PLM in general is in a very interesting phase. The concept itself is much widely and deeply understood on a global scale. Its potential in business development is shared and recognized by the business management far better than 3-5 years ago.

The evolution of the system functionality in modern ERP and PLM systems has brought up a lot of new possibilities for information management and for process automation.

The case company is an international electronics manufacturer. Its products are sold and delivered to global markets. The products consist essentially of standard electronic components, mechanical parts and pieces of software. There is some configurability and scalability in the mechanical and electronic assemblies; however most of the product variation is done in the software side.

Large corporations are all but homogenous what comes to their ways to operate, processes and culture. Companies have evolved through organic growth, business acquisitions, strategic investments and expansion to new markets. In practice this means that a corporation usually consists of number of business areas, geographical areas (or sites) and product areas.

David you are correct (see David's article) - Life really is too short in the current PLM software solutions! I have been wondering the same thing for a long time. To my understanding there a couple of reasons for this limited or shortened view to product life.