Chapter 13: Knowledge Management

Title: ‘PLM on a budget’: lightweight lifecycle solutions for small enterprises

Author(s): Lian Ding, Alexander Ball, Manjula Patel, Jason Matthews, Glen Mullineux

Address: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Bath, Bath, BA2 7AY, UK | UKOLN, University of Bath, Bath, BA2 7AY, UK | UKOLN, University of Bath, Bath, BA2 7AY, UK | Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Bath, Bath, BA2 7AY, UK | Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Bath, Bath, BA2 7AY, UK

Reference: International Conference on Product Lifecycle Management 2009 pp. 656 - 666

Abstract/Summary: In an increasingly competitive and global market, small enterprises can benefit just as much from product lifecycle management (PLM) as larger enterprises. However, the software currently available to support PLM, is aimed at larger enterprises and does not entirely suit the more flexible business processes and heterogeneous systems environment of smaller enterprises. We argue that some of the most important benefits of a PLM system may be achieved in a simplified fashion, using the combination of a full-featured Computer Aided Design (CAD) system with lightweight visualization formats and a system of overlaid annotations that may be applied to a model regardless of its format. We outline a proof-of-concept implementation of these ideas and indicate where further work is needed.

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