Two weeks ago, Siemens held their annual Industry Analyst Conference in Boston, which Aberdeen once again attended. The conference focused heavily on Siemens’ digitalization strategy for the entire value chain process. Siemens stated they are making this push due in large part to the increasing number of smart products in the market combined with urgency to shorten the development window. This shift in the marketplace is something that Aberdeen has seen grow consistently over the past decade or so. In fact, more than half the companies asked in a recent Aberdeen survey cited the demand to launch products quickly as the top driving pressure to improve their product development. Not far behind, at 47%, was the market demand for more customized and complex products.
The push for digitalization is an important one, as shifting away from manual processes helps increase visibility and improve decision making in a company. One important fact to remember, and is supported in our research, is that a company cannot approach digitalization in a siloed manner. The New Product Introduction (NPI) process, in particular, is an area where companies have historically taken that siloed approach. Last year’s report Bridging the Gap Between Product Development and Operations showed that 42% of Best-in-Class companies provided interoperability between their PLM and MOM/MES systems (only 18% of their peers did the same). This idea of integration is further supported on the individual tool level by the fact that Best-in-Class companies are also 37% more likely to use an integrated MCAD/ECAD design tool. There is an underlying message here: it is important for cross-functional teams to work together and not individually, in other words destroying the outdated idea of operating in a vacuum.
The biggest takeaway from the conference, digitalization is key to surviving in today’s market, but it cannot occur in a siloed manner. Increasing product complexity and shrinking design deadlines will only work counter to each other. In order to stay afloat, companies will need to provide integrated software solutions that provide a common thread throughout the entire value chain process.
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