Benefits of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM)

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Increase revenue

It's fairly intuitive that shorter design times and faster change cycles yield earlier product introductions and optimized products, resulting in earlier revenue and longer product life.

Reduce design time

PLM avoids wasted design effort through

  • immediate, managed access to all design data

  • concurrent reviews by affected data consumers without distracting designers

  • elimination of lost or damaged files

  • consistent, data-rich bills of materials with real-time cost roll-ups

  • reapplication of existing items in new designs

Some PLM systems allow tasks to be attached directly to an document or part, keeping both designers and project managers in the loop.

Companies have reported time-to-market reductions of up to 75%. This may allow you to launch several months early, and grab sales for your product from your competition.

Accelerate release and change cycles

Perhaps the most remarkable impact of PLM is the substantial efficiency gained when processing product releases and changes. A non-automated process usually requires extensive document collection and copying efforts, repetitive and error-prone change order creation, and relying on time-consuming interoffice mail or on an engineer or change analyst walking the package from office to office. Involving supply chain partners may require express parcels, insecure or lost mail, irrelevant or incorrect file attachments, and a host of other time-wasters.

By design, a PLM system contains all product information in a secure central location; allows multiple users simultaneous access to the data; provides templates for change types, including pre-defined review workflows, approving departments and interested observers; identifies all dispositioning tasks and rolls up cost impacts automatically; and utilizes email so there is no lag between one person's approval and the next person's notification. Changes can typically be pulled back, reworked, and resubmitted without leaving your desk to chase down a physical package.

A major European auto manufacturer reports an average ECO cycle time reduced from 45 days to 5 days, after reengineering their process and deploying a PLM solution. Similarly, a medical device manufacturer reduced average change processing time from over a month to less than a week. A large US industrial equipment manufacturer saw a 29% decrease in change processing time.