Data, Data Everywhere

This article explores evolution of product lifecycle management (PLM) and its advantages. PLM is commonly defined as a set of applications that enable the creation, design, and development of new products through rollout, servicing, upgrade, and end of life. PLM seller Dassault Systèmes, for example, said its 3DExperience platform is compliant with more than 40 standards requested by industry, including web, communication, visualization, and security standards. Most PLM software is able to generate reports from information located in a single system; but only skilled users are able to access, aggregate, and analyze real-time structured and unstructured data found in multiple applications across the organization. Social networks are cropping up in PLM, helping users quickly identify and construct communities with complementary skills to solve problems and enable processes. The experts comment that wherever the end user is working, behind the scenes, the PLM platform is ensuring real-time visibility and control—driving better products and reducing liability and risk.