Preface

The aim of this book is to present the terminology, applications, trends, and developments in Product Lifecycle Management (PLM). PLM is one of the four approaches used as enter‐ prise business information technologies, the others being Enterprise Resource Planning, Customer Relationship Management, and Supply Chain Management. PLM is a business strategy for managing the entire lifecycle of products. This strategy includes the manage‐ ment of conception, design, testing, prototyping, manufacturing, process planning, quality control, use, maintenance, disposal, and recycling of products, integrating people, methods, CAx tools, processes, documentation, and data management solutions.

This book has a total of seven chapters. The introductory chapter is focused on the funda‐ mental and future terminology used in PLM. The next two chapters treat different aspects regarding product design and development. Configuration of the customized product is presented in the fourth chapter. Product testing plays an important role in PLM. Thus, some aspects regarding product testing are presented in the fifth chapter. PLM for supply chain optimization is treated in the next chapter. End of product life is the last stage of the product lifecycle, including the recycling of materials. The last chapter presents an application fo‐ cused on the recycling of polymeric composite materials.

> **Dr. Razvan Udroiu** Associate Professor Department of Manufacturing Engineering Faculty of Technological Engineering and Industrial Management Transilvania University of Brasov Brasov, Romania

**Chapter 1**

**Provisional chapter**

**Introductory Chapter: Product Lifecycle Management -**

The enterprise business information technology (IT) domains include four main management approaches [1, 2]: **product lifecycle management** (PLM), **enterprise resource planning** (ERP), **customer relationship management** (CRM), and **supply chain management** (SCM). The ERP goal is achieving the best enterprise resource utilization. This system enables companies to plan their manufacturing processes and control all aspects of manufacturing including inventory, purchasing, process planning, warehousing and delivery, human resources, finance, etc. SCM system is focused on the supply chain, having the main goals the design, planning, execution, control, and monitoring of all aspects related to storage and distribution. Customer relationship management (CRM) is an approach to manage a company's interaction with cur-

PLM is a business strategy for managing the entire life cycle of products. This strategy includes the management of conception, design, design validation and simulation, prototyping, manufacturing, quality control, use, maintenance, and disposal of products, having integrated people, methods, CAx (computer-aided technologies) tools, processes, documentation, and data management solutions. PLM is a digital paradigm, products being managed with digital computers, digital information, and digital communication [4]. The main benefits of a PLM system implementation in companies are faster time to market, improved productivity and collaboration, better product quality, decreased cost of new product introduction, reduced prototyping costs, improved design review and approval processes, identify potential sale opportunities and revenue contributions, maximize supply chain collaboration, and reduce

> © 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2018 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use,

distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.81686

**Terminology**

**1. Introduction**

rent and potential customers [3].

environmental impacts at the end of product life.

Razvan Udroiu and Paul Bere

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81686

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

Razvan Udroiu and Paul BereAdditional information is available at the end of the chapter

**Management - Terminology**

**Introductory Chapter: Product Lifecycle** 

#### **Introductory Chapter: Product Lifecycle Management - Terminology Introductory Chapter: Product Lifecycle Management - Terminology**

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.81686

Razvan Udroiu and Paul Bere Razvan Udroiu and Paul Bere

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81686
