SAP PLM

What Is Product Lifecycle Management?

Product lifecycle management (PLM) includes the phases of managing a product from its inception until its disuse. These phases include design, material sourcing, manufacturing, and customer sale. A structured and collaborative PLM process is essential to ensure that all the necessary business units are included in product decision-making. A siloed approach to PLM leaves the company vulnerable to costly defects and development delays.

SAP Product Lifecycle Management

SAP offers its SAP Product Lifecycle Management (SAP PLM) solution to help companies design their products, bring them to market faster, and achieve larger profit margins.

What Is Product Lifecycle Management?

Product lifecycle management (PLM) includes the phases of managing a product from its inception until its disuse. These phases include design, material sourcing, manufacturing, and customer sale. A structured and collaborative PLM process is essential to ensure that all the necessary business units are included in product decision-making. A siloed approach to PLM leaves the company vulnerable to costly defects and development delays.

SAP Product Lifecycle Management

SAP offers its SAP Product Lifecycle Management (SAP PLM) solution to help companies design their products, bring them to market faster, and achieve larger profit margins.

Key capabilities of SAP PLM include:

• Thorough portfolio management
• Product cost calculation and simulation
• Simulation-based digital twin and virtual sensors
• Product collaboration and visualization.

Vendor partners for SAP PLM include: 1EQ, CENIT AG, CIDEON Software GmbH, Linx-AS LLC, and SEAL Systems.

Intelligent Product Lifecycle Management

With digital technologies now playing a critical role for companies, it’s not surprising that artificial intelligence, machine learning, and predictive analytics are being integrated into the PLM process. According to SAPinsider’s Intelligent PLM Benchmark Report, PLM “can provide strategic value to an organization, driving top- and bottom-line improvements across the product lifecycle. However, powered by analytics tools that allow critical information to be accessed quickly and easily, agile and intelligent PLM is poised to take the use of data and intelligence across the product lifecycle to a whole new level.”

Key Consideration for SAPinsiders

• Inside a Multi-Phased SAP Digitization Journey II. Learn how Varian Medical Systems leveraged the SAP PLM solution to ensure its products were compliant with the European Union’s Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive.
•  Blue Diamond Growers Cultivates Quality. In an effort to transform its research and development (R&D) processes and reduce time to market for products, Blue Diamond Growers selected SAP PLM as the solution to integrate with its SAP ERP suite.
•  Support for Connected Products Begins with Design. The design of connected products redefines R&D’s role in how it serves an evolving PLM strategy for a digital enterprise. Having real-time insights into a product’s ongoing performance presents a wealth of opportunities and challenges. To meet both, organizations must ensure R&D has the tools it needs to make smart decisions in support of smart products, the article argues.