Overcoming PLM Customization Challenges in Indian Production Companies
A realistic vision to create sustainable, high-performing PLM ecosystems
India’s manufacturing segment is evolving in a swift pace aligning high-volume production, rapid design cycles, and demanding expectations from the global customers. Whether it’s EV, electronics, aerospace, machinery, or industrial components, most of the production companies are relying on Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems to instil discipline, traceability, and speed to engineering and new product development.
Though with the modern PLM platforms many organizations undergo the same issue as the customizations that were crafted to resolve the problems are ending up creating new ones gradually.
It is a quick turn around for Sumedhas Tech Solutions to encounter the issues by guiding companies through PLM modernization and optimization programs.
The Actual Impact of Unorganized Customizations
Many manufacturing firms customize their PLM systems for practical approaches of concerns for instance, automating a repetitive task, colliding a workflow with an internal process, or integrating with an existing ERP or CAD environment. Moreover, these adjustments expand and become arduous to govern.
Some of the common issues include:
Complex upgradation and version freeze
When a PLM is involved in deep code changes, the minor upgrades may affect the core functions. This is the reason in most of the companies the latest features and security improvements are missed out.
Ruptured workflows and fluctuating data
Tweaks across departments or plants may lead to various interpretations of the processes, which results in mismatched BOM’s, change of histories that is not clear, or replicate of part records.
Performance degradation
Bulk server-side scripts, custom UI widgets, and ineffectual queries slowing down daily schedules with operations. Engineers are affected by their unproductive time waiting for tasks to load and workflows to get completed.
Brittle integrations
Without a unified data model, PLM gets connected to an ERP, MES, procurement, or QA systems adopting custom-built scripts; the integration becomes unsafe to failures and mismatches.
Ownership clarity is lagging behind
When employees change their domains or leave the organization, undocumented customizations become a red hat, gradually increasing the dependency on individual developers or vendors complicating the troubleshooting processes.
Sumedhas Tech Solutions manages these issues covering their hidden risks during PLM audits, without underestimating the accumulation of technical debt.
How are the latest manufacturers resolving the issue?
Most of the production companies are well-structured, future-ready with their approach, balancing necessary customization with long-term sustainability.
Prioritizing configuration over customization
Lifecycle rules, workflows, and meta structures must be configurable not coded to keep the system lighter and upgrades simple.
Building modular, API-based extensions
Rather than modifying the core PLM platform, organizations are engaging upgrade-safe extensions with the use of REST APIs and event-driven mechanisms. Sumedhas Tech Solutions aids businesses to design the components to remain stable even as the PLM evolves.
Developing governance and review boards
Long-term approach complexity is prevented by a formal approval process for new changes to ensure the request associated with the business goals.
Standards data models across the systems
A specific and clear approach to part numbers, attributes, units, and lifecycle states ensure communication between PLM and systems such as ERP or MES.
Automated regression testing
Before the updates or customizations are released, automated tests validate critical workflows to reduce risks and enhance confidence during upgrades.
These initiatives help organizations run more efficiently, to predict and scale engineering environments. Sumedhas Tech Solutions has supported numerous clients to implement these practices, simultaneously reducing downtime and improving user satisfaction.
Why is it significant for India’s Manufacturing Growth?
The country’s manufacturing aspirations are efficient with digital ecosystems. When the product variability increases the timelines shrink, PLM systems make it easy to keep in pace. Excess customization, or sluggish environment cannot support:
- Multi-support collaboration
- High-volume engineering change cycles
- Digital thread initiatives
- Supplier integration and compliance
- Agile innovation programs
PLM implementation makes a lot of difference for the overall organization’s functionality.
How does Sumedhas Tech Solutions transform the business structure?
Sumedhas Tech Solutions partners with production companies to create scalable, and stable environments through:
- PLM assessments
- Rationalization and Refactoring of legacy customizations
- Designing extension-based architectures
- Integration modernization using APIs and event-driven platforms
- Establishing governance frameworks and consistency in the process
- Training programs for the engineering teams
This approach elevates PLM from a complex, hard-to-maintain system into a strategic platform accelerating product development and strengthening decision-making.
You must be logged in to post a comment.