SOA approach for Product lifecycle management, part 1th: Introduction to Product life cycle management

Introduction: This article provides some background information to help you understand Product lifecycle Management (Lifecycle Management), how IBM supports service-oriented architectures for product lifecycle management, and product lifecycle management standards.

Product Lifecycle Management Overview

This article describes IBM's approach to implementing a service-oriented architecture (service-oriented Architecture,soa) for Product lifecycle Management (Lifecycle MANAGEMENT,PLM). So, what is PLM, and why is it important to the business of the business? If we consider the products we see and use daily, PLM will soon become clear. Consider the cars you drive, or the trucks on the road, as well as airplanes, ships, MP3 players, your desk, even the clothes and shoes you wear. These products are all the result of certain concepts that are conceived to meet certain customer needs, or to meet a market solution opportunity and eventually become something that someone is willing to buy. PLM is the strategic function of integrating systems, processes, and data throughout the product lifecycle to support the use of information for the following reasons:

Better conceptualize concepts to meet market needs

Actually converting these concepts into products that can be produced

Purchase or manufacture of products

Continue to provide product support and implementation throughout the service life of the product

As shown in Figure 1, PLM systems include tools, applications, IT systems, manufacturing systems, corporate business processes, and data, spanning the entire product lifecycle from the initial concept to the end of the product's service life.

Fig. 1 The scope and maturity of PLM

Competition is more intense than ever, with companies seeking to maintain a competitive advantage in an increasingly complex business environment characterized by globalization, intense competition, mergers and acquisitions, and a wide range of specific customer needs. IBM's CEO study of nearly 800 top CEOs worldwide (see Figure 2) shows that innovation is the key to business success. CEOs not only focus on product innovation, but also extend the need for innovation to business models and processes applied throughout the enterprise. Most business leaders see innovation as economic and social requirements, and are particularly critical to breaking through established environments and borders. For manufacturing enterprises, PLM is directly focused on innovative collaboration and integration requirements. Its dependencies have spanned the entire product lifecycle. Companies are expecting engineering to use extended PLM capabilities to implement process and business model innovations to deliver High-value products to the marketplace.

The way companies implement PLM often affects their strategic competitiveness in the marketplace. However, a complete PLM system is not something that a business can buy in a ready-made. Applications and authoring tools used in PLM systems can be purchased from multiple software vendors. The same is true for computing and networking platforms that perform these applications and tools. PLM scenarios are typically developed over the years by introducing different systems or applications, some of which are developed in-house and some are introduced through acquisitions by other business units or companies. Perhaps more importantly, the process used in the enterprise makes the enterprise unique. A well implemented PLM system enables enterprises to achieve the following advantages:

Create new and innovative products.

Ability to assess functional performance and meet market requirements in the early stages of product development

Use this information to create detailed engineering and manufacturing designs

Support for product maintenance and change throughout the life of the product

The need for collaboration and integration