Survey and Research Data

Market research in the UK conducted by Benchmark revealed that:

• Only 4% of IT managers see either PLM or PDM (Product Data Management) as a significant or major priority;

• Only 2% of engineering design managers had plans to purchase PLM tools in the next 12 months;

• 64% of engineering design managers said they definitely would not be buying PLM;

• 44% of engineering design managers said they weren't really familiar with PLM and 34% were completely ignorant of PLM.

Product Life Cycle Management wanted by engineers

A survey of 248 US engineers reinforced the business case for investments in project collaboration or other PLM systems and that PLM tools were being used to help to connect engineering to other functions across the organisation. PLM success stories offered cycle time improvements and reduced time to market as proof of PLM value. Other data supporting investment in PLM included:

• 62% of respondents believed that administrative burdens on engineers had increased since 2001 and had taken time away from design and lengthened time-to-market;

• 48% believed that design change requests contained too little detail and this added steps and time to the engineering change cycle;

• 93% believed that engineering change requests resulted in costly delays;

• Product portfolio management was the least widely used technology tool in new product development (14%) versus CAD (64%) and product data management (PDM) (30%).

Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) and Sustainability principles increasingly adopted

KPMG (2002) reported that some 36% of the top 100 U.S. companies now publish annual sustainability reports. A PriceWaterhouse-Coopers (2002) survey of 140 U.S. companies, 101 of which were the Fortune 1000 companies, revealed that 75% reported having adopted sustainable business practices. The most common reasons cited were:

• Enhanced reputation,

• Competitive advantage, and

• Cost savings.

VE saves money in highway construction projects

A 2002 report from the US Federal Highway Administration stated that in recent years the use of VE had increased substantially and had proved a highly cost-effective means of increasing productivity and improving highway construction quality. In 2001 savings of $932 million were achieved through the application of VE which was used to review and to identify opportunities for better, less expensive means of completing highway projects by state highway and transportation departments. [10]

Life Cycle Assessment Brings Comprehensive Results

A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study involving 5 separate fender designs for a German made automobile involved a comprehensive technical, economic & environmental study relating to the fender designs. The materials used were steel (ST), aluminium (AL), rubber-modified polypropylene (PP/EPDM), nylon-polyphenyleneoxide blend (PC/PBT), and polycarbonate-polybutylene terephthalate (PPO/PA). The following table summarises the Life Cycle Impact Assessments for the study; note: the high (h) & low (l) results are indicated in the table.

(The PP/EPDM fender emerged as the best design.)

Some of the benefits & limitations of the LCA process found were:

• The systematic process ensured transparency and repeatability

• Economical benefits could be identified in conjunction with Life Cycle Engineering (LCE)

• LCA was time and labour intensive and therefore expensive

• Each study was a snapshot and therefore only valid within a certain time frame. [11]

Life Cycle Analysis and New Generation Vehicles

The US Department of Energy carried out Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) investigations concerning the materials proposed for New Generation Vehicles (NGV). Six stages in the life cycle of materials were considered as follows:

• Mining of resources;

• Smelting and processing;

• Producing components;

• Assembling the components into vehicles;

• Using, maintaining, and repairing vehicles; and

• Disposing of the vehicle; including the recycling of materials at different life-cycle stages.

The materials considered during the study were

• Ultra-light steel auto bodies (ULSAB),

• Aluminium,

• Magnesium, and

• Composites

The table below presents a summary of the findings; note (x) represents items which were of sufficient concern to merit additional study.

Table adapted from Curlee and Yuracko, [12].