Integrating PLM with your ERP system is a proven way businesses can enhance their operations by streamlining critical communication and information around product data. However, when you think about bringing the world of engineering and manufacturing together, you must have all the essential knowledge, or else you could risk a haphazard integration with errors.
Offering PLM integration for Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management and AX ERP, we at STAEDEAN have interacted with numerous clients for decades. During our interactions, we’ve been asked several questions, some of which were repeated and similar.
So, we took the initiative to answer some of the most frequently asked questions that could apply to any business planning to integrate their PLM and ERP systems, so you can better prepare your business for the integration process.
This is a basic question many non-technical folks have about the distinction between a PLM and ERP system. A PLM – Product Lifecycle Management system has all your engineering information related to product designing and is more flexible. ERP – Enterprise Resource Planning, on the other hand, contains transactional data and focuses on the entire financial and supply chain management regarding product manufacturing.
You can read more about PLM versus ERP.
Another FAQ we often come across is the need for a PLM-ERP integration. Although many are already well versed with the benefits an integrated PLM and ERP can offer a business, here are some of the key advantages you’ll gain:
Increased operational efficiency with real-time access to data
Reduced costs with automated data transfer, decreasing errors
Smoother supply chain with end-to-end visibility of your processes
Quicker deliverables, resulting in happier customers
Strengthened interdepartmental collaboration with streamlined communication
If you’re still questioning the need for integration, this article on the 8 signs a manufacturing business should integrate PLM and ERP could be helpful in your decision-making process.
A question that pops up when a business is convinced of the necessity of a PLM-ERP integration solution is how they can go about doing it. Here are a few steps:
Analyze your current PLM and ERP systems, and look for vendors that offer integrations supporting those systems
Identify the data you want to transfer from the PLM to the ERP
Define the nature of the integration solution you require
Set timelines for the implementation
Depending on the above factors, you could decide to either build an integration solution on your own, buy an integration solution from an ISV, look into integrations offered by your existing PLM system, or choose an out-of-the-box integration solution that can be implemented quickly.
Now that we’ve covered some generic questions, let’s look at some queries we, at STAEDEAN, have received as one of the solution providers to integrate PLM and ERP.
Our integration solution can support integrations for all PLM systems with the ERP Dynamics 365 F&SCM or Dynamics AX 2012. So, regardless of which PLM system you use, there’s a good chance we can integrate it with Microsoft Dynamics ERP. We offer out-of-the-box PLM integrations for two PLM systems: Siemens Teamcenter and PTC Windchill. We also have experience in PLM integrations with 3DX Dassault and other PLM systems.
We offer a PLM integration framework that is easily configurable and can be adapted to carry out Dynamics 365 integrations with any PLM system.
Yes. Apart from Dynamics 365 integration with PLM, we offer configurable integrations for PDM, CAD, and MDM systems as well. You can check out the details of our integration solution.
ECM – Engineering Change Management is a module within Dynamics 365 F&SCM, that controls and manages product versions and releases. This version and release control with centralized data ownership make the process of managing upgrades or changes in product data much easier.
Your business can gain various benefits from the ECM module:
Improved quality of products
Reduced costs and errors
Enhanced traceability of product and product data
Release control and readiness control
Furthermore, ECM is a prerequisite to utilize our PLM-ERP integration, as our solution utilizes certain capabilities of ECM to handle product data better. We can help you with the ECM setup or you can execute it with your implementation partner.
The final cost of the integration solution depends on the nature of your business and other variables. To offer you ballpark figures, the software license could range from $2,000 to $4,000 per month and the services could cost anywhere between $5,000 to $15,000. Here are more details on the cost of our PLM-ERP Integration for Dynamics 365.
The implementation duration for out-of-the-box Dynamics 365 integrations for PTC Windchill and Siemens Teamcenter is an average of 7 days. The implementation duration for non-standard, configurable integrations for other PLM, PDM, CAD, and MDM systems is as short as 2 weeks.
The final implementation time varies based on certain factors, and you can explore the implementation process we follow.
The integration supports sharing data from PLM to Dynamics 365:
Product data
Revision data
Bill of materials
Product structure data
Product URL
Product documents
Attributes
Status information
Engineering change information
The type and volume of data that you can integrate could also depend on your specific business needs. More integration capabilities will be made available in the near future.
There are 3 things you must get right before carrying out the integration:
i) Prepare your business for change and take measures accordingly: Find out the common challenges during PLM-ERP integration and how to solve them proactively so you can ensure the implementation is done right the first time.
ii) Have the right people to analyze the data: PLM-ERP integration usually begins at this phase in which you must carry out a detailed analysis of the data to be transferred from your PLM to the ERP system (Dynamics 365). You must have a good understanding of the type, volume, and format of data to be shared, as not all the data is required to be transferred.
iii) Ensure your data migration is right: Data migration is crucial for PLM-ERP integration — whether you are moving from any ERP to Dynamics 365 or moving from Dynamics 365 without ECM to Dynamics 365 with ECM. It is important to know which data migration scenario is applicable to your business.
Our PLM-ERP integration solution prevents data change in the PLM and ERP systems through an established data validation process, thereby maintaining data integrity. You can ensure data quality with our PLM-ERP integration that has advanced mapping capabilities, accurate BOM analysis, automated process of data transfer, and well-maintained data ownership in both systems.
Our PLM-ERP integration can support any manufacturing business, as long as the ERP system is Dynamics 365 F&SCM, or AX 2012, or the business is looking to adopt either of the mentioned D365 systems as their ERP.
Some of the major manufacturing industries we support are:
Product manufacturers
Industrial equipment and heavy machinery
Automotive and transportation
Aerospace and defense
Semiconductor and electronics
We have offered PLM-ERP integrations to a variety of companies on the following PLM or PDM systems – PTC Windchill, Siemens Teamcenter, 3DX Dassault, Autodesk Vault, Oracle agile, and Ansys. Some of our customers include Smart Technologies and Tronrud Engineering.
You can read our case studies for all the solutions we offer, and please reach out to us for any specific questions you may have.
With rich experience spanning almost two decades, we have successfully empowered multiple businesses to streamline their product engineering and manufacturing processes.
We are part of the Microsoft inner circle and experts on the ECM component of D365 F&SCM, as ECM (previously Product Engineering) is a solution designed and developed by us at STAEDEAN. This has strengthened our long-standing relationship with Microsoft as a trusted ISV.
The PLM-ERP integration solution is certified for Microsoft Dynamics and follows the monthly upgrade cadence of Microsoft. We can assist you with the setup of ECM, guide you through the data migration process, and support you in implementing the solution.
We have a strong global partner network and can provide in-person or remote implementations, irrespective of your business’s location.
Being deeply involved in the Microsoft sphere, our focus is undividedly dedicated to Dynamics 365 ERP. We offer many more solutions on Dynamics 365 and can support you with additional business requirements or scale up.
We appreciate any business curious to explore more about our integration solution. We have a knowledge hub of blogs on a variety of topics. You can view our product webpages and peek into our videos on PLM-ERP integration.
We hope this article answered at least a few, if not all, of your questions about PLM-ERP integration for Dynamics 365. Once you begin identifying your business needs, you may have other queries along the way. We’d love to talk with you and guide you on the best approach to integrate your PLM and ERP system.
By talking to an expert, you will be able to:
Decide whether our integration solution is the right fit for your business
Have a deep dive into the capabilities of our solution
Get answers to more specific questions that you may have