Interface Issues from PLM to ERP in Colombian Manufacturing Industry

Abstract

Colombian companies have started to implement software packages as a new way to capture production cost information, financial and market management data, among others; these tools support the launch of their product to the market in a more efficiently way by using management systems to track asset status or time planning, and there are several information systems that allow this process such as CAD, CDM, PDM, ERM or Workflows, depending on the size of the company and their necessities. Specifically, the manufacture industry has shown an inclination for the Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) because is used in all the management phases in the life cycle of the product at every process point (manufactured, technical, and managerial) and it also helps to keep track of the key suppliers, the customers feedback data; it helps to trace the product´s data and business analytics over cross-structured information (among the company levels). The Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) it is also used by companies as strategic software, with the possibility to be implemented as an “holistic” system that is adequate to reach three levels, the strategic level, operational level, and the mission level that help the business to reduce the cost of the cross process of the company, at an operational or administrative level. Programs like the Microsoft Dynamics Ax can be integrated to an PLM to look for the data interface in analytic processes that are related to management. When companies are bigger, they need to cover new areas of data, and to reach this stage, the companies with a PLM as the main system, need to integrate to an ERP. Before implementing ERP, it is necessary to use tools that expose systematic processes the right way through different overviews, because there can be a risk if the implementation does not have the right data migration. The interface between systems will help the company to acquire better transverse information (in production, financial levels, and in marketing and human resource management).