Product Lifecycle Management

In industry, product lifecycle management (PLM) is the process of managing the entire lifecycle of a product from inception, through engineering design and manufacture, to service and disposal of manufactured products. PLM integrates people, data, processes and business systems and provides a product information backbone for companies and their extended enterprise.

The inspiration for the burgeoning business process now known as PLM came from American Motors Corporation (AMC). The automaker was looking for a way to speed up its product development process to compete better against its larger competitors in 1985, according to François Castaing, Vice President for Product Engineering and Development. Lacking the "massive budgets of General Motors, Ford, and foreign competitors … AMC placed R&D emphasis on bolstering the product life cycle of its prime products (particularly Jeeps)." After introducing its compact Jeep Cherokee (XJ), the vehicle that launched the modern sport utility vehicle (SUV) market, AMC began development of a new model, that later came out as the Jeep Grand Cherokee. The first part in its quest for faster product development was computer-aided design (CAD) software system that make engineers more productive. The second part in this effort was the new communication system that allowed conflicts to be resolved faster, as well as reducing costly engineering changes because all drawings and documents were in a central database. The product data management was so effective that after AMC was purchased by Chrysler, the system was expanded throughout the enterprise connecting everyone involved in designing and building products. While an early adopter of PLM technology, Chrysler was able to become the auto industry's lowest-cost producer, recording development costs that were half of the industry average by the mid-1990s.

During 1982-83, Rockwell International developed initial concepts of PDM and PLM for the B-1B bomber program. The system called Engineering Data System (EDS) was augmented to interface with Computervision and CADAM systems to track part configurations and lifecycle of components and assemblies. Computervison later released implementing only the PDM aspects as the lifecycle model was specific to Rockwell and aerospace needs.

PLM systems help organizations in coping with the increasing complexity and engineering challenges of developing new products for the global competitive markets.

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