Product Life-cycle Management (PLM) has become one of the most important fields for accelerating product deliveries and generating early ROI. While industries are rushing towards various new technologies and software, the adoption of PLM is comparatively slow owing to user inertia. Users desist from adopting PLM because of inter-operability issues and implementation complexities. Even though there are several niche vendors who provide solutions to manage product life cycles from cradle to grave, they fail to convince organizations to adopt PLM quickly and derive business benefits with it. Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions, headquartered in Bangalore, Karnataka with its proven processes and Knowledge Based Engineering (KBE)methodologies helps customers adopt PLM quickly and concurrently aids them to drive it the right way. “Many companies ignore the fact that process is equally important as PLM tools. Companies need to understand PLM has to be ‘implemented’ with right process, optimum tools and stake holder commitment. KBE is a process of capturing the product design knowledge and harvesting it. This is accomplished by defining the parameters and rules of the design process and integrating them into design (knowledge) template. The result, is a dynamic product that allows designers to adopt the product without complete re-design for successive iterations. This way we have developed tools to save time, money and accelerate the design process through automation”, says Saraswathi VR, Deputy General Manager, PLM Solutions at Bosch India. Severing the factors behind user inertia, Bosch recommends companies to have a holistic view of PLM solutions i.e., starting from ideation to concept until end of life cycle to avoid higher rate of PLM implementation failure.

While PLM can solve surfeit of business challenges, integration of PLM solutions with organizations’ heterogeneous systems is quite a daunting task. Translating its in-house strength in product engineering, ERP, middleware and infrastructure technologies to understand the role of the heterogeneous systems at different stages, Bosch effortlessly achieves inter-operability. Centered on to become not just IT but also IT for Engineering, Bosch has intelligently used its product development background to understand end users processes, and pain points before contriving the right PLM implementation strategy.

The company stands out in the world of PLM because of its focus on quality, innovation, and zeal to exceed customer expectations with continuous improvement. With a goal to be a niche player in the manufacturing vertical, the venture focuses on converting knowledge into innovation and experience into product features for future innovation. “Our experience ranges from PLM in core Mechanical Engineering products (e.g., Diesel Systems, Gasoline Systems) to Hardware Electronic components – Embedded Systems (e.g., Sensors, ABS) and finally to the applications that are getting installed, configured in the systems (e.g., Embedded applications that are installed in automotive electronics). We also would like to be an end to end service provider, from PLM consulting to long-term managed services along with the technology focus”, says Kandhasami Palaniappan, Lead COE, PLM. With a belief that customer satisfaction and longevity is the ultimate achievement for an organization, Bosch has carried out technology transformations from legacy PDM to Next Gen PLM and consolidation of 42 production sites to 2 sites, thereby brought in lean process and high degree of collaboration. The company is making unwavering moves to improve productivity with PLM implementation and envisages to expand its footprints in various geographies in the near future.