Project 360: Product Lifecycle Management @ CA

PLM provides the potential for companies to significantly improve their product development activities following initial product launch by harnessing corporate knowledge, integrating corporate operations, and optimizing the means and methods required to produce and maintain a product, ultimately driving greater return on investment for product development efforts. "Project 360" is Computer Associates' 2 year old PLM initiative. Karen and Lori Anne will share their successes and challenges in creating, managing and improving interrelated processes that proactively manage products from launch through their respective lifecycles.

Exploring Cross Functional Roles In Product Lifecycle Management
An Interactive Panel Discussion

Moderators

Like product development, effective product lifecycle management requires good cross-functional coordination. This panel discussion will cover the different aspects of cross functional coordination that are needed throughout the lifecycle between marketing/product management, customer service, supply chain/operations, and engineering/product development. Each panelist brings a functional perspective and expertise in managing products after they are launched. This highly interactive panel will probe issues in launch, growth, renewal, decline, and exit. Come prepared to share your experience as well.

Beating Fast Followers at Their Own Game

In the development of market leading products, there is a dilemma of getting to market fast versus achieving perfection to lock out fast followers. One approach to solving this dilemma is to get it mostly right and then be your own fast follower. Even as the first Globalmark was being launched, Brady had embarked upon development of a 'mark II' which would be better and cheaper. In order to achieve this, a radical redesign approach called "Product Challenge" was deployed using a fresh team and a co-development effort with Scientific Generics.

The Brady team will present this holistic approach to challenging every aspect of a product that allowed Brady to both create the early market and to transition to a profitable and secure role in the mainstream volume business.

Profitably Managing The End Of The Product Lifecycle

Properly managing the end of the product life cycle can improve profitability and appropriately position a product portfolio for the launch of next generation products. Craig has led various product portfolio management initiatives and will share his experiences and insight around managing complexity within the product portfolio that result in increased quality, efficiency, and service levels while also decreasing costs. He will also discuss the company's recent migration from one product platform to a next generation one (VersaCare™ bed system), and the extensive planning required to effectively execute that transition.

Defining and Implementing an Effective Lifecycle Management Process

Hear about how Sprint Consumer Solutions (SCS) deals with their evolution from a product development centric orientation to a balanced lifecycle management approach, leveraging the value inherent in a comprehensive product portfolio. Virtually any company seeking to establish an effective lifecycle management process will learn from Sprint SCS' experiences in applying key lifecycle management best practices and SCS' corresponding successes, failures and lessons learned. The presentation will close with a discussion of how an early maturity lifecycle management process can be improved to further maximize the value of the portfolio.

Affymetrix: Achieving Product Development Excellence In a Fast Moving Market

2004 OCI Winner, Affymetrix (Affy) will share the product development, commercialization and culture challenges of competing in a rapidly evolving market. They will speak about their new product process and how they have built in ‘flexibility’ to address their specific needs. They will also discuss what differentiates Affy from their competition and how they measure success.