On today’s episode of the Digital Enterprise Society podcast Thom Singer and Craig Brown are joined by Aras Technical Account Manager David Ewing and Assistant Professor of Practice at Purdue University Travis Fuerst to discuss the importance of teaching students about PLM in the classroom long before they enter the workplace. David and Travis co-authored the valuable book Essentials of Product Data Management: Enabling the Digital Enterprise — a resource for educators that exposes students to the concepts, capabilities and processes associated with PDM.

Today they share the importance of improving PLM and PDM education, critical reasons that the digital enterprise needs to be digitized, and why there is a greater need than ever before for a transition from PDM to PLM.

On today’s podcast, you will learn:

How can PDM and PLM improve in education and in the workforce?

• Students need to be better equipped to work with PDM and PLM straight out of college.

• A PDM model in the classroom would avoid the need to unteach bad habits in the workplace.

• Engineering and technology need to be better merged and released from their silos.
• Senior management needs to be willing to look at new tools to improve processes.
• System engineering should be engaged from Day 1 until the time a product stops being used.

3 reasons the digital enterprise needs to be digitized

• PDM is more than just CAD, which means the author needs to be more deliberate in how data is stored.
• Travis and David’s book takes digitization down to the user’s level and answers the question ‘what’s in it for me?’.
• Academia needs to be better prepared for the demands of post-school PLM requirements.

The need for a transition from PDM to PLM

• Product lifecycle management still requires that the process comes first.
• Data has to be stored somewhere, which is where the PDM underpinning of PLM comes into play.
• The product life cycle applies not only to engineering, it is a critical component of every digital industry.
• The days of planned obsolescence are gone — customers want to buy the product that has the most promising lifecycle.

Career advice from experienced industry pros

• Follow what you love and be prepared to pivot toward it.

• Don’t be afraid to take on the next challenging job.

• Work yourself out of a job and then hand it off to the next person.

• Challenge yourself to stay curious about the work you are doing and the work you want to be doing.

Do you have an example of extraordinary efforts or innovation during these unprecedented times? We would love to hear your story and possibly interview you for an upcoming episode. Please reach out to us at www.DigitalEnterpriseSociety.org

Essentials of Product Data Management: Enabling the Digital Enterprise by Amy B Mueller, Jorge D. Camba, Travis J. Fuerst, David L. Ewing