The Impact of Organisational Change Management on the Success of a Product Lifecycle Management Implementation

The dissertation in hand discusses the implementation of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) in the Electronics Manufacturing Industry. In particular, the impact of Organisational Change Management on the implementation success of PLM has been researched. The methodology used to investigate the topic includes literature research, quantitative research (survey) as well as qualitative research (interviews).The environment of manufacturers is coined by time to market reduction, increased variety and complexity resulting from trends like globalisation, mass customisation and increased outsourcing. PLM aims to help manufacturers in this environment by providing an infrastructure to support management of product related data throughout its complete lifecycle (from initial concept to product obsolescence). Appropriate solutions ensure that up to date information are accessible for the right people, in the right format at the right time.Especially interesting for the product lifecycle is the conceptual phase of the product definition process where fundamental design choices are made and the product lifecycle costs are determined to a large extent. The concept of Concurrent Engineering suggests improving this phase by breaking down functional barriers and setting up cross- functional teams. Globalisation and increased outsourcing require collaboration across geographic regions and company borders. Therefore PLM systems do not only provide functionality to control product related data but also to collaborate within a company as well as in the extended enterprise.The reason for failure of new business concepts like PLM is very often due to a poor implementation phase rather than to the concept itself. It is therefore important not only to take the technological but also the organisational perspective of PLM into account. Collaborating and sharing of data within a company and especially in the extended enterprise challenges existing processes and culture. An holistic implementation approach will therefore most likely result in process as well as cultural changes. For that reason, the success of PLM heavily depends on the willingness of the organisation to accept change and especially on the people that must form inter-organisational and cross-functional teams to collaboratively develop and manage products.