A recent report from AberdeenGroup, an analyst firm in Boston, points to “best-in-class” companies as being four times more likely to use product lifecycle management (PLM) technology to automate their product development process. The report, titled “New Product Development: Profiting from Innovation, December 2005,” defines best-in-class companies as those whose performance in each of five product development categories falls into the top 25 percent when compared with their peers.
In the report, Aberdeen cites data from its Product Innovation Agenda benchmark report, which concludes that organizations experienced a 19 percent increase in product revenue; a 15 percent decrease in product cost; and a 16 percent decrease in product development cost from improved product innovation, product development, and engineering.
Best in class
“Best-in-class companies are four times more likely to have PLM-related technology than their poorer performing competitors. Automation clearly plays a significant role in helping companies achieve product innovation and product development success,” the New Product Development Report states. “Companies that are better able to meet product development targets are also more likely to have centralized data and product knowledge than the industry norm. In addition, top performers are four times more likely to have integrated data and process automation, with collaboration infrastructures for projects and products.”
Jim Brown, AberdeenGroup vice president of Global Product Innovation and Engineering, said “Our research reinforces the fact that innovation is a team sport. New product development (NPD) is a complex, collaborative process that requires coordinating the innovation efforts of many to meet a common goal. But for those organizations that can effectively implement the processes and technologies necessary to improve their ability to innovate, the business benefits are significant.”
Get it here
UGS, a Plano, Texas, supplier of PLM and other manufacturing software, is making this report available for free download at www.ugs.com/products/teamcenter/?npdi. The company’s Teamcenter software PLM portfolio offers capabilities for idea and requirements management, program and project management, product development and process management.
“Teamcenter’s ability to enable companies to manage new product development and transform their process of innovation is completely consistent with Aberdeen’s new NPD report,” said Bill Boswell, senior director of Teamcenter Product Marketing, UGS. “This Aberdeen report contains tangible data that validates and quantifies the business value of leading PLM tools like Teamcenter for orchestrating new product development and introduction processes across organizational functions.”