Q: What were the most important PLM market trends in 2009?
A: PLM was once focused almost exclusively on engineering design. But, over the past few years, the focus has expanded to include many other areas of the product lifecycle, such as product planning, quality engineering, manufacturing engineering, customer service, and maintenance.
The push to get PLM more closely connected to the factory floor and integrated with MES and PLCs has been particularly visible, as has the need to support smaller companies. Initial PLM implementation successes were concentrated in larger organizations with the resources to support such a program.
The final trend that clearly impacted the PLM market was the adoption of PLM strategies by non-traditional industries, such as food and beverage, CPG, retail and apparel, and services.