4G:PLM – Simple, Powerful and Affordable

SolidPartners, Inc. has an exciting new product to accompany their Activault® system, used by SolidWorks designers worldwide over the past decade. 4G:PLM is a new compact Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solution specifically developed for small to medium-sized (SMB) manufacturing companies. It is a Master Data Management tool to manage Product Structure (BOM), Approved Manufacturer Lists (AML) and the change process (ECO/ECN). It is a state-of-the-art, enterprise-level PLM solution at a price point within the reach of companies of all sizes.

It is an evolutionary product, developed with a singular focus on addressing user’s needs for managing product data. We say evolutionary, because we’ve tried to learn from the mistakes and missteps of other PDM/PLM vendors. It was built from the ground up from a ‘clean piece of paper’ to enable rapid product development. This is no simple task. For starters, the topic is quite confusing – even the industry experts can’t always agree on what to call it! The terms: PDM, PLM, PIM, workgroup or enterprise – it all can become quite confusing and expensive for the unsuspecting new user. It is also evolutionary and in some ways revolutionary because it has taken many years to have the right combination of talent and technology to evolve into the cool new tool for management of product information including Bills of Materials (BOMs), AML (Approved Manufacturers List) and ECOs (Engineering Change Orders).

Most systems that promise Product Data Management (PDM) or Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) require a lot more management from their systems administrators and users than 4g:PLM. 4G:PLM is a welcome alternative to other PLM solutions that, through focusing on the problems of large enterprises, have become too sophisticated, too expensive, and too complicated for Small to Medium-Sized companies. We at SolidPartners would like you to focus more on the product vs. the management as you use our software tools.

4G:PLM was Developed for Engineering and Manufacturing Professionals

The basis of each operation has been to focus on the following:

• Simple, easy to learn interface including drag/drop and copy/paste
• Native CAD integration and possible interfaces to get data in and out effortlessly.
• Ease of implementation and user acceptance
• Robust workflows which are easy to modify and administer.

4G:PLM is a natural fit for companies that need the benefits of a PLM solution, but struggle to justify the high up-front software, implementation and training costs associated with other PLM products. It enables companies to realize the benefits of PLM at a fraction of the cost of other tools.
4G:PLM provides many clever ways to speed your designs to production, allowing rapid no‐hassle documentation control. If you are a SolidWorks user you can simply check the Assembly into the Activault vault and the ECO and BOM redlines (edits) and revision history will be easily managed without the headaches of typical manual BOM keyboarding. You’ll see from the start that 4G:PLM is different and smart! It remembers exactly how the prior product was built. It thinks like you do. If you like to manage your BOMs manually using Excel, then easily export the BOM through a copy/paste function.

4G:PLM manages your product data through the entire product process.  It manages product information and approved manufacturers lists (AML) as well as the change process   It does this at a fraction of the software, implementation and on-going support costs of other systems. 4G:PLM is available as a stand-alone application or integrated with Activault, our product data management salutation for SolidWorks.

4G:PLM is a Product Lifecycle and Master Data Management system that allows you create and manage a full product BOM through the product process including new product introduction as well as various levels of change management. It allows companies of all sizes to effectively secure, access and share increasingly complex product data with today’s increasing complex manufacturing and supplier networks. 4G consolidates BOM data into an easy-to-use document management solution that can be accesses by individuals throughout the organization.

4G:PLM Benefits

• 4G:PLM integrates people, product data and processes into a product information backbone used to connect multiple company organizations as well as link them with their manufacturing and supplier network. 4G:PLM helps companies improve product quality by securing product data; ensuring that individuals have easy access to the correct data revisions and allowing this information to be shared with required shareholders within the company and the extended manufacturing network.
• 4G:PLM integrates people, product data and processes into a product information backbone used to connect multiple company organizations as well as link them with their manufacturing and supplier network. 4G:PLM helps companies improve product quality by securing product data; ensuring that individuals have easy access to the correct data revisions and allowing this information to be shared with required shareholders within the company and the extended manufacturing network.
• 4G:PLM helps companies reduce new product introduction and sustaining engineering costs by ensuring accurate and timely information regarding existing products as well as upcoming changes and revisions is available to appropriate shareholders in the product process.
• 4G:PLM helps companies reduce product development costs by reducing the time required to initiate, evaluate, approve and communicate engineering changes while providing accurate information to all involved in this process.
• 4G:PLM links information from different authoring tools and organizations into a master evolving evolving product configuration and manages that configuration, including supply chain and manufacturing partners, throughout the product lifecycle. It allows you to secure this data while providing avenues to provide data assess when and where needed.

4G:PLM was developed with IT Management in mind

A comprehensive management of Product Data takes time and effort. There is nothing like a “simple” solution for a complex problem… unless you think it all the way through…

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”     Albert Einstein

4G:PLM was build from the ground up to be extremely easy to install, deploy and maintain using a rock‐solid foundation based on MS SQLServer®, TCP/IP and Adobe AIR for the client software. It is deployed like a web based thin‐client solution, but has the power of a thick‐client, windows‐like solution. Additionally, it doesn’t care which operating system you prefer – it will run equally well on Windows (W7, W10) or Mac OS. Android tablets are also in the works. All of this can be securely managed through central server and controlled via web services and administrator functions.

4G:PLM is the Low Cost Leader in the Industry!

It sort of goes without saying that the PDM/PLM industry makes over 50% of their income through custom consulting. The PDM consultants typically charge more than attorneys so even simple implementations cost tens of thousands of dollars. Additionally, the time it takes to install and implement a conventional PDM solution ranges from a week to several months, if not years. Once implemented, these tools are fragile and require constant care and feeding to keep going. 4G:PLM is an unconventional solution in that regard, which challenges conventional PDM system implementations. 4G:PLM delivers on a simple promise – to provide an extraordinary solution and services for a very reasonable price point. 4G:PLM is Enterprise PLM, without the Enterprise Price!

4G:PLM is Easy to Learn and Experience!

Talk is cheap. To actually experience the software is the key to believing our story. We want you to believe, therefore we’ll enable you to try it out for yourself with a simple download and a single click to install the 4G:PLM client at no cost or obligation.  Check out our Youtube channel to see for yourself how easy it is to learn!

4G:PLM Features

4G:PLM provides the below features, previously only available to larger companies, to companies of all sizes by reducing up-front software, implementation, training and on-going support costs associated with other PLM systems.

• Supports both cloud-based and on-premise implementations allowing companies who have limited infrastructure to use the public cloud model while customers who have concerns about data security to implement a private cloud server behind their firewall.
• Very lightweight client provides short install and update and can be updated in minutes over the web for both cloud and on-premise users.
• PDX Import and Export Provides the customer a mechanism to communicate a rich set of product information including BOM and revision information as well as attachment data (Drawings and Models) with customers or suppliers who don’t have access to the PLM system. It also provides a Robust means to import data from other systems such as Agile advantage
• Free PDX Viewer provides no-cost, web downloadable viewing solution for suppliers for reviewing info stored in the PLM system.
• Full multi-platform desktop support (Windows and Mac) allows companies the flexibility to run 4G:PLM on either Windows or the Mac with identical ease of use and access to all native product functions
• BOM-centric Product Lifecycle Management tools allow management of the actual product that is being manufactured and sold rather than a CAD-file centric approach which focuses on the incomplete information available in the CAD environment.
• Full Workflow automation allows companies to develop and capture best practices to reduce the time consumed routing and approving releases and changes via manual and semi-automated processes.
• Configuration Management
• Data Driven not file driven. 4G:PLM moves data management from the limited realm of managing CAD files to managing the full BOM with contributions from many organizations within the company.
• Simple to implement and use allows companies to quickly move through the implementation phase to begin to experience the benefits resulting from the system.
• Management of outsourced suppliers and manufacturers allows product data to be shared effectively and efficiently with all elements of the manufacturing chain by sharing data early in the development process and quickly as changes occur.
• Robust security model for supply chain collaboration allows companies to grant supply chain partners access to 4G:PLM managed data for specific projects without the risk of them gaining access to proprietary data.
• Priced within the reach of even small to medium sized businesses.
• Easy, on-the-fly data model updates allow system administrators to make needed changes to the system data model without requiring all system user to exit the system for server restart.
• Change Management Objects including requests, deviations and stop-ships ensure that corrections and accurate revisions are identified and communicated to all required parties.
• E-mail Workflow Notification allows users to be notified via e-mail and reduces the need to constantly return to 4G:PLM to check for new assigned tasks.
• Customizable Item and other object attributes allow companies to tailor the system to track and report on attribute data that is most critical to the success of their business.
• Lightning-fast search tools allows users to quickly locate data stored in 4G:PLM.

Bottom Line:

4G:PLM will manage your product development data and process while allowing you to secure, access and share relevant product data throughout your company as well as through your extended supply-chain.   The end result is reduced time to market, reduced costs associated with new product development release and associated change process.   You will also experience improvements in manufacturing as a result of having the right data available to the right people at the right time.