The Basics of Product Lifecycle Management

Bringing a product to market requires extensive collaboration from multiple parties.

This can be a complex process where speed is critical. The faster the cycle, the faster products get to market and the greater the potential for profit.

The good news is there's a way to streamline the whole process through a system called product lifecycle management (PLM).

This article will explain what PLM is, how it operates during each phase of the product life cycle, and how software can facilitate its implementation.

If you want to step back and learn more about project management in general, check out our post on project management basics.

What Is Product Lifecycle Management?

Product lifecycle management is a system that integrates processes, data, and team members so that everyone can access the same information in one central place. This system remains in place from beginning to end across the entire product lifecycle. It evolves alongside each product, serving as an ever-present source of truth.

While the concept of PLM first emerged in the engineering and manufacturing industries in the 1930s, it has expanded a great deal over the past few decades.

Today's PLM solutions focus heavily on digitization, as software makes it faster and easier to consolidate information and improve accessibility for all team members.

Why Is Product Lifecycle Management Important?

Implementing a PLM system improves efficiency and collaboration across the entire organization, not just one department. Here are some standout advantages you can look forward to.

Shared Knowledge and Vision

Multiple departments, from R&D to marketing to sales, can access and contribute to the same pool of data throughout the product lifecycle. In other words, PLM serves as a single source of truth for your entire organization.

Imagine the difference between having a shared repository versus teams working in silos. With PLM, there's no more confusion about what's going on. Everyone's on the same page.

For example, the sales team might add insights from customer feedback, while marketing can contribute data on campaign performance. PLM then synthesizes all this information to create a shared knowledge base and a unified vision for the entire company.

Shorter Development Cycle

With PLM as a guiding star across the product journey, teams waste less time playing catch-up on the latest developments.

Let's say you're part of a team working on launching a new smartphone. With PLM, the design team can share prototypes with the engineering department in real-time, which allows for faster iterations and feedback. Meanwhile, the marketing team can access the latest product specs to start creating their campaigns.

Better Final Product

PLM helps teams create better products faster. When all teams collaborate in PLM, details are less likely to get missed. This increases the odds of creating perfectly refined products that wow customers.

For instance, if the quality control team identifies an issue with a component, they can quickly notify the design and engineering departments through the PLM system.

Increased Productivity

PLM connects the dots across systems and eliminates duplicate work by making all the work that's been completed available and visible to everyone on the team. With streamlined processes, teams get more done in less time. That means less stress and happier, more engaged employees.

6 Phases of the Product Lifecycle

PLM is quite flexible and can easily adapt to wherever your product is in its journey. To understand PLM better, let's look at each phase of the product lifecycle.

Ideation

This is where the magic happens! During the ideation phase, the dedicated team conducts research about the target market, identifies customer needs, and generates product ideas that meet a specific demand.

During this phase, teams can benefit from PLM software that helps capture and organize the information gathered from surveys, interviews, and focus groups. Tools like mind maps can also help keep important findings, statistics, and other research well-documented and easily accessible to all team members involved in the process.

Design

The next phase in the product lifecycle is the design phase. During this phase, the team creates the prototypes and tests different versions of the product concept. The design stage often marks the beginning of real money being invested in the project.

PLM software helps track where those initial investments go by monitoring prototype development costs. The centralized system also makes it easy to share feedback on each design iteration across departments.

Production

Also referred to as the manufacturing phase, this is where the product enters into full-swing production and takes physical form. Just like the design stage, production costs money, but with the help of PLM, teams can stay on budget by accessing transparent data throughout the process.

PLM comes with many advantages in managing supply chain complexities. For example, a company might need to source raw materials from one location and refine them in another. Then, they might conduct quality testing in yet another location before finally packaging the product.

It's a lot to manage, but specialized PLM software can make it easier by tracking data from parts, products, documents, requirements, and quality workflows. It helps everyone stay informed and aligned, no matter their role or location in the process.

Launch

With manufacturing complete, it's time for the launch phase. Marketing and sales teams kick into high gear here, using promotional campaigns and retail channels to get the product into customers' hands.

Back at headquarters, the focus is now on managing inventory levels, logistics, and customer support. These all require real-time coordination.

PLM software can be quite beneficial here as it provides a centralized platform for tracking inventory, coordinating logistics, and managing customer inquiries. If any issue arises, the team can respond quickly, which can ultimately lead to a smoother and more successful product launch.

Service & Support

The service and support stage is where the product is officially rolled out to the market, but the work doesn't stop there. Customer service and returns require coordination, and this is where PLM shines once again. The system connects service, sales, marketing, and other departments to meet customers' post-purchase needs.

Most companies want to gather as much feedback as possible to improve their products, and they usually do this by gathering customer feedback through various channels. All that valuable data is then centralized and managed within the PLM system.

Retirement/Recycling

Once sales decline for an aging product, it enters the retirement phase, where inventory slowly depletes without new production runs.

In some cases, recycling replaces traditional retirement. It gives used products new life by breaking them down into raw materials for other supply chains.

PLM can also help companies manage this stage. It helps them plan for retirement or recycling and guarantees everything is handled properly. By using PLM, companies can streamline the transition, track materials, and maintain sustainability goals.

How Can Project Management Software Help with Product Lifecycle Management?

Coordinating all the moving pieces of product lifecycle management is no small feat. From R&D to post-sales support, siloed teams can easily lose alignment on project timelines, budgets, resource allocation, and quality control. Information gets fragmented across departments, which can lead to delays, cost overruns, and products that miss the mark.

The solution lies in project management software. A great example of this is American Motors Corporation (AMC) in the 1980s. Struggling to compete against rivals, AMC implemented a central database to speed up product development. Their new communication system allowed conflicts to be resolved faster and reduced costly engineering changes.

The results were so impressive that after Chrysler acquired AMC, they expanded the PLM system throughout the enterprise. By the mid-1990s, Chrysler became the auto industry's lowest-cost producer.

Today, project management software takes this concept to the next level. It pulls everything together in one intuitive, always-online platform, and it offers customizable tools to facilitate planning, collaboration, and visibility across the entire product lifecycle.

We have a separate post that talks about the benefits of project management software, so make sure you read it to familiarize yourself with the topic. You can also take a look at our top picks for the best project management software on the market.

Now, let's explore some benefits you can expect from signing up to one of these software solutions:

Easy Collaboration

Project management software gives all team members a central place to chat, store files, assign tasks, and stay aligned. This prevents details from getting lost in translation or falling through the cracks, which tends to happen when multiple people communicate across different channels.

Faster Time to Market

Project management software uses Kanban boards, Gantt charts, and other techniques to help you visually map out a timeline. This transparency keeps all departments aligned on schedules and milestones.

You'll identify bottlenecks early and the product development process will stay on track, which can lead to faster time to market. Ultimately, you'll be in a position to remain competitive and seize market opportunities more quickly.

Better Product Quality

Features like checklists and task assignments make sure that no aspect of product quality is overlooked. This systematic approach helps maintain high standards, which can result in a product that consistently meets customer expectations and drives repeat business.

Lower Costs

PLM software helps reign in budgets with Gantt charts for visualizing the project timeline. Use it to adjust task durations, start dates, resource allocations, and scheduling interdependencies. Very quickly, it will reveal potential cost-saving measures. There are also budgeting tools that make it easy to visualize where the company is in terms of project expenses.

Find the Perfect Project Management Software with Softailed

By uniting cross-functional teams across every phase of the lifecycle, product lifecycle management can lead to faster cycles, lower costs, and better products.

Here at Softailed, we have researched all the top solutions on the market to match unique business needs with the best-fit software. Our Project Management Software Finder Tool asks a few quick questions about your workflow, team structure, and tool requirements – and then serves up personalized recommendations.

Give it a try today to discover collaboration features that can take your operations to the next level.