Product lifecycle management (PLM) is the process of managing the entire lifecycle of a product from inception, through engineering design and manufacture, to service and disposal of manufactured products.

PLM integrates people, data, processes and business systems and provides a product information backbone for companies and their extended enterprise.

The goals of PLM are to reduce time to market, improve product quality, reduce prototyping costs, identify potential sales opportunities and revenue contributions, maintain and sustain operational serviceability, and reduce environmental impacts at end-of-life.

PLM systems help organisations in coping with the increasing complexity and engineering challenges of developing new products for the global competitive markets.