One of the biggest challenges for supply chain managers in today’s ever-shrinking global marketplace is product lifecycle management. Every item has a shelf life; some things enjoy longer spans than others. Understanding all of the nuances associated with lifecycle management—lowering cost, creating higher quality products, getting them to market faster—and applying that knowledge to the supply chain is especially critical for products with shorter cycles, and PLM software is quickly becoming the best way to tackle this challenge.
Market data: Why cloud?
More enterprises are turning to cloud-based solutions to help them streamline lifecycle management and mitigate risks. In fact, the PLM marketplace continues to expand at an ever-accelerating rate. According to Transparency Market research, the total value of the global PLM software market is expected to grow at an 8.1 percent compound annual rate from $40.2 billion in 2014 to $75.8 billion in 2022.
TechTarget contributor Beth Stackpole noted that cloud-based PLM solutions may provide a ready answer to some of the challenges of on-premises deployments. PLM spans many different applications and departments, not to mention it requires integration with a wide range of applications. Therefore, a high level of business process transformation is necessary. Cloud-based tools simplify this transformation by facilitating collaboration between departments without requiring huge capital expenditures out of the gate.
Key vertical: Medical devices
The impressive growth of the PLM software market can be attributed to several factors, but none are more important to mention than the challenges faced by both the medical device manufacturing sector. In order to deal with increasingly shorter product lifecycles and integrate supply chain data from across a steadily growing supply chain landscape, operations managers in this specific industry are turning to cloud-based tools.
Medical device manufacturers offer a critical example of how PLM software can be used to improve operations. With the recently imposed traceability requirements for medical devices, manufacturers and distributors within this vertical need to be able to easily manage all the phases of a device’s lifecycle – including design, build, purchase, use and end of life.
All of this requires sufficient management of massive amounts of data. For instance, Medical Device and Diagnostic Industry noted that radio-frequency identification devices can help companies improve their PLM capabilities. RFID solutions generate information used to help track and organize these products, and with PLM software, organizations have the tools at their disposal necessary to stay on top of product lifecycles and, ultimately, maintain compliance with traceability requirements.
In addition, a solution for regulatory compliance is critical in the medical device field. For this reason, Inspirage’s UDI solution can help organizations remain compliant as industry regulations continue to evolve.
Team up with Inspirage for PLM help
Partnering with Inspirage for all of your PLM needs could give your supply chain the boost it needs in this ever-changing competitive global landscape. Knowing you have not only the right cloud-based tools to deal with this situation but also expertise at your disposal can make a difference. PLM tools can help you improve visibility throughout your entire operation and assist you in marrying business needs with the data being generated on a constant basis.
Contact the PLM experts at Inspirage today for more information about how we can help you improve your operations.
