NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Product Lifecycle Management

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.^[1] It is one of the four cornerstones of a corporation's information technology structure.^[2] All companies need to manage communications and information with their customers (CRM-Customer Relationship Management) and their suppliers (SCM-Supply Chain Management) and the resources within the enterprise (ERP-Enterprise Resource Planning). In addition, manufacturing engineering companies must also develop, describe, manage and communicate information about their products (PLM). This article is about managing the life of a product in the market. ... Information and communication technology spending in 2005 Information technology (IT), as defined by the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), is the study, design, development, implementation, support or management of computer-based information systems, particularly software applications and computer hardware. ... Customer relationship management (CRM) is a broad term that covers concepts used by companies to manage their relationships with customers, including the capture, storage and analysis of customer, vendor, partner, and internal process information. ... Supply chain management (SCM) is the process of planning, implementing, and controlling the operations of the supply chain as efficiently as possible. ... Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERPs) integrate (or attempt to integrate) all data and processes of an organization into a unified system. ...

Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is more to do with managing descriptions and properties of a product through its development and useful life, mainly from a business/engineering point of view; whereas Product life cycle management (PLCM) is to do with the life of a product in the market with respect to business/commercial costs and sales measures.^[5] In commerce, time to market (TTM) is the length of time it takes from a product being conceived until its being available for sale. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with prototype. ... Look up Framework in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This article is about managing the life of a product in the market. ...

Product lifecycle management (PLM) is the title commonly applied to a set of application software that enables the New Product Development (NPD) business process.

Note: While application software is not required for PLM processes, the business complexity and rate of change requires organizations execute as rapidly as possible.

Product Data Management is focused on capturing and maintaining information on products and/or services through its development and useful life. Product and Portfolio Management is focused on managing resource allocation, tracking progress vs. plan for projects in the new product development projects that are in process (or in a holding status). Portfolio management is a tool that assists management in tracking progress on new products and making trade-off decisions when allocating scarce resources.

Introduction to development process

The core of PLM (product lifecycle management) is in the creation and central management of all product data and the technology used to access this information and knowledge. PLM as a discipline emerged from tools such as CAD, CAM and PDM, but can be viewed as the integration of these tools with methods, people and the processes through all stages of a product’s life.^[6] It is not just about software technology but is also a business strategy.^[7] CADD and CAD redirect here. ... Computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) is the use of a wide range of computer-based software tools that assist engineers and CNC machinists in the manufacture or prototyping of product components. ... Product Data Management (PDM) is a category of computer software used to control data related to products. ...

For simplicity the stages described are shown in a traditional sequential engineering workflow. The exact order of event and tasks will vary according to the product and industry in question but the main processes are:^[8] Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (960x720, 78 KB) Licensing I, the creator of this work, hereby grant the permission to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1. ...

The reality is however more complex, people and departments cannot perform their tasks in isolation and one activity cannot simply finish and the next activity start. Design is an iterative process, often designs need to be modified due to manufacturing constraints or conflicting requirements. Where exactly a customer order fits into the time line depends on the industry type, whether the products are for example Build to Order, Engineer to Order, or Assemble to Order.

Phases of product lifecycle and corresponding technologies

Many software solutions have developed to organize and integrate the different phases of a product’s lifecycle. PLM should not be seen as a single software product but a collection of software tools and working methods integrated together to address either single stages of the lifecycle or connect different tasks or manage the whole process. Some software providers cover the whole PLM range while others a single niche application. Some applications can span many fields of PLM with different modules within the same data model. An overview of the fields within PLM is covered here. It should be noted however that the simple classifications do not always fit exactly, many areas overlap and many software products cover more than one area or do not fit easily into one category. It should also not be forgotten that one of the main goals of PLM is to collect knowledge that can be reused for other projects and to coordinate simultaneous concurrent development of many products. It is about business processes, people and methods as much as software application solutions. Although PLM is mainly associated with engineering tasks it also involves marketing activities such as Product Portfolio Management (PPM), particularly with regards to New product introduction (NPI). Engineering is the applied science of acquiring and applying knowledge to design, analysis, and/or construction of works for practical purposes. ... For the magazine, see Marketing (magazine). ... Product Management is one of the four areas of marketing. ... In business and engineering, new product development is the complete process of bringing a new product to market. ...

Phase 1: Conceive

The first stage in idea is the definition of its requirements based on customer, company, market and regulatory bodies’ viewpoints. From this a specification of the products major technical parameters can be defined. Although often this task is carried out using standard office software packages there are for the field of requirements management a number of specialized software tools available. This article does not cite its references or sources. ...

Parallel to the requirements specification the initial concept design work is carried out defining the visual aesthetics of the product together with its main functional aspects. For the Industrial Design, Styling, work many different medias are used from pencil and paper, clay models to 3D CAID Computer-aided industrial design software. Industrial design is an applied art whereby the aesthetics and usability of products may be improved for marketability and production. ... Computer-aided industrial design (CAID) is a subset of computer-aided design (CAD) that includes software that directly helps in product development. ...

Phase 2: Design

This is where the detailed design and development of the product’s form starts, progressing to prototype testing, through pilot release to full product launch. It can also involve redesign and ramp for improvement to existing products as well as planned obsolescence. The main tool used for design and development is CAD Computer-aided design. This can be simple 2D Drawing / Drafting or 3D Parametric Feature Based Solid/Surface Modelling, Such software includes technology such as Hybrid Modeling, Reverse Engineering, KBE (Knowledge-Based Engineering), NDT (Nondestructive testing), Assembly construction. Planned obsolescence (also built-in obsolescence (UK)) is the decision on the part of a manufacturer to produce a consumer product that will become obsolete and/or non-functional in a defined time frame. ... All Saints Chapel in the Cathedral Basilica of St. ... CADD and CAD redirect here. ... Reverse engineering (RE) is the process of taking something (a device, an electrical component, a software program, etc. ... Knowledge-based engineering (KBE) is a discipline with roots in computer-aided design (CAD) and knowledge-based systems but has several definitions and roles depending upon the context. ... // Nondestructive testing (also called NDT, nondestructive evaluation, NDE, and nondestructive inspection, NDI) is testing that does not destroy the test object. ...

This step covers many engineering disciplines including: Mechanical, Electrical, Electronic, Software (embedded), and domain-specific, such as Architectural, Aerospace, Automotive, ... Along with the actual creation of geometry there is the analysis of the components and product assemblies. Simulation, validation and optimization tasks are carried out using CAE (Computer-aided engineering) software either integrated in the CAD package or stand-alone. These are used to perform tasks such as:- Stress analysis, FEA (Finite Element Analysis); Kinematics; Computational fluid dynamics (CFD); and mechanical event simulation (MES). CAQ (Computer-aided quality) is used for tasks such as Dimensional Tolerance (engineering) Analysis. Another task performed at this stage is the sourcing of bought out components, possibly with the aid of Procurement systems. A router, an example of an embedded system. ... This article is about the general term. ... Computer-aided Engineering analysis (often referred to as CAE) is the application of computer software in engineering to analyze the robustness and performance of components and assemblies. ... Visualization of how a car deforms in an asymmetrical crash using finite element analysis. ... Kinematics (Greek ÎºÎ¹Î½ÎµÎ¹Î½,kinein, to move) is a branch of mechanics which describes the motion of objects without the consideration of the masses or forces that bring about the motion. ... A computer simulation of high velocity air flow around the Space Shuttle during re-entry. ... This article is about the general term. ... Computer Aided Quality assurance or CAQ is the engineering application of computers and computer controlled machines for the definition and inspection of the quality of products. ... Tolerance in Final Fantasy is an allowance, given as a permissible range, in the nominal dimension or value specification of a manufactured object. ... Look up Procurement in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Phase 3: Realize

Once the design of the product’s components is complete the method of manufacturing is defined. This includes CAD tasks such as tool design; creation of CNC Machining instructions for the product’s parts as well as tools to manufacture those parts, using integrated or separate CAM Computer-aided manufacturing software. This will also involve analysis tools for process simulation for operations such as casting, molding, and die press forming. Once the manufacturing method has been identified MPM – (Manufacturing Process Management) comes into play. This involves CAPE (Computer-aided Production Engineering) or CAP/CAPP – (Production Planning) tools for carrying out Factory, Plant and Facility Layout and Production Simulation. For example: Press-Line Simulation; and Industrial Ergonomics; as well as tool selection management. Once components are manufactured their geometrical form and size can be checked against the original CAD data with the use of Computer Aided Inspection equipment and software. Parallel to the engineering tasks, sales product configuration and marketing documentation work will be taking place. This could include transferring engineering data (geometry and part list data) to a web based sales configurator and other Desktop Publishing systems. Manufacturing (from Latin manu factura, making by hand) is the use of tools and labor to make things for use or sale. ... A CNC Turning Center A CNC Milling Machine The abbreviation CNC stands for computer numerical control, and refers specifically to a computer controller that reads G-code instructions and drives the machine tool, a powered mechanical device typically used to fabricate metal components by the selective removal of metal. ... Computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) is the use of a wide range of computer-based software tools that assist engineers and CNC machinists in the manufacture or prototyping of product components. ... Manufacturing Processes is a collection of technology and methods used in the manufacturing of products. ... Sales are the activities involved in providing products or services in return for money or other compensation. ... For the magazine, see Marketing (magazine). ... Adobe InDesign CS2, one of many popular desktop publishing applications. ...

Phase 4: Service

Use, Operate, Maintain, Support, Sustain, Phase-out, Retire, Recycle and Disposal

The final phase of the lifecycle involves managing of in service information. Providing customers and service engineers with support information for repair and maintenance, as well as waste management/recycling information. This involves using such tools as Maintenance, Repair and Operations Management (MRO) software. Repair and Maintenance is fixing any sort of mechanical or electrical device should it get out of order or broken (repair) as well as performing the routine actions which keep the device in working order (maintenance) or prevent trouble from arising (preventive maintenance). ... Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Waste For the company, see Waste Management, Inc. ... This article needs additional references or sources to facilitate its verification. ... Maintenance, Repair and Operations or Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO), is fixing any sort of mechanical or electrical device should it get out of order or broken (repair) as well as performing the routine actions which keep the device in working order (maintenance) or prevent trouble from arising (preventive maintenance). ...

All phases: product lifecycle

None of the above phases can be seen in isolation. In reality a project does not run sequentially or in isolation of other product development projects. Information is flowing between different people and systems. A major part of PLM is the co-ordination of and management of product definition data. This includes managing engineering changes and release status of components; configuration product variations; document management; planning project resources and timescale and risk assessment.

For these tasks graphical, text and metadata such as product BOMs (Bill of Materials) needs to be managed. At the engineering departments level this is the domain of PDM – (Product Data Management) software, at the corporate level EDM (Enterprise Data Management) software, these two definitions tend to blur however but it is typical to see two or more data management systems within an organization. These systems are also linked to other corporate systems such as SCM, CRM, and ERP. Associated with these system are Project Management Systems for Project/Program Planning. A bill of materials (BOM) is the term used to describe the parts list of components needed to complete a saleable end-item. ... Product Data Management (PDM) is a category of computer software used to control data related to products. ... Project Management is the discipline of organizing and managing resources (e. ...

This central role is covered by numerous Collaborative Product Development tools which run throughout the whole lifecycle and across organizations. This requires many technology tools in the areas of Conferencing, Data Sharing and Data Translation. The field being Product visualization which includes technologies such as DMU (Digital Mock-Up), Immersive Virtual Digital prototyping (Virtual reality) and Photo realistic Imaging. Collaborative Product Development (Collaborative Product Design) (CPD) is a business strategy, work process and collection of software applications that facilitates different organizations to work together on the development of a product. ... Product Visualization involves visualization software technology for the viewing and manipulation of 3D models, technical drawing and other related documentation of manufactured components and large assemblies of products. ... Digital MockUp or DMU is a technology that allows product design engineers to replace physical prototypes with virtual ones, using 3D computer graphics techniques. ... This article is about the simulation technology. ...

Product development processes and methodologies

A number of established methodologies have been adopted by PLM and been further advanced. Together with PLM digital engineering techniques, they have been advanced to meet company goals such as reduced time to market and lower production costs. Reducing lead times is a major factor as getting a product to market quicker than the competition will help with higher revenue and profit margins and increase market share.

Industrial design is an applied art whereby the aesthetics and usability of products may be improved for marketability and production. ... In business and engineering, new product development (NPD) is the term used to describe the complete process of bringing a new product or service to market. ... Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) is a separate and emerging discipline related to Six Sigma quality processes. ...

Concurrent engineering workflow

This is a workflow that instead of working sequentially through stages, carries out a number of tasks in parallel. For example; starting tool design before the detailed design of the product are finished, or the engineer starting on detail design solid models before the concept design surfaces models are complete. Although this does not necessarily reduce the amount of manpower required for a project it does drastically reduce lead times and thus time to market. Feature based CAD systems have for many years allowed the simultaneous work on 3D solid model and the 2D drawing by means of 2 separate files, with the drawing looking at the data in the model; when the model changes the drawing will associatively update. Some CAD packages also allow associative copying of geometry between files. This allows, for example, the copying of a part design into the files used by the tooling designer. The manufacturing engineer can then start work on tools before the final design freeze; when a design changes size or shape the tool geometry will then update. Concurrent engineering also has the added benefit of providing better and more immediate communication between departments, reducing the chance of costly, late design changes. It adopts a problem prevention method as compared to the problem solving and re-designing method of traditional sequential engineering.

Bottom-up design

Bottom-up design is where the definition of 3D models of a product starts with the construction of individual components. These are then virtually brought together in sub-assemblies of more than one level until the full product is digitally defined. This is sometimes known as the review structure showing what the product will look like. The BOM contains all of the physical (solid) components; it may (but not also) contain other items required for the final product BOM such as paint, glue, oil and other materials commonly described as 'bulk items'. Bulk items typically have mass and quantities but are not usually modelled with geometry.

Top-down design

Top-down design follows closer the true design process. This starts with a layout model, often a simple 2D sketch defining basic sizes and some major defining parameters. Industrial Design, brings creative ideas to product development. Geometry from this is associatively copied down to the next level, which represents different sub-systems of the product. The geometry in the sub-systems is then used to define more detail in levels below. Depending on the complexity of the product, a number of levels of this assembly are created until the basic definition of components can be identified, such as position and principal dimensions. This information is then associatively copied to component files. In these files the components are detailed; this is where the classic bottom-up assembly starts. The top down assembly is sometime known as a control structure. If a single file is used to define the layout and parameters for the review structure it is often known as a skeleton file. Industrial design is an applied art whereby the aesthetics and usability of products may be improved for marketability and production. ...

Defence engineering traditionally develops the product structure from the top down. The system engineering process^[9] prescribes a functional decomposition of requirements and then physical allocation of product structure to the functions. This top down approach would normally have lower levels of the product structure developed from CAD data as a bottom up structure or design.

Front loading design and workflow

Front loading is taking top-down design to the next stage. The complete control structure and review structure, as well as downstream data such as drawings, tooling development and CAM models, are constructed before the product has been defined or a project kick-off has been authorized. These assemblies of files constitute a template from which a family of products can be constructed. When the decision has been made to go with a new product, the parameters of the product are entered into the template model and all the associated data is updated. Obviously predefined associative models will not be able to predict all possibilities and will require additional work. The main principle is that a lot of the experimental/investigative work has already been completed. A lot of knowledge is built into these templates to be reused on new products. This does require additional resources “up front” but can drastically reduce the time between project kick-off and launch. Such methods do however require organizational changes, as considerable engineering efforts are moved into “offline” development departments. It can be seen as an analogy to creating a concept car to test new technology for future products, but in this case the work is directly used for the next product generation.

Design in context

Individual components cannot be constructed in isolation. CAD; CAiD models of components are designed within the context of part or all of the product being developed. This is achieved using assembly modelling techniques. Other components’ geometry can be seen and referenced within the CAD tool being used. The other components within the sub-assembly, may or may not have been constructed in the same system, their geometry being translated from other CPD formats. Some assembly checking such as DMU is also carried out using Product visualization software. CADD and CAD redirect here. ... Computer-aided industrial design (CAID) is a subset of computer-aided design (CAD) that includes software that directly helps in product development. ... Assembly Modelling is technology and methods used by Computer-aided design and Product visualization computer software systems to handle multiple files that represent components within a product. ... Collaborative Product Development (Collaborative Product Design) (CPD) is a business strategy, work process and collection of software applications that facilitates different organizations to work together on the development of a product. ... Digital MockUp or DMU is a technology that allows product design engineers to replace physical prototypes with virtual ones, using 3D computer graphics techniques. ... Product Visualization involves visualization software technology for the viewing and manipulation of 3D models, technical drawing and other related documentation of manufactured components and large assemblies of products. ...

Major commercial players

Total spending on PLM software and services is estimated to be above $15 billion a year but it is difficult to find any two market analysis reports that agree on figures.^[10].^[11] Market growth estimates are in the 10% area.

Looking at segment split, currently most of the revenue generated is in the area of EDA and high end MCAD (each above 15%), followed by AEC, low-end MCAD, and PDM (each above 10%). The other notable segment is CAE at above 5%. It is however predicted that the collaborative PDM and visualization areas will increase in dominance.

There are many companies that supply software to support the PLM process; the largest by revenue are mentioned here. Some companies such as UGS ($1.1B) (recently acquired by Siemens), Altair Engineering Inc. ($0.15B), Dassault Systèmes ($1.1B), Agile Software Corporation (recently acquired by Oracle Corporation) and SofTech, Inc. (.011B) provide software products that cover most of the areas of PLM functionality; some like PTC ($0.8B) cover a number of segments; other companies for example MSC Software($0.3B) provide packages specializing in specific topics. One company, Aras Corp offers Microsoft-based open source enterprise PLM solutions,^[12] and another Arena Solutions, provides on-demand PLM software. Additional unique offerings include Selerant which specializes only in the process industry and provides formulation optimization and regulatory management. Also, Omnify Software's PLM incorporates traditionally disparate systems (quality, training, corrective action/preventive action) to augment support for regulatory compliance across all verticals.^[13] UGS is a computer software company specializing in 3D and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) software. ... Dassault Systemes (Dassault SystÃ¨mes S.A.) ((Nasdaq: DASTY; Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA)) is the leading company specializing in 3D and PLM (Product Lifecyle Management) software. ... Agile Software Corporation is a San Jose based Product Lifecycle Management solution Provider. ... Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL) is one of the major companies developing database management systems (DBMS), tools for database development, middle-tier software, enterprise resource planning software (ERP), customer relationship management software (CRM) and supply chain management (SCM) software. ... SofTech, Inc. ... Parametric Technology Corporation (NASDAQ: PMTC) provides product lifecycle management (PLM) engineering CAD/CAM software. ... History Example of MSC.Nastran analysis at work. ... ArasÂ® Corporation provides MicrosoftÂ® enterprise open source software solutions for enterprise product lifecycle management (PLM), Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP), and new product introduction (NPI). ... Open source refers to projects that are open to the public and which draw on other projects that are freely available to the general public. ... Arena Solutions is a Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) company headquartered in Foster City, CA. Arena uses the on-demand model of software delivery also known as Software as a service (Saas). ... Selerant is a Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) company headquartered in Milan, Italy and New York, USA. // Selerant was co-founded by Jacopo and Carlo Colombo in 1990. ...

Independent PLM service providers such as SIA Conseil, accenture, Integware and Metafore deliver PLM consulting services by providing information to help companies plan and implement PLM practices, processes and technologies.

There are also companies whose main revenue is not from PLM but do attribute some of their income from PLM software, such as SAP($11B), SSA Global , Oracle Corporation and Autodesk ($1.5B). Other companies in this market, such as IBM ($88.9B), EDS ($19.8B), Accenture, Infosys (INFY), geometricglobal.com, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), ITC Infotech provide outsourcing and consulting services some of which is in the field of PLM. http://www.3dplmsoftware.com/ is a joint venture between Dassault systeme and Geometric to develop specialised PLM solutions. Many of these companies have emerged out of the CAD and PDM market. For a more comprehensive list see List of CAD companies. SAP AG (ISIN: DE0007164600, FWB: SAP, NYSE: SAP) is the largest European software enterprise and the third largest in the world, with headquarters in Walldorf, Germany. ... SSA Global Technologies (NASDAQ: SSAG) is a company developing Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. ... Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL) is one of the major companies developing database management systems (DBMS), tools for database development, middle-tier software, enterprise resource planning software (ERP), customer relationship management software (CRM) and supply chain management (SCM) software. ... Autodesk, Inc. ... For other uses, see IBM (disambiguation) and Big Blue. ... EDS may refer to: Ed. ... Accenture (NYSE: ACN, ISIN: BMG1150G1116) is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company. ... Infosys Technologies Limited (BSE: 500209, NASDAQ: INFY) is an information technology (IT) services company founded in Pune, India in 1981 by N. R. Narayana Murthy and six of his colleagues. ... Tata Consultancy Services Limited (TCS Limited) is one of the worldâ€™s largest providers of information technology, consulting, services and business-process outsourcing which commenced operations in 1968. ... ITC Limited which previously stood for Imperial Tobacco Company, is one of Indias foremost private sector companies with a market capitalisation of more than US $ 10 billion and a turnover of US $ 3. ... List of Computer-Aided Design (CAD) companies and their software products. ...

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