Category: PLM

Data security in Cloud PLM systems

How Cloud PLM systems ensure data security on the highest level

As technology advances at a rapid pace, product life cycles become shorter, and the amount of digital information grows exponentially, companies face the challenge of managing their product life cycle data in a more effective manner. Consequently, more and more companies are turning to Cloud PLM systems that enable them to access data from anywhere and at any time. While the benefits of a cloud solution outweigh the drawbacks, there are still concerns. Specifically, about whether the data in the cloud is secure. In this article, we delve into the advantages of cloud-based PLM systems and demonstrate that solutions adhering to current security standards and requirements offer the highest level of data security and can be significantly more reliable than locally operated systems.

Security benefits of Cloud PLM compared to locally installed PLM systems

In a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model, cloud service providers are responsible for maintaining security features in the application and ensuring the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data. They also ensure compliance with current cybersecurity standards, regularly update the software to address new security risks and vulnerabilities, and continuously monitor the system for potential threats. When it comes to security, most companies do not have sufficient resources to make investments in hardware, infrastructure, and personnel comparable to the major cloud providers.

Thanks to economies of scale, cloud administrator teams operate more efficiently and with greater specialization compared to administrators of an on-premises installation. As a result, routine tasks such as updates and maintenance are reduced for internal IT teams, allowing them to focus more on their day-to-day operations, such as user satisfaction, implementing new IT features, and company-specific IT security matters.

Security measures of Cloud PLM providers

To ensure that data is fully protected, cloud applications should adhere to current best practices and comply with all relevant regulations regarding cybersecurity in the cloud. Five measures have become widely established in this regard:

1. High-security data centers and encryption

Cloud PLM providers rely on highly secure data centers equipped with state-of-the-art security technology. These data centers provide physical protection, access control, and active monitoring around the clock. Additionally, all data stored in the cloud is protected by cutting-edge encryption technologies. In the highly unlikely event of a security incident, the data remains unreadable to unauthorized parties.

2. Access control and permissions

Cloud PLM systems offer precise control over who can access the data. Assigning individual permissions at the user level ensures that only authorized users have access to specific data and functions. Administrators have the option to define user roles themselves and assign individual permissions. This ensures that employees can only access information relevant to their work.

3. Regular security updates and maintenance

Cloud providers perform regular security updates and maintenance to promptly address potential vulnerabilities and keep the systems up to date. This ensures that Cloud PLM systems are constantly protected against current threats.

4. Redundancy and disaster recovery

Another crucial aspect of data security in the cloud is redundancy and disaster recovery. Cloud providers store their data in distributed data centers at multiple locations and conduct systematic and professional backups. This provides protection against data loss due to hardware failures or in the event of a disaster.

5. Compliance and certifications

To meet the highest security standards and ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data, cloud providers should adhere to compliance guidelines and certifications. One notable standard in this field is ISO 27001. It provides a framework for establishing, implementing, maintaining, and continually improving security management systems, procedures, and policies. Depending on the region and industry, other certifications may also be relevant.

Humans – a factor of (in)security

Once a company has chosen a suitable cloud-based PLM system and selected a cloud service provider that adheres to all best practices for data security in Cloud applications, the first major step towards data security is taken. However, to ensure maximum security, another important element is needed: the training of the company’s employees.

The security of data in PLM systems largely depends on the conduct and expertise of the employees. Therefore, it is crucial that they undergo regular IT security training. These trainings should teach employees how to recognize phishing attacks, suspicious emails, malware, and questionable links in order to prevent unauthorized access. Employees must also be sensitized to report suspicious incidents to protect themselves and their colleagues.

Cloud PLM systems with document management and an integrated communication tool significantly reduce the risk of encountering insecure emails or links, as communication takes place in a protected environment. Encouraging users to utilize such features directly contributes to enhanced security.

Furthermore, it is of great importance that employees are trained on how to securely handle confidential data and strictly adhere to the company’s privacy policies in order to prevent data breaches.

Conclusion

Cloud-based PLM systems offer you the highest level of data security through the use of encryption, access control, regular updates, redundant data storage, and the compliance standards of cloud service providers. Still, the security of your PLM system data also depends on the behavior of your employees to a large extent. Regular IT security training is essential to ensure that users are aware of current threats.


Take advantage of the many benefits of cloud-based PLM software now: With CIM Database Cloud, you get a secure solution to protect your sensitive product development data.

How the entire company benefits from PLM

The advantages of a PLM system beyond product development

The transformation pressure on manufacturing companies is increasing. They need to optimize their core business while simultaneously driving their digital transformation, enabling them to quickly react to changing market conditions and new customer requirements. Particularly for companies with complex product portfolios, it is essential to accurately calculate costs from the initial customer inquiry to order completion, coordinate manufacturing and development across locations, and involve numerous suppliers while always keeping an eye on target achievement.

An integrated PLM system helps companies master these challenges and set the course for long-term competitive success. With suitable function modules and interfaces, it supports them to align processes across departments for maximum efficiency, grasp complex interdependencies faster, and significantly reduce the time to market of their products.

Discover the specific added value that a PLM system provides to your company beyond the development department:

Product cost management

With integrated product cost management, product costs are calculated quickly and reliably during development. Pricing is optimized while costs are kept within budget.

Reliable sales planning is crucial for product development. In order to offer competitive products, companies need to know as early as possible what these will cost and are allowed to cost. If prices exceed the market average, they must offer convincing arguments to potential customers as to why. To achieve decent contribution margins, however, prices cannot be too low either. When conditions change – for example, due to fluctuating material costs or altered manufacturing processes resulting from new customer demands – this often leads to problems. This is because key metrics are usually calculated in separate IT systems in the controlling or accounting departments – outside product development, where 80% of the product costs are determined. Information synchronization and exchange are not digitally harmonized, making them time-consuming and error-prone. Under these conditions, meeting project budgets can be compared to navigating by sight in thick fog.

With the help of integrated product cost management, companies can accurately calculate product development costs in early development stages. When selecting a PLM system, a product costing module with easily adaptable calculation schemes should therefore be a factor to consider. This allows you to calculate various product lines at the same time and adhere to project budgets by capturing costs during development.

To enable the costing of product variants, colleagues outside product development should have direct access to the engineering bill of materials as well. A PLM system with its role-based access management concept allows just that. With this approach, companies set the course early on to achieve the desired profit margin. By analyzing different sales volumes, they determine the optimal price and increase product profitability.

The following areas in the company benefit from integrated cost management:

Controlling: A product costing module integrated into the PLM system allows the controlling department to directly access calculation schemes as well as product cost calculations from development and set relevant directives. This helps you ensure product profitability and contribution margins, increase cost-effectiveness, and steer your company with precision.

Sales: The quick and reliable calculation of variants, for example, for requested material alternatives, accelerates the quotation phase. Your sales team can provide quotes on short notice – and thus quickly increase revenue.

Procurement, materials management, and logistics: Keep larger quantities of frequently requested and used parts in stock to reduce procurement costs. Additionally, materials management can proactively stock alternative materials in appropriate quantities with regard to increasing sustainability aspects.


Product development: Control and break down costs to determine project profitability based on actual needs rather than fictitious specifications from the ERP system. This allows you to plan project costs realistically and adhere to budgets. Simultaneous cost tracking within the project enables you to document expected work efforts directly in the work breakdown structure and compare them with the cost breakdown. By utilizing project cost reports, your team always stays on top of things.

Requirements and variant management

Effective requirements and variant management sets the foundation to implement customer requirements faster, configure variants in no time, and bring innovations to market sooner.

Customer requirements are constantly increasing in both their quantity and the level of detail of their specifications. As the number of product variants grows, so does product complexity. Without requirements management along the entire product lifecycle, rapid and efficient development is hardly possible – let alone the use of suitable methods to support interdisciplinary collaboration, such as MBSE.

The increasing variant diversity also raises the risk of compromising the cost-effectiveness of procurement, manufacturing, and quality assurance. This is because, in conventional approaches, small batch sizes do not allow for economies of scale and the corresponding cost reductions.

PLM Software with integrated requirements management enables faster and more accurate product development in accordance with customer requirements. Requirements can be documented throughout the entire lifecycle and captured and edited more easily. The relationships between requirements are visualized in the digital product model and the degree of fulfillment can be permanently tracked. Additionally, PLM-supported requirements management provides the foundation for Model-based Systems Engineering (MBSE) for interdisciplinary teamwork.

Integrated variant management enables companies to strategically align their product portfolios and minimize the effort for variant configuration. With feature- and rule-based variability models, they can build platforms and product systems, limit variant diversity, reduce proliferation, and manage their portfolio in an efficient and cost-effective way. Additionally, the digital data and process organization of the PLM system facilitates largely automatic documentation, which significantly simplifies the fulfillment of compliance requirements.

Departments beyond development that benefit from PLM with integrated requirements and variant management:

Sales, product management, and product development: Sales can respond more quickly to customer inquiries and capture new or modified requirements directly in the PLM system. Product management and product development can easily process these requirements and simultaneously track their implementation, reducing lead times and increasing innovation productivity.

Variant management enables the targeted development of product portfolios tailored to market demand. Across departments, the company thus combines customer orientation with efficient value creation – for example, by leveraging intelligent process patterns and delivery strategies like CTO+ (Configure-to-Order in conjunction with Engineer-to-Order).

The platform approach and product systems set the foundation for a cost-effective and efficient portfolio. Furthermore, a PLM system ensures alignment with the company’s strategy and compliance with sustainability goals. It enables them to develop their products with cost-effectiveness in mind – even from batch size 1 –  and implement innovations for new market opportunities or business fields faster. This is enabled by intuitive configuration options and reusing existing variability models stored in the PLM system.

Effectively limiting variant diversity: The interaction between maximum BOM (also known as 150% BOM) and sets of rules prevents the creation of uneconomical variants. Through a PLM system with integrated variant management, the portfolio can be managed in a clear and structured way.

Support for product, quality, and compliance management: Thanks to automatically recorded comprehensive documentation, design decisions can be accurately traced back even years later. This makes it easier to meet compliance requirements with clients and authorities.

Procurement, materials management, and logistics: Frequently used components are stocked in various material alternatives and in larger quantities, reducing procurement costs. This enables companies to increase cost-effectiveness, shorten delivery times, and increase customer satisfaction.

Conclusion: A PLM system benefits the entire company!

PLM systems ensure end-to-end data availability along the digital thread. They enhance collaboration within product development and across departments, all the way to supplier chains. A PLM system as a central database (in the sense of a “Single Source of Truth”) with modern IT-supported collaboration tools significantly shortens time to market, reduces efforts in the quotation process, and simplifies compliance with customer and regulatory requirements.

Companies looking to manage the complexity of their product portfolio with a PLM system do not necessarily have to put up with high administrative efforts. Cloud-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions provide preconfigured and standardized function modules out of the box. A user-friendly no-code environment allows the specialized departments to set up the software themselves without requiring any specialized IT knowledge. Furthermore, companies relieve their IT department from efforts that traditionally come with installing and maintaining dedicated hardware infrastructure. Updates and backups are performed automatically, eliminating the need for manual interactions. Extensive cloud security technologies provide reliable protection against cyberattacks and prevent unauthorized access to sensitive data.

Benefits of SaaS PLM at a glance:

  • Building and managing complex product portfolios
  • Systematic product cost management during development
  • Comprehensive requirements management throughout the product lifecycle
  • Rule-based variant management
  • Implementation of methods to support effective interdisciplinary collaboration in complex projects
  • Fast response times
  • Reduced workload for internal IT department (in times when IT specialists are scarce)
  • High availability and IT security

Take advantage of cloud-based PLM software now: CIM Database Cloud is the solution for end-to-end digital product development. With “Innovate”, you bring innovations to market faster and manage your product portfolio with ease.

Dissolving data silos in product development

Achieving a single source of truth by effective data management

Data silos complicate collaboration, reduce productivity, and limit innovation. From startups to established businesses, almost all companies struggle with such isolated databases. They unintentionally form around individual departments due to the use of different IT systems and tools. Since these systems are typically proprietary and manage and store data separate from each other, they significantly complicate cross-department data exchange.

The sluggish flow of information presents companies with growing challenges, especially when it comes to the collaboration between engineering and manufacturing teams. With increasing customer demands, compliance obligations, and environmental regulations as well as ever-shorter product cycles and times to market, data silos along the product development process become a considerable economic risk. In global competition, companies simply cannot afford inefficient processes, inconsistent data, and errors. Consequently, it is imperative to synchronize the information from design, manufacturing, and the subsequent processes in materials management at an early stage.

Many companies are aware of the problem but struggle to find a suitable solution to unlock the full potential of centralized and revision-proof data management. Our expert Dr. Patrick Mueller explains how you can break down data silos in your company and increase efficiency and quality in product development.

1. Mr. Mueller, what are the biggest obstacles for companies when it comes to creating a consistent database – from development and manufacturing all the way to disposal?

PM: The core competency of industrial companies lies primarily in the development, manufacturing, and maintenance of their products, not in the selection of digital tools. Company processes typically run in IT landscapes that have grown over time. Here, outdated systems for Product Data Management (PDM), Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), or Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) meet an increasing number of different isolated solutions and technologies such as internet-based software services (for example, for team collaboration or external communication). The result is a complex, highly heterogeneous IT landscape with fragmented data storage that undermines every existing IT policy and compliance requirement. Not to mention the lack of scalability. Data must be transferred manually from one system to another. On top, countless makeshift spreadsheet solutions lead to version chaos. This results in errors, asynchronous document versions, and opaque processes. Reprocessing this data requires a lot of time and resources.

In addition to technical obstacles, there are also organizational barriers within companies, often rooted in corporate culture. Each department typically focuses only on its own world: they have their own goals, challenges, processes, and ways of working. This ‘culture of isolation’ also leads to separate data sets and has never been questioned until now. Using data collectively must be learned from scratch. This endeavor may naturally face resistance at one point or another.

2. How can companies overcome these obstacles?

PM: Consistency in information logistics is not a matter of course. Providing and accessing up-to- date data is crucial for innovation dynamics and delivering better products. Especially in the collaboration between Design Engineering and Manufacturing Engineering, friction often arises. If product development manages product designs in a CAD application and the associated bills of materials along with other important product information in a PLM system, but manufacturing stores product information and assembly instructions in a separate tool like an ERP system, the information gap can create significant problems. Either because potential changes or specific requirements are not taken into account, or because errors occur during manual synchronization. This leads to a considerable loss of time in production or, in the worst case, a product recall. Vice versa, the lack of integration of manufacturing and design data prevents insights and the optimization of the production process.

Professional cloud services (including the corresponding software services and IT operations) are increasingly viewed as a valid option for central digital data management and process management tasks. This applies to both large as well as small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). While large companies often demand customized cloud solutions, the more suitable path for SMEs usually lies in highly standardized software, developed and harmonized according to proven best practice approaches.

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions can effectively assist companies in standardizing their data management, establishing resilience and reliability, and fully focusing on their core competencies. When they are based on technologies and system properties that are mature – or “steeled in business”, to use the language of mechanical engineers – they are a decisive factor in bringing together data from different sources, harmonizing it, and establishing a seamless data foundation. SaaS can provide PLM functionality, project management, and IoT for machine and device connectivity that is preconditioned and ready for integration. CAD or ERP integrations as well as interfaces to Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM) can be realized through standards, making them easier to maintain and keeping costs transparent.

3. How long would it take to implement such a solution?

PM: When looking at the scope of services mentioned above, you might initially think of a complex implementation. But the major advantage of SaaS is that such offerings are readily available from the cloud “at the push of a button” in self-service. Companies no longer have to worry about IT and hardware. Maintenance, updates, and backups are carried out automatically in the background. Complete business systems are available within minutes. We provide our customers with tools that make system integration and populating these
systems with data as easy as possible. The functionality of our SaaS PLM offering is consolidated and was optimized through the feedback of countless users. Tutorials and e- learning programs are available to help users quickly familiarize themselves with the application.

4. Can SaaS PLM software be seamlessly integrated with ERP systems?

PM: Interfaces to other systems and tools are essential for dissolving data silos. For this purpose, our SaaS PLM software, CIM Database Cloud, offers a seamless out-of-the-box integration with CAD and ERP systems. CONTACT’s Workspaces Desktop allows to directly link CAD systems with CIM Database Cloud. Standards for data exchange, such as REST, ensure connectivity with other data management systems. This enables users to effortlessly integrate devices into our SaaS PLM solution through no-code and low-code methods in self-service, without requiring any programming skills.

5. Is there anything else to consider, any additional tips?

PM: For smooth data exchange to succeed, companies need to incorporate the strength of collaboration more deeply into their corporate culture. An open communication and the implementation of a data management strategy, or Data Governance, actively counteract data silos. This ensures that requirements are understood and met so that the end product meets the customer needs. Streamlined SaaS PLM software provides the necessary leeway to raise awareness and educate all employees on the topic of data use. Companies should also make sure that SaaS providers offer comprehensive support, for example, in the form of a customer portal with corresponding e- learning programs, webcasts, forums for exchange and discussion, and complete software documentation.

Take advantage of cloud-based PLM software now: CIM Database Cloud is the solution for end-to-end digital product development. With “Accelerate”, you speed up your processes through system integration and seamless information exchange.