Product Lifecycle Management Functional Reference Model for Software Support

Abstract

The adoption of product lifecycle management (PLM) approach requires the selection and implementation of IT systems. Currently, there is a wide variety of IT systems focused on PLM available in the market. The problem that motivates this research is the difficulty faced by manufacturing companies to evaluate and to compare existing PLM systems available commercially, in order to select the most appropriate alternative to their business processes needs. At academia, the main problem is the lack of a widely accepted definition of the software functions that should be considered within the scope of PLM. This paper presents a PLM functional reference model for software support. The reference model is comprehensive and neutral, establishing a common base to facilitate software comparison and thus support software selection at manufacturing companies. Additionally, the presented reference model establishes a generic definition of PLM to be discussed at academy and industry.