Community Forum – PLM Cost Benchmark

Resource Type
Survey (Community Forum)
Author
Innovation Research Interchange
Topics
Innovation Metrics, Tools and Techniques
Associated Event
Publication

What PLM Costs Should We Expect?

We are looking for benchmark costs on implementing a new PLM system for a CPG company that maintains an active catalog of 11,000 products with 300 new product introductions a year and another 500 product revisions.  We would like feedback regarding:

  • What are expected one-time costs?
  • What are expected on-going maintenance costs?

Submitted by John Dunlay, IT Business Solutions Manager, Avon

Community Responses

Project & Portfolio Manager, Global FMCG Food Industry (1/31/17)
We are evaluating a PLM System, and we found these four elements:

  1.        Scope – You will need to evaluate how big is your scope, in our company we are considering:
    •    PLM
    •    Document manager
    •    Legal
    •    Suppliers

Manufacturing, master data, and distribution are out of the scope (we already have SAP for those)   Define sites and countries included in the scope

  1.        Startup cost – The basic startup cost should have:
    • Development of the blueprint
    • IT infrastructure
    • Interfaces for specific users / roles / platforms
    • Travel expenses
  2.        Country implementation cost-  Country cost only if your plan considers several overseas sites
  3.        Annual maintenance and licenses – Last you will have annual maintenance cost and licenses fee.

The bigger the scope, the bigger the budget required.

Karen Milley, J.M. Smucker Company (1/25/17)
We have been on a journey with our PLM implementation that has been 10 years in the making.  Before you panic – we have divested over $1B in sales and acquired $4B in sales, brought on line 2 new manufacturing facilities and transitioned to a Purchase to Pay and Purchase to Order system.  During this time there have been 2 upgrades to the PLM system we are using that cause re-loops.

Due to cost and resources we did opt for a slower implementation plan – hence the 10 years, but have added probably 20+ people as we move to run model in an $8B business.  So I don’t know the total cost, or the total impact to resources, but do know that the impact to our quality systems and our ability to find and trace information is invaluable and the cost as been incremental over the 10 years in a way that was completely manageable.

I would certainly be willing to talk with you.