Users say the benefit of using SAP Product Lifecycle Management is its seamless integration of product data and related bill-of-material information with other SAP applications, such as manufacturing, order management, and purchasing. Such integration was reason enough for Volvo Aero, a subsidiary of AB Volvo in Trollheattam, Sweden, to use SAP PLM. "If there's an accident and a problem with the engine, we need to trace back within 72 hours the parts and materials that made that part," says Torbjorn Holm, a systems consultant for the subsidiary, which manufactures aircraft-and rocket-engine components. "It's very important for us to have integration through the product life cycle; it's just as important as collaboration."

Known for rigorous, centralized business processes and transaction automation, SAP may provide integration and cut down on redundant, manual data entry, but the vendor isn't known for its engineering expertise or for providing extended access to data. For the best of both worlds, Schindler Lifts Ltd. in Ebikon, Switzerland, is integrating SAP's product data management software with a computer-aided design tool from Parametric Technologies Corp., as well as several other product data management packages.

"SAP is a great tool to keep data consistent and impose high availability of data," says Nikola Stojic, product data management manager at the $4.71 billion elevator manufacturer. "But it's too restrictive for early product development phases."

Others see the benefits of SAP's integration opportunities, but they haven't been persuaded to use the product data-management tools. "Your design determines your bill of material, which is stored in SAP," says Luc Verbeke, business information consultant at Xeikon NV in Antwerp, Belgium. "If you change your design and it affects the materials you stock, people have to rekey that into SAP. That's very time-consuming."

But for Xeikon, which designs digital color printing systems, SAP's limitations outweighed its benefits. The company uses a product data-management package called Windchill from Parametric, which it's tying into its SAP inventory-management system. SAP PLM "has too little functionality," Verbeke says. "SAP offers you an integrated platform, but they'll never be able to support everything sufficiently. Engineering is not SAP's line of business. It never will be."

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