Best PLM Systems 2023 | Product Lifecycle Management Systems

A product lifecycle management (PLM) system is a powerful solution that manages every aspect of a product’s life from start to finish. An enterprise PLM system can integrate data, workflows, business systems and people in an extended enterprise by facilitating the internal and external collaboration demanded by modern manufacturing environments.

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PLM systems can help you gain greater visibility and control over the design process. Let’s review how it differs from a standalone ERP, its benefits, main features, limitations, trends and top systems.

What this article covers:

Differences Between PLM and ERP

PLM is available as either a standalone solution or as a component of ERP software. Enterprise resource planning software at its core is about the connectivity of various business processes and the obtainment of new and comprehensive sources of data through centralization. PLM follows this basic idea through its wide variety of capabilities and consolidation of crucial business processes.

Simply put, PLM and ERP both deal with manufacturing goods, but each contains tools related to different parts of the lifecycle. A product lifecycle management system manages product design and development. Oppositely, ERP software focuses on several departments such as manufacturing, inventory management, distribution and accounting.

ERP

One reason that many businesses gravitate toward ERP is that it integrates both manufacturing and non-manufacturing processes. These integrations include features in human resources, marketing automation (MA) and customer relationship management (CRM). Reduced inefficiencies, standardized methods and the identification and adoption of best practices benefit companies with ERP systems experience.

While ERP provides the ideal set of tools for dealing with the ongoing physical manufacturing of a product, it’s become apparent that it has some significant shortcomings in product design. Product lifecycle management systems remedy these pitfalls.

PLM

This platform monitors the complete product lifecycle process from idea conception to development and collaboration. These systems provide a structured environment for capturing and managing ideas related to product development from all areas within and outside of an organization.

At its core, a PLM system works to keep all employees on the same page as design changes arise. For example, if you add more ridges to the sole of your shoe design, this modification appears across your organization to ensure uniformity.

Brief History

In 1931, Otto Kleppner crafted the preliminary stages of the product lifecycle by managing how products go through the pioneering, competitive and retentive phases. Those stages were modified in 1966 as introduction, growth, maturity, saturation and decline to better monitor life to death.

American Motors Corporation (AMC) utilized one of the first PLM solutions to create different vehicles, from jeeps to SUVs, in 1985.

As time passed, PLM became a staple for other industries, like pharmaceuticals, medicine and electronics.

A Product’s Lifecycle

A product’s lifecycle changes from company to company, but these four steps are universal in monitoring a product’s full lifecycle:

• Introduction: Designers plan and develop product blueprints and simulations to test how it works under numerous conditions.
• Growth: After multiple tests and meeting compliances, executives determine availability, how much they want to sell and marketing strategies.
• Maturity: Products are distributed to stores and gain revenue. Over time, production fees diminish.
• Decline: Companies develop upgrades. Some competitor companies release similar products to garner more revenue and success than the original product. The initial product may decline in sales and demand over time and becomes irrelevant.

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