Failure evaluation and the establishment of an improvement model for product data management introduced to enterprises

The efficient control of correct and consistent production information is becoming increasingly difficult due to keener global competition and shortening product life cycles. Total e-business is a solution to the urgent requirement for management and organization changes. Product data management (PDM) is an excellent strategy to introduce e-process and personnel reorganization. However, the performance of introducing the PDM system is usually unsatisfying, due to the impact upon personnel and the product flow. An approach of assessing personnel organization and process failure is proposed in this research in order to locate the factors and reasons that cause a failure for a critical decision reference of enterprises planning for the PDM structure and the product flow. A traditional enterprise that introduced the PDM system was taken as an example in this article to explain the application of the failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) and quality function deployment (QFD) for an efficient introduction of the PDM system.