PLM

PDM is short for Product Data Management. The processes and system support around PDM supports primarily engineering in managing product designs, documents, and CAD BOMs (short for Bill of Material).

PDM is where many of Nextage’s customers start their digitalization journey from the business need of managing, finding, and re-using their product information more efficiently.

In product development and manufacturing industries, PLM is short for product lifecycle management. In addition to handling processes for engineering PLM includes processes for the entire product lifecycle such as manufacturing, procurement, purchasing, suppliers, customers, sales, and services, to end of life and disposal.

To support their processes many organizations invest in a PLM system built for this specific cause. At Nextage we encourage our customers to start step by step with PLM, adding PLM elements continuously according to business needs and visions.

Nextage sees a PLM (software) solution as a solution that digitally supports a specific company’s workflows and work processes. Every company that has product development and/or production has supporting PLM processes, whether digitized or not. The software cannot stand on its own; the team’s processes and the challenges it’s aiming to solve are what make it a solution.

A product lifecycle includes all stages of a product, from idea to design and drawing to testing, prototyping, manufacturing, market launch, sales, and services until the product goes end of life, and scrapped. Some of the stages, or all of them, can be supported by a PLM system.