What is PLM Software

PLM software forms the digital backbone of an organizations’ product development process, thereby brings in an element of competitive differentiation for product companies across sectors. PLM is a strategic business approach to manage the lifecycle of the product throughout its value chain right from gathering initial requirements to designing, production, and retirement. By implementing PLM solutions, companies can transform fragmented engineering and design processes into information-driven product value chains with outstanding development processes and capabilities, global 360° visibility into product information, and real-time cross-functional collaboration across the entire product network.

Best PLM software involves linking the technologies and processes for product designing, simulation, technical communication, and product data management. Business infrastructure includes office productivity applications and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Material Requirements Planning (MRP), and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems. PLM got its start in automotive, aerospace, and other industries that build large and complex products and systems. It was designed to provide everyone involved with an up-to-date view of every product throughout its lifecycle so people could make the right decisions and take the proper actions.

Best PLM software also helps product development organization not only achieve time-to-market goals and project cost reductions, but also dramatically improve the company’s operations with higher-quality products and reduced material, labor, and scrap costs. Best PLM software provides an integrated approach to share and control critical data so that products are built correctly, sourced properly, and cost accurately—an approach that applies to a product offering from concept through end of life. The discipline is broad, spanning product development and supply chain. It is truly cross-functional, involving multiple core processes and extending to the company’s key design and supply partners.

Top 10 PLM Software in 2021

1. Oracle Agile
2. Propel
3. ProductCenter
4. Prodigy
5. SAP PLM
6. OpenBOM
7. SolidWorks MBD
8. Upchain PLM Software
9. PTC Windchill
10. ENOVIA

Market Overview

PLM is the process of managing the complex product data from its design and development to its retirement or disposal. The chapter provides a detailed analysis of the factors, including market drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges, influencing the growth of the PLM market. Furthermore, the section entails key industry trends, which include the major use cases of the best PLM software and a few key benefits achieved by using the solutions.

Best PLM software is gaining traction across the globe as organizations deploying PLM solutions can effectively manage their product lifecycle. PLM software can be used to automate the management of product-related data and integrate the data with other business processes, such as ERP and Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES). PLM software vendors are offering upgraded PLM solutions to the end users by incorporating emerging technology trends, such as Industry 4.0, AI, analytics, and blockchain. Moreover, large industrial companies are either amid digital transformation initiatives or planning their roadmap toward implementing upgraded best PLM software to optimize operational performance and improve product quality.

Drivers

Rising focus on developing innovative smart products and factories

Digital transformation trends are prompting enterprises across the verticals to focus on building the next generation of smart products and factories. However, these smart connected products are highly complex in terms of built-in intelligence, connectivity, security, compliance requirements, and the need to offer advanced functionalities. Some of the organizations face challenges in developing complex products and related solutions across large, geographically distributed and multi-disciplinary teams. Organizations require an integrated design approach with enhanced collaboration between different teams, including mechanical, electrical, and software developers, to develop the next generation of smart connected products. PLM vendors are offering advanced functionalities with multi-disciplinary development capability that enable product developers and manufacturing engineers to design, simulate, and validate the complex behavior of smart products and intelligent production systems early in the product lifecycle. This significantly reduces the time and cost of design, specification, and validation of complex products, processes, and systems.

Rising need to build product innovation platforms would support product lifecycle management enabled products

PLM vendors are making a significant investment in building a product innovation platform with the next generation of integration and interoperability capabilities to support a broad range of PLM-enabling applications, enterprises, and business systems. PLM vendors focus on building several out-of-the-box functionalities and applications that can be deployed rapidly, leveraging an integrated product innovation platform. PLM vendors may require building a robust ecosystem of technology partners to support the instant integration of a wide variety of applications. Moreover, PLM vendors develop an open API-based technology architecture to bring an increasing number of developers and service providers to improve the effectiveness of their platforms.

Growing demand for cloud based PLM software solutions to achieve scalability and secure IT infrastructure

PLM deployed in the cloud is gaining popularity to seamlessly manage complex product data across organizations. Moreover, a cloud-based PLM solution enables enterprises to consolidate information about product development, streamline change in orders and requests, and improve communication with suppliers. The majority of the enterprises are moving toward a cloud-first strategy to streamline its supply chain management and increase operational efficiency. However, a cloud-based PLM solution is still in the emerging stage with most of the vendors still prefer on-premises deployment. Hence, traditional PLM vendors are making a significant investment in improving cloud PLM capabilities catering to different verticals across the globe. Most of the PLM vendors focus on deploying cloud PLM solutions to the key verticals and SMEs for better scalability and secure infrastructure. Few of the giant vendors, such as PTC and Arena, offer SaaS-based PLM solutions to improve workflow without heavy IT overhead.

Opportunities

Leveraging innovative technologies to streamline the new product development process

With the growing advent of digital technologies, such as AI, ML, and blockchain, most of the large enterprises embrace these technologies to streamline their new product development process. Organizations require the next-generation of design and development technologies with model-based engineering, advanced simulation, and integrated data management capabilities to accelerate product innovation and position itself in the dynamic market environment. Enterprises, especially automotive and transportation verticals, are leveraging integrated digital twin technology to reduce new product development time, accelerate Time-to-Market (TTM), and improve the overall quality of the product. For a leading high-technology manufacturer, on-demand reporting and real-time analytics on products was not possible using its existing PLM landscape. Hence, PLM vendors must embrace digital technologies, such as AI, ML, and blockchain, to improve system uptime, scalability, and reduce TTM.

Increasing integration of PLM solutions with the IoT platforms

With the growing advent of the IoT technologies among different verticals, such as manufacturing, energy and utilities, healthcare, and retail and transportation, PLM vendors are offering product analytics capabilities of the IoT technology into their PLM software. These vendors are increasingly integrating their best PLM software with IoT platforms to enable enterprises to connect real-time product operational data into PLM platforms. The integration would gain insights into how products are performing in the field, thus optimizing its usability, quality, maintenance, and service performance. PLM software integrated with the capability of IoT platforms provide an end-of-end perspective of the product lifecycle. Many of the global players have started offering best PLM software with integrated AI- and ML-based technologies in the market. For instance, PTC integrated its industry-leading ThingWorx capability into its Creo CAD software and Windchill PLM application suite; this capability has taken an early lead and is gaining significant market traction. Furthermore, Siemens offers PLM software, which is integrated into its MindSphere IoT platform and other application suites to drive the next-generation of connectivity and performance improvements.

The competitive leadership mapping showcased provides information for Best PLM Software. Vendor evaluations are based on two broad categories: product offering and business strategy. Each category carries various criteria, based on which vendors have been evaluated. The evaluation criteria considered under product offerings include the breadth of offering, delivery (based on industries that the vendors cater to, deployment models, and subscriptions), features/functionality, delivery, product quality and reliability, and product differentiation. The evaluation criteria considered under business strategy include geographic footprint (on the basis of geographic presence), channel strategy and fit, vision alignment, and effectiveness of growth (on the basis of innovations, partnerships, collaborations, and acquisitions).

Oracle Agile, Propel, ProductCenter, and Prodigy have been identified as Visionary Leaders in the PLM market.

OpenBOM, SolidWorks MBD, Upchain, ENOVIA, Bamboo Rose, Mimic Software, and Shop Floor have been identified as Dynamic Differentiators in the PLM software market.

SAP PLM, PTC Windchill, AutoCAD Plant 3D, ProductVision, and CMPRO have been recognized as Innovators in the PLM market.

Centro, DDM, Aras PLM, DevEX, SolidWorks Inspection, PRO.CEED, and Teamcenter have been positioned as the Emerging Companies in the PLM software market.

What are the key features of a product lifecycle management software?

BOM or product structure management

BOM (Bill of material) is the depiction of info in a categorized way. Because of BOM users can assess, compare and take the correct decision on data about the product.

Item or Business object Management

Item is an entity which comprises info and data. The data is in the form of CAD files, pdf, doc, etc. of a particular object. Users can process on an item, share it in a cooperation, assess and compare it with other data. They can access it at any time they need. It allows users to can check item status, who altered it.

Collaboration Tools

In order to be able to manage end-to-end product lifecycle, it is critical that the PLM software includes collaboration tools that make it simple for employees from various departments and businesses to work in collaboration. Collaboration tools make it likely to flawlessly transfer work from department to department, averting the lost-in-translation concerns that can slow teams down and freeze projects.

Design and Visualization

When picking a PLM tool businesses should look for a solution that offers robust design and visualization capabilities. Most of the PLM solutions provide CAD tools to help producers create two- and three-dimensional graphical depictions of products. Numerous industries need design capabilities to completely envision a product prior to creation, and some businesses will need product- or industry-specific design or modeling solutions. While manufacturers must develop physical product depictions finally, CAD software helps businesses visualize and interrelate with products in a low-cost environment. By better learning about product requirements prior to production, businesses increase correctness without requiring to generate continuous iterations of physical models.

Centralized Data Repository

Because several engineers, suppliers, distributors and marketers are required to create a product, each product will necessitate various files, forms, tools, machinery and documentation. The product lifecycle management software should have the ability to link these dissimilar processes and devices together. Acting as a central data repository, a PLM solution will guarantee that every user can access pertinent information from one location. This central data repository should be reorganized in real time, and should arrange data in a way that makes sense for the team members. By handling all data from one location, any business can anticipate fewer errors, improved collaboration and instant access to important information.

What are the benefits of implementing a PLM solution?

Single Source of Truth

With the Product data being used by almost every department in a company it is easy for data to become out of date in a matter of minutes. If the data is not stored and kept inside a central repository that everybody works from, subdivisions can soon be working on out of date info. By having a central PLM Platform everyone is able to access the similar data and see updates and changes as they occur in real time, dropping that risk of errors being made due to improper information.

Decreased Development Cycle

By making that ‘single source of truth’ for the product data, it’s simpler for design teams to cooperate through the expansion stage. Along with accepting other PLM and manufacturing technologies, a product can be virtually designed, revised, assessed and produced. All this collectively means that the time taken to build a product can be considerably reduced.

Decreased Compliance Risks

Confirming that a product meets all the newest compliance ethics, necessities and rules is a role that can rapidly become irrepressible. By handling all the documentation and procedures related to confirm the products are meeting the pertinent standards, supplies and regulations in a single PLM Platform, organizations can instantly and effortlessly audit what has already been attained and what needs to be done.

Reduced Expenditures

With the acceptance of a PLM Platform businesses can create a central depository of all their design and engineering data. This means when it comes to creating a new product, part of the work may previously be done, and any lessons learnt from preceding projects can be carried across to safeguard that no costly mistakes are made.

What are the various types of PLM software?

PLM software can help companies manage their products’ lifecycle by offering a data warehouse for all the information that impacts products. The software can be utilized to automate the handling of product-related data and integrate the data with other processes, such as Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) and ERP. The PLM market by software is further divided into cPDM, MCAD, S&A Software, and DM Software.

cPDM

cPDM helps in effective product data management, collaborative product commerce, collaborative product visualization, effective integration with enterprise applications, and supplier relationship management. cPDM software assist in manufacturing and production processes for efficient business operations. The software also helps in bringing innovative and profitable products that enable firms to handle complex product development cycles efficiently and with ease. The factors that help boost the adoption of cPDM are product development, product costing, engineering collaboration, and ease in using PLM solutions. There is a growing need for cPDM due to the increasing PLM applications, which are catered to various enterprises by expanding global R&D footprint and accelerating product development.

MCAD

MCAD is used for mechanical designs and provides vector-based graphics for drafting or raster graphics to show the overall appearance of designed objects. In the development process, MCAD software is used to explore different design iterations, either conceptually or in detail. It also helps users build different alternatives and options while comparing them to each other. Moreover, it helps in generating engineering documentation released to manufacturing as part of the specifications used to source, fabricate, and produce products.

S&A

S&A software are used to create the prototypes of systems or processes to be implemented for understanding working; analyzing safety, durability, and environmental effects; and improving the SaaS-based PLM model to ensure efficient outcomes. The adoption of the software is growing as a result of the rising technological advancements and increasing demand for innovation and superior quality products from different regions across the globe.

Digital Manufacturing Software

With the advent of technologies, customer demands can be met much more efficiently through digital manufacturing. Digital manufacturing helps manufacture high-quality prototypes that can be quickly produced so that the overall production is improved. Digital manufacturing enables enterprises to control their inventory levels in real time and lower overhead costs.

What are the professional services offered by the vendors in the PLM market?

The professional services segment covered in the study includes deployment and integration, consulting, and support and maintenance. Professional services need an expert level of deployment, integration, consulting, and support and maintenance for the proper installation of a specific software either on-premises or in the cloud. Clients pick either standard software or customized software to meet their business needs. The professional services help organizations in better understanding IT systems’ requirements and software integration capabilities.

Consulting

Consulting services help organizations in understanding various software capabilities and deciding on software implementation by considering software pros and cons. The capabilities and capacities of software solutions are studied, along with associated services, provided by vendors. Consulting services contribute to vendors’ overall services’ revenue. Consulting for the proper choice of best PLM software is critical for organizations.

Deployment and integration

The proper deployment of best PLM software is important for various network systems and network infrastructure. Trained professionals are required for deploying specific software. Integration service providers aim at providing seamless software integration. The deployment and integration services are important, as they help reduce the complexities in configuring the software in the existing systems. The deployment and integration segment is expected to witness high growth during the forecast period. These services help in the integration of the best PLM software with other software packages, such as ERP or independent software deployment, in the overall IT infrastructure system.

Support and maintenance

Support and maintenance services are crucial, as they directly deal with customer satisfaction and issues. Every software vendor has a dedicated support team to cater to customers. Support, software maintenance, customer portal, post-deployment assistance, and client testimonials are some of the services provided under the support and maintenance segment. To derive consistent customer satisfaction, service providers regularly focus on enhancing their product knowledge base by receiving feedback through interviews and surveys. These services also provide a single point of contact who would help solve customer issues quickly. The customer portal is one of the PLM tools that offers technical tips and software updates to customer forums.

How can PLM solutions be deployed?

This section discusses the current and future trends of the PLM market based on the following deployment types: on-premises and cloud. The global adoption trend for the cloud deployment type is expected to show positive growth, due to its features such as pay-per-use option, and reduced installation and maintenance costs. However, the market size of the on-premises segment is expected to hold a higher market share as compared to that of the cloud segment.

Cloud

Cloud-based services are provided directly through the cloud-deployed network connectivity. These services help in reducing the overall costs while providing highly flexible and scalable access to best PLM software through IT infrastructure hosted by cloud service providers. Companies are deploying the PLM software in the cloud to improve their mobility and decentralize data storage and computing. The adoption of cloud-based services is restricted due to the lack of security of the cloud deployment type. However, this issue is gradually eradicated by conducting rigorous security tests to the highest standards by third-parties. Owing to various advantages, including pay-per-use option, and reduced installation and maintenance costs, several enterprises are switching from the on-premises PLM to the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)-based software.

On-Premises

The on-premises deployment type refers to the installation of PLM in the premises of an organization, rather than at a remote facility. On-premises solutions are delivered with a one-time licensing fee, along with a service agreement. Furthermore, the on-premises deployment type requires huge infrastructure and a personal data center, which are affordable only for large organizations. Hence, SMEs often face the dilemma of choosing between hosted and on-premises solutions. In spite of its advantages, such as control over systems and data, and dedicated staff for maintenance and support, the on-premises deployment type has various drawbacks, such as high deployment costs and good infrastructure requirements, which are not always possible for every organization. The growth of the on-premises deployment type is expected to be affected by the rapid development of cloud computing solutions.

How do PLM solutions help SMEs and Large organizations?

The PLM market has been segmented by organization size into Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and large enterprises. This segmentation of enterprises has been done on the basis of the number of employees working in organizations. Top market players in the market use event marketing and venue management software for hosting events, efficiently. The present market size is expected to be larger for large enterprises, as most of them emphasize on providing an enhanced experience for participants.

SMEs

Organizations with employees ranging between 1 and 1,000 are categorized as SMEs. The increased competitive market scenario and brand marketing have encouraged SMEs to invest in the best PLM software and its services to reach out to more prospects and participants, and effectively host events for their business growth. In comparison to large enterprises, SMEs prefer the cloud deployment type to reduce their IT infrastructure costs and focus on investing in their core activities, as these organizations face some specific challenges, such as lack of domain-specific personnel and skilled workforce, budget constraints, and limited economies of scale.

How does a PLM software support various verticals?

PLM is the process of managing a product lifecycle from its designing, building, marketing, and supporting to retirement. PLM comprises a set of solutions to support organizations throughout these stages of the product lifecycle. Owing to the emergence of industrial digitalization, PLM vendors are now adding advanced capabilities to their existing best PLM software and are catering to different verticals. On the basis of vertical, the PLM market is segmented into automotive and transportation, industrial machinery and heavy equipment, aerospace and defense, semiconductor and electronics, healthcare and life sciences, energy and utilities, retail and consumer goods, and others. The others vertical includes education, and IT and telecom.

Automotive and Transportation

Automotive and transportation is a vast industry, which deals with massive technological developments and innovations. The automotive and transportation vertical always faces rapid innovation in technologies, due to the popularity of autonomous vehicles, shared mobility, electric vehicles, and their ability to deliver exceptional customer experience. Electric vehicles and autonomous transportation are factors that are significantly driving the industrial transformation and adoption of advanced PLM functionalities among verticals. Industry-specified regulations, security mandates, shipping delays, product errors, design faults, and obsolete technology concerns are some of the major challenges faced by this industry. TTM is the most important concern for automotive companies. Competitive pressures and the need for rapid innovation are driving the high adoption of best PLM software in the automotive and transportation vertical. Organizations require next-generation designs and development technologies with model-based engineering, advanced simulation, and integrated data management capabilities for accelerating product innovation and succeeding in the dynamic market environment. Moreover, the automotive and transportation vertical requires a strong, scalable, and secure infrastructure to distribute as well as monetize content.

Industrial Machinery and Heavy Equipment

The industrial machinery and heavy equipment industry has globally reformed and modernized, due to the adoption of innovative technologies, such as AI, ML, and blockchain. With a worldwide improvement in the economy, the use of large industrial machinery and heavy equipment is gaining traction. Companies in this sector build high performing, high quality, and easily serviceable equipment. Heavy equipment manufacturers are currently facing challenges, such as increasing regulations, globalization, and growing necessities for software and electronic integration. To address these challenges, companies are adopting best PLM software that offer various capabilities, such as collaborative manufacturing environment for agriculture, construction, and mining to fulfill unique configuration requirements. PLM vendors offer PLM solutions with simulation and testing capabilities to predict equipment performance and identify possible issues in component and assembly design early in the product lifecycle.

Aerospace and Defense

The aerospace and defense vertical is developing cutting-edge platforms and systems to maximize the benefits they receive from PLM investments. This industry faces challenges, such as rising customer expectations, cost escalations, complex regulations and certification requirements, and increasing complexities, by upgraded systems. Aerospace and defense organizations implement PLM software, due to the growth in the demand for commercial aviation, advanced space systems, and rise in defense spending. Aerospace organizations witness the need to adopt an integrated best PLM software to ensure smooth certification of aircraft, improve trust with aviation authorities, and enhance passenger safety. Moreover, government and legal authorities are taking various steps to transform the existing IT infrastructure and security system for the development of new aircraft and defense systems.

Semiconductor and Electronics

Semiconductor and electronics firms are increasingly adopting Internet of Things (IoT) technologies to incorporate connectivity and intelligence into their product offerings, thus providing the customer with an enhanced experience. In the last few years, the adoption of SaaS-based PLM software has been high in this sector; the high adoption rate would be due to the capability of these solutions to empower operators to quickly offer new services, enable the integration of multiple systems, and enter new markets. Organizations in this vertical are adopting innovative business models to include embedded software, networking, analytics, and personalized user experiences into their existing PLM software. PLM further helps in better management of digital Bill of Management (BOM), compliance management, change management, demand analysis, project management, product analytics, quality management, collaboration solutions, item management, and enterprise integration. These features are responsible for the increasing adoption rate of PLM software among semiconductor and electronics vertical.

Energy and Utilities

An increase in use of Machine-to-Machine (M2M) and Programmable Logical Controller and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (PL/SCADA) are expected to impact the energy and utilities vertical. This sector implements best PLM software to effectively manage complex infrastructure and oilfield equipment lifecycle process. The IT infrastructure cost can be significantly reduced by adopting best PLM software across this industry. Some of the major challenges faced by the energy and utilities vertical include the lack of internal resources and the need to improve efficiency in managing sensitive data. In addition, the adoption of the best PLM software among energy companies is quite slow, due to the minimum utilization of CAD tools and practices in the product development process. The changes in the global demand for fuel, the need for renewable energy sources, and the increase in global and competitive pressure are projected to drive energy companies to adopt PLM software in the sector.

Retail and Consumer Goods

The retail and consumer goods vertical is witnessing a huge demand for PLM solutions to effectively manage high operating costs and complex manufacturing processes. Moreover, with a rise in input costs of raw materials, labor, and integration of global complex supply chains, there is an increase in the overall product cost. The adoption of PLM solutions is a step further, toward changing traditional business structures and addressing customer needs and preferences. Moreover, the retail and consumer goods vertical generates a huge amount of live and backend data and derives useful insights and forecasting analysis from this data. The trends, regulations, business models, markets, and technologies keep on changing rapidly in this sector. Furthermore, the basic challenge in the retail and consumer goods vertical is the delivery of responsive and efficient customer services across locations at economical costs. Strong relationship with customers is maintained by providing excellent PLM software and services available through real-time insights. Best PLM software provide an innovative integrated platform to save time, cut costs, and improve supply chain management. It further increases the global scalability and security and enables faster speed-to-market delivery.

Healthcare and Lifesciences

The healthcare and life sciences vertical has globally reformed and modernized, due to the adoption of cloud technology and is one of the top sectors implementing PLM software. This sector is projected to implement best PLM software rapidly in the coming years. Healthcare providers have to implement mandated reforms, while focusing on controlling costs, and maintaining a high level of customer satisfaction and quality. The increasing regulatory requirements are making it more challenging for pharmaceutical companies to respond to prospects and get products to the market as soon as possible. To overcome these challenges and sustain themselves in the market, healthcare companies have adopted PLM software.

The implementation of PLM further helps in the automation and rationalization of development processes, providing flexibility to its customers. Furthermore, accessing and monitoring healthcare-related information across regions would become easier with the help of PLM-based solutions. PLM systems provide drug development portfolio management, secured record management, collaboration and transfer technology, global product registration, supply chain management, and enterprise governance. Medical devices and pharmaceutical companies seek the unification and transformation of their business processes to benefit from increased agility, optimized use of resources, costs, time, and increased quality standards.