何謂產品生命週期 (PLM)？

The idea of product lifecycle management (PLM) is not new, however, in large part because of computer advancements, the practice has seen rapid growth in the past 35 years to become a prominent component of many industries. The manufacturer of the Jeep Cherokee, the American Motors Corporation (AMC), pioneered PLM advancements beginning in 1985. Harried by larger competitors, AMC determined it needed change, particularly, it strategized an accelerated product development process was the only way to compete. This meant rethinking the entire process of bringing products from inception to market faster to survive. Their efforts succeeded in launching the sport utility vehicle (SUV) category, and brought other successful models to market, like the Jeep Grand Cherokee.

AMC understood that faster collaboration and communication between its product engineers was key in accelerating the product life cycle, manual workflows proved a bottleneck. To achieve greater collaboration and productivity, AMC deployed the novel computer-aided design (CAD) software systems. A centralized ticketing and resolution system and communication system resolved conflict faster, as well as reducing costly product engineering changes because all drawings and documents were in a central database.

These new methods by AMC focused a spotlight on its efforts, and soon it was acquired by Chrysler. After expanding the new PLM system throughout the company, Chrysler then competed its way to become the auto industry's lowest-cost producer in the mid-1990's. The serious productivity advantage was noticed by others, and in other industries resulting in a clamor to apply these practices. Today, novel technology, like IIoT equipment, continues to play a major role enabling PLM systems to accelerate time-to-market and customer satisfaction.

Product data management (PDM) software manages documents and data associated with products, for example, CAD models and manufacturing and installation instructions. These solutions are akin to document repositories, but their features are also encompassed in larger PLM systems.

Product Life Cycle Management (PLM) software systems are far more encompassing product management systems that follow the product from concept, manufacturing, through to distribution, and eventually disposal. PLM software extends functionality through multiple integrations with packages like ERP, and CRM. PLM automation capabilities can optimize workflows, and digital communication features reduce barriers between different teams including engineers, suppliers, manufacturers, sales and marketing, maintenance, and other teams.

Product lifecycle management software benefits companies that manufacture products, or service assets throughout their useful life. While PLM apps directly improve the management of a product's life through to disposal, it ultimately aims at improving client satisfaction and bringing new products to market faster by improving the efficiency of the product development process. Those benefits include:

• Compliance with government regulations, RoHS or Title 21 CFR Part 11
• Frameworks for product optimization
• Improving accuracy and timeliness of quotes
• Improving forecasting to reduce material costs
• Improving product quality and reliability
• Managing products affected by seasonal fluctuation
• Maximizing supply chain collaboration
• Provision of manufacturers with centralized product record
• Reducing prototyping costs
• Reducing time to market
• Reducing waste
• Savings through the complete integration of engineering workflows
• Savings through the re-use of original data
• Understanding of revenue contributions

A familiar definition of product life cycle is the duration when a product is first introduced to customers until it is removed from the market. This definition is generally used by businesses and marketing teams and is divided into 4 broad stages: product introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. This is a customer centric definition, and pegs product maturation to sales; first sales are expected to grow after introduction, then sales will plateau and eventually drop off, signaling the decline of the product. This model is very useful for companies that acquire assets to resale, or do not manufacture themselves. For some business cases this model is an incomplete representation of their products' life cycles.

The Typical 4 stage product life cycle:

1. Product introduction to market
2. Product sales growth
3. Product sales maturation or plateau
4. Product sales decline and removal from market

With the inclusion of engineering and product design' contributions, an additional 'development' stage is inserted before the 'introduction to market' stage. The development stage has been heavily expanded on by the software industry due to their needs.

Software companies have cycled through several approaches to development, beginning with the waterfall approach that models the development process in phases: definition, design, development, testing, and eventually final product deployment. Waterfall has a disadvantage of being product focused, whereas the newer Agile method is customer centric. Notoriously, waterfall products are completed without much customer input, deploying only after significant development time.

The adoption of a customer centric approach, and the short development cycles espoused by Agile, allow companies to incorporate customer feedback into their designs more readily. This has been a boon for SaaS products, which have turned product life cycle into a continuous customer feedback loop, incorporating new insights and rolling out updated versions so effortlessly they can make improvements within hours of discovery.

The 5-stage product life cycle accounts for product development:

1. Development
2. Introduction
3. Growth
4. Maturation
5. Decline/Disposal

There are other considerations, such as with big-ticket assets requiring long-term service components intent on keeping those assets operational over years, even decades. The product life cycle stages are expanded while remaining within the same "development to disposal" model. During the life of the asset, maintenance and upgrade stages may be inserted, with the expectation that the product will decline when its useful life ends, rather than when the market is done with it. For example, the market may replace fridges with smart fridges, but the nature of cargo ships prefers them to be maintained until they stop floating.

Today, the impact of product lifecycle management can be seen by the number of branded products that continue their foothold on the market, and the number of new products introduced every year. PLM has contributed to the success of brands like American Motor Company, Coca-Cola, and Nintendo.

American Motor Company product lifecycle management

In response to larger more powerful competitors in the automobile space, the American Motor Company developed their product life cycle management into a competitive advantage with such great success that Chrysler later acquired AMC to absorb those processes, and then later apply them company wide. The strategy by AMC demonstrated that different practices should be applied at separate stages of a product's life dependent on market maturity and doing so would lend more control of product growth. It also demonstrated to other companies that changing company culture around how they view a product's life is a necessary first step.

Coca-cola product lifecycle management

Coca-Cola's story begins earlier than AMCs but demonstrates how a simple consumer good has transitioned through the market. Within a decade of Coke's launch, Coke distribution reached every state in the U.S. Today, Coke is consumed in nearly every country (not sold in Cuba or North Korea) and is one of the most ubiquitous brands on the planet. Coke's market maturity is so entrenched that it has been commented on by Warren Buffet, saying that if you gave him one billion dollars, he still wouldn't know how to unseat Coke as the top competitor. Needless, the Coca-Cola brand has seemed to match the product life cycle with the greatest success.

Nintendo product lifecycle management

Other ubiquitous brands, like Nintendo, have experienced product successes and declines. Nintendo introduced its NES game console in the 1980's almost matching the product life cycle curve, but unlike the entrenchment that Coke has enjoyed for decades, newer technology, such as 16 bit graphics versus the NES's 8 bit graphics, has accelerated the NES's decline. In response to feedback from their PLM, Nintendo began developing its Super Nintendo Entertainment System and eventually introduced it in 1990, 7 years after the NES. Since then, their project life cycle management practices have allowed them to keep pace with technology and steadily introduce new game consoles to the market roughly every 5-6 years.