Forewarned for PDM Is Forearmed for PDM

This chapter describes some of the reasons that may be advanced against the introduction of Product Data Management (PDM). Implementation of an effective PDM system is difficult, and will disturb the status quo. Anyone implementing a PDM system is likely to be faced by people who don’t want to change. There are lots of people in most companies who can provide all sorts of justifications for not doing whatever is proposed. To prepare for such behaviour, anyone who wants to implement PDM needs to be well-armed with reasons. Fortunately, there are plenty of them. This chapter describes the various ways in which use of PDM can be justified in different environments.