Global Manufacturing Drives End-to-End Collaborative PLM Solutions
The Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) market totaled more than $7.4 billion in 2006, and will nearly double to more than $14.6 billion by the end of 2011, rising at a compounded annual growth rate of roughly 14.5% over the forecast period. Contributing to the size and growth of this market are six distinct segments, including NPDI & Portfolio Management, Project & Program Management, Collaborative Design, Product Data Management, Digital Manufacturing/Manufacturing Process Management and Service/Support/Content Management.
It is clear that PLM solution sets must have the capability to access, share, and exchange digital information across all domains of the product lifecycle in a truly collaborative and open environment. Given this situation, the market will realize modest growth for collaborative design solutions, while most of the other PLM solution areas, including PDM, will see significant growth.
Additionally, top executives in the manufacturing sector are re-focusing the strategic direction of their companies toward innovation and new product development to gain market share and grow top-line revenues.
Recent research has shown that 25-30% of revenues by manufacturing companies come from products that have been on the market for less than five years. Best-in-class companies are those that are able to introduce innovative products while meeting time-to-market, production cost, revenue, and quality targets around 80-100% of the time.
Strategic Issues
The current situation points to the increasing adoption of PLM solution domains, such as digital manufacturing tools, that give manufacturers the ability to bring their products to market much faster, at lower costs, and with greater levels of flexibility. Bringing products to market in significantly reduced production cycles has become a top priority for manufacturers who understand the importance of hitting the market window and beating the competition for consumer acceptance. Among other issues, this study addresses:
- The need to focus a PLM architecture and solution set to address business processes
- How major PLM suppliers are expanding their PLM solution sets to appeal to a greater number of manufacturers
- Which market sector will drive the strongest PLM growth