THE REAL COST

OF LOSING
YOUR DATA
How lost data may
damage your company

BY PLM GROUP

What is the real cost of losing your data?
Do you recognize the following?
You are trying to add new information
to one of your company’s design
projects.
PAGE 2 / 13 . THE REAL COST OF LOSING YOUR DATA
The loss of data is extremely costly for a com- for the employees, and loss of revenues when
pany. Losing 1MB of data can easily cost around the product is released later than planned.
$10,000, because of delayed projects, overtime

In your search for the latest version of the pro-

ject’s design document, you have unsuccess-
fully searched the department’s project server
for 20 minutes, and now you are searching your
own computer, hoping that you can find a ver-
sion that is somewhat updated.

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The good news is that you finally find a docu-
ment that will allow you to work on the design.
The bad news is that the document is two weeks
old and requires several updates before it is us-
able, and even then, it will not have all the no-
tations necessary. You will have to update the
document with the missing notes which takes
several days of not only your time, but also that
of your colleagues, who will also have to add
their updates.
 PAGE 3 / 13 . THE REAL COST OF LOSING YOUR DATA
What happened to the design document?
Unfortunately, documents disappear
every day – and more often than we
would like to admit. But despite the
consequences for a company’s produc-
tivity and bottom-line, a lot of compa-
nies do not backup their data, or only
do so irregularly.

Almost half of all companies do not have a

centralized product data management system
(PDM)1, which is the main cause for the cost-
ly loss of data. Instead, they choose the easi-
est solution, e.g. storing documents on a local
server. The problems start when everyone has

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the right to create and delete folders and docu-
ments without any form of centralized control,
and especially when nobody backs up the data.
At this point, it only takes one wrong click with
your mouse or a hardware issue, and the data
is lost.

1
Engineering.com
 PAGE 4 / 13 . THE REAL COST OF LOSING YOUR DATA
Hardware issues are the number one cause of
lost data (40%), followed by human error such as
deleting documents or loss of laptops (30%), soft-
ware issues such as damaged documents (13%)
and theft (9%). These four scenarios account for
nine out of ten cases of lost data in companies.

When there is no clear structure in how product

data is handled, documents tend to be moved
around, renamed manually and the shortcuts
to folders are lost or damaged. Additionally,
documents are often stored on the developer’s
own computer and shared with colleagues via
email or chat. This could, in principle, work for
small teams, who all sit in the same room. How-

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ever, there is a great risk that the developers
in the team have different versions of the doc-
ument stored on the local drive on their own
computer.

When data management has such poor basic

conditions, it will be difficult to manage a team
without the risk of losing data in the future –
especially when the engineers are scattered
over different departments of the company.

CASE STUDY 1 – CLAMPON AS
The Norwegian company ClampOn AS
develops intelligent ultra-sonic sensors
for the oil and gas industry and the
rough physical conditions below the
sea.
Their challenge:
A wealth of CAD files scattered on various
CAD-systems meant that ClampOn’s internal
collaboration was not properly supported elec-
tronically.
The solution:
A common CAD solution from SOLIDWORKS
combined with a SOLIDWORKS PDM system in-
PAGE 5 / 13 . THE REAL COST OF LOSING YOUR DATA
tegrated with the company’s ERP system. The
CAD models from AutoCad and Inventor were
imported to the PDM system. Better integra-
tion and quality of IT systems support better
processes, which results in additional capacity
for ClampOn to accept more orders.
“The process of changing to
Results: SOLIDWORKS and PDM has
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• Improved communication and increased shown us how much our capacity
productivity across departments.
has increased when working with
• Documentation can be produced in parallel
with development. good systems and processes.”
• Manuals are always updated with the lat- - Vidar Hundvin,
est information. project engineer,
ClampOn AS.
 PAGE 6 / 13 . THE REAL COST OF LOSING YOUR DATA
How does the loss of data damage my company?
The lack of PDM systems in companies is not
just a theoretical problem. Research from Engi-
neering.com2 shows that 49% of the respond-
ents have not implemented a dedicated PDM/
PLM system. Most of the questioned compa-
nies had to admit to spending hours and hours
every week on looking for documents or rede-
signing the same component again.

Loss of data means extra work and delays

Lost or misplaced product data is not just a
problem for the individual engineer or design A theoretical process from a typical company the design document means that the project
team, who lost the result of many hours of hard can illustrate the effect loss of data has on the is now three weeks behind schedule, which, in

work. The loss of data has far-reaching conse-
quences and can have a great impact on the
bottom-line. When product data is lost, the
development process is extended because the
engineers must use extra time to recreate the
data. This inevitably leads to extra costs across
the company, which is reflected in reduced pro-
ductivity. Over time, many hours are spent on
searching for documents and/or confirming
whether the documents found are the latest
versions.
bottom-line. A design project is put on hold
because a colleague has accidentally deleted
the “master” design document. Three engi-
neers are tasked with re-creating the design
document, which means working until late in
the evening. The average design engineer with-
in mechanics costs $48 per hour in salary and
other benefits, which means that three engi-
neers using two weeks of double time to save
the project results in an extra cost for the com-
pany of $11,520. The extra work of re-creating
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turn, results in a loss of 50% of the revenue for
the current month ($500,000 based on the pro-
jected revenue of $1 million for the month).
Innovation capacity and reputation are
weakened
The direct costs, as explained in the previous
example, are easy to understand, because they
can simply be calculated based on an hour-
ly rate and the additional workload. However,
there are also more indirect consequences that

2
Engineering.com

are not easily recognized. These consequenc-
es take longer to show a serious impact on the
company’s bottom-line.
Most companies have limited resources for de-
velopment, and if the engineers are using extra
time to “fix” existing projects, they do not have
as much time for development or innovation of
new projects. These consequences can not only
be measured in dollars because of increased
operational costs and loss of revenue on de-
layed projects, but also in the value of the com-
pany brand and reputation, which is weakened.
When data is lost or misplaced, the engineer’s
ability to re-use existing design data is reduced,
which would otherwise be an effective way to
optimize operations and minimize the cost of
designing. As every engineer knows, it is easier
and much faster to re-use elements from earli-
er designs than to start from scratch.
When products of inferior quality than planned
are released to the market, it also affects the
external reputation of the company. This ap-
plies to companies who target their products
to consumers, but especially to companies who
need to comply with strict regulatory require-
ments or deliver products to highly specialized
technological or production companies. De-
spite a lack of proper data management, pro-
duction nevertheless starts manufacturing the
product to meet the deadline – only to find out
that the wrong BoM (Bill of Materials) has been
used. This increases the risk of an inferior prod-
uct than planned, which means higher costs
for support and service. Moreover, production
costs are increased when multiple produc-
tion runs are required to manufacture updat-
ed product designs, combined with additional
labor costs and the expense of faulty compo-
nents. Furthermore, there is a risk of additional
inventory costs to manage the excess products
that are likely to be manufactured because of
incorrect or missing product data.
PAGE 7 / 13 . THE REAL COST OF LOSING YOUR DATA
Depending on the surrounding IT infrastructure
in the company, the loss of data can also re-
sult in wasted time for the individual engineer,
because the internal network will be unneces-
sarily strained and slowed down. To transfer,
open or edit large documents through the net-
work does not only affect the engineer’s pro-
ductivity but also slows down the colleagues.
The frustrations of a poorly functioning IT in-
frastructure should not be underestimated as
it often results in employees finding their own
homemade communication channels circum-
venting the existing solutions within the com-
pany. Thus, increasing the risk of aggravating an
existing problem with poor data management.
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CASE STUDY 2 - SWEGON ILTO
Swegon develops and manufactures
air handling units for private homes.
Approximately 70% of the products are
sold under the brand Swegon Casa in
Finland and other Scandinavian mar-
kets.
Their challenge:
Previously, the company’s developers used an
hour per day on average to search for and verify
existing product data due to poor audit man-
agement and lack of data management tools.
In addition, the wrong product drawings often
caused problems in manufacturing.
The solution:
A SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional system for
management of CAD models, drawings and
other construction data.
Results:
• Significant savings in development and
manufacturing
• Increase in product quality
• Product designers can focus on innovation
PAGE 8 / 13 . THE REAL COST OF LOSING YOUR DATA
“We have saved a lot of time and
thereby money after implement-
ing SOLIDWORKS PDM. The PDM
solution created a structure that
ensures that everyone knows where
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they can find and save relevant
development data. The quality of
our products has improved because
there is no longer any doubt about
the version of the models, drawings
and data that must be used”
- Sarita Keppola, machine engineer,
Swegon ILTO.

Why use a PDM system?
When you know the consequences of
the loss of data for the company, the
next logical step is to ask yourself, what
is the best thing you can do to avoid it.
The answer is a Product Data Manage-
ment system.
The implementation of a PDM solution removes
the operational problems that are inextricably
connected to losing or misplacing product data.
The system can be considered as a safety net
against potential damaging effects of losing
data. With a PDM/PLM solution the company
can move from an insecure foundation to a new
platform for data management. This enables
the design teams to collaborate on new designs
and know that every member of the team has
access to the latest versions of the design doc-
uments at the same time. The software keeps
track of all changes to the design documents
and maintains a complete revision history, as it
develops. At the same time, a responsible back
up of the team’s valuable data is created. With
a PDM solution, it also becomes easier for the
company’s 3D design environment to share in-
formation and collaborate on designs with oth-
er engineers locally and in departments in oth-
er countries and with the manufacturing teams.
Shorter design cycles, faster time-to-market,
reduced development costs and increased pro-
ductivity is a win for the company.
Faster time-to-market
With a PDM solution, you get an intuitive user
interface to help you chart workflows and re-
duce administrative work while automated
tracking of approvals and sign-offs ensures the
required level of accuracy and responsibility.
At the same time, it is easy to search for and
access the most up-to-date product data and
create automated workflows for documents to
ensure that manufacturing has the most updat-
ed BOM, PMI data and drawings available. The
company Swegon ILTO (see Case Study 2) pre-
viously struggled with large costs for duplicate
drawings, rework and scrap in production. With
PAGE 9 / 13 . THE REAL COST OF LOSING YOUR DATA
the PDM software’s automated authentication
procedures and workflows, the company is now
sure that obsolete drawings are automatically
replaced with the latest and correct revisions.
This means that the company can come to mar-
ket faster with its products. Reducing a com-
pany’s time-to-market generally means that it
can shorten its design cycles and deliver more
products to customers, which in turn has a ma-
jor impact on the company’s competitiveness.
Reduce cost
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Using a centralized product data management
system reduces development costs in many
ways. Because all data is in one place, your
global design team can collaborate more easily
and efficiently. Centralized document manage-
ment enables correct version control and doc-
uments are checked in and out of the system.
This means that files cannot be overwritten
when checked out by another user, and the time
saved by not having to look for deleted product
data or having to restore lost work can instead

be used more productively. At the Swedish sau-
na manufacturer Tylö AB, PLM Group’s imple-
mentation of a SOLIDWORKS PDM system has
ensured that developers can be sure to work
on the correct document versions, even though
they are divided into two different geographic
locations. At the same time, the company has
minimized the risk of making costly mistakes.
When manufacturing in a company is sure to
have received the correct product information,
it can also manage its costs more effectively
and produce the right product from the start.
Increase productivity
Underperforming companies spend 34% more
time on unproductive data management than
companies at the upper end of the scale3. The
leading global companies using PDM / PLM are,
at the same time, three times more likely to
become “very efficient” to perform their data
management tasks, and almost three times
more efficient to find the data they need. This
means that the productivity of the team in-
creases because members of the team always
have easy access to the documents they need.
3
Tech-Clarity Perspective: Best Practices for Managing Design Data
The PDM solution is integrated into Windows
Explorer, so it is intuitive to search for and ac-
cess documents. You become more productive
as the software is easy to access. At another of
PLM Group’s customers, the Danish company
Green Instruments A/S, a tailor-made version of
the search function in the PDM system resulted
in major time savings in the company’s devel-
opment work. Green Instruments A/S manu-
factures measurement and analysis equipment
for the industry and can now easily and quick-
ly search for both new and old designs, which
has improved the traceability of the company’s
products and designs and increased productivi-
ty in the company.
PAGE 10 / 13 . THE REAL COST OF LOSING YOUR DATA
The intuitive and simple structure of the solu-
tion means in practice that new users of SOLID-
WORKS PDM are up and running after less than
one day’s training and administrators can be
taught in 2-4 days - a small investment with a
great return. For the Finnish company LKI Käld-
man (see Case Study 3), one day of training was
enough for users and technicians and one addi-
tional day for the administrators, as the compa-
ny, with the help of PLM Group Finland, rolled
out SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional.
The data management solutions also make it
painless to collaborate with partners and cus-
tomers to keep the design process running.
Moreover, the links between projects and in-
dividual design elements make it easy to reuse
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items from previous designs. A back up of the
product data is placed in a data vault based
on Microsoft SQL Server and can be archived
and quickly retrieved when necessary. With a
dedicated Product Data Management solution,
you can also handle more than 250 file types,
including file formats from the largest CAD
systems, but also files outside the CAD world
- such as image files, Microsoft Office files, and
animations.

CASE STUDY 3 - LKI KÄLDMAN
LKI Käldman was founded in 1979 in
Finland . The company develops and
manufactures solutions to the auto-
mation of managing metal plates, and
software and support to FMS solutions.
Challenge:
An old PLM solution was slow and therefore it
wasted valuable time for technicians every day.
The documents were allocated to discs, and the
revision was done manually.
Solution:
PLM Group implemented SOLIDWORKS PDM
Professional to replace the old and ineffective
PLM solution. From now on, documents and
their data will automatically be linked to the
company’s ERP system.
Results:
• Significant time savings in the design phase.
• Increased capacity for data management.
• Much faster PDM software and better
search function.
• Automatic creation of a new document to
a revision.
PAGE 11 / 13 . THE REAL COST OF LOSING YOUR DATA
“All our technicians agree that
SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional is
extremely fast compared to the old
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software, and the search function
is very easy to use. In addition, the
approval process for drawings is
easier because the work cycle is set
up to support our work methods.”
- Benny Strömberg, IT Support,
LKI Käldman.
 PAGE 12 / 13 . THE REAL COST OF LOSING YOUR DATA
Summary
Companies that develop products bring them-
selves unnecessarily into the danger zone if
they do not invest in a product data manage-
ment system (PDM). The loss of data has serious
consequences in terms of increased develop-
ment costs, decreased productivity and delays
during product development. These companies
alsorisk harming their reputation in the indu-
stry and having trouble re-using existing design
documents in new projects, which weakens the
innovation capabilities of the company. The re-
sult, of the above effects, is a bleeding bottom
line. Studies also show that leading global com-

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panies are 30% more likely to use PDM or PLM
solutions, and spend 25% less time on unneces-
sary data management tasks .

With a PDM solution from PLM Group, you

can drastically reduce the amount of time you
spend looking for parts, assembly designs and
drawings, and sharpen your design depart-
ment’s focus towards what it is all about - pro-
duct development. A PDM system helps you
take control of your data and improve collabo-
ration and innovation in the company.
EMPLOYEES
130
About PLM Group
We make our customers more successful by Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Iceland,
NUMBER OF OFFICES building capabilities to deliver better prod- Estonia and Latvia. Common across all our solu-
17 ucts faster. We have over 20 years’ experience tions is fast implementation and short payback
in helping engineers and product developers time.
REVENUE make inspirational, ground-breaking high qual-
30 million Euros ity products better, faster and more cost-effec- Have you laid the foundation for your
tively. digital value chain?
PRESENT IN We can help you do that. We can help you
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Finland, Iceland, Estonia Works partner in Northern Europe serving 5000 your organization. From product concept to
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