Product lifecycle management is an integral part of any business that deals with creating a certain product. The right approach to PLM can improve the product quality, speed up the manufacturing process, and increase revenue. More and more companies from a variety of industries are studying the concept of PLM and finding new ways to apply it.
Increasing Revenue
This is the key importance of PLM, which most companies try to take advantage of. It’s obvious that faster design and speedy manufacturing coupled with earlier product introduction can lead to the revenue increase. PLM allows the company not to waste time and effort while the product is going through its lifecycle.
PLM can improve the output by:
- Allowing quick and controlled access to the design information
- Collecting reviews from the consumers affected by the information without disturbing the design process
- Eliminating file loss and/or damage
- Using existing products for new designs
The best PLM systems allow the designers and other project participants to keep up to date by attaching tasks directly to the project. Companies that take advantage of PLM have reported time-to-market decreases of over 70 percent. Such output allows the company to launch the product much earlier and outdo the competition.
Faster Product Release And Change Cycles
The product release and change processes are usually time-consuming. PLM allows the company to speed them up and make the process less costly for the business. If the release process is not properly set up, it requires document collection, mistake-prone order creation, lengthy mail interactions, and more. It may also involve waiting for parcels, dealing with lost mail, losing time on the erroneous file attachments, and many other time-consuming processes.
A leading IT specialist from Bedrock IT comments: “A PLM system allows the company to keep all the product information in one location, allowing all the users to have a quick access to the data. The users can work with the information simultaneously without delaying other parties. All the changes made by various users can be pulled back, reviewed, and resubmitted. These actions can be done using a computer without dealing with physical mail or parcels.”
Product Cost Reduction
Optimized product design, manufacturing, and release processes lead to product cost reductions. The ability to have full access to the evolving design allows more frequent design checks. As a result, all the product specialists, as well as supply chain partners, have an opportunity to provide extensive feedback in order to make vital changes in time.
A PLM system has all such information as product plans, sketches, drawings, productions procedures, service, and disposal stored in one place. All the involved parties can work on the project without waiting for each other or disturbing other users.
Reusing Parts
When it comes to reusing different parts of the products in one organization, large companies don’t fare well. Designers can’t memorize all the parts, which they have worked on over time. Many times similar parts are being designed and produced over and over again just because the item search and exploration is lacking. PLM systems allow the companies to store all the data about designed objects in one place and provides simple item exploration. This, in turn, cuts the production costs.
Costly Mistake Reduction
The ability of all project participants to follow the process in real time allows the changes to be made before blunders turn into costly errors. Meanwhile, the real-time reviews and approvals are done quickly, reducing the project time.
Reduced Clerical Cost
Depending on the industry, a company may need several analysts, administrators and document checkers to keep the process going. A PLM system takes on the responsibility of at least half of these clerks, allowing the company to cut costs.
Conclusion
PLM provides a variety of benefits to any product manufacturing company. The benefits of PLM are:
- Improved innovation
- Reduced time-to-market for new products
- Support and other services for existing products
- Reduced product-related expenses
- Product quality improvement
- Product life increase
- Better end of product life management
Implementing PLM can substantially improve the company’s function and output. The variety of PLM software available on the market today is impressive. Any company can find a program suitable for its needs.
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