PLM is a plot perpetrated by the marketing department.(CORPORATE)

Manufacturing Business Technology, June, 2005

Product life-cycle management (PLM) is unique among enterprise applications in that it offers opportunities for revenue growth, as well as reduced costs. But for PLM to be an engine for the product innovation that drives revenue growth, it must be inclusive of interested parties outside design engineering itself.

"In terms of influence on product direction, the three most influential parties are--in order--marketing, R&D, and engineering," says Bill Boswell, a senior director with PLM vendor UGS. "But in terms of functional responsibility, the inverse is true. You're going from ad hoc ideation to formal design and production precesses. What's needed is to tie ideation into PLM, giving structure to it and providing tools that amount to more than just a...