About PLM

What is PLM ?

PLM Example

Product Lifecycle Management (or PLM) allows companies to manage the entire lifecycle of a product efficiently. PLM covers all product development activities from the initial idea to end-of-life via the detailed design, planning, manufacturing, marketing, sales, training, maintenance and end-of-life recycling phases.

Choosing to build an information system based on PLM software solutions is part of a strategic approach to technological innovation and growth.

Who is PLM intended for ?

PLM is no longer the preserve of very large companies or certain pioneering industry sectors. It is now accessible to all companies and available in different forms within each organisation contributing to the success of the entity: R&D, production, marketing, communication, sales, training and support. It can be integrated into a broad context of development within one or more communities. Irrespective of its size and sector, the company is enhanced and enriched from the experience of its entire ecosystem: its employees, suppliers, customers, partners, subcontractors and international regulations. The company therefore becomes stronger and more innovative when it combines its achievements with its ability to get everyone to work together.

What advantages does PLM offer ?

PLM is widely recognised for helping to grow your company's revenue through its contributions to product innovation or industrial design, promoting ecodesign and shortening time to market. PLM helps you make savings fast throughout your product development and manufacturing processes. The benefits noted are significant: elimination of physical prototypes, optimisation of material costs, simplification of tools, shorter cycle times, extension and accelerated renewal of product ranges.

The single PLM platform makes it possible to improve communication and collaboration between all the contributors of the extended company throughout the project life cycle. Thanks to digital data management and resource optimisation, the company has a better vision of its roadmap and can control its business and industrial processes, whilst reducing its operating costs.

By guaranteeing that organisations remain competitive, PLM enables them to focus on their core business activities and increase their capacity to innovate faster to obtain new market shares.

Why are PLM values so important for the individual and the community ?

Although the machine industry was traditionally the first to acquire PLM solutions in the aeronautics and automotive sectors, many other sectors have now adopted them.  Faced with new industrial challenges and economic constraints, companies must increase their competitive edge in the national and international markets. Manufacturers are endeavouring to design and market quality products faster. The sub-contracting chain is complex, often multicultural and multi-site, and it is essential to define the role of each player and automate certain tasks.

The PLM platform enables individuals to participate in, exchange information on and validate in real time the different phases of the project life cycle, in conjunction with all the stakeholders of its ecosystem. Collective intelligence becomes the main engine driving innovation and creativity in a 3D collaborative environment.

What are the PLM fundamentals ?

Firstly, PLM is based on an irreplaceable collaboration tool: 3D. This tool is at the same time a communication language, an exchange medium and a realistic simulation tool.

In addition, the PPR (Product, Process, Resources) model represents one of the keys to the associativity of the various processes related to PLM. Native links are established between the product, the processes used to create the product and potentially the resources contributing to these processes which, for example, allow associative management of the product definition and its manufacturing process.