PLM implementation: product engineering is only a quarter of your PLM system users.
A PLM project succeeds or fails with the people who aren’t CAD experts: manufacturing engineering, purchasing, quality, suppliers. If they work around the workflow, the digital thread breaks, whatever software you chose.
iYour turnReplace the component in the bill of materials.!AlmostIncrement the revision first.✓Well doneChange ready to submit.How do you make a PLM implementation succeed with users?
By preparing roles, not software experts, at three points in the rollout.
Rehearse your own role
Each role replays its tasks on a replica, with its own permissions.
Guide the rare tasks
BOM, revision, change request: help right on the screen.
Measure who really uses it
By site and by role, before opening PLM to more teams.
PLM training targets the experts. Then everyone uses it.
Training follows the software’s modules and targets the design office. Occasional contributors see their screens for the first time on the day they must approve a change.
- Training designed for CAD experts, delivered weeks before cutover.
- Occasional contributors (purchasing, quality, suppliers) who work around the workflow.
- BOMs and revisions filled in wrongly, breaking the digital thread downstream.
- Key users repeating the same demos instead of doing their job.
- Each role rehearses its own tasks on a replica, with its role and permissions.
- On-screen guidance for rare tasks: Safran Seats covers 80 Windchill processes.
- Data entry rules shown in the field, at the moment of entry.
- Key users relieved: at Safran Seats, their time spent on support fell from 25% to 20%.
A growing market, and an ever wider user base.
Safran Seats aligns ten sites on a single PLM.
The OnePLM program changes the technology, aligns practices across sites and redesigns processes. Videos, e-learning and classroom sessions stay in place; K-NOW adds learning inside Windchill, at the moment of the task.
80 guided processes
Product architecture, design, industrialization, configuration management.
2 working languages
Content built in agile sprints with the key users.
OnePLM: one technology, shared practices
The training program stays; guidance takes over inside the tool.
Read the success story → Safran Electronics & DefenseK-NOW · 3DEXPERIENCE3,000design office staffMyPLM, live since 2018
Help inside the platform to cope with constant team turnover.
Read the success story → Cristal OptimisationsK-NOW · PLM RetailRetaildesign, tenders, suppliersConsultants who own the guidance
The change management firm builds and updates its clients’ PLM guidance itself.
Read the success story →See also:Airbus on rolling out a DAP across 46 countries ·the Airbus success story
Same software, three usage patterns, three approaches.
A designer creates parts every day. A buyer opens a BOM every week. A quality manager approves a few times a year. Training them the same way prepares none of them properly.
Design and revise
Creating a part, a revision, a BOM: frequent tasks that quickly become second nature.
Review and change
Reading a BOM, raising a change request: less frequent tasks that are easily forgotten.
Approve without being an expert
Approving, commenting, answering a request: a few times a year, in an unfamiliar interface.
Four steps to roll out PLM to every role.
Map tasks by role
List each role’s tasks and how often they occur, rather than the software’s modules.
Rehearse before cutover
Each role practices on a replica with K-STUDIO, then gets certified: see go-live training.
Guide during hypercare
K-NOW shows the task and the business rule on screen, when old habits come back.
Measure, then extend
K-VALUE shows usage by site and role before PLM opens to more teams.
Your PLM is already covered.
The method doesn’t depend on the vendor. See what changes for each platform.
Before, during and after your PLM rollout.
Rehearse your role before cutover.
A PLM replica to practice your own tasks without touching live data.
Explore K-STUDIO→- Cloned screens, anonymized data
- Exercises by team and role
- Scored assessments, tracked via SCORM
- Classroom, remote or self-paced
Guide the rare tasks inside PLM.
Guidance and business rules shown on screen, with no change to the application.
Explore K-NOW→- Contextual step-by-step guidance
- Checks on critical fields
- Content by site, role and language
- Updates with no release
Steer real PLM usage.
Metrics by site and role to decide where to step up support.
Explore K-VALUE→- Screen-by-screen usage
- Workflow steps bypassed
- Fields left empty
- Assigned vs. used roles
PLM implementation: your questions.
What makes PLM implementations fail with users?
How do you train users on a new PLM system?
Should you keep classic PLM training?
How do you keep BOMs and change requests reliable?
How do you support several sites and languages?
How do you handle turnover after go-live?
How do you measure PLM adoption?
What is the difference between PLM training and PLM adoption?
Show us one task. We’ll show you how to support it.
A change request, a BOM, an approval: we start from a real process in your PLM and show you its simulation and in-app guidance.