I was reading a comment made by Alan Taracuk about ERP versus PLM relative to business process (PLMTWINE post).  And it got me thinking about opposites and how they do or do not attract when it comes to business procedures.

We have all heard the saying that “opposites attract”.  In science we know this to be true and by looking at people we know we see this is true in life.  But is this really true when it comes to business process?  Does a person who loves process and procedure also make a great designer?  Does the industrial designer that knows the right shape and color make the best release manager?  And what about the Design process, does it really have much in common with the Release or Manufacturing?

A few weeks back I introduced the notion that there is a new market space called “People Centric PLM” and from the comments and follow on blog posts I would say there was a high level of agreement with this position.  So can a highly unstructured and collaborative process of Design mix well and be attractive to the highly structured and process oriented stages of Release and Manufacture?  While this might work in the dating world I wonder how this will work with respect to software applications…  Lets first look at something simple – what solution owns the BOM (Bill of Material)?  And while thinking about the BOM lets also evaluate when there is a viable BOM.  For example while in the Design phase is there a true BOM or BOM like things used to just manage the project?  In my experience the Design BOM is more about project management and never really gets transferred anywhere and in many cases is maintained in Excel (more like a parts list).  But when you get to the Release stage the BOM is something of substance and after being defined in the PLM tool it is transferred to ERP.  This being true it is easy to imagine many people never bother with the BOM in PLM and just enter it directly into the ERP system.  So maybe “opposites attract” is true due to there being a symbiotic relationship and those that are alike end in a turf war.

I don’t know what do you guys think?