Product Lifecycle Management

Synopsis

Neglect of product lifecycle management (PLM) leads to the loss of opportunities, a significant decrease in the product's life cycle or even worse – the product's quick disappearance from the market. The good news is that our Product Lifecycle Management deck is designed to aid managers' product and sales improvement efforts and help them assign priorities, schedule future production expansion and marketing initiatives, preplan flattening sales curves and ensure the product's ongoing success.

Questions and answers

What case studies demonstrate the effectiveness of Product Lifecycle Management?

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There are numerous case studies that demonstrate the effectiveness of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM). For instance, Siemens PLM helped the global technology company, Zebra Technologies, to reduce its development cycle by 25%. Another example is the use of PLM by the automotive company, Ford, which resulted in a 50% reduction in product development costs. These case studies highlight the potential of PLM in streamlining processes, reducing costs, and improving product quality.

What are common challenges in applying Product Lifecycle Management and how can they be overcome?

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Common challenges in applying Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) include lack of understanding of the product lifecycle stages, inadequate planning, and lack of coordination among different departments. These challenges can be overcome by proper education and training about the product lifecycle stages, thorough planning and forecasting, and fostering better communication and coordination among different departments.

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Slide highlights

Communicate the benefits of product cycle management to your team. They may include: improved product quality and brand reputation, reduced prototyping costs, discovery of sales opportunities and revenue contributions and more.

Apply lean business process management principles in your product lifecycle management, as [bold[Lean BPM[/bold] works in every stage of the PLM process, putting continuous improvement in the forefront of every stage.

When creating and evaluating your PLM roadmap, take into account the following: innovation, order-delivery time, cycle time, product life, waste and reliability, warranty claims, the accuracy of provisioning and customer feedback.

Overview

The product life cycle is the process of a product going from launch to decline or removal from the market. It is true that some products stay in a maturity state for a long period of time, however, all products eventually phase-out of the market because of several factors, such as saturation, competition, trends' shift, decrease in demand and sales.

Questions and answers

How can companies implement Product Lifecycle Management in their operations to pre-plan flattening sales curves?

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Companies can implement Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) in their operations to pre-plan flattening sales curves by integrating it into their strategic planning. This involves understanding the different stages of a product's life cycle - launch, growth, maturity, and decline.

During the launch and growth stages, companies should focus on increasing market share and customer awareness. In the maturity stage, they should aim to maximize profitability while defending market share.

In anticipation of the decline stage, companies can use PLM to plan for product updates, enhancements, or new products to replace the declining one. This can help maintain sales and profitability.

Moreover, using PLM tools can provide valuable insights into product performance, customer preferences, and market trends, enabling companies to make informed decisions and plan effectively for potential sales decline.

Can you compare Product Lifecycle Management with other business management frameworks?

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Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is a systematic approach to managing the series of changes a product goes through, from its design and development to its ultimate retirement or disposal. PLM is different from other business management frameworks in several ways. For instance, compared to Project Management, PLM is more holistic, focusing on the entire product life cycle rather than a specific project. Compared to Supply Chain Management, PLM is more internally focused, dealing with processes within the company, while SCM deals with external processes like logistics and distribution. Compared to Quality Management, PLM is broader, encompassing all aspects of a product's life, while QM focuses on ensuring the product meets certain standards of quality.

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Application

Per Theodore Levitt, a professor of Marketing at Harvard Business School, the following are the four stages of the Product Life Cycle:

1. Market Development – the period when a new product is first introduced to the market with a proven demand for it, but without the full proof of technically in all respects. At this stage, sales are usually low and increase slowly.
2. Market Growth (a.k.a. "Takeoff Stage") – the period when demand begins to accelerate and the size of the total market expands rapidly.
3. Market Maturity – the period when demand evens out and grows, mostly only at the replacement and new family-formation rate.
4. Market Decline – the period when the product begins to lose its appeal to consumers and sales drop.

Case study

Plum organic baby snacks

IDEO, an innovation-focused design and consulting firm, helped organic baby food producer, Plum, rethink the all-familiar baby food packaging.

According to the IDEO website, "Plum approached IDEO for help designing a non-pouch package that could showcase the vibrancy of the ingredients within."

IDEO gathered vital insights that aided prototype production and the final design. For example, the fact that nothing can replace the feeling of making an intimate connection with a child through spoon-feeding. Or that baby food is often wasted if a parent can't remember how long a product has been in the fridge. Or that families struggle with how to spoon-feed their children on the go without making a mess. Keeping all this information in mind, the IDEO team came up with a transparent bowl that allows consumers to see the natural color of Plum's food. "A resealable lid makes it easy for parents to store food between feedings, and the container includes a feature that allows them to track the day that they opened the pack to ensure that they don't end up throwing away perfectly good food. Lastly, the new package is easily and safely stackable and includes a divot in the lid for parents to rest a spoon on, making for a much cleaner and more sanitary feeding experience," IDEO shares on their website.

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