PLM Definitions from various sources and what I think about it.

Product Life cycle Management
There are many definitions available on net for Product life cycle management-
Some of them are –
· Wikipedia: Product lifecycle management (PLM) is the process of managing the entire lifecycle of a product from its conception, through design and manufacture, to service and disposal. It is one of the four cornerstones of a corporation's information technology structure. All companies need to manage communications and information with their customers (CRM-Customer Relationship Management) and their suppliers (SCM-Supply Chain Management) and the resources within the enterprise (ERP-Enterprise Resource Planning). In addition, manufacturing engineering companies must also develop, describe, manage and communicate information about their products (PDM).
· Cimdata:
o A strategic business approach that applies a consistent set of business solutions that support the collaborative creation , management ,dissemination, and use of product definition information
o Supporting the extending enterprise (customer, design and supply partners, etc.)
o Spanning from the concept to the end of a product or plant
o Integrating people, processes, business systems, and information

· Siemens PLM: At Siemens PLM Software, we view PLM as at once an information strategy, an enterprise strategy and ultimately a transformational business strategy. We see it as a comprehensive approach to innovation built on enterprise- wide access to a common repository of product information and processes.
· Dassault Systems: A business strategy that helps companies share product data, apply common processes, and leverage corporate knowledge for the development of products from conception to retirement, across the extended enterprise. By including all actors (company departments, business partners, suppliers, OEM, and customers), PLM enables this entire network to operate as a single entity to conceptualize, design, build, and support products.

· Definition: According to me we can define PLM as an approach that can be applied to improve companies' processes based on their business model for accomplishing current product innovation requirements. PLM is all about providing support for optimal development of products; ensuring fastest time to market; lowest development and production cost and highest quality.
It encompasses PPPI model:
· Product –It provides complete support for the product
· People - products only exists through the people’s effort
· Processes – we have to follow them to give dependable and consistent results
· Information about the Product – One of the core thing with which PLM deals is data