Addressing Broader Product Development Processes

Product lifecycle management (PLM) solutions have evolved to address the limitations of traditional BOM management solutions. Some early PLM solutions were developed by CAD- or PDM-centric solution providers. These solutions created PLM capabilities that were more focused on the CAD model and file management issues required for engineering design teams, rather than the rest of the product team (e.g., quality, procurement, manufacturing, suppliers).

Cloud PLM software solutions evolved to provide necessary advancements to bring the complete product record together and share it with dispersed teams. These solutions were built from the ground up with an agnostic, and more complementary, approach to working with any CAD or PDM tools. This enabled the next wave of PLM solutions to move beyond focusing only on a single engineering design team’s needs or their work-inprocess (WIP) management processes within a single group (e.g., mechanical, electrical, software).

Today’s product development platforms eliminate new product development and introduction (NPDI) barriers by managing the entire product record. Arena’s cloud-based product development platform includes PLM and quality management system (QMS) solutions built on the foundational product record, BOM, and extended processes.