PLM ADOPTION AND INTEGRATION AT P&G.

Before founding ARNE.STUDIO, I spent 15 years at P&G, working across multiple business units utilising large scale packaging technologies. 

As a Principal Engineer (Technical Director), I worked with others across the organisation on the selection and adoption of P&G’s new PLM. This platform enables P&G to leverage their scale by allowing the seamless flow of data to and from our packaging initiatives.

Below is a brief deliverable overview of this global initiative:

P&G CEO Bob McDonald has outlined “digitization” as an overall corporate strategy to address this need. Part of this vision includes “digitizing innovation” to create better product and package designs, eliminate expensive prototyping through modeling and simulation, and transform how cloud-based access and share information across geographic and organizational boundaries.

 

P&G has long established strategic non-competing partnerships where knowledge can be shared across industries. In my role, I was part of R&D-specific collaborations with both the automotive and graphics industries. At the time of this work, P&G operated with several siloed PLM systems, each managing specific areas of the business, including regulatory, formulation, and design. As part of P&G’s collaboration with the automotive industry and alongside the continued growth of the company and its portfolio, it was agreed that we needed to adopt a centralised, connected PLM system. This would allow data to seamlessly flow across all areas of the business, ensuring best practices, consistent decision-making, and optimal workflows could be adopted across the entire global organisation.

Two approaches were considered. Firstly, a PLM system independent of a 3D CAD application, similar to the existing systems managing the aforementioned business pillars. Secondly, a system built around a 3D CAD framework. Through evaluation, it became clear that 3D CAD, as one of the core pillars of any company developing and managing the production of physical goods, was key to the success of a company-wide PLM system.

Many stakeholders across the company were consulted on the best platform. In my role as Principal Engineer in packaging development, I evaluated three different 3D applications along with their synchronous connection to their respective cloud-based PLM platforms. As part of my evaluation, I produced specifications and success criteria and performed hands-on validation of incoming 3D CAD applications, automation tools, and their ability to drive designs and design validation from dynamic PLM datasets.

After extensive testing, specification, and validation work, Dassault’s 3DEXPERIENCE platform ENOVIA and its design platform CATIA were chosen as the optimal solution for P&G. This collaboration remains the largest PLM integration within the FMCG space.

The selection of the 3DEXPERIENCE platform was the start of the PLM design and adoption effort. Dassault, having never worked with an FMCG company of this scale before, had a lot to learn about how we develop our products, interact with our suppliers, and manage our approval stage gates. P&G also had a lot to learn from Dassault, who had been instrumental in supporting complex automotive and aeronautical R&D for many years.

The adoption and delivery of the PLM system is now live and supports every single function within the company. The optimisation of this tool and its application is an ongoing effort as 3DS and P&G further refine the tools built on the foundation laid at the project’s inception.

Some of the tools and applications I personally delivered include:

  • User interface design and application layout
  • CBA (Current Best Approach) for primary and secondary packaging development
  • 3D design versioning and revision
  • 2D drawing formatting
  • Global user training for Tier 3 experts, Tier 2 users, and Tier 1 viewers
  • 3D development lifecycle design stages
  • Sign-off routing and approval stage gates
  • Cross-platform interoperability for supplier communication
  • 3D design template specification
  • Design automation and iterative optimisation tools
  • Visualisation and digital twin representation

You can read more about this market-leading collaboration here: https://www.3ds.com/insights/customer-stories/procter-gamble

If you are looking to supercharge your packaging development by taking the first steps, or if you want to get the most from your PLM adoption, why not send us an email?

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