What a Manufacturing Process Review Reveals About PDM/PLM Readiness

Many manufacturers know they need to improve how they manage product data, workflows, and collaboration—but aren’t sure where to start.

Jumping straight into a Product Data Management (PDM) or Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) implementation can feel like the logical next step. But without a clear understanding of your current state, it’s difficult to know what should change, what should stay the same, and what success looks like.

That’s where a manufacturing process review comes in.

Who a Manufacturing Process Review Is For

A manufacturing process review is designed for organizations that are early in their digital transformation journey, especially those evaluating PDM or PLM but not yet ready to commit to a specific solution.

This typically includes:

• Manufacturers managing product data across spreadsheets, shared drives, or disconnected systems
• Teams experiencing inefficiencies in engineering handoffs or revision control
• Organizations unsure whether they need PDM, PLM, or both
• Companies that want to improve their processes before investing in new technology

If you’re asking questions like “Where are our biggest inefficiencies?” or “What should we fix before implementing PLM?”, a structured review provides those answers. Gartner research warns that organizations treating digital transformation as a technology rollout rather than an operating model shift experience stalled adoption after go-live — precisely the outcome a process review is designed to prevent.

What a Manufacturing Process Review Covers

At its core, a manufacturing process review is an assessment of how your product development process currently functions. It typically focuses on four key areas:

People

Who is involved in your product development process, and how do they interact? This includes roles, responsibilities, and how information is shared across teams like engineering, manufacturing, and operations.

Process

How does work move from concept to production? This includes workflows for design, approvals, change management, and handoffs between departments.

Data

Where does your product data live, and how is it managed? This includes CAD files, BOMs, documents, and revision history—along with how consistently that data is maintained.

Tools

What systems are currently in place, and how are they being used? This could include CAD platforms, file storage systems, ERP, or early-stage PDM/PLM tools.

Processes that work informally for small teams often become the source of delays and rework as organizations grow — which is precisely what PDM and PLM are designed to formalize and govern. Over 50% of factories worldwide still rely on a mix of paper and spreadsheets as their de facto process management system, according to IoT Analytics — a baseline that creates significant friction when organizations attempt to implement modern PDM or PLM without first understanding how work actually flows.

Together, these areas provide a complete assessment of product development process maturity—highlighting both strengths and opportunities for improvement.

What You Get from a Process Review

The output of a manufacturing process review is a clear, actionable understanding of where you are today and what steps will move you forward.

This typically includes:

• A current-state process map that reflects how work actually gets done
• Identification of bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and risks
• Gaps between current workflows and best practices
• Recommendations for process improvements
• Guidance on whether PDM, PLM, or additional tools are needed

Rather than jumping straight to a solution, this approach ensures that any future investment is aligned with your business needs.

How This Differs from a Needs Analysis

In many cases, a process review is the right starting point to ensuring that a future needs analysis is grounded in a clear understanding of your business. Organizations complete a process review before a needs analysis arrives at technology decisions that are more accurate, more defensible, and far less likely to require expensive reconfiguration after go-live.

Why a Process Review Matters Before PDM/PLM

Skipping the review phase can lead to implementations that don’t fully solve the underlying problems.

Without a clear understanding of your processes:

• Systems get configured around inefficient or undocumented workflows — automating the problem rather than solving it
• Adoption challenges are more likely because the system doesn't reflect how users actually work.
• Data inconsistencies and process gaps migrate directly into the new system
• Integration points with ERP, MES, and other business systems are designed without a complete picture of how data flows today
• The ROI case made to leadership before implementation can't be validated after go-live

Bain's 2024 analysis found that 88% of business transformations fail to achieve their original ambitions — a figure that reflects not a shortage of good software, but a shortage of process-first thinking before deployment. A manufacturing process review is the structured way to put process thinking first.

How Hagerman & Company Helps You Prepare

At Hagerman & Company, we position the Manufacturing Business Process Review as a critical first step for organizations exploring PDM or PLM. This engagement provides a structured assessment of your existing manufacturing processes, with a focus on how information flows between teams and systems, helping identify opportunities to reduce inefficiencies and improve collaboration.

Our team works closely with your stakeholders across engineering, manufacturing, operations, and beyond to evaluate how your product development process actually functions today. From there, we identify gaps, bottlenecks, and opportunities for improvement across people, processes, data, and tools.

Ready to get started? Schedule a manufacturing process review with our team to evaluate your current state and define the right path forward.