Link: Product lifecycle management - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
"Product lifecycle management (PLM) is the process of managing the entire lifecycle of a product from its conception, through design and manufacture, to service and disposal. It is one of the four cornerstones of a corporation's information technology structure.
"All companies need to manage communications and information with their customers (CRM-Customer Relationship Management) and their suppliers (SCM-Supply Chain Management) and the resources within the enterprise (ERP-Enterprise Resource Planning). In addition, manufacturing engineering companies must also develop, describe, manage and communicate information about their products (PLM).
Documented benefits include:"Reduced time to market
"Improved product quality
"Reduced prototyping costs
"Savings through the re-use of original data
"A framework for product optimization
"Reduced waste
"Savings through the complete integration of engineering workflows..."
