The Vuuch Solution Survey has created a bit of a stir. One PLM professional, working for a big Koolaid 
producers had this to say:
Chris, while your survey is well intended, you clearly have missed the point in managing PLM information. Also, if you intended to generalize this survey, you might want to check your English and spelling.
I’m at a loss in figuring out what you’re trying to gain from the survey. The questions don’t relate to what companies are trying to sort out relative to PLM. Excel was the tool of choice for managing critical information and team communications at one time (perhaps 5-10) years ago. Companies that are succeeding have migrated to more formal database environments, such as PDM databases or even Access. Things are different now. I should say, any company that is using Excel to manage data management and communications presents a golden opportunity for improvement. Also, I see no mention of “value propositions” in your survey.
Chris, your objectives are laudable. But you need to “beef” up the survey questions to give substantive results and direction. Thanks for your efforts.
Being an engineer my spelling skills are so so, so thanks for the heads up on that one. Looking through his Koolaid colored glasses, designers have left their Excel files behind for PLM. I agree that PLM provides a useful workflow tool, but I doubt PLM has reduced the amount of email sent or the number of Excel files created. Product development requires intense communication and Engineers spend countless hours communicating with team members in order to make design decisions. Simple tools have in no way been removed from the design process. Tools like email and Excel are efficient and work. No one is going to check email conversations or the odd Excel file into their PLM system. It would be very valuable if they did, but they are not going to take the time to do this. Why would a CAD user leave their CAD tool, go to email and save the file, start their PLM tool and then checkin the file to some node within the PLM tool???? Certainly if they did this it would be valuable, but it just won’t happen.
Customers have responded well. In one case I received an email from someone excited to see that someone is exploring the simple tools used throughout the design process. Their company has been running PLM for years. They go on to recognize the value contained in design discussions and the fact these discussions will never be part of their Windchill database. They also offered to forward the survey to their user community.
I will continue to share survey results, so please pass the link along. I am also working on a new survey, a more detailed survey, so please forward questions along or add them as comments to this post. Improving Design Discussions represents a real value opportunity…
