8.7 Product Life Cycle Management

Product life cycle management or PLM, is a business strategy that enables manufacturers to control and share product-related data as part of product design and development efforts and to support supply chain operations. 

The core aspect of PLM is the central management of all product data and the technology used to access this information.

4 Phases of the PLM

1) conceive

2) design

3) realize

4) service

PLM can have a significant impact on engineering change, cycle time, design reuse, and engineering productivity.

Studies have shown that electronic based collaboration can reduce product cost and travel expense, as well as reduced costs associated with product-change management. 

PLM's ultimate goal is to move info through an organization as quickly as possible to reduce the time it takes to get a product to market and increase profitability.