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PLM: Companies Kick-Start Product Innovation with PLM
Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is no longer a technology for engineers only. PLM has undergone a transformation over the last decade, and with that transformation, has been able to cross many industry boundaries. A new study by Harvard Business Review (HBR) finds that all types of companies from a wide range of industries are now using PLM to help foster innovation in their specific fields of product development.
PLM and the collaborative tools which it includes are increasingly being used to help businesses better engage in product development and to be more smart in managing their design data. With PLM, companies are able both to streamline processes and to share and reuse data.
Angelia Herrin, editor at HBR, led the study on the effectiveness of PLM on product development and innovation. Some of the results of the study include:
- There has been an uptick in the number of companies using software collaboration tools like PLM to increase R&D efficiency in product development since 2008. 55 percent of companies now are using collaboration tools.
- PLM and collaboration tools can improve the effectiveness of communication both internal and external to the company.
- More than 50 percent of companies engaged in product development say that innovation is their number one priority
- Slightly more than 50 percent of companies say that their partners are responsible for bringing them good ideas and suggestions which encourage innovation
- Companies report that they often get their best ideas from customer suggestions
- Companies increasingly are trying to better coordinate and foster better communication between all groups in the company with the activities of the R&D product development department.
The report found the following five technologies to be the most important for bringing about innovation in product development:
- Design and analysis
- Supplier management
- Product requirements management
- Strategic R&D portfolio management
- Workflow management
