Creating a Profession for PLM Practitioners

The Home of Professional PLM

The PLM industry needs a recognised, worldwide professional structure for the people who work within it. The Professional PLM Initiative has been set up to fulfil this need.

The Initiative covers the whole spectrum of what it means to be 'professional' in PLM.  This will be a significant step forward, and will change the way that PLM practitioners work.

The Initiative is inclusive and interactive.  This web site shows the latest developments, and how you can get involved.

The process of defining and establishing a PLM Profession will generate a common, unified view of PLM around the world, with agreed definitions of skills and best practice.  This can be expressed as the goal of achieving One Professional World.

This in turn will have a powerful impact on the concept of 'Offshore', which is currently as deeply embedded in PLM as it is in the wider global economy.

			The 'No More Offshore' Forum was designed to bring this subject out into the open and enable constructive decisions to be made. It built on the successful Industry Planning Forum format to offer a powerful discussion platform across multiple time zones.

The Forum was held on Wednesday 08 November in the IST afternoon and the European morning.

The Forum was intended for PLM practitioners from all parts of the industry - users, vendors, systems integrators and consultants.  An important feature is that there were no pre-assumptions about the results. All viewpoints were welcome, and were worked into the overall findings.

See the Agenda >>>

The Forum opened with a presentation by the PLMIG explaining how the short- and medium-term work required to define a Profession will harmonise the way that PLM is applied in different countries.

After the break the PLMIG illustrated how this new PLM harmonisation will diffuse national and cultural boundaries and establish the central, neutral Body of Knowledge that companies and individuals around the world can leverage; and set out the framework of benefits that will have most impact on Offshore.

Delegates then took charge in the Working Session, discussing the PLM and business background to 'Offshore' and developing some new, and very positive, ideas for improvement.

The PLMIG has produced a Summary Document which is downloadable below.

The Professional PLM Initiative will bridge the regional and continental gaps that currently exist between America, Europe, India and the rest of world.  Twenty years after the birth of PLM it is astonishing that these gaps and differences still exist.

The whole concept of 'Offshore', where PLM is subcontracted and delivered for 'Onshore', is contrary to all the aims and principles that we work to.  There should be no difference between the application of PLM skills in any part of the world.  Global corporations should not have to reconcile different ways of working due to culture and geography.

'Offshore' is not just India, in the PLM context. It is everywhere, from Australia to Spain to Brazil and almost any other country you could name. PLM practitioners can find themselves remote from the apparent mainstream activity and are left to develop their skills and experience as best they can.

There should be no difference between the calibre of practitioner and PLM skill sets in any of these countries.  Organisations should be able to hire with confidence, and deploy their PLM specialists in any part of the world knowing that they will be fully effective there.

Integrators and consultants should be chosen on the basis of their certified PLM capabilities, and not the part of the world they come from.  Vendors should be able to sell PLM to an informed user base that strives for the highest reaches of PLM.  PLM practitioners should be sure that their training and career path is based on an international body of knowledge that will be applicable wherever they work.

If PLM can enact this sea change over the next two or three years then commercial manufacturing in these countries will follow, and this in turn will have a potentially massive economic impact.  It will all come from One Professional World.

The Forum made far-reaching proposals for a PLM Centre of Excellence in India, and for academic and educational collaboration globally.  Download a copy of the Summary Document, see what you think, and follow the Initiative as it moves on to the next stage.

You can provide feedback on the document and request any further information via offshoreforum@professionalplm.org.

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