Tech Primer

What is Product lifecycle management?

Product lifecycle management (PLM) software is the foundation that supports the management and automation of product lifecycle processes from when the product is conceptualised to when it is retired. A PLM solution lets companies automate, monitor and track product development and revision processes with their customers, suppliers, and employees amid the increasing pressures of mass customisation, globalisation, regulatory compliance, increased outsourcing, and product accountability. PLM applications typically integrate with ERP systems and extend critical product information visibility and processes beyond engineering departments propagating it throughout the supply chain.

How does PLM score over data management and CAD?

PLM is much more than Product Data Management (PDM) and Computer Aided Design (CAD). If PDM and CAD permit quick data storage, evaluation and design modification, PLM guides the product through its entire lifecycle. In addition to supply chain benefits, PLM promises to enhance the design environment by providing an integrated view of product engineering, manufacturing engineering, and plant resources. It applies a consistent set of business solutions in support of the collaborative creation, management, and use of product definition information.

What are the components of a PLM market?

The Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) market comprises of six distinct subsectors: Portfolio Management, Program Management, Collaborative Design, Product Data Management, Manufacturing Process Management, and Service and Support Management. Combined, these solutions enable a company to manage their products over the entire lifecycle.

What is the driving factors for PLM?

Increasingly Small and Medium Enterprises are taking on complex design, often in regulated environments, demanding speed and control over the New Product Development and Launch (NPDL) process. Competitive pressures, customer demand, and the need to cut operating expenses are driving the need for shorter product life cycles. In that regard, PLM products give manufacturers the tools to collaborate with trading partners for faster time-to-market.

What is the need of Collaborative Engineering for PLM?

When design teams working on a virtual model of a product are connected using a digital communication network, this process is called Collaborative Engineering. Collaborative engineering has an important by-product. A vast amount of information is captured in digital form during the development of several product generations. Data mining tools can be used to process the accumulated data and draw insights from it to be used in developing future product generations. Knowledge Management (KM) is rapidly becoming an important part of PLM.

The focus of PLM on engineering data and knowledge, contrasts with ERP, SCM and CRM that largely handle business process data. There is however, an increasing overlap between these systems and the distinctions are gradually blurring. In the future, it is likely that systems will have seamless connections and data exchange with each other, and will provide access to any relevant data through a standard, customisable user interface.

What is the future of PLM?

In the future applications that cover product-related functionality and further expand the benefits of PLM will be added. There is a lot of room for PLM to grow and as a suite of solutions it will probably end up being as broad as CRM or SCM are today.

Who are the vendors of PLM?

The PLM market is still in its infancy compared to ERP, and therefore, no vendor provides all of the required solutions for a full PLM initiative at this stage. Organisations seeking to deploy a PLM solution often put together one from best of breed components. The major players in PLM include Dassault Systems, PTC, Autodesk, Tecnomatix, ANSYS and MatrixOne.