In Episode 59 of Razorleaf’s Stay Sharp podcast, The Essentials of PLM Migration Explained, co-hosts Jen Ferello and Jonathan Scott welcome another member of the Razorleaf family, Michael Welti, the managing director for the Razorleaf UK office. Michael’s background as a researcher and an engineer focused on knowledge-based engineering and the technical side of PLM make him the perfect person to discuss data migration in the context of PLM.
At the outset, the trio agree that there are really two parts to moving an organization from one system to another—first, moving the data and second, getting the people prepared and moved to a new system. Data is the primary focus of this conversation, including topics such as many-to-one conversions, digital thread implications, and what roles should be filled by experts in migration and which by experts in the data being moved.
Moving Data isn’t Only Moving A to B
While most people hear “data migration” and think it means moving data from one system to another, the reality of moving data in the PLM world is usually having to bring together multiple data sets from a wide variety of sources and make it all make sense in a single system. As Michael points out, “Usually you’ve got the documents in one system, you’ve got CAD in another, you’re using an Access database for something to handle your change process. Bills of material might be in an old MRP system. And all those things have got to come together … in a way that everything connects together still. That’s the aim of PLM, to connect stuff together properly.”
Creating or maintaining data connections requires more than copy/paste commands. Jonathan suggests that the process most people think of related to migration is ETL: extract, transform, load. “You’ve got to get the data out of the source system,” he says. “You’ve got to probably do something to it, because where it’s going to land is different … so you have to transform that data and then you’ve got to get it into the target system.”
Data Migration and the Digital Thread
Michael agrees that ETL is the appropriate starting point, but in his experience, a thorough job requires additional stages—instead of ETL, it’s more like ESATLV. First, between the extract and transform steps, Michael says, “We would stage the data in a neutral system and then perform some quite detailed analysis upfront to get a good understanding of all the source data we’ve extracted.” This ensures advance warning as well as the time and space to process any data that might cause problems during the migration. Another addition is validation after the load stage, which involves double-checking to be sure all the data you expect to be there is there. “To make sure and be able to prove that what was in your source system is now in your target system,” Michael adds. “And everything you expected to be there is there.”
The fundamental issue of data migration in PLM isn’t transforming individual bits of data, it’s doing so in the context of all the objects it’s related to. “You’re not migrating necessarily PLM systems or the data between PLM systems, you’re trying to rehome your digital thread,” Jonathan says. “You’re moving that whole thread, not just the little bits and pieces of data, but all those connections. And that’s what makes it so tricky.” Some companies may even be trying to create a digital thread with the data migration, Michael says, “particularly if you’re going from multiple systems into one platform, it’s an opportunity to build the thread as it’s being migrated in.”
The Role of Data Owners in a Migration
There are some components of a big data and/or digital thread migration that customers will want to leave to experts, but you can do plenty of work yourself—plus some of those experts may even be in-house. After all, customers know their own data and network better than anyone else does.
Jonathan describes the different roles you’ll likely want involved in your PLM data migration process: those who can say what’s technically possible, those with migration experience who recognize patterns, and those with the business view who define what you start with and what you want to end up with. Partners bring the best tools to perform the migration of large datasets, he says, “but helping control and run that process is where you can get a customer involved, actually running the migration process.”
Learn More About the Essentials of PLM Migration
The full podcast contains more discussion and details on a variety of topics, including how analyzing your data helps you figure out how to do a transformation, why it’s good to take a close look at data during the analysis stage and be honest about what you do and don’t need, how migrating PLM data is like a family moving to a new house, and more.
Check out the full conversation in Stay Sharp Episode 59: The Essentials of PLM Migration Explained, and join us each week for a new podcast.
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