Photo by SunsoakedCreative, Sept 2015 View image
As small businesses develop and grow into big businesses, the ability to maintain the social intimacy of a small business becomes much harder. Having a social approach with PLM can shorten the distances between everyone in the company. We just have to take a leaf from social media's book to make it happen.
My definition of social PLM is the ability to help big companies behave like small companies.
When I talk to owners of small businesses, particularly manufacturers, I’m always envious about how tight the working community is. The owner / MD / doer (one person) knows everyone; the employees, customers, suppliers etc. They also know everything; when the stuff is coming in, being made, why a bit of kit has stopped, what’s important to that customer at that time, and why John isn’t in today. It’s amazing to observe.
We all know it doesn’t last, how can it? As the business grows that one person becomes a board of people; that one close knit team becomes several teams, the relationships remain but there is a practical distance. We try and make that distance closer with technology, reports and analysis. What we really want is to feel as close to what’s going on as we did when we were small.
That takes a different approach, a way of collaborating, a way of talking that allows us to know where we are with any particular project at any time, whether you are having your breakfast in Australia or your evening meal in Manchester.
Social is a frame of mind not just a media.
PLM software provides part of the technology backbone to do that but can result in people shifting the connection between each other to the technology. For example; I did my bit, it’s in the system but what about all the conversations you would have had if the person you were working with was sitting next to you? How do you chat with your colleagues when they aren’t there and you aren’t even in the same time zone to give them a call?
Take everything we have learned from social media and do it in the PLM system. You don’t have to be on twitter to generate a concise 140 character message. Facebook doesn’t have to be operational for you to see your remote colleagues as friends and keep them updated on what you are doing, where you are and whether you love it or not, even add a “like” every now and again.
Social is a frame of mind not just a media.
Help your big business remember what it was like when it was small, integrate collaborative PLM software but at the same time encourage the social aspect within it.
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