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• What is PLM?
• Top PLM Challenges

What is PLM?

PLM Process

Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is the process by which manufacturing companies develop, describe, manage and communicate information about their products, both internally and among their supply chain partners.

This process begins at the earliest phases of design and development and continues throughout the entire life of the product, which includes production launch, volume production, and, finally, retirement.

PLM Software

PLM software helps companies better manage their products throughout their lifecycle in part by serving as a single central source of product information that can be systematically shared across an extended enterprise and accessed by other systems.

PLM vs. ERP

Unlike Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, which excel in managing a product's manufacturing data while in production, PLM systems are designed to manage all the product's information from initial concept to end of life. In particular, PLM software provides benefits during the product's design and development phase when engineers make the critical design decisions that determine the quality and cost of the product over it's lifetime.

Benefits of PLM

At its best PLM software enables engineers to access more accurate part, supplier and product info so that they can make better design decisions. This in turn enables the company to produce better products that are less costly to produce. With PLM software, the product development process itself becomes more efficient through automation and technology enabled collaboration.

PLM Vision vs. Reality

This is the vision of PLM. Many electronics manufacturers realize some of the benefits described above, but most fall short of achieving the full potential of PLM. In fact, we've found that manufacturers typically have trouble in the following areas:

Learn about the top 4 PLM challenges »