Shifting Lead As Plm Introduction Strategy

This paper deals with the complexity of providing support for electrical and electronics development in a global product lifecycle management (PLM) system. State-of-practice based on a case study performed in the automotive industry is reported on. A new approach named shifting lead is presented. Applied in IT/IS introduction projects this approach allows user groups or departments with dominating need to take lead in customization and pre-study projects. By balancing disciplinary needs this way a means to obtain process mapping, adapted IT/IS functionality and improved efficiency in the PLM system is obtained. Shifting lead is suggested as a way to create PLM support scalable to a majority of users. The approach is further elaborated to incorporate system integration approaches towards the emerging enterprise PLM system.