What is product lifecycle management (PLM)

What is Product Lifecycle Management (PLM)?

Have you ever questioned how businesses are able to produce outstanding goods and services that satisfy their clients? How do they maintain note of every step needed to implement their ideas? How do they maintain productivity, effectiveness, and revenue over the course of a product's lifecycle? Well, they employ a potent tactic known as Product Lifecycle Management. (PLM). PLM is a method of planning and arranging a product's life cycle, from inception to disposal. It enables companies to provide value to their clients while saving time, money, and resources. In this blog article, we'll define PLM and discuss its importance to your company. We'll also demonstrate some of the top PLM software products that can make it simple for you to control the product creation process. Prepare yourself to learn more about PLM and how it can improve your company.

So, you want to introduce a new product that you have a fantastic concept for. How do you bring it about? How can you make your goal come true? How can you be positive that your product will shake the universe of your customers? Product Lifecycle Management, or PLM for brief, is useful in this situation. PLM is a method for creating and carrying out your product strategy from beginning to end. It aids in organizing all the processes involved in producing your product, including idea generation, sample construction, product production, and client sales. Additionally, it aids in managing all the staff members and equipment used to create your product, including architects, designers, marketers, and salesmen. You can speed up, simplify, and improve your product creation process by utilizing PLM tools and systems. You can save time and money while improving quality and customer happiness. In short, PLM is the key to making your product awesome. 

Implementing PLM: Key Components and Benefits

To successfully implement PLM, organizations must consider several key components that work together to create a robust and effective system:

1. PLM Software: PLM software serves as the backbone of the process, providing a centralized platform for managing product data, workflows, and collaboration. It streamlines communication between departments and ensures that all stakeholders have access to accurate, up-to-date information.

2. Cross-functional Collaboration: Effective PLM requires seamless communication and collaboration between various teams, such as engineering, marketing, manufacturing, and support. By fostering a collaborative environment, PLM enables organizations to make informed decisions and accelerate product development.

3. Process Management: PLM involves the standardization and optimization of product development processes. This includes the establishment of best practices, guidelines, and workflows that ensure consistency, reduce errors, and increase efficiency.

4. Data Management: A crucial aspect of PLM is the efficient management of product data, such as design specifications, bills of materials, and change orders. PLM systems help to maintain a single source of truth, preventing data discrepancies and ensuring accurate information is accessible to all stakeholders.

The benefits of implementing PLM are manifold, including:

Reduced time-to-market: By streamlining processes and improving collaboration, PLM helps companies bring products to market faster, giving them a competitive edge.

Improved product quality: PLM promotes the use of best practices, which results in higher quality products and reduced rework costs.

Enhanced innovation: With better visibility into the product development process, PLM enables organizations to identify opportunities for improvement and foster a culture of innovation.

How a PLM-enabled Framework Can Transform Discrete Manufacturing

As a discrete manufacturer, you face many challenges in creating and managing your products. You have to deal with changing designs, customer needs, global suppliers, and regulations. That’s why you need a better way to plan and manage your product development process. A way that can help you make better products faster.

A system that is PLM-enabled is how to do it. In order to connect and streamline your product data and processes over the course of the product lifecycle, a collection of tools and best practices are used in conjunction with PLM software. With the aid of PLM software, you can collaborate with your employees, business partners, and clients on all facets of your good or service. everything from concept to engineering, production to quality, support to disposal.

Some of the benefits of using a PLM-enabled framework are:

1. By assuring accuracy of data & uniformity across all platforms and users, you can minimize mistakes and rework.
2. By streamlining tasks, processes, approvals, & alerts, you can reduce time to market.
3. Throughout the product lifecycle, you can raise quality & increase client happiness by gathering input, requirements, problems, and adjustments.
4. By optimizing your resources, materials, procedures, & assets, you can cut expenses and boost revenue.
5. By encouraging cross-functional cooperation and information exchange, you can boost innovation & competitiveness.

To implement a PLM-enabled framework successfully for discrete manufacturing, you need to choose a PLM software that suits your specific needs and goals. Some of the features to look for are:

• Cloud-based deployment for scalability, security, accessibility

• Flexible configuration for customization

• Open architecture for integration

• User-friendly interface for adoption

• Industry-specific functionality for relevance

Some examples of PLM software that offer these features are Wrike, Propel, Siemens Teamcenter, Aras PLM, etc.

A PLM-enabled framework can transform discrete manufacturing by enabling you to manage your products more efficiently and effectively throughout their lifecycle. By using PLM software as part of your framework, you can improve collaboration, communication, and coordination among all stakeholders involved in your product development process. This way, you can deliver high-quality products that meet or exceed customer expectations while reducing costs and risks.

Examples of product lifecycle management

Product lifecycle management (PLM) is a process that helps businesses manage the entire lifecycle of a product, from conception to retirement. PLM can improve efficiency, quality, innovation and customer satisfaction. Here are some examples of how PLM can be applied in different industries:
In the automotive industry, PLM can help design and develop new models, optimize production processes, reduce costs and comply with safety and environmental regulations. PLM can also enable collaboration among suppliers, manufacturers and dealers to deliver better products and services to customers.

In the fashion industry, PLM can help create and launch new collections, manage inventory and distribution channels, track trends and customer feedback and adapt to changing market demands. PLM can also facilitate communication and coordination among designers, merchandisers, buyers and retailers to ensure consistency and quality across the supply chain.

In the software industry, PLM can help plan and execute software development projects, manage requirements and specifications, test and debug code, release updates and patches and support end-users. PLM can also foster innovation and creativity among developers, testers, project managers and customers by enabling feedback loops and agile methodologies.

What Are the 4 Stages of Product Life Cycle?

The idea of the product life cycle explains the various stages that a product goes through, from its debut to its market decline. The four phases of a product's lifecycle are as follows:

Introduction: This is when a novel product is introduced to the market. The item could be brand-new or a variant of one that already exists. The primary objectives of this stage are to produce early sales while raising prospective clients' knowledge and interest. The marketing plan might emphasize delivery, pricing, quality, and advertising. High expenses, low sales volume, uncertain demand, and rivalry are some of this stage's difficulties.

Growth: At this point, sales begin to increase as a result of consumer approval and success of the product. Sales volume quickly rises, and the market percentage grows. The marketing plan might emphasize widening delivery networks, enhancing customer support, lowering prices, and stepping up promotion. Increasing rivalry, shifting consumer preferences, and keeping quality are some of this stage's difficulties.

Maturity: The product's peak revenue and earnings occur at this time. As a result of market saturation, development rates slacken. Other goods with comparable features or cheaper rates compete fiercely with the product. Differentiation, loyalty schemes, diversification, and cost-cutting may be the main focuses of the marketing plan. The difficulties of this era include innovation, price battles, falling sales, and shrinking earnings.

Decline: This is when the product begins to lose its consumer appeal & demand, as well as market share and earnings. It's possible for the product to go out of style or be supplanted by fresher models with superior features or prices. The product's harvesting, discontinuation, or rebranding may be the center of the marketing plan. Declining revenue, negative cash flow, excess merchandise, and unsatisfied customers are some of the difficulties this period faces.

Understanding the four stages of product life cycle can help marketers design effective strategies for each stage and manage their products efficiently throughout their life span.

Best 5 PLM Software

But how do you choose the best PLM software for your business? There are many factors to consider, such as the features, functionality, compatibility, scalability and cost of each software. To help you narrow down your choices, we have compiled a list of the best 5 PLM software solutions that you can use in 2023.

If you are looking for a software solution to manage your product lifecycle, you might be overwhelmed by the number of options available in the market. Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) software helps you plan, design, develop, manufacture and maintain your products throughout their life cycle. It can also help you collaborate with your team members, suppliers and customers more effectively.

1. Autodesk Fusion 360: This is a cloud-based PLM software that integrates CAD/CAM/CAE tools with data management and collaboration features. You can use it to create 3D models, simulate performance, optimize designs and share them with your stakeholders. Fusion 360 also supports additive manufacturing and generative design techniques. It has a user-friendly interface and a flexible pricing model based on usage.

2. Siemens Teamcenter: This is a comprehensive PLM software that covers all aspects of product development from ideation to retirement. You can use it to manage requirements, specifications, documents, workflows and changes across multiple disciplines and domains. Teamcenter also integrates with other Siemens solutions such as NX CAD/CAM/CAE and Solid Edge CAD. It has a modular architecture and a customizable interface that can adapt to your specific needs.

3. PTC Windchill: This is a web-based PLM software that enables you to connect people, processes and data across the product lifecycle. You can use it to capture product information from various sources such as CAD systems, ERP systems and IoT devices. Windchill also allows you to create digital twins of your products that can simulate their behavior and performance in real-world scenarios. It has a modern user experience and a scalable cloud platform that can support complex products.

4. Dassault Systemes ENOVIA: You can control your product inventory using this collaborative PLM software from idea to market launch. It can be used to specify product specifications, develop original ideas, verify quality standards, and plan supply chain operations. ENOVIA also makes use of the 3DEXPERIENCE technology from Dassault Systemes, which provides cutting-edge features like artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality (VR), and augmented reality. (AR). It has a wide range of uses tailored to particular industries and an open environment that can be integrated with other systems.

5. Oracle Agile PLM: This enterprise-grade PLM system aids in streamlining your working procedures and streamlining your product development procedures. You can use it to increase client satisfaction, streamline procedures and approvals, minimize errors and risks, and align your product strategy with your business objectives. Agile PLM also makes it easier to cooperate internationally and follow regulations like FDA or ISO 9001.

Final Verdict

To wrap it up, Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is a great way of keeping track of a product's lifespan, from start to finish. PLM helps organizations save money, improve their products, and encourage innovation. By using PLM tools and following best practices, you can make it easier to collaborate with stakeholders, streamline your processes, and give added value to your customers. PLM really gives you the edge in the market - it's not just a tool or a system, it's a whole way of thinking that can totally revamp your company. Hit us up anytime if you have any queries about PLM or how it can benefit your company. We'd love to hear from you and help you out with your PLM goals!