plm in electronics

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PLM in Electronics

Turning Products into Profits

June 2007
http://www.aberdeen.com/common/send_to_friend.asp?cid=4101


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PLM in Electronics: Turning Products into ProfitsPage 2

2007 Aberdeen Group, Inc. Telephone: 617 723 7890

Executive SummaryWhile electronics companys products are becoming increasinglycomplex, engineers struggle to access accurate product data when theyneed it most. Despite this difficulty, Best in Class companies hit theirbusiness goals at an 86% average or better. This report serves as aguide for electronics companies who wish to achieve similar businessperformance.

Establishing metrics forproduct developmentacross all disciplineswithinour company allowus the opportunity tomeasure ourselvesagainst our performance

and to make changeswhere necessary.

John ViscontiPresident

CAE Inc.Best in Class Performance

Five key performance criteria were used to identify the Best in Classelectronics manufacturers. This is based on how well they met thefollowing criteria. The Best in Class on average:

Hit product development release dates (86%)

Hit corporate revenue targets (88%)

Met product development revenue costs (88%)

Met product performance targets (96%)

Hit product reliability targets (95%)

Competitive Maturity Assessment

Aberdeen research indicates that businesses enjoying Best in Classperformance are focusing on key elements of product development,where they are: Analog

The use of design

reuse has allowed usto quickly develop andrelease new products.It has reduced ourdesign cycle by 50%since lessqualificationis required to prove outthe new designs.

Bob Doherty

2.1 times as likely as industry average companies to capture and

reuse product development knowledge.

2.5 times as likely as industry average to integrate their productdevelopment data into their business processes.

2.6 times as likely as laggard companies to have centralized theirproduct data.

2.8 times as likely as all others to have developed formal metrics tomeasure their product development process.

Required Act ions

In addition to the specific recommendations that can be found in Chapter

3, electronics manufacturers aspiring to achieve Best in Classperformance status must:

Deploy design reuse technologies.

Establish a centralized repository for storing all current design data.

Develop formal metrics such as the ability to measure productdevelopment cycle time and departmental performance againstcorporate targets.

www.aberdeen.com 041207a


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Table of Contents

Executive Summary2Best in Class Performance...........................................................2Competitive Maturity Assessment................................................2Required Actions..........................................................................2

Chapter One: Benchmarking the Best in Class.4Shortened Time to Market / Top Industry Pressures....................4Maturity Class Framework ...........................................................4Implementation of Best in Class Strategic Actions.......................6

Chapter Two: Benchmarking Requirements for Success9Organizational Capabilities and Technology Enablers...............10

Chapter Three: Required Actions..13Laggard Steps to Success .........................................................13Industry Norm Steps to Success................................................13Best in Class Steps to Success .................................................14

Appendix A: Research Methodology.15

Appendix B: Related Aberdeen Research17

Figures

Figure 1: Top Industry Pressures..4

Figure 2: Best in Class Hit Targets on an 86% Average or Better..5

Figure 3: Best in Class Improved on Meeting Release Dates..5

Figure 4: Top Strategies across Competitive Framework.6

Tables

Table 1: Best in Class PACE Framework7

Table 2: Competitive Framework..9

Table 3: PACE Framework..16

Table 4: Competitive Framework16

Table 5: Relationship between PACE and Competitive Framework.16


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Chapter One:Benchmarking the Best in Class


Shortened Time to Market / Top Industry Pressures

Overall, the message is clear. Electronics manufacturers must bring

increasingly complex products to market on shorter time tables. In fact,

44% of electronics companies reported this as their predominant

pressure. Electronics companies also realize that they need to improve

their product development efficiency (38%) to decrease time to market

as well as reduce product costs (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Top Industry Pressures

44%38%

24%20%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

Reduce time to

market

Improve product

development

efficiency

Reduce product

cost

Increased

design/process

complexity

Top Industry Pressures

Source: Aberdeen Group, June 2007

Fast Facts

Electronicsmanufacturersidentified meetingtime to market astheir top businesspressure. (44%)

Best in Class arehitting their productrelease dates 86% ofthe time.

Best in Class arealso meetingrevenue, reliabilityand performancetargets on an 88%average or better.

Best in Class are47% more likely thanaverage companiesto have improved onmeeting release

dates over the past12 months.

Maturi ty Class FrameworkBattenfeld

Within the time tomarket window, thefactors that affect usmost includeperformance,reliability, revenue

and cost. Customerswant their productsquicker, better andat a lower cost

Martin SferrazzaVP Engineering

Given todays difficult business environment, electronics manufacturersare trying a wide variety of tactics in order to differentiate themselves fromtheir competition. However, any strategy can only be as good as theresults it delivers. To understand which best impact businessperformance, Aberdeen determined its Best in Class companies for thisreport by measuring five key performance indicators:

Meeting product revenue targets, Meeting product release dates, Meeting product development costs, Meeting product performance targets, and Meeting product reliability targets.

The top 20% of companies benchmarked the Best in Class enjoy asignificant performance gap over their competitors, hitting these targets


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on an 86% average or better. Compare this to laggard companies who hitthese targets less than 53% of the time (Figure 2).

Competitive Framework Ke

The Aberdeen CompetitiveFramework defines enterprises afalling into one of the threefollowing levels of practices andperformance:

Best in class (20%) practicesthat are the best currently beingemployed and significantlysuperior to the industry norm

Industry norm(50%) practice

that represent the average ornorm

Laggards (30%) practices thaare significantly behind theaverage of the industry

Figure 2: Best in Class Hit Targets on an 86% Average or Better

88% 86% 88%96% 95%

74%79%

65%59%

66%

24% 21% 21%

48% 53%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

120%

Products

Meeting

Revenue

Targets

Products

Meeting

Release Dates

Products

Meeting Product

Development

Costs

Products

Meeting

Performance

Targets

Products

Meeting

Reliability

Targets

Best in Class Average Laggard


In addition to outperforming the rest of the industry on these targets, theBest in Class have widened the gap by improving the frequency at whichthey have met their product release dates over the past 12 months.Delivering products to market faster than the competition translates intothe ability to meet overall product revenue targets (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Best in Class Improved on Meeting Release Dates over 12

Months

56%

38%

15%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%





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Implementation of Best in Class Strategic Actions

Given the wide performance gap illustrated within Aberdeens maturityframework, what practices are the Best in Class successfully employing?They are pursuing specific strategies to differentiate themselves fromtheir competition (Figure 4).

Analog Co.

We have provided morestandardized tools andprocesses to streamlinethe development of newproducts, eliminatedthedelays associated withdata collection for designverifications, andqualifications.

Bob Doherty

Figure 4: Top Strategies across Competitive Framework

62%

46%

27%

44%39%

7%

39% 42%

6%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Standardize

development

processes

Improve product

development

collaboration

Establish design

data management

process


Computer Company

By restructuring ourentire productdevelopment team,including engineering,and standardizing ourdevelopment processes,we increased ourproductivity nearly 50%while cutting cost by30%.

Charlie Davies,Principal CAE Electrical

Engineer


Many companies have recognized the need to improve communications

in the design of electronic products (Figure 4). This does not mean thatthe utilization of collaboration technologies to design products is the onlysolution. Best in Class performers understand the need to communicatethrough collaboration solutions, but how they do this relative to productdevelopment is an essential component of their success. They arelooking at ways to improve communication by establishing standarddevelopment processes, granting the ability to monitor the flow of thedesign and to react to design issues as they arise. By managing thedesign data, the team is able to collaborate by means of product datamanagement (PDM). PDM improves design collaboration bystandardizing the design process, making it easier for the productdevelopment team to access current data.

Best in Class PACE ModelAny strategy can be pursued by a variety of avenues, each with adifferent effect on key performance metrics. By understanding thosepractices used by the Best in Class, electronics manufacturers can adopttactics that have already been employed successfully to impact businessperformance. Successful application of these tactics requires acombination of organizational capabilities, processes, and enablingtechnologies that can be summarized as follows:



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Table 1: Best in Class PACE Framework

Pressures Actions Capabilities Enablers

Reduce Time toMarket

Standardizedevelopmentprocesses

Improve productdevelopmentcollaboration

Establish designdatamanagement

process (PDM)

Integration of datawith businessprocesses

Centralized productdata

Ability to measureproduct performancewith formal metrics

Ability to measureproduct developmentcycle time

Ability to capture andreuse productdevelopmentknowledge

Product developmentexecutive to overseeall departments andpartners

Program manager tooversee day to day

operations

Management ofengineering changes(ECOs)

Design reusetechnology

Product datamanagement(PDM)

Projectmanagement

Standardized

workflow process

Product portfoliomanagement

Knowledge BasedEngineering (KBE)

Product lifecyclemanagement



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Aberdeen Insights Part 1

Within electronics design companies, there are a variety of teams across the globeinvolved the development of the product. Designing a product 24/7 has manyadvantages, especially reducing the overall design cycle time. However it can also

introduce data management issues. Gathering this data and using it in a productivemanner is extremely complex. With most companies focusing on reducing time tomarket an inherent pressure they face is improving development efficiency. How arethe Best in Class addressing these pressures to differentiate themselves?

Electronics manufacturers knew that changes had to be made within engineering toaddress these pressures. The best in Class realized that standardizing the productdevelopment process was one way to improve their design efficiency. Bystandardizing their processes, all product development, collaboration and datamanagement would be performed in the same manner. With this standardization,the product development team can monitor the design from concept to production.

As a result, the Best in Class are outpacing their competition by meeting their

corporate performance metrics (KPIs) and releasing products to market on time.They are 1.5 times as likely as average companies and 3.7 times as likely aslaggards to have improved on meeting their product release dates over the past 12months. Being first to market with new products results in a lead time advantageover the competition which in turn can produce results that further increase therevenue stream.



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Chapter Two:Benchmarking Requirements for Success

The aggregate performance of surveyed companies determines whether

they are ranked as Best in Class, Industry Average or Laggard. Inaddition to having common performance levels, each class also sharescertain process, knowledge management, and technology characteristics(Table 2).

Table 2: Competit ive Framework

Laggards Average Best-in-class

Design data integration with business process (PLM)

17% 32%


82%

Managing the engineering change process (ECO)

Process

20% 21% 46%

Product development executive to oversee all departments and partners

36% 43% 73%

Program manager to oversee day to day operations

Organization

52% 78% 69%

Capture and reuse product development knowledge

50% 43% 91%

Centralized product data

Knowledge

24% 54% 64%

Product performance results measured with formal metrics

35% 32% 91%

Ability to measure product development cycle time

39% 39% 91%

Performance

Technology

33% Design ReuseTechnologies

29% Product DataManagement

78% ProjectManagement

50% Workflow 6% Product

Portfolio

Management

17%KnowledgeBased Engineering

20% ProductLifecycle

Management (PLM)




68%Workflow 33% Product

Portfolio

Management



Management (PLM)




82%Workflow 64% Product

Portfolio

Management



Management (PLM)

Fast Facts

Best in Classperformers are atleast 2.5 times aslikely to haveintegrated theirdesign data withtheir businessprocess and 2.2times as likely to bemanaging the ECOprocess.

They are also 70%more likely to havean experiencedexecutiveoverseeing productdevelopment.

Best in Class are82% more likely tobe capturingproductdevelopmentknowledge.

They are also 78%more likely to beusing design reuse

technologies.



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Organizational Capabilit ies and Technology Enablers

Best in Class companies are hitting their overall aggregate productdevelopment targets over all five competitive framework metrics on an86% average or better. Why? The processes, knowledge managementcharacteristics, technology enablers and performance indicators they arepursuing form a successful strategy that translates into a competitiveadvantage.

Fliptronics

We have provided more

standardized tools andprocesses to streamlinethe development of newproducts, which haveeliminatedthe delaysassociated with datacollection for designverifications andqualifications.

Philippe R.Manager NPD

Process and Organization: Data and Process Management According to Aberdeens Global Product Design Benchmark Report,product development teams are no longer working under the sameroof but are spread around the globe. To shorten time to market,companies are utilizing global capabilities by designing 24/7. As aconsequence, managing data has become extremely challenging.Keeping the business up to date on specific projects and providing themost current data is something Best in Class companies havemanaged to address. They are 2.5 times as likely as averageperformers and 4.8 times as likely as laggards to have integrated theirdesign data into the business process so that the entire developmentteam is working concurrently with the most up-to-date data.

Additionally, having a product development executive to oversee thenew product development process is an additional method by whichbusinesses can leverage this expertise. Best in Class businesses are70% more likely than average companies to have appointed anexecutive to manage the new product development process.

Process: Revision Control: Engineers are constantly changingtheir designs. Whether its swapping a component or reacting to a

performance issue; notification of changes needs to be madeavailable to the product development team. Improper management ofdata can result in incorrect or outdated data being published to teammembers. Best in Class performers are 2.2 times as likely as allothers to have formalized their change process within designengineering by making available to all team members the mostcurrent data through standardized notifications.

Symmetricom

We currently have auniversal productdevelopment processwith defined metrics.Since implementation, wehave improved ouroverall design process.We have just procured aPLM tool, and are at thepoint of finalimplementation.

Scott Davis,Director, Global

DocumentationSystems

Knowledge: Use it again: Design reuse makes it faster andcheaper to design a new product by vaulting current designknowledge and storing it for future use. In fact Best in Classcompanies are 2.1 times as likely as average companies to becapturing and reusing prior design knowledge. In fact, Best in Class

are 78% more likely than average companies to have implementedsolutions to capture this knowledge so it can be reused. Just capturingthe data is not enough. Product development teams must be able toaccess it easily. To do this, companies are establishing centralizeddata repositories. Best in Class are 2.6 times as likely as laggardcompanies to be vaulting their data in a central location.

http://www.aberdeen.com/c/report/benchmark/RA_GlobalProduct_JmB_2460.pdfhttp://www.aberdeen.com/c/report/benchmark/RA_GlobalProduct_JmB_2460.pdf


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Performance: Know Where You Stand: In order to meet time tomarket goals, businesses need to know how their developmentprocess is performing. Establishing internal metrics to measure actualdesign cycle time can provide insight into areas where improvement is

necessary. With Best in Class being 2.3 times as likely as averagecompanies to meet their product release dates its no wonder they areable to hit their product launch dates 86% of the time. They are alsomeasuring their product development cycle time as well. Knowingwhat the issues are and acting on them to improve the process canlead to improved design efficiency as well as decrease time to market.

Ciena

We have improvedthe design process

by implementingPDM solutions andcollaboration tools.By adding thesesolutions we havebeen able tostreamline ourprocess andimprove our designefficiency.

Cornelia Rosu,Lead Designer

Technology: Is it profitable?: Its not just about getting productsto market on time, but delivering products that increase revenue andproduce profits. Knowing whether a product in development has aplace in the market is essential. Product Portfolio Management (PPM)is a solution used by businesses to make product funding decisions.Best in Class companies are twice as likely as average performersand 10 times as likely as laggards to have PPM solutions in place.Based on the metrics established above, not only are the Best inClass meeting their time to market goals but are meeting revenuetargets 88% of the time as compared to average at 66% and laggardsat 24%. It is apparent they are releasing meaningful products to themarket.

Technology: Managing the Project As with any product underdevelopment, there are multiple projects within the program that needto be managed. Each project needs to be addressed separately butmanaged as part of the whole. This includes developing a project planthat lays out goals and objectives, specifies tasks, and establishes

resource requirements, budgets and timelines. Aberdeen found thatBest in Class companies are 28% more likely than laggards to useproject management solutions in new product development. With theprogram management team monitoring the development of theproduct, they are the first to know when they are falling behind andcan take the appropriate steps necessary to get back on track.

Raytheon

Program Managementlends itself toimprovements in time

to complete tasks dueto experienced peoplemanaging the projects.This reorganization ofprogram managementwas put in place thisyear and has alreadyproven itself byimproving our overallgoals related to costand development timereductions as well asoverall product qualityand reliability goals ofthe corporation.

Technology: Managing Engineering Data Companies aremanaging their engineering design process through better control oftheir design data. CAD files, drawings, specifications, test procedures,manufacturing and assembly data all need to be gathered andcontrolled within the project. Best in Class companies are doing thisby implementing product data management solutions (PDM). In fact,

they are 2.5 times as likely as laggard companies to be using PDMsolutions in the engineering process.

Technology: Tying it all together By standardizing productdevelopment processes, incorporating design data managementsolutions, and supporting the new product development process(NPD) into PDM, Best in Class electronics companies are connectingrelational databases and processes. Any of these solutions can be runas stand alone but at the cost of keeping the process fragmented.Tying them into PLM (product lifecycle management) provides

David ScottPrincipal Engineer

Test SystemsDevelopment



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electronics companies the ability to manage their products fromconcept to end of life while maintaining all the knowledge that wentinto designing the product. In fact, Best in Class companies are 84%more likely than average companies to be using PLM solutions for

over a year.

Aberdeen Insights PLM Usage w ithin Product Development

Its clear that technology alone is not the answer. To make a meaningfulchange to their businesses, electronics manufacturers must look at theiroverall process and knowledge bases, understand where to incorporatechange, and then address what technologies would be relevant to theirmodels. Electronic design is an iterative process. Engineers are makingchanges that affect everything and everyone downstream. Businesses shouldput their processes, organization, and technology into perspective. A businesscannot improve unless it knows how it is performing. In fact, Best in Class are

2.8 times as likely as average performers to be measuring their internalprocesses. Another roadblock to product development is access to currentdata. By establishing a centralized data repository, engineers as well as theentire development team can work on the current data and collaborateefficiently. In fact, 64% of Best in Class companies have this capabilitycurrently in use.

The Best in Class have taken a step forward within engineering by utilizingPLM early in the design process especially during conceptual design (91%)and prototyping (73%) phases. Best in Class are gaining the upper hand whenit comes to storing and reusing data. By capturing all this early data, futuredesigners have the ability to design by lessons learned from previousengineers and by seeing what worked and what didnt. This saves valuable

time early in the design process and can have an impact on meeting bothdevelopment cost and releasing the product on time.

Bob Doherty

Analog Co.

We measure newproduct development bymonitoring time to marketand design times tomanufacturing withinternal metrics. Inadditionwe also define aperiod after release (xmonths) to monitor thesuccess of a design bysales volume.



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Chapter Three:Required Actions Fast Facts

Centralize allproduct data

Appoint a programdevelopmentexecutive

Leverage designreuse solutions

Formalizedepartmentalprocess metrics

Implement PDMsolutions

Integrate processeswith PLM

Despite the fact that most electronics manufacturers are responding to

time to market pressures, Best in Class performers are employing specifictactics for competitive gains. Whether a manufacturer is trying to move itsperformance from Laggard to Industry Average, or Industry Averageto Best in Class, the following actions can help spur the necessaryperformance improvements:

Laggard Steps to Success

1. Incorporate Project Management. Put a team in place that tracksthe project against the planned schedule and resolves any issues asthey arise.

2. Deploy a Workflow Solution.Establish a workflow within the project,

to define specific tasks and assign the people required to performthem. As the project progresses, these tasks are signed off ascompleted. If a phase of the project misses a deliverable, it can beacted upon immediately and not delay the project. Workflow solutionsautomate the delivery of tasks, track their completion and notifymanagers when the project falls behind.

IKOR

Since hiring a Director ofProgram Managementwe have the ability tofocus more on ourdevelopment. If issuesarise, we are notified bythe Director and weaddress them quickly.Since hiring a Director,we have improved ourefficiency nearly 40%.

3. Implement Centralized Product Data Management (PDM). Withdesigns dispersed globally, formally managing all product data isessential in maintaining a clear picture of product development.Implementing PDM solutions helps improve the flow, quality and useof engineering data. PDM also improves management of theengineering process through more precise control of engineeringdata, design activities, engineering changes and productconfigurations.

John Wagner,PresidentIndustry Norm Steps to Success

1. Appoint aProgram Development Executive. Use the expertise of aproduct development executive to manage the entire program. Beingthe eyes and ears of product development he or she is empowered tomake changes and is the main point of contact for the entiredevelopment team. With the main focus being solely on the currentprogram, a product development executive is able to constantlymonitor all phases of the development process and address issues as

they occur.

Raytheon

Metrics are beingused within all areas ofa product across itslife-cycle. Data iscollected formeasuring

development time andresources needed todetermineeffectiveness in thegoal of reducing thedevelopment cycle andlowering costs.

2. Implement Design Reuse Technologies. Capture elements of aproven design through the use of design reuse solutions. Thesetechnologies store this knowledge in a central location that can beaccessed for future use. Using a proven design, technology orprocess not only saves time but cost.

Davis Scott,Principal Engineer, Test

Systems Development

3. Establish Productivity Metrics. Data is knowledge. Understandingthe results of the data can be the key to success. Having the ability to



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understand how well you are performing within your department is akey element in bringing effective products to market on time. Thesemeasurements keep you informed on your performance and canidentify potential issues before they become major problems.

Best in Class Steps to Success

1. Implement Product Portfolio Management (PPM). Know what youare designing and understand how it fits into the market. Develop astrategy team that investigates the market and understands how theproduct will be received and will it be profitable. Senior managementshould implement PPM solutions to mitigate risk.

2. Deploy Knowledge Based Engineering (KBE). Continue to captureand reuse product and process knowledge. Use KBE solutions to dothis in an integrated way by capturing the design intent or rules as wellas knowledge from all phases of the product lifecycle. The ultimate

goal of a KBE solution is to capture the best design practices andengineering expertise into a corporate knowledge base.


3. Formalize the engineering change process (ECO). Phase out theuse of email and paper as the formal sign-off or notification processfor ECOs. Continue to expand the use of collaboration andvisualization solutions within the ECO process. The ability to view anddiscuss the change in real time improves efficiency and providesinstantaneous feedback.

Aberdeen Insights PLM Summary

PLM is not a single software solution but a tool to manage people, processes andtechnologies from a central location. Whether you have niche solutions or a multitude of

products, they can be managed using PLM. With PLM as the central core for all relativeinformation and data regarding a product, anyone within an organization, as well asoutsourcing partners, know where to go to obtain what they need. Engineers, managers,procurement specialists or manufacturing personnel all will have the ability to search for theknowledge they need to assist them in deciding how to move forward on a design.

Whether youre Best in Class, Industry Average, or Laggard, there are many opportunities toimprove overall performance. Leading businesses enjoy significant performance advantagesin their overall product development targets including revenue, release dates, developmentcosts, performance targets and reliability targets, by adopting unique approaches. Whilemany solutions are available to improve immediate performance, it all starts with managingprocesses. Best in Class have an advantage over the competition by formalizing their

processes and managing them under one roof. The gap is widening.

Aerospace Company

With the help of PLM wehave gained control of ourECO and changemanagement processes.With data readily available,all team members can acton the change withsimultaneous notification todownstream members andour global partners.

R.S.Director, Program

Management


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Appendix A:Research Methodology

In May and June 2007, Aberdeen Group examined the electronics design

industry and the experiences, intentions, and internal processes of morethan 160 enterprises.

Aberdeen supplemented this online survey effort with telephoneinterviews with select survey respondents, gathering additionalinformation on strategies, experiences, and results.

Responding enterprises included the following:

Job title/function: The research sample included respondents withthe following job titles: 34% Manager, 26% Engineer, 17% Director,12% CEO, 5% VP and the remaining 6% falling into Staff, Consultantand Designer.

Industry: The research sample included respondents exclusivelyfrom the electronic design industries and the industries they service.23% came from High Tech, 22% from consumer electronics, 17%from Aerospace, 15% from Automotive, 14% Medical Devices and 6%from Telecom with the remaining 3% from various industries.

Geography: The majority of respondents, 67%, were from NorthAmerica, 17% from Europe, 11% from Asia and the remaining 5%from the Middle East and South America.

Company size: 34% of respondents were from small businesses(annual revenues of $50 million or less). Another 47% were frommidsize companies (annual revenues between $50 million and $1

billion); 19% of respondents were from large companies (annualrevenues above $1 billion). (Amounts are based on $US)


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Table 3: PACE Framework

PACE Key

Aberdeen applies a methodology to benchmark research that evaluates the businesspressures, actions, capabilities, and enablers (PACE) that indicate corporate behavior inspecific business processes. These terms are defined as follows:

Pressures external forces that impact an organizations market position, competitiveness, orbusiness operations (e.g., economic, political and regulatory, technology, changing customerpreferences, competitive)

Actions the strategic approaches that an organization takes in response to industrypressures (e.g., align the corporate business model to leverage industry opportunities, such asproduct/service strategy, target markets, financial strategy, go-to-market, and sales strategy)

Capabilities the business process competencies required to execute corporate strategy(e.g., skilled people, brand, market positioning, viable products/services, ecosystem partners,financing)

Enablers the key functionality of technology solutions required to support the organizationsenabling business practices (e.g., development platform, applications, network connectivity,user interface, training and support, partner interfaces, data cleansing, and management)

Source: Aberdeen Group, 2007

Table 4: Competit ive Framework

Competitive Framework Key

The Aberdeen Competitive Framework defines enterprises as falling into one of the threefollowing levels of Hardware design practices and performance:

Best in class (20%) Hardware design practices that are the best currently being employedand significantly superior to the industry norm, and result in the top industry performance.

Industry norm(50%) Hardware design practices that represent the average or norm, andresult in average industry performance.

Laggards(30%) Hardware design practices that are significantly behind the average of theindustry, and result in below average performance


Table 5: Relationsh ip between PACE and

Competitive Framework

PACE and Competitive Framework How They InteractAberdeen research indicates that companies that identify the most impactful pressures andtake the most transformational and effective actions are most likely to achieve superiorperformance. The level of competitive performance that a company achieves is stronglydetermined by the PACE choices that they make and how well they execute.




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Appendix B:Related Aberdeen Research

Related Aberdeen research that forms a companion or reference to thisreport includes:

Printed Circuit Board Design Integrity Benchmark Report,April 2007

Electronics Correct by Design Benchmark Report, January 2007

The Design Reuse Benchmark Report, March 2007

Get to Market Faster Implement PLM into the Electronic DesignProcess, March 2007

New Product Development: Profiting from Innovation, January 2006

Information on these and any other Aberdeen publications can be foundat www.Aberdeen.com.

Author:Ric Stanley, Senior Research Analyst, Product Innovation andEngineering, [email protected]

Founded in 1988, Aberdeen is a leading provider of fact-based research and market intelligence thatdelivers demonstrable results. With a research panel of over 175,000, and an extended opt-in user

base of 2.2 million, Aberdeen has benchmarked more than 30,000 companies in the past two years.With facts in hand Aberdeen is uniquely positioned to educate users to action: driving marketawareness, creating demand, enabling sales, and delivering meaningful return-on-investmentanalysis. As the trusted advisor to the global technology markets, corporations turn toAberdeenTM for insights that drive decisions. As a Harte-Hanks Company (NYSE:HHS), Aberdeenplays a key role of putting content in context for the global direct and targeted marketing company.

This document reflects research performed by Aberdeen Group who believes its findings areobjective and represent the best analysis available at the time of publication. Unless otherwise noted,the entire contents of this publication are copyrighted by Aberdeen Group, a Harte Hanks Companyand may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanswithout prior written consent by an officer of the Aberdeen Group.
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