The Product Lifecycle Management or PLM (earlier known as PDM) is a term used to define processes and business strategies to manage the entire Life Cycle of a product or service (from Concept and Design, to Production Analysis, Research & Development, Production, Marketing, Maturity, Saturation, and eventually withdrawal from the market.
In other words, a PLM system captures, stores, and manages the data for the entire product development spectrum (from cradle to grave).
It is important to note that PLM is not a piece of information or just a technology (or a software application), but it is an extended enterprise approach that facilitates sharing of product information (outside design house) across all departments of an organization (Marketing, After sales, Support and so on) by linking People, Processes, Business with the Product Information.
The prime objective of a PLM system is to effectively manage the Corporate Intellectual Capital (CIC) of an organization. The CIC includes:
The PLM application extracts product related information from all these applications and put them in single repository. From this repository, various users can access the information, and use it for better decision making and formulating future strategies.
Due to historical reasons, the PLM has been used primarily for automobiles, aerospace, and machine designs (in order to get the maximum benefit from digital manufacturing) but now PLM is being implemented in industries, beyond engineering. For example, Medical, Banking, Insurance, Genetic research, and Pharmaceutical.
In other words, a PLM system captures, stores, and manages the data for the entire product development spectrum (from cradle to grave).
It is important to note that PLM is not a piece of information or just a technology (or a software application), but it is an extended enterprise approach that facilitates sharing of product information (outside design house) across all departments of an organization (Marketing, After sales, Support and so on) by linking People, Processes, Business with the Product Information.
The prime objective of a PLM system is to effectively manage the Corporate Intellectual Capital (CIC) of an organization. The CIC includes:
- Product Definition: All information relating to what the product is, its specifications, how it is designed, manufacturing details, support and so on.
- Product History: Any information relating to what the organization has done in past (in relevance of the product).
- Best Practices: The experience gathered by the organization, in the process of developing the product. The best practices are critical factors while deciding future business strategy for the product.
The PLM application extracts product related information from all these applications and put them in single repository. From this repository, various users can access the information, and use it for better decision making and formulating future strategies.
Due to historical reasons, the PLM has been used primarily for automobiles, aerospace, and machine designs (in order to get the maximum benefit from digital manufacturing) but now PLM is being implemented in industries, beyond engineering. For example, Medical, Banking, Insurance, Genetic research, and Pharmaceutical.
In the digitized economy, PLM helps organizations to operate globally, produce high quality product with less manufacturing time, and enables them to stay ahead of competitors.
The Product Lifecycle Management is the answer to the today’s design-driven, customer centric business needs.
