Feb., 14 / PLM (Product Lifecycke Management) is the next area of product development capability. Building on previous generation business practices such as DMU, PLM provides the potential to manufacturing companies to significantly improve their product development activities by harnessing corporate knowledge, integrating corporate operations, and simulating and optimizing for complete lifecycle of a product as well as the means and methods required to produce and maintain it.

PLM is based on five fundamental principals that includes a focus on optimizing end-to-end business processes, delivering 3-D collaborative workspaces that leverage the power of 3-D to enhance productivity, a unique and shared product process, and resource data integration model, the services and technology to truly exploit a coporations knowledge and an open object architecture and community that extends sokution coverage and facilities deployment.

Moving beyond its heritage in computer-aided design (CAD) and product data management (PDM) systems, PLM is evolving into a better understood, recognized and appreciated enterprise business solution whose impact and influence extends across the entire enterprise out to suppliers and customers.

PLM currently includes software for managing innovation and portfolio management, project and program management, collaborative design, product-data management, manufacturing process planning, and service/support management.

Adoption of PLM based on V5 technology has accelerated significantly. The speed at which companies can deliver innovations is what will determine their success in a fast-moving marketplace. Everything it takes for manufacturers to have the right product at the right place, at the right time and at the right price.