Linking PLM with CPQ closes the gap between product development/engineering and sales, and creates a single source of truth for all product data. Connecting a PLM system with a CPQ solution guarantees that the sales team can access accurate and up-to-date product details, such as configurations and specifications, directly from PLM. This ensures that the quotes produced by CPQ reflect accurate, manufacturable configurations. For CPQM solutions, such as DriveWorks, this also includes the automatic generation of accurate BOMs.
What is PLM?
Product Lifecycle Management is a strategic approach to managing the entire lifecycle of a product from inception, through engineering design and manufacturing, to service and disposal. PLM integrates people, processes, business systems, and information to facilitate collaboration and improve product innovation, quality, and time-to-market.
PLM software manages all stages of a product’s lifecycle, from conceptualization to design, production, maintenance, and eventual disposal. It acts as a hub for product data, streamlining communication across different departments and enhancing decision-making processes.
What is CPQ?
In manufacturing, Configure Price Quote refers to software solutions that streamline the configuration, pricing, and quoting processes for complex and customizable products. These solutions help manufacturers and their sales teams quickly and accurately generate quotes for products that may have numerous customizable options, features, and configurations.
CPQ for Manufacturing (CPQM) software helps companies sell and manufacture complex configurable products accurately and efficiently. CPQM applications include all the features of standard CPQ tools but can also automatically create the documents and data required for manufacturing.
Benefits of Integrating PLM with CPQ
Improved Product & Pricing Accuracy
Ensures sales configurations are always based on the latest product designs, specifications, and parts/components availability.
Increased Efficiency
Streamlines the flow of information between product development, sales, design engineering, and production.
Improved Compliance
Guarantees that all possible product configurations comply with the latest regulatory standards, as set in the PLM.
Improved Customer Experience
With the supply of accurate and up-to-date product data in a configurator, customers can easily configure custom products themselves.
BOM accuracy
With up-to-date product information coming from the PLM system directly to the CPQ system, automatically generated BOMs are accurate and current. DriveWorks CPQ for Manufacturing can automatically creates BOMs for manufacturing teams, engineering teams and service stakeholders.
Can I use DriveWorks CPQ with our company’s PLM system?
Yes! DriveWorks CPQ solutions can be integrated with many other company systems, including PLM systems.
The architecture of DriveWorks software is very open and this means that DriveWorks Pro can take inputs from many data sources, use it, perform operations and calculations, and then pass information on to other systems.
In the case of PLM, this means that your DriveWorks Configurator can use data queried directly from your PLM records. Because DriveWorks is a rules-based system, you can then set the rules that are to be applied to the information entered and decide what happens to it.
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Want to learn more about the benefits of PLM and CPQ integration?
In this article, we explore these benefits in more detail.
Integrating PLM and CPQ systems offers a range of benefits that can transform product development and sales processes for custom products. From streamlining data flow and reducing time-to-market to improving accuracy and ensuring compliance, integration enables organizations to operate more efficiently and effectively in today’s competitive marketplace.