Every PLM system has a few ghosts.

Sometimes they appear as old lifecycle states that no one uses anymore. Other times, they show up as vaulted files that do not point to a record in the PLM system or are replicated to a site that does consume them — built for a process that ended three reorganizations ago. You won’t find them on any project plan or process map, but they linger in your 3DEXPERIENCE environment, quietly influencing performance, confusing users, and haunting system reliability.

These “ghost processes” are not unusual. They’re the natural result of years of incremental change — new teams, new integrations, and old habits carried forward from legacy PLM/PDM systems. But over time, they create friction, add maintenance complexity, and make it harder for organizations to get full value from their PLM investment.

What Are Ghost Processes — and Where Do They Come From?

In the context of 3DEXPERIENCE, a ghost process is any redundant or outdated configuration that remains active in the system but no longer serves the current business logic. It could be a workflow that triggers twice, a legacy lifecycle that never got retired, or attributes that were added “just in case” but never actually used.

These ghosts often originate from:

• User groups and permissions without ownership: Roles, groups, or users created for past needs — now orphaned, misaligned, or unknown — often with unclear or excessive access rights.
• Vaulted files without purpose: Orphaned or outdated files left in the vault after records are deleted or workflows change — bloating storage and complicating data management.
• Partial migrations: Data brought forward from legacy systems with old rules intact.
• Quick fixes: Temporary workarounds that became permanent over time.
• Customizations without governance: Scripts or triggers developed to meet one team’s need but never aligned globally.
• Business evolution: New products, regulations, or company structures that make previous configurations obsolete.

In many cases, the problem isn’t that these elements exist — it’s that they still run, interact, and sometimes override newer logic in unpredictable ways.

The Real Cost of Ghost Processes

The impact of these invisible inefficiencies can be significant:

• User Confusion: Multiple lifecycles or duplicate routes leave users guessing which path to follow, creating errors and rework.
• System Performance: Extra triggers and rules slow down save, promote, and revise operations, especially in complex data models.
• Data Integrity: Orphaned or conflicting objects compromise traceability and audit readiness.
• Adoption Fatigue: When users encounter inconsistent behavior, confidence in the platform erodes — and manual workarounds return.
• Disk space and backup costs: Storing unnecessary files consumes valuable storage and increases backup time and infrastructure costs. Cleaning them up can lead to significant savings.

Ultimately, ghost processes make PLM feel unreliable, even when the technology itself is sound.

How to Find and Remove Them

At xLM Solutions, we’ve helped many organizations uncover and clean up these hidden inefficiencies through structured configuration audits and workflow modernization projects. The goal isn’t to remove customizations — it’s to align them with current needs and ensure they’re governed properly.

A few proven strategies include:

Process Mapping and Rationalization

Start by reviewing your lifecycles, business rules, and transitions against actual user behavior. Identify which processes are still relevant, which are redundant, and which conflict with others.

Configuration Audits

Conduct technical reviews of triggers, scripts, and custom attributes. Removing or consolidating unused logic can improve system performance and simplify maintenance.

Leverage Business Process Management (BPM)

Dassault’s BPM framework, formerly known as Interop, provides a more controlled and transparent way to handle process automation. BPM-based workflows allow you to route approvals, enforce state transitions, and ensure traceability without piling on custom scripts.

Change Enablement

Even the best cleanup effort will fail without user buy-in. Communicate why old processes are being retired and how the new workflows improve consistency and compliance.

Who You Gonna Call? xLM Solutions.

Every mature PLM system has legacy complexity. The key is not to ignore it. Ghost processes are rarely malicious — they’re simply remnants of progress. But left unchecked, they can hold back future improvements and reduce system trust.

A thoughtful audit and modernization effort can bring your 3DEXPERIENCE environment back into alignment with how your teams actually work today. It’s not about starting over — it’s about making sure the foundation you’ve built remains clean, efficient, and ready for what’s next.

After all, there’s no better time of year to clear out a few ghosts.

xLM Solutions helps manufacturers and engineering organizations configure, optimize, and extend their 3DEXPERIENCE platforms for real-world performance and scalability. Get in touch with our team for expert support today.