People frequently ask me how I learned PLM.
I often answer that to truly understand PLM, you must get your hands dirty and work in real PLM projects, whether that is as a consultant or in corporate.
While knowledge from “the field” is invaluable, the truth is that by reading PLM blogs and books, you can learn the foundations of PLM and stay on top of industry trends, terminology, advancements in the industry, etc.
Why should you follow and read PLM blogs as a PLM professional?
PLM blogs are especially useful.
There is no shortage of PLM literature, but blogs are insightful and practical.
Most blog authors I follow share a lot of experience from the field. And their insights are incredibly useful when it comes to learning PLM, where often it’s not easy to bring high-level concepts down to earth.
Even when PLM blogs aren’t going into details of how to do something on a granular level, they discuss complex topics such as concepts and trends that are relevant to stay up to date as a PLM professional.
Today, I’m going to share 12 blogs and articles that have made a big impact on me.
Some of these are what one might consider “classics” of the PLM literature. Others are hidden gems, niche authors that share great content but don’t promote it big, so if you don’t already know them, you might never come across their wisdom.
You may have read some of these, but I hope that this post inspires you with even one blog that you haven’t picked up yet. I hope you’ll bookmark them like I have so that you can stay on top of what’s going on in the PLM world.
OpenBOM’s co-founder Oleg Shilovitsky writes more blog posts — on Beyond PLM and all over the web — than just about anyone I know, and there’s always something to learn.
My favourite posts that he writes share his views on the evolution of Product Lifecycle Management and offer a visionary look at what’s going on and what we can expect from vendors and future trends.
There’s no fluff here at all, and if you want to keep up to date in the PLM arena, I can’t recommend this blog enough!
Recommended post: PLM System Architecture Evolution For Dummies
When Jos Voskuil shares advice, I listen.
This blog holds a special place for me, too, because I learned the basics of PLM with Jos’ articles.
I still remember carrying a folder full of printed articles from Jos’ blog with me for my first assignments as a PLM consultant. Jos’ blog, for me, is a bit like a PLM manual with lots of in-depth core PLM content.
I always tell Jos that he should gather all his articles and write a book, but he’s a strong believer in sharing free information to the public and is proud of being one of the pioneer PLM bloggers out there.
Recommended post: ECR ECO for Dummies
Michael Finocchiaro is a hardcore PLM system architect, with a vast track record ranging from global system architect at Dassault Systems and Windchill. His in-depth system guides are both sophisticated and actionable. I share it as a must-read with anyone who has asked me for PLM advice.
He has a “Demystifying XX” series for all major systems, and I find these guides incredibly useful to get an introduction of the system’s and vendor’s history, and understand the basics of what’s going on under the hood.
Recommended post: Demystifying 3D Experience
Bjørn Arvid Fidjeland is behind PLM Partner’s blog, the go-to place for plant and facility information management.
Some years ago, as I was still working in corporate, I hired Bjørn to help me plan our PLM program after reading some of his insightful blog posts.
His content and advise is gold and I revisit it every now and then as a guide for our projects at Share PLM.
Recommended post: Plant Information Management: Information Structures
Lionel Grealau is the lead consultant at X-Lifecycle, and his posts are some of the most sophisticated, in-depth looks at the things that are most important in PLM.
I still remember listening to Lionel around 10 years ago in a conference talking about system engineering and having an “Aha!” moment while connecting the theory I’d learned at university with a real-life case.
Recommended post: The place of PLM in the digital future
Jan Bosch’s blog isn’t solely a PLM blog, but he covers many of the moving parts for effective Product Lifecycle Management.
My friend Jos Voskuil recommended that I follow Jan’s blog some years ago, and I’m still getting a lot of value from his content.
Jan talks all things digitalization – from strategy, to concepts and tools. I recommend you follow him on LinkedIn too, where he shares his content and interacts with readers every week.
Recommended post: Why Your Data Is Useless
Yoann Maingon from Ganister PLM is behind the “PLM Stack” blog. Yoann is the co-founder and CEO of Ganister PLM, an innovative graph-based PLM solution application that is going strong at the PLM software arena.
He is an old hand at PLM and he shares in-depth reflections from the field in his blog and those gems make it more than worth it.
Recommended post: ECO Objections And Remarks
Last year, I was lucky enough to work on my first project in the fashion and apparel industry. It was then when I discovered Which PLM’s blog.
They have a very complete library of articles with unbiased, impartial insights on the fashion apparel marketplace.
Recommended post: ERP and PLM: Do they work together and do we really need both?
This is blog one of those must-haves for a list like this.
Engineering.com is a great place to stay current with industry news and learn from other companies’ PLM deployment experiences. They feature real-life PLM implementation stories, and you can find many tips in their community forums.
Recommended post: Top 10 questions to Ask PLM Vendors
Scott Pigman is behind The PLM Dojo, a blog that revolves around Siemens Teamcenter.
Scott covers the tactics of configuring and customizing Teamcenter, and his content goes from the Teamcenter architecture down to the nuts-and-bolts code.
Recommended Post: Aligning PDM and PLM with Part and Design Business Objects
Martijn Dullaart is behind MDUX.net, a blog focusing on configuration management. Martijn has a strong PLM background and talks about many topics at the intersection of Product Lifecycle and Configuration Management – such as FFF, part and assembly revisions, and interchangeability.
Recommended post: It’s about interchangeability & traceability
Christoph Golinski shares his insights on one of the few German-speaking blogs focused on vendor-agnostic Product Lifecycle Management.
Although this PLM blog is new for me, I find Christoph’s content very insightful – from straight forward interviews with experts to blogs where he shares his perspective – it’s a must-stop shop for all the German speaking PLM professionals out there.
If you don’t speak German, you can also use Google to translate the content and get a lot of value out of it as well.
Recommended post: Das PLM Leben ist nicht ohne Risiko
So that, in a nutshell, is my round up of the best PLM blogs.
What PLM blogs do you read? Why do you like them? Leave us some suggestions in the comments below!
