Product Management or, more popularly known as Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) (the lifecycle of a product from the concept design stage to design and development, manufacture and finally retirement) is an integral and critical part for all product manufacturers.

Successful product management strategies include elements of marketing, R&D, high quality manufacturing and excellent deployment. In each of these areas the right technology always makes an enormous difference to the overall efficiency of the product management process.

Key trends in this area include PDM (Product Data Management) and PLM systems getting integrated into Enterprise Systems such as ERP and CRM systems. Integration with ERP will truly integrate product development with Marketing, Finance, Sales and other Enterprise functions. CRM integration will lead to a better customer interface, higher impact presentations to customers, all leading to more efficient operations and healthier bottom lines to organizations.

Product Management delivers enormous benefits to both the producer and the consumer. The producer is benefited because he is producing more & better products for less. He is also producing faster and becoming extremely competitive. On the other hand, customer benefits because he gets better quality for a lesser price.

Technology requirements
Turning market information into products is the key to successful business. However, inputs from markets are seldom uni-dimensional. Inputs can be extremely complex and demanding. These inputs need to be assessed from various points of view, the most important being costs and manufacturability. Today there are excellent tools available that help translate market requirements into real products. In R&D these products can be classified as products that help int

•  Concept Design (Styling, Aspects of Industrial Design)
•  CAD Tools (Computer Aided Design) for 2D and 3D modeling
•  CAE Tools (Computer Aided Engineering) for simulation and testing

Additionally, in the Manufacturing area, there are

•  CAM tools (Computer Aided Manufacturing) that aid in NC Programming,
•  Tool Path Generation,
•  Robotic Simulation,
•  Factory Layout Simulation,
•  Cycle Time Optimization and so on.

Together, these tools are sometimes referred to as the CAD/CAM/CAE segment of mechanical design.

All these technologies together collaborate on a Product Data Management (PDM) backbone that constantly allows all departments to collaborate in real time to capture changing designs in the development cycle.

The use of these technologies greatly helps in simulating product behavior in real markets and, before the actual manufacturing is undertaken, the product can be virtually tested for compliance to market needs. "Virtual Product Development" therefore is a key technology element in ensuring that market needs are met in a cost effective and an efficient manner.