Total Quality Management and process modeling for PLM in SME

Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) as a business strategy is becoming a must not only for big companies but also for small and medium enterprises SME's that consider product development a core competency. However, a PLM solution deeply impacts the business process and requires the analysis and, if necessary, the re-engineering of the process itself. This paper presents the application of process modeling and simulation techniques for the implementation of a PDM/PLM system within a SME using Total Quality Management procedures to integrate process analysis. Two As-Is models have been realized: the first, extracting the process knowledge from Total Quality Management procedures, and the second, interviewing a company's staff. A gap analysis has been carried out to identify first, which aspects of the process could be modified and improved introducing a PDM system, and then to forecast a complete extension to the PLM paradigm. A re-engineered process, described by the To-Be model, has been designed and compared with the As-Is models using a discrete events simulator. On the basis of simulation results, considerations have been drawn related both to the new process asset and its future evolution to full implementation of the PLM paradigm.