PLM Deployments: How to Get Engineering Acceptance

They can be difficult, unyielding, and arrogant." ... "They have separate processes and technologies that do not adhere to corporate standards." ... "They [have] a different culture and are often physically separated from the rest of the corporation." "They" are engineers and designers, and the comments are from project managers responsible for large-scale product lifecycle management (PLM) deployments. Preceding these statements was the acknowledgement that, "Ensuring the user acceptance of engineers is my single most important task." In preparation for an upcoming AMR Research Report, "Deploying PLM: The Insider's Experience," we spoke with 10 project managers who were in various stages of deploying PLM across their global corporation. Push-Back From Creative Groups The creative groups comprising engineering and design proved to be the biggest problems. Historically, these groups have been treated differently from their co-workers. Cries of "structuring the creative process" are the only push-back they need to get executives to refrain from imposing process or technology changes. As a result, these groups are left alone to devise their own business practices and maintain their own technology. How do project managers usually respond? Many don't, to the detriment of the project. In fact, all of the people that we spoke with had dealt with failed implementations in the past. The main reason for failure was the inability to obtain cross-organizational buy-in, with engineering being the biggest holdout. Making Engineering Happy Project managers currently involved in successful deployments have these tips:

• Build the internal deployment team with empowered influencers. Look for senior management who can provide push-back about requisitioning these knowledgeable professionals. As one project manager said, "If an executive was willing to lend their employee, I realized that I had asked for the wrong person."
  
• Become deeply involved in understanding the creative groups' pain points. Become a champion for their ideas, process improvements, and user-interface suggestions.
  
• Top-down edicts of "thou shalt use PLM" do not work for the engineering group. Look for opportunities to support grassroots endeavors. One user reported that environmental compliance engineers were looking for new ways to communicate with their suppliers. They found the answer in their PLM and became a robust influencing force in the organization.
  
• Use the vendor's client list to bring in outside engineers who can have an open discussion about the pains and benefits of deploying PLM.