Best Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) Software in 2024

What is Product Lifecycle Management Software?

With (PLM) product lifecycle management software, firms can effectively manage the entire lifecycle of a new product. The software takes in its realm all activities from conceptualizing and designing the product to finally manufacturing the product in an affordable, easy-to-use, and web-based interface.

Also, efficient PLM tools for small businesses and large firms control enterprise-wide data to facilitate firms to make informed decisions related to products. It’s important to understand product functionality and measure the opportunities available for the product in the market. These can be managed efficiently with fully featured PLM software. 

Thus, a top cloud PLM tool manage the entire lifecycle of a product as it offers a data warehouse to store all essential information that has an impact on the product.

How we evaluate and select the best Product Lifecycle Management Software for you?

At Techjockey, we understand that selecting the right software for your business can be a daunting task. To help you make an informed decision, we follow a rigorous evaluation and selection process for the best PLM Softwares. Here is a overview of our process:

1. We determine the benefits of PLM systems that would be most impactful for your business, such as faster time-to-market cycle or enhanced collaboration with material suppliers.
2. We also determine what metrics you’ll need to track to measure your return on investment (ROI), secure the means to monitor them and align expectations with your timeline1.
3. We consider your current needs and those that may come up in the future. We try to get a flexible solution that has the tools to meet your team’s specific needs. We look for features like real-time editing, commenting, and task assignment.
4. We evaluate the best PLM software solutions for your team. We compare a list of the top Manufacturing Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) Software & select the right software solution for your business.

How Can PLM Software Improve Your Business Processes?

A product lifecycle management system can help a lot in improving your business procedures. The software integrates with CAE and ERP systems to keep all the teams updated with the latest product data. With it, you can conduct quality checks on products to identify improvement areas at the earliest in the design procedure. Therefore, saving costs associated with product redesigning and reworking. 

Moreover, it can also help in boosting overall productivity by keeping all data in a centralized database, automating workflows, and improving communication among employees and stakeholders. 

Who Uses PLM Software?

Any business involved in the designing and production of a product can greatly benefit from PLM tools. Product manufacturers use the PLM data to build products that meet all requirements. Similarly, a clothing manufacturer can use it to conduct quality checks and ensure that products meet the quality standards. Let's find out more about the use cases of product lifecycle management system below: 

• Manufacturing Industry: PLM software is used in manufacturing business for product design, development, and lifecycle management. 
• Automotive Sector: Automotive companies use this software to streamline vehicle designing, prototyping, and production procedures 
• Aerospace and Defense: PLM software is essential for managing complex design and engineering processes for airplanes. 
• Electronics: Electronics manufacturers use product lifecycle management software to manage designing and production of electronic components and devices. 
• Construction Industry: With the help of product lifecycle management tools, engineers can create and manage the designing of infrastructure and building components. 

What are the Features of Product Lifecycle Management Software? 

As mentioned above, the best PLM Software System offers support for all product-related activities right from ideation to manufacturing and product service. Let’s look at some features of the PLM Software. 

1. Computer-Aided Design Management (CAD): It help firms manage changes in product configurations. You can make designs quickly and accurately with effective CAD software. These designs can be reused when needed. 
2. Product Information Management (PLM): PIM software creates a central storehouse for firms to collaboratively manage all the information they need to maximize their product sales. It stores all product data to be used for advertising and catalogs and other information related to product design and processes.
3. Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE): It is the use of computer software to simulate performance with an intent to improve product design as well as identify and resolve engineering issues. Paid and open-source PLM software allows users to simulate, authenticate, and improve products. If deployed effectively, CAE can improve your design by providing significant data to guide the design process from its initial stages to production. CAE allows engineers to see the future and predict the consequences of any product design change on the actual product performance.
4. Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM): Manufacturers use CAM software to create products exactly as per product design specifications. This application technology uses computer software and computer-controlled machinery to automate the entire process of product manufacturing. CAM is the next step after CAE and is used along with CAD.
5. Manufacturing Process Management: As part of the product life cycle management software, MPM is used to define and manage how products are to be manufactured. It manages the manufacturing process used to make parts and finally assembles products. From product design to production execution, MPM performs inspections and makes the entire production process very efficient.
6. Reporting and Analytics: A PLM ERP helps in managing lead times and maintain cost-efficiency, you can use analytics. It monitors the product’s lead time and ensures that your project remains within the budget allotted to the entire product life cycle management process. To help you know your product better, reporting and analytics provide you with a web-based, user-friendly solution that collects the data produced from multiple data sources in the entire lifecycle of a product.
7. Direct Materials Sourcing: Also known as direct procurement, it is a major component in a broader product lifecycle management strategy. This area of PLM is considered the lifeblood of the supply chain as it deals with sourcing materials from suppliers during the design process. Along with a strong integration across processes, direct materials sourcing demands in-depth product knowledge and supplier collaboration. 
8. Bill of Material Management: BOM is essentially a complete inventory, rather a centralized source of information about the raw materials, parts, and components required to manufacture a product. It also gives an overview of the quantities of each component used while manufacturing the process. Once the BOM is analyzed, the sourcing agent can accurately plan the costs and supply availability of the new product.

Top 10 PLM Softwares

Top 10 PLM Softwares
PLM Softwares	Best For	Pricing
SAP PLM	Best for managing product data	Available on request
Teamcenter	Best for improving product quality and reducing costs	Pricing details available on request
Arena PLM	Best for managing mechanical product designing	Pricing details available on request
Propel	Best for managing project documents	Paid plan starts from INR 70,711.08 annually
Oracle Agile PLM	Best for managing product development pipeline	Pricing details available on request
OpenBOM	Best for collaborating on projects	Free plan available | Paid plan starts from INR
Autodesk Fusion Lifecycle	Best for managing production data	Paid plan starts from INR 76,533.47/user/year
Duro	Best for managing change orders and revisions	No free plan available | Paid plan starts from INR 37,436.24/month
Upchain	Best for managing the procedures data	No free plan available | Paid plan starts from INR 1,659.65/month
Autodesk Vault	Best for automating product design and engineering processes.	Pricing details available on request

What are the Advantages of Using PLM Software?

PLM software can greatly benefit business in plenty of ways. The software can help in managing document versions, enhancing product quality via quality checks, and safeguarding the product data in a centralized database. 

1. Improved Collaboration: PLM improves collaboration among teams by providing a centralized platform for sharing and managing product data and reducing communication gaps. 
2. Efficient Product Development: It streamlines the product development process, from design to manufacturing, resulting in faster time-to-market for new products. 
3. Better Product Data Management: PLM software ensures that accurate product information is stored in the database, reducing errors and ensuring that all stakeholders work with the latest data. 
4. Cost Reduction: By optimizing workflows, minimizing design errors, and improving resource utilization, it can contribute to cost savings throughout the product lifecycle. 
5. Manages Product Versions: PLM systems track changes to product designs, helping teams manage versions effectively and ensuring a structured approach to change management. 
6. Traces the Entire Product Lifecycle: The software allows for tracking the entire lifecycle of a product, from concept to end-of-life, thereby providing insights for continuous improvement and future iterations for the product. 

What are the Functions of PLM Software? 

Some essential functions of PLM software are real-time collaboration, document management, workflow automation, risk management, etc.By using these functions, PLM software helps companies to optimize their product development processes, enhance collaboration, and ensure the efficient management of product data throughout its lifecycle. 

1. Collaborative Product Design: Facilitates collaboration among design and engineering teams, allowing them to work on the same platform, share designs, and provide feedback. 
2. Document Management: Manages and organizes product documentation, ensuring that the right documents are accessible to the right individuals involved in a project. 
3. Workflow Automation: PLM tools automate and streamline product development workflows, reducing manual tasks and improving efficiency in processes like design review and approval. 
4. Regulatory Compliance: Product lifecycle management tools help organizations adhere to industry regulations and standards by providing tools to document compliance-related information and ensuring that products meet the required specifications. 
5. Quality Management: Manages quality control processes by tracking and analyzing product quality data, supporting corrective and preventive actions, and ensuring strict adherence to quality standards. 
6. Supplier Collaboration: Streamlines collaboration with suppliers by sharing essential information with them, managing relationships, etc.
7. Risk Management: PLM software identifies and mitigates risks throughout the product lifecycle, helping organizations proactively address potential issues and challenges. 

How to Use PLM Software?

PLM software can be used for managing multiple aspects of your product lifecycle management. You can use the product lifecycle management system for creating and managing product designs. It can also be used for tracking and storing changes to product designs in a centralized database. 

By using its real-time collaboration feature, you can keep your employees and stakeholders on the same page during the product design and manufacturing process. In addition to this, its Product Quality Checking feature allows you to track product quality during the product development procedure and identify bottlenecks.  

Potential Issues with PLM Software 

Despite offering multiple benefits, businesses face several challenges while using this software. For example, if the data is not updated regularly, then it might affect the design of the product. Moreover, many PLM tools offer limited integrations making the exchange of data between different teams difficult. Let's learn about these issues in detail below. 

1. Limited Integration: The PLM software you are planning to buy should be able to integrate with the CAD solution you are using. Without this integration, you will not be able to generate a BOM (Bills of Material) required to develop a product. Thereby leading to a gap between designing and manufacturing a product.  
2. Data Errors: A product goes through multiple iterations till it crosses the production phase. Therefore, it is important to track all changes to ensure only the right information is used for production. Not updating changes in the PLM software may lead to resource wastage. 
3. Possibilities of Data Errors: Product lifecycle management systems store multiple documents related to product designing and manufacturing including CAD files, pictures, spreadsheets, and so on. If the software is not secure, then the stored data might be lost, leading to financial and reputational loss. 

PLM Software Integrations - Can PLM Software Integrate with Other Business Systems? 

Yes, PLM software can be integrated with multiple software to streamline and manage the product development and manufacturing procedure. Through integration, the product information is easily exchanged between design, quality, and production teams. Therefore, providing complete visibility into product documentation for all teams. Here are some of the popular integrations available for PLM tools:  

1. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System: Integration with CRM software provides product teams access to important customer feedback and information. This can help in improving product development and quality procedures based on feedback received. 
2. Supply Chain Management System: This integration enables users to connect with vendors and streamline the procurement process till the product is developed. 
3. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System: Through ERP integration, the PLM system ensures that manufacturing teams receive the right design information to reduce production errors and any chances of reworking. 
4. CAE (Computer-Aided Engineering) System: This integration enables engineers to simulate product performance and find out any potential issues at the earliest in the design procedure. This helps in improving product quality and minimizing development costs. 

How Much Does PLM Software Cost? 

PLM software costs on average between $80-$150/user/month. Many software vendors charge an additional cost for software implementation, training, and support. Some software vendors also provide one time license to use the software. However, most of them follow the subscription-based model, i.e., charging users on a monthly and annual basis.  

In addition to that, the cost of product lifecycle management software also depends on the modules and add-ons it offers. Therefore, it is important to evaluate every software’s cost, before selecting any of them. 

How to Implement PLM Software in Your Organization? 

1. Set Up PLM Goals: Under this, the basic requirements are decided like why you want to use it or what procedures would be managed with it. This is done with assistance from employees and stakeholders involved in any product lifecycle management project. 
2. Assemble Your Team: In this step, the team is assembled that will be involved in the process. Generally, a senior and experienced employee is responsible for assembling the team who will work on the project budget and estimated time to complete it. 
3. Select the Relevant Data: Next, you need to sort the data that will be imported into the PLM system as per your project requirements. 
4. Choose the Right Solution: After that, you need to choose the right PLM system after considering requirements like integration options, implementation costs, your industry, customer support options, etc. 
5. Customize the Software: Once you have bought the right software, you can set it up by configuring industry-specific settings, setting up modules, and managing integrations. 
6. Training Teams and Stakeholders: After configuring the software, you need to train your teams and stakeholders involved in a project lifecycle management project. You can use video tutorials and written guides to get familiar with the product lifecycle management software. 

How to Choose the Right Product Lifecycle Management Software for Your Industry?

To choose the right product lifecycle management software, you must ensure that it fulfills the management and technical requirements, and can integrate with ERP, CAD, etc. Here are some other things you need to consider:  

• Check whether it can be customized as per your requirement or not. 
• The PLM solution must be intuitive and easy to use  
• Evaluate its cost and ensure that there are no hidden charges 
• Check a vendor’s credibility in the market to ensure reliability  
• Take advice from other PLM software users to select the best one for your organization.