, manufacturers need to create a collaboration platform. This requires that they incorporate PLM from the very beginning of the product innovation process and throughout engineering and manufacturing preparation, rebalance the boundaries between ERP, PLM, and MES, and connect everything that matters in product development and manufacturing via a digital thread. To be future-ready, manufacturers must evolve from point to point to real-time integrations. 

The two pillars of manufacturing companies, Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are the keys for companies to transform their business and connecting processes within the digital thread. Successful companies are 1.5 times more likely to have processes that span both PLM and ERP according to Aberdeen research. That is why it is not a question of either or, but rather where and when to store and manage data in order to best support the business operations. 

Learn how to

• To own and control master data, we will discuss the strengths of both PLM and ERP
• How companies can maximize sustained impact through cross functional transformation within the two pillars of manufacturers.
• Understanding the respective roles and how both PLM and ERP bring values to manufacturing companies as connected parts of company’s operations