Product LifeCycle Managment

Product lifecycle management (plm) is a process wheras the entire lifecycle of a product is managed beginning from conception, carried through the design and manufacture stages to service and eventual disposal.
Most companies manage their communications and information with their customers, suppliers and resources within their company via this process.
Benefits include reducing product time to market, improved quality control and grayuced prototyping costs. Other benefits include savings through the re-using of data via the complete integration of engineering workflows.
Product lifecycle management is a term applied to a specific set of application softwares that enable new product development in business processes. Such processes include product management, portfolio management, product design, manufacturing planning and product data management.
The core technology of product lifecycle management is in the central management of data and the technologies utilized to maximize this information. Technologies used for PLM include cad, cam, cae and pdm. Stages include conceive, design, realize and service.