Top Features and Advantages of Oracle’s Agile PLM

Oracle Agile PLM

The COVID-19 pandemic has upturned the traditional way of doing business. Supply chains have crashed, companies have shut down, and economies have been seriously battered. Organizations, governmental and non-governmental, have rapidly transformed their way of working. It is undoubtedly an era of intense disruption for myriad reasons.  

In such times, using good product lifecycle management (PLM) software has become even more critical than ever before. All product-selling businesses, including retail, manufacturing, and pharmaceutical industries, must adopt robust PLM solutions to overcome modern-day challenges.  

This article explains the concept of PLM and highlights the top products, features, and advantages of Oracle’s Agile PLM.  

What is Product Lifecycle Management?

Product lifecycle management, popularly known as PLM, is a strategic business approach to managing all things related to a product’s lifecycle. This involves the stages of product conception, design, development and production, service, and retirement.   

In other words, PLM solutions help you manage your product’s entire lifespan from a single platform. There are many benefits of using PLM software, but since that is not what we wish to address in this article, we will only briefly mention them below.   

  • Increased workforce productivity  
  • Reduced time to market   
  • Lower risk of compliance violation  
  • Improved cost management  
  • Improved product quality  
  • Higher revenue  

Let’s turn to Oracle’s Agile PLM, its add-on products, features, and advantages.  

What is Oracle’s Agile PLM

Oracle’s Agile PLM is one of the leading PLM solutions in the world today. It manages the entire lifecycle of a product, ranging from the initial collection of design resources to prototyping, production, servicing, and retirement.   

Oracle’s Agile PLM focuses on rapid product innovation, process competence, and risk mitigation. It also emphasizes closed-loop quality control and cost-effectiveness. Hence, it is more than just a technological solution.  

It is an end-to-end comprehensive PLM solution that enables you to execute an integrated product lifecycle management strategy. Moreover, it has a friendly user interface (UI) and provides a unified view of products spanning different geographical regions and business processes.  

Let’s explore the top add-on products of Oracle’s Agile PLM.  

Oracle Agile PLM’s Add-on Products

Assist+   

The Assist+ add-on serves a critical purpose in your PLM implementation. It offers valuable directed guidance to ensure an excellent Agile PLM experience. Its features and capabilities include:  

  • Informs users about regulatory and compliance requirements changes using alerts, warnings, and directions. 
  • Captures the correct data, to begin with, so that no further re-dos of approval cycles are needed. 
  • Safeguards data quality in the PLM system.  
  • Offers tailor-made guidance to users on a needs basis.  
  • It is compatible with all the main browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc.  
  • This does not require any extra infrastructure or process extension; it works seamlessly with the Agile PLM system. 

ECO Dashboard  

The ECO Dashboard add-on enables you to manage change orders using a single view. It has an immense impact on productivity levels, and it:  

  • Establishes high-level user agility in making decisions by letting you navigate through changes and assess decision data elements. 
  • Enables effortless management of change approvals. 
  • Provides actionable controls in one table with easy-to-view layouts.  
  • Gives a comprehensive view of changes requiring your attention. 
  • Offers improved user experience, shorter approval cycles, and quicker user responses. 
  • Lets you open attachments from the list and see reviewers’ sign-off history. 
  • Includes an “All Changes Originated By You” dashboard. 

Excel Integration  

Your Oracle Agile PLM is integrable with Microsoft 365, thus enhancing your capabilities to update and integrate Bills of Materials (BOMs), Approved Manufacturer Lists (AMLs), and change creation.   

With an Excel add-on, you can do the following:  

  • Carry out PLM search from within Microsoft Excel. 
  • Update data to Agile PLM by clicking “Update Current Sheet Data.”  
  • Import Agile PLM Search. 
  • Update and import BOMs from Agile PLM. 
  • Import and update AMLs. 

Unique Device Identifier (UDI)  

The UDI solution enables you to handle UDI data correctly and deliver the same to the FDA timely. Its features and benefits include:  

  • Step-by-step guidance on filling in error-free UDI information.  
  • You can segment and assign users to specific information sections.  
  • Offers country-specific templates to make data compiling easier. 
  • Let you review and sign off. 
  • It enables you to update FDA regulations easily. 
  • Ensures data compliance. 
  • Transfer data to Agile PLM at scale.  

UI Wizard  

Making records is a complicated task for Agile PLM users. But you can simplify it using the UI Wizard to automate the creation of Agile records. Moreover, you can use a set of relevant questions to guide the users during this process.  

Its benefits include:  

  • Captures the necessary data to create any record in Agile PLM.  
  • Creates multiple records by enabling you to guide the data flow.  
  • Offers speed by providing templates and autofill features based on selections made. 
  • Validates data in real-time, thus reducing the chance of errors.  
  • Can be used with multiple Agile PLM objects like CAPA, Risk Assessment, Change Order, etc.  

Report  

The xReport add-on enables you to generate reports using information from Agile PLM and multiple data sources without writing code. Its essential components include data source, data set, report step, and report.   

Its advantages include:  

  • Lets you develop and generate complex reports without writing any code.  
  • Its Admin portal enables you to configure reports utilizing data sourced through Agile Searches.  
  • Empowers users to combine, extend, aggregate, and manipulate data from multiple searches.  

Automation Engine Solution   

Agile PLM integrations usually require you to write several customizations using Groovy Script/Agile SDK. Writing and then testing these customizations costs time, money, and significant effort. The Automation Engine Solution of Agile PLM enables admins to create custom actions without writing any code.  

Its advanced features include:  

  • Condition-Based Actions – it executes an action only if it meets its preconditions. 
  • Lookup Chaining – enables you to perform a string of lookups (just like in a chain) to go to your desired level. 
  • Notification Templates – it offers email templates. 

Advantages of Using Oracle’s Agile PLM

  • Faster Innovation – Oracle’s Agile PLM empowers you to drive smarter and quicker innovations while ensuring sustainable growth.  
  • Ideation – You can get new products, services, and market ideas from multiple sources and evaluate the same with a 360-degree view of assessed value, resource needs, constraints, and cost.  
  • Manage Concepts and Requirements – You can reuse existing items and trace requirements using design to mitigate new product introduction risks.  
  • Create Agile Innovation Portfolios – PLM Facts best-practice analysis enables you to build robust and agile innovation portfolios to achieve your strategic goals.  
  • Rapid Product Development – Achieve faster product development by linking disconnected manufacturing and engineering functions through efficient management of product records.  
  • Lower Supply Risks – You can reduce supply risks by maintaining one view of qualified suppliers and parts across an entire product structure.  
  • Enhanced Change Management – Use a collaborative change management process to model and manage change iterations. This allows you to eliminate compressed cycle times by putting together defined workflows with flexibility for change.   
  • Product Compliance – Agile PLM helps ensure product compliance by tracking changes in your product’s lifecycle, thus allowing you to respond to changes in global standards.  
  • Data-driven Insights – Use data-driven insights to keep track of product quality across supply chain processes and stages of the product lifecycle.  
  • Document Management – Manage SOPs and industry regulations utilizing a single source of truth. It helps you drive compliance, operational consistency, audit readiness, and process improvement.  
  • Enhanced Omnichannel Customer Experience – The Agile PLM solution empowers you to maintain content integrity across your sales channels, thus ensuring that you publish complete and consistent product information.  

Conclusion

One cannot overemphasize the importance of a powerful PLM solution in today’s world. As the global technological and entrepreneurial landscape rapidly transforms, a robust PLM solution helps companies meet the challenges head-on.  

Oracle’s Agile PLM is undoubtedly up there with the best PLM software available today, as evidenced by its extensive features and advantages.   

If you require any further information or assistance regarding Oracle’s Agile PLM, please get in touch with us at [email protected]. 

The Essential Role of PLM Software in Digital Transformation

PLM Software

Product Lifecycle Management PLM software plays a vital role in today’s digital transformation wave enveloping manufacturing enterprises. Digitization holds the key to remaining competitive in this time and age. Companies regularly face mounting market pressures, thus forcing them to come up with new products and business models.   

But such ingenuity necessarily requires integrating data, business processes, people, and technology. Digital continuity is essential to avoid falling into the pitfalls of disruptions. This article explores how PLM software helps you drive growth, embrace change, and remain competitive. Most importantly, it highlights the vital role of PLM in a company’s digital transformation journey.  

But first, let’s see what PLM is and some of its advantages.  

What is Product Lifecycle Management Software?  

Product lifecycle management (PLM) refers to the process of managing all the stages in a product’s life – from its ideation, development, launch, and service all the way to its retirement. In other words, PLM software enables you to manage all things related to your product using a single platform.   

It is a technology that enables manufacturers to create new products and launch them in the market. Moreover, it makes it very convenient for you to track changes in your product’s lifecycle. With PLM, supply chain management, asset maintenance, and operational optimization have become way more convenient. Thus, it would be entirely true to say that the PLM system is essential for manufacturers today – whether small or big.  

Let’s look at some of the benefits of using PLM software.  

  Advantages of PLM  

  • Development & Engineering Efficiency – Research has revealed that the biggest impediment to efficient engineering results from silos. PLM breaks down silos by enabling a two-way flow of real-time data, which, in turn, facilitates collaboration and knowledge-sharing.   
  • Elimination of Errors – A robust PLM software allows you to rectify engineering errors in your product(s). Moreover, PLM also reduces manufacturing waste and helps you optimize your product costs conveniently.  
  • Reduced Time to Market – PLM empowers your project managers to handle overlapping timelines efficiently. This is possible because PLM software provides you with real-time information on all the stages of a product’s lifecycle.   
  • Enhanced Project Delivery – PLM software is known for improving workflow management. By empowering your team with the ability to calculate product costs more precisely, PLM lets you meet project deadlines efficiently.  
  • Better Quality Designs – PLM gives your engineers and designers the deep insights needed to develop good quality designs. You can integrate your PLM software with machine learning to derive new feature suggestions and incorporate customer feedback.  

All these advantages and many more facilitate the digital transformation of a manufacturing concern. Let’s dive a little deeper to unearth how PLM aids digital transformation.  

PLM and Digital Transformation  

PLM software is at the core of a successful digital transformation strategy for manufacturing companies. It enables you to create an organization geared towards responding to changing market needs and requirements. Such an organization is business focused, flexible, and yet competitive for all the same reasons.   

It is also a company that quickly translates customer feedback into product changes. PLM software, as mentioned above, breaks down silos, thus allowing your various teams to collaborate seamlessly on a project.   

Without PLM software, a company cannot truly become a modern, tech-driven manufacturing company. However, a firm needs specific capabilities to transform traditional product lifecycle management strategies into digital PLM successfully. These include, but are not limited to, the following:  

  • The vision is to restructure your company’s PLM strategies.  
  • Ensuring digital continuity by leveraging digital PLM assets across the enterprise ecosystem.  
  • Enabling data transformation from data authoring to data consumption.  
  • Enabling intelligent business processes.  
  • Employing efficient and agile development and production methodologies.  

Enabling Digital Transformation with PLM  

Products of the 21st century are increasingly complex. Cross-discipline interdependencies form part of the production processes of nearly all modern-day products. Here are some approaches and capabilities you can use with Oracle PLM to drive rapid digital transformation and business growth.  

1. Strategic Enterprise Systems  

Your company needs to leverage enterprise-level systems to ensure digital transformation. Such systems include ERP, PLM, CRM, etc. These systems and platforms manage a firm’s interrelated data on a single platform. Therefore, companies need to maintain product data throughout a product’s lifecycle to derive cost optimization benefits and maximize value offerings.   

2. Systems Engineering  

You can combine systems engineering with PLM to create innovative systems and products. Most engineers choose either systems engineering or PLM to engineer products. Few realize that combining the two offers you immense capabilities to develop intelligent and innovative products. You would need a systems-level approach to unite the two methods.  

3. Digital Thread  

You need to connect your company’s strategic enterprise systems like Product lifecycle management with downstream and upstream data. This connectivity of data ensures digital continuity. A digital thread generates a closed loop between physical and digital domains, thus impacting the way products are manufactured and serviced.   

The aim of digital threads is to offer universal access to data. They enable this by following a single data set while it goes in and out of business processes. Today, all supply chains are global and, therefore, highly complicated. But companies must know how product components, factories where they are built, and people intersect with each other. A digital thread helps achieve all this and more.  

You can employ a combination of modern technologies like IoT, PLM, and CAD to analyze and handle critical product information across business functions and departments. All of this facilitates digital transformation.  

4. Digital Twin  

A digital twin is a virtual representation of a physical person, product, process, or place. In the manufacturing industry, digital twins work in tandem with PLM software to provide a holistic view of business processes and products. A digital twin improves product design by collecting data from the physical counterpart using the Internet of Things (IoT) and sending it to the engineering team.   

Moreover, access to real-time information improves product quality by enabling early detection of product issues. Thus, using a digital twin with your PLM accelerates digital transformation and contributes to higher profits.  

That’s a Wrap!  

For manufacturers, a successful digital transformation begins with choosing the right PLM software. PLM is the backbone of your company’s production and development management. The advantages of employing PLM software are far too many to ignore. Make sure you use it to drive greater business efficiency and growth!  

If you need help deploying, servicing, or upgrading your PLM software, feel free to contact us at [email protected].