21st century is known for business Globalization era. Everyone wants to capture large market share of world, this produces concept like competitive market and trade war. In this competitive world and Industry 4.0 era, if any manufacturing industry wants to sustain in the market, then it wants to achieve success on two important concepts, that are 1) Time to launch the product in the market and 2)Cost reduction in product. If we achieved both then we can capture a large market share and get the maximum benefit of it.

Article: Benefits of launching a product early in the market. (Time-To-Market)

Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is the management science of product data from its concept or idea generation to the disposal of the product. It is a philosophy of data and works management. PLM is an evolution of Product Data Management (PDM). Earlier in PDM, we manage data related to production phase only. Now a day’s PDM broaden its wings and it’s become PLM which manage the whole lifecycle of the product. PLM includes management of design data, Quality management, process management, portfolio management, Supply Chain Management (SCM), Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and management of whole things which are related to the product.

Guess, how many parts an Aeroplane have?

Do you know how much parts (small parts also nuts and bolts) Boeing 777 aeroplane contains? simple way google it .

Total Parts of Boeing 777

(click below link to see)

Total parts of Boeing 777 Aeroplane , almost 3 million parts.

PLM system helps them to manage these parts data in an efficient way. The base of any PLM system is on the basis of data management concepts. To manage this 3 million parts is a very cumbersome task. If we want to change one part’s dimension and size then think about how much parts related to it may get affected. To manage this PLM philosophy plays a crucial role in it.

There are many definitions are on the internet but, I like one definition from CIMdata’s research paper which covers all aspects of PLM is as follows

“A strategic business approach that applies a consistent set of business solutions in support of the collaborative creation, management, dissemination, and use of product definition information across the extended enterprise from concept to end of life—integrating people, processes, business systems, and information.” Reference from: CIMDATA www.cimdata.com

There is also a misconception about PLM that ‘PLM concept is related to software field’ It is not a software, it is a philosophy on which many software are build like Aras, PTCWindchill, Enovia, Teamcenter, AgilePLM, SAPPLM etc.