VMI in Extended Product Life Cycle Management Project

Together, ten Dutch businesses started the Extended Product Life Cycle Management project (E-PLM). It is part of the Smart Industry field lab called “The Garden.”

Those businesses recognize the need for secure and efficient information supply throughout the life cycle of their products. Businesses usually arrange their own information services. However, in The Garden they take a unique approach. There, businesses work together to put Smart Industry ideas into practice more quickly.

Industry is seeing these three trends:

1. Suppliers’ products must meet ever more stringent demands and longer expectations. This involves service, durability, price and value.
2. To satisfy those demands and expectations, partners and suppliers collaborate ever more closely.
3. For maintenance and improvements, the Internet of Things is developing. Products and machines send ever more operating data back to suppliers.

In E-PLM, supply chain partners share information securely throughout the product life cycle. That is at the forefront of the project. The ten partners experiment with ways to supply information securely and efficiently. In that way, the E-PLM project develops shared knowledge on the approach, technology and collaboration needed to put Smart Industry ideas into practice.

The E-PLM project runs from June 2016 to June 2017. Its participants are Thales-Nederland, Benchmark, DEMCON, Figo B.V., Norma, Parthian Technology, PM Group, USG Engineering Professionals B.V., VIRO and VMI Holland B.V.