Product Lifecycle Management software is a tool that manages all the information and processes at every step of the lifecycle of a product or a service. From initial understanding, service, and disposal, PLM is responsible for product management. In other words, PLM means managing everything involved with a product, from manufacturing to sale.
Modern PLM software is quickly becoming a must-have for business change because it provides the digital foundation. And also enterprise product record for holistic product growth and supply chain strategy. You can unite your product value chain with an integrated business planning tool. PLM delivers the digital thread, the digital thread helps accelerate business value and breaks down the walls between systems.
In this guide, I have reviewed and ranked the best PLM software you can use based on pricing, features, ease of use, design, collaboration, support, etc.
So let’s get started.
What is the Best PLM Software?
Here is my list for the best product lifecycle management (PLM) software to use this year:
1. SAP PLM
SAP or System Analysis Program development helps companies manage complex business processes by giving operators of different departments secure access to real-time insights across each enterprise. It provides a 360-degree approach to the management and manufacturing of a product or service. A layer of transparency is also achieved, thus smoothening out many phases of varying processes.
About 77% of the world’s business taxation touches an SAP system. Their advanced analytics technologies help shift consumers’ businesses into intelligent enterprises. Furthermore, their end-to-end suite of applications and services allows their customers to work productively, adjust continuously, and make a difference.
Today, SAP has added more than 230 million cloud users, with over 100 solutions covering all business functions. It is one of the largest cloud portfolios of any provider. You can also comply with all the industry regulations and report the production system and its performance.
Key Features
- Integrated Product Management – These collaborative development features provide better clarity and command over cost, product data, engineering changes, and other documents. It helps document management, production collaboration, variant configuration, and product structure management.
- Innovation Management – SAP PLM equips enterprises with all the tools they require to leverage new possibilities and act on new markets. This involves analytics tools and business intelligence for better collaboration while allowing proactively recognizing new strategic opportunities.
- Strategic Sourcing – SAP PLM supports strategic sourcing by interfacing with supplier relationship management software.
Pros
- State-of-the-Art Management – SAP PLM software helps businesses take advantage of new opportunities and respond to new markets.
- Top-class partnerships – SAP has partnerships with Microsoft, Alibaba, Amazon, Google, IBM, and other leaders.
- Product Management Integration – SAP PLM supports product structure management, document management, production collaboration, criticisms and returns report, quality engineering, and variant configuration.
- Product Compliance – SAP PLM helps companies recognize and test regulative threats as well as combine compliance control in the supply chain, and quality management.
Pricing Plans
SAP software does not provide a free trial. Small businesses can expect prices ranging from $25 to $40 per user per month. While medium to large businesses can expect to pay between $40 to $200 per user per month for manufacturing software.
2. PTC WINDCHILL
PTC Windchill is an application suite that influences a cemented view of product data through multi-system data. Easy, secure data access for multi-disciplinary and geographically distributed teams. Windchill uses quality-focused processes and a data-driven approach to manufacturing.
Windchill is an all-in-one PDM and exceptional PLM suite. It manages quality, risk, and security at any stage of the product’s life cycle. Windchill has been aiming to elevate the development of the product.
Windchill has an open architecture enabling easy integration with enterprise systems like IoT. Windchill’s PLM system provides extensive out-of-the-box functionality and highly configurable performance. PTC Windchill helps consumers worldwide solve key business challenges to achieve their digital-based goals.
Key features
- Digital Deployment – PTC commits towards openness and standards-based integration/API with new improvements. These are based on the ODATA standard to enable multi-system orchestration and adaptability with PTC and non-PTC applications.
- Concurrent manufacturing- PTC Windchill helps consumers adopt more flexible ways of producing products by securing digital thread coherence between design and the data on the factory shop floor.
- Secure access to product data – It allows customers to build their apps, leveraging a rapid application developing environment with reusable elements and the ability to mash up data from multiple systems.
Pros
- Develop role- and task-based apps rapidly – You can experience eight times faster time-to-value for developing a new custom app, dropping from three and a half months to the following two weeks.
- Updated Architecture – The software updates happen continuously. So businesses can be assured that their manufacturing processes continue to be efficient and prolific.
- Customizable User Interface – PTC Windchill enables consumers able to configure the interface, but they can also have frequently used tools and modules appear on it.
Pricing Plans
PTM Windchill offers a free trial for certain software. As a whole, PTM Windchill PDM essentials cost $1,995, and CAD(PTC Creo Parametric) costs $5,410.
3. Team Center Siemens
Teamcenter software by Siemens connects people, and processes, across functional silos, with a digital thread for modification. From the easy, automatic Teamcenter user interface, people across the organization can take a portion of the product development process more effortlessly than ever before. It takes an unconventional but uncomplicated approach to product lifecycle management.
Teamcenter has an unmatched portfolio that allows you to solve much tougher challenges necessary to produce successful products. Siemens PLM Software applications to help you react quickly to change from business or market disturbances. It seeks to maximize profitability for its users by streamlining its services and giving them total command over its product data and processes.
The software’s capability of allowing businesses to share and manage the bill of materials, and other data all in one centralized platform. You can recover your business’ functions, planning, and progress effortlessly since the system is cloud-based. The ease of use for a consumer is high.
Key Features
- Portfolio and Project Management – Increase your project efficiency by presenting a collaborative environment enhanced with design data.
- Product configuration – Eliminate downstream trips by verifying engineering alternatives with improved configuration validation.
- Visualization – Perform what-if simulations to optimize service processes and create connected products based on IoT-enabled engineering models
- Intelligent asset management – Helps improve asset reliability with unified service planning and engineering content.
- Supplier Collaboration – Administers engineering changes within enterprise systems by using more secure methods.
Pros
- Increase profitability – Teamcenter enables consumers to increase profitability by classifying unique opportunities to reuse manufacturing assets.
- Identify issues – Teamcenter helps to discover any issues enterprises may be having.
- Improvement in revenues – Creates a digital thread that connects diverse systems and enables those systems to share data. This helps you to act fast on accurate information.
Pricing Plans
Teamcenter Siemens provides a free trial. They serve quotation-based pricing you could feature like collaboration, bill generation, and many more.
4. Oracle Agile PLM
Oracle Agile PLM software provides comprehensive end-to-end service offerings. The system includes building innovative solutions to the most pressing PLM challenges. It is a complete suite used by businesses to analyze and manage their product value chains and lifecycles.
Oracle Agile software helps businesses sync their data using internal and external pools. This helps teams see the big understanding of their products. Thus it can help them not just in the examination but in the optimization of their product lifecycle. Consumers using Agile PLM range from companies serving in the pharmaceutical industry to the consumer goods industry.
With Agile PLM on mobile, nobody will be out of the circle. The system is being used by businesses of different scales and in different industries. As the system is customizable to specific contexts and needs. Innovation and maximizing profitability by developing a product design and producing changes in supply chain interactions.
Key Features
- Enterprise Product Record: The system provides secure, reliable, and timely control and visibility of all product information and processes to stakeholders at each stage of the product lifecycle.
- Product Collaboration: It helps users in sharing product data and structure. Furthermore, it helps in managing changes across the global product network.
- Data Quality Management: Allows businesses to create consistent and reliable product data, by rapidly identifying and implementing standards on systems, repositories, and processes
- Engineering Collaboration: It integrates PLM with all leading MCAD and ECAD packages. Thus, ensuring that engineering methods are fully exploited throughout the product lifecycle by driving the best engineering practices across the industry.
- Enterprise Visualization: It provides native record viewing for over 450of file formats, including all major ECAD and MCAD packages.
Pros
- Secure and Flexible Infrastructure – You do not compromise your IP, configuration, or performance through the co-mingling of your data.
- Accelerate time to implement – With Agile’s built-in application suite, customers can add greater functionality. As the consumers grow and their needs evolve (e.g., Product Quality Management, Product Portfolio Management, Product Governance, and Compliance, Product Cost Management, and Oracle Product Lifecycle Analytics).
- Removes burden – The Agile PLM Cloud enables businesses to effortlessly use Agile, by eliminating IT dependency for the system support.
- Operational vs capital expense – The Agile PLM Cloud solution is treated as an operational expense, not a capital expense.
- Agile software – It helps drive profitable product management across a global and multilevel supply chain. Additionally, it creates an environment for maintaining and controlling producers and their produced contents.
Pricing Plans
Oracle Agile PLM software provides a free trial. You can get a subscription agreement with packages starting as low as $13,800 per year.
So now let’s cover the basics.
What is Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) Software?
Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) Software is a tool that allows you to manage the complete lifecycle of the product. Additionally, it manages all processes in the lifecycle that including service, manufacturing, design, disposal, planning, ideation, etc.
This information management software is basically designed for the integration of employees and business systems with process data. A capable PLM is one that is cost-effective and helps in building a consolidated data structure for the projects.
Moreover, it enables global companies to offer remote working employees an option to work as a team when it comes to design, building, supporting, and delivering products.
What Features Do You Need in Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) Software?
Here are a few essential features you should look for before purchasing PLM software.
1. Closed Loop PLM
The PLM solution should provide features that meet the end-to-end requirements of your multiple projects running in your organization. Not only this but it should also be able to track all the data of the entire product lifecycle and collect final feedback.
Other supporting features you should also look that include parts classification, IoT, augmented reality, product structure, document management, and more.
2. Security
Security is undoubtedly an important aspect in choosing PLM software as it involves confidential data. Additionally, look for the least downtime software that also provides world-class IP protection.
Plus, it should offer role-based permission to access to protect captured data related to the product.
3. Collaboration
Choosing a powerful task management capabilities and collaboration tool will seamlessly share data across multiple team members working remotely. Additionally, the PLM software should be compatible with devices such as smartphones and tablets.
Also, make sure that the project collaboration software allows you to track performance in real-time along with handling complexities.
4. Frequent Updates
An evolving business is one that adapts to new technology and innovation currently raging on the market. Therefore, regular updates from the software are crucial to keeping pace with the ever-changing business landscape.
Moreover, you should consider other features that include integration with CAD, revision control, and product data management. etc.
5. Cloud-Based Solution
You cannot afford to have an offline desktop-based application solution these days. Therefore, a SaaS-based cloud solution will not only save time and resources but also be available 24/7.
Pre-packaged and pre-configured applications will also simplify the process and reduce the IT budget.
Best PLM Software – Final Summary
This wraps up my list of the best PLM software you can use for your business this year. I will keep updating the list with other good PLM Solutions available in the market.
All of the above software will help you connect your data, team, and processes across the entire product lifecycle in a single dashboard. However, it ultimately depends on your business requirements and budget which software you will choose.
If you ask me then the best overall product lifecycle management (PLM) software is Teamcenter Siemens. The software offers many features such as digital mock-ups, publishing, visualization, document management tools, BOM management, and more.
Which product lifecycle management (PLM) solution are you planning to use? Let me know in the comments below.
More from Smashitbuck: Do check out my other articles on the mailer companies, PEO payroll companies, and content creation Instagram to read this year.
.
