CIMdata publishes research on PLM and “big data”

CIMdata, Inc., a PLM strategic consulting and research firm has published a new white paper, Product Lifecycle Management and the Data Deluge, that reports on new research on PLM and “Big Data,” a phrase used to describe data sets so large and complex that they cannot be readily analyzed using traditional database techniques.
Based on CIMdata’s global market research, companies all over the world rely on product lifecycle management (PLM) strategies to enhance their product development and manufacturing processes. Through the use of advanced information technology (IT) solutions, design tools, and other technologies, companies generate large amounts of data that document the evolving product across the lifecycle.

Most data and process management solutions used at the core of these strategies include numerous ways to leverage managed data, including classification schemes to organize information, associative linking of related information, and search engines that can find information of interest. While this works reasonably well for the volume and type of information developed across the extended enterprise, companies also use information from the Internet to support their product development processes. Some of that information is well structured and easy to incorporate. But increasingly, companies are looking to the open Internet and World Wide Web to gather information from unstructured sources as well.
The paper focuses on the intersection of PLM and what has come to be known as “Big Data.” The increasing volume and growth rate of data applicable to PLM is requiring companies to seek new methods to turn that data into actionable intelligence that can enhance business performance. The paper describes methods, including search-based techniques, that show promise to help address this problem.
Product Lifecycle Management and the Data Deluge is available to be freely downloaded from CIMdata’s website at http://www.cimdata.com/publications/reports_complimentary/white_papers.html.