PLM (Product Lifecycle Management)

The product development at BRP-Rotax was optimised by implementing an integrated CAx process chain. Based on that it was a must to strengthen the chaining and protection processes of the entire product life cycle which resulted in the implementation of the Product Lifecycle Management (PLM). PLM is the company-wide administration and controlling of information, data and documents, that described a product from the development to production, marketing and service. The link of Enterprise Resource Planning with CAD systems is the basis for PLM. Everybody involved has secured access to actual information. In addition PLM supports the efficient communication between all internal and external parties.

The first step of the PLM integration provided the possibility to access, observe and measure 3D modells on a PC by linking the CAD Data Management System Pro/Intralink and the Enterprise Resource Planning SAP as well as a 3D-Viewer (ProductView). The link visualises in SAP the release status as well as the revision status of the product data. Employees from whole production relevant departments can observe the development and provide their input for the production process. This early and intensive integration of all in the product life cycle process involved departments already in the development process optimises the quality of our products and reduced the time and costs for development.

Our latest achievements regarding PLM are :

• Change of the master media for engineering data from paper to DIGITAL with SAP integrated display management
• Change of the distribution culture of engineering data from "to be delivered" into "to be picked up"
• Development of a web-based data supply for suppliers

Our next PLM implementation targets are:

• SAP-integrated document administration
• SAP-integrated change management
• SAP-integrated project controlling