Talk:Product lifecycle management
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[edit] Information technology assumption
There is an assumption in this article that the organization has embedded information technology. It is possible to exercise the entire product management lifecycle without using a computer at all. This is historically a marketing term and not a computer term. Dfletter 02:41, 30 November 2005 (UTC)
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- Very good point. Don't we computational types think that our paradigm is IT <pun>? Thank you for opening the discussion. IT's even worse.
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- Another assumption (or is it a bias?) is that the thing called the 'Enterprise' viewpoint (top-down by definition) is the key one. I'm talking about this very issue at COE Atlanta (subject - KBE for PLM and CAx). Some feel that KBE (Knowledge-Based_Engineering) ought to be PLM driven. Not!
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- Of course, I'll have to admit a bias for the bottom-up (iconoclast and egalitarian that I am). Where would science be without the lowly lab worker? <grin> jmswtlk 17:24, 26 February 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Product Lifecycle or Product Life Cycle Management
There are two very different Wikipedia articles on what I would have thought are just different spellings for the same thing.
If this is not the case, would it be possible for someone to offer distinctions / comparisons / justifications between
- Product Lifecycle Management (PLM)
- Product Life Cycle Management (PLC Management?, let's say PLCM)
Feel free to contact me directly for detailed discussion. We could post summaries here.
--Gary Walker, gwlucca@yahoo.com
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- These two may be related in a couple of ways. 1) that PLM generally has a computational focus (see User:Dfletter comment) may be used to say that PLM may be one concrete manner to support PLCM. That PLM can be applied by other than computational means (again, User:Dfletter) may imply that PLM is a methods-oriented affair. 2) PLCM on the other hand has a broader scope (see Related topics). Notice that it does not point back to PLM (an oversight, I'm sure).
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- Now, ought there be a general overview page that then splits into these two (one management/strategy - PLCM, the other technical/tactics - PLM)? In this case, PLCM would also provide the theoretical view. jmswtlk 15:08, 31 March 2006 (UTC)
-- PLCM is to do with the life of a product in the market in respect to business/commercial costs and sales measures.
PLM is more to do with managing descriptions and properties of a product through its development and useful life, mainly from an business/engineering point of view. Freeformer 16:46, 19 April 2006 (UTC)
-- The Product Lifecycle Management article is about managing some engineering issues related to products throughout their life, but especially pre-market. This is quite a different subject from Product Life Cycle, which is a technical term used by marketing professionals. It is unfortunate, but a fact of life, that engineers and marketeers do not co-ordinate their jargon. The two disciplines do use variants of the same phrase to describe different phenomena. The similarity of the article names reflects reality. Perhaps an answer is to hyperlink the articles and edit the texts to make it clear which is the marketing article and which is the engineering article.
- So, using Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and Product Life Cycle Management (PLCM), we have
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- PLM - product/process engineering and its management (from a viewpoint that is both broad (covers the whole of the chain, technically, encompassing pre-sale, sale, post-sale, and dispose) and deep (relates to success via applied science and technology))
- PLCM – product management and its management (including marketing)
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- These two ought to meet in the middle via processes like value engineering. However, there are several types of overlap that need to be mapped out. It seems that a third page ought to be written which then points to these two for more detail. Anyone want to volunteer? Has this mapping been done? jmswtlk 14:17, 1 June 2006 (UTC)
How about this for a start? Product lifecycle Freeformer 14:14, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
I realize I'm late to this conversation, and that contributors to these two articles may feel this question is settled. (So my apologies upfront if this is upsetting.) But as a new reader, I have to say it looks very weird. These aren't two different terms; they're just the same term typed differently. Having both these articles is like having both of "Database" and "Data base." Imagine someone listening to a lecture on this subject. Would they be expected to discern a difference in meaning between "product life cycle" and "product lifecycle." I don't think so. (Product lifecycle means before production, but product life cycle means during production? Please no.) Note that (in WP) a search for "Lifecycle" (by itself) redirects to "Life cycle." You land on a disambig page, which includes a link to "Product life cycle management" but not to "Product lifecycle management." A newcomer seeking infomation on this subject needs good luck to find the right article first. Here's a suggestion: if this subject matter is so broad that it requires more than one article of reasonable length (which is probably so), and if the subject matter can be factored into "product under development" vs "product in the market" or "IT products" vs "other sorts of products," then divide it up that way and give each article a meaningful title. This gets done for other big topics all the time (e.g., France in the 1800s, France in the 1900s). Hult041956 16:53, 28 September 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Vendors Section removal
I don't agree with removing the vendors as was done recently. Perhaps, they ought to be in a section about the major players with a few additional remarks. After all, those who play the commercial roles are as much part of the landscape as are the abstractions via words.
It seems to me, to boot, that an edit of this section would have been preferred over trashing these links. Or, why not put a notice that there was an intention to remove the vendors if that was deemed the way to go after some discussion and consideration?
I'm wondering. In response to a few pranksters and others who created problematic incidents (some of which made the press), is there a growing presence of heavy-handed techniques being applied in the 'wiki' world of late?
By the way, notice that I have elevated the 'reminders' (10 Commandments) in my own work. jmswtlk 14:21, 21 April 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Agree
A section on the major software vendors and overview of the market would be beneficial. This site should not be an advertising media but you cannot ignore the products with such an article. It would be like talking about cars without mentioning any brands or models. Freeformer 15:08, 24 April 2006 (UTC)
- There is a category titled Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange that sets the precedence for having reference to commercial entities. There are over 190 pages of listings. I'll attempt a new section with a different title. jmswtlk 02:14, 29 April 2006 (UTC)
- Keep in mind there is a big difference between a Category and a list. A Category of companies can only contain companies which have Wikipedia articles. That makes the Category somewhat self-correcting, as only companies notable enough to have an article will appear. Thus, a PLC/PLM/whatever-vendor Category might well be the solution. —DragonHawk (talk) 19:10, 6 January 2007 (UTC)
The vendor list is getting out of hand again, becoming a list of external links to companies or list of PDM packages (which is only part of PLM). What do people think about removing external links and only referencing companies and products that themselves have a Wiki page (not a stub). Freeformer 10:12, 12 November 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Two Different Lives of Product
There are two, somewhat different Lives of a Product. One, from a Business (Producer’s) prospective and another one from the User’s prospective. The first one is the Product “Family Life” and the later one is the Individual Product Life.
The PLM article is focusing on the Product Family life, but missing two key elements of it:
1. Refine: This (continuous) phase is to further improve, correct and adapt (functionality, cost and quality of) the Product Line, to the missed and/or changing external (market) and internal (business) needs. This task is typically performed by Product Engineering departments.
2. Derive: This is to create Derivatives of the Platform to customize it to various market segments and needs as well as to extend the life of the Product Line. The Derive phase typically starts during the Design and Development Phase, but often continues after Product Release.
Typical main stages of a Family Life are depicted below:
\Conceive Design Develop Release Produce Sell Deliver Service Refine Phase-Out
\ Derive-1 | Derive-2
\--------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------->
\---------------|-----------------------------> \----------->
\--------------|---------------------------------> \------------->
Note: These stages are overlapping by nature, not as discrete as represented by the diagram.
The following key Organizational Functions and Flows participate in the Family Life Line:
1. Create :: Conceive, Design, Derive-1, Develop
2. Produce :: Source, Manufacture, Assemble
3. Control :: Release, Refine, Derive-2, Phase-Out
4. Support :: Sell, Deliver, Service
The individual Life of the product starts in the Produce Stage of the Family Life:
1. Born :: Source, Manufacture, Assemble
2. Commission :: Sell, Deliver, Put in Operation
3. Operation :: Use
4. Sustain :: Care, Maintain, Service, Repair
5. Decommission :: Remanufacture, Recycle, Dispose
The Individual Life is more related to the experience of Customers, Users and other Actors. The goals of designing the Product Family Life are to achieve both, the Business Objectives and the Intended Individual Life of the products.
The Family Life of products is also linked to their Value Cycle. --ProGlo 12:21, 28 June 2007 (UTC)
[edit] resent changes to introduction
Can I request that changes to the introduction are enhancements and not total rewrites. Also specific details on areas of this large field be placed in their related articles, eg. PDM,BOM.PPM,CAD etc. Freeformer 04:15, 9 August 2007 (UTC)
[edit] How do these terms fit in?
Should they be merged or redirected? 1. end of life 2. end of marketing 3. end of service Andries (talk) 22:28, 21 January 2008 (UTC)
