When a company manufactures a product, it goes through different stages and workflows. Product lifecycle management (PLM) includes overseeing a product's development from ideation to design, engineering, manufacturing, launch, marketing, and end-of-life.
PLM is crucial in many industries, especially for products needing continuous post-sales maintenance. PLM provides the customers who bought these products with the necessary support to ensure they maximize their purchases.
However, newer products' increasing complexities make it challenging to maintain PLM processes with manually-prepared spreadsheets and documents. The emergence of PLM software helps manage complex products efficiently and effectively.
Why You Should Invest in PLM Software
As the name implies, PLM software manages all stages of a product's lifecycle, from invention to disposal. The software helps companies dedicate an integrated platform for storing and maintaining all information and technologies relevant to a product.
Implementing a PLM system is advantageous for your business. Aside from acting as a centralized storage solution, it allows you to streamline product creation with other relevant processes, reducing costs and improving time-to-market speed.
With several PLM software to choose from, it's essential to identify the must-have features before investing in a system.
What To Look For in PLM Software
While you must always consider the costs and unique needs of your organization, it's best to find a PLM solution with the following features:
- Centralized Data Storage
Creating a product requires different materials, processes, and actors. Managing the documentation can be an enormous task, especially since you will need to write a file for each tool, machinery, and workflow used in the product's lifecycle.
A PLM software acts as a centralized data repository, allowing members of your organization to store and access all product-relevant data from a single location. Centralizing data management can increase collaboration while reducing errors and access issues.
- Collaborative Tools
PLM software must have collaboration tools to make it easy for employees to work together despite coming from different departments. Collaboration tools help make information-sharing easier and faster, preventing delays and reducing communication issues.
Collaborative functions also promote transparency by allowing each member to view updates on product information in real-time. These tools are essential for geographically-dispersed organizations looking to increase teamwork and cooperation.
- Design and Visualization Functions
Getting approval for a product proposal is easier if you present a complete visualization of its capabilities. Choosing PLM software with robust design and visualization tools can help build three-dimensional, graphical representations of your products so investors can better understand their requirements and functions.
- Content Authoring
Organizations generate internal and external product documentation during the development process. These include user manuals, assembly guides, technical publications, and safety reminders regarding product use.
PLM software must have the content authoring feature so companies can store multiple iterations of each file. Keeping copies of each variant improves traceability and allows the organization to improve on future projects by keeping previous designs as a reference.
Investing in PLM Software
When investing in PLM software, it is vital to check with the vendor to ensure their solution contains the abovementioned must-have features. Once assured, you can add product-specific functions that fit your business processes.
