Product lifecycle management (PLM) is the process of managing the entire lifecycle of a product from its conception, through design and manufacture, to service and disposal. PLM integrates people, data, processes and business systems and provides a product information backbone for companies and their extended enterprise.
”PLM is a strategic approach to implement and maintain processes and technology to help companies manage products from concept through retirement.
PLM is an information strategy how to generate, manage, distribute and use product information through collaboration for better quality and more informed decisions based on relevant and accurate information.
PLM is NOT something purchased off the shelf in a store.”
In industry, product lifecycle management (PLM) is the process of managing the entire lifecycle of a product from its conception, through design and manufacture, to service and disposal. PLM integrates people, data, processes and business systems and provides a product information backbone for companies and their extended enterprise.
Product lifecycle management (PLM) should be distinguished from ’Product life cycle management (marketing)’ (PLCM). PLM describes the engineering aspect of a product, from managing descriptions and properties of a product through its development and useful life; whereas, PLCM refers to the commercial management of life of a product in the business market with respect to costs and sales measures.
Product lifecycle management is one of the four cornerstones of a corporation’s information technology structure. All companies need to manage communications and information with their customers (CRM-customer relationship management), their suppliers (SCM-supply chain management), their resources within the enterprise (ERP-enterprise resource planning) and their planning (SDLC-systems development life cycle). In addition, manufacturing engineering companies must also develop, describe, manage and communicate information about their products.
One form of PLM is called people-centric PLM. While traditional PLM tools have been deployed only on release or during the release phase, people-centric PLM targets the design phase.
(source:Wikipedia)
