PLM Applications

Abstract

This chapter addresses the applications that are used in the PLM environment. Just as there are, in the scope of PLM, many processes, and many types of product data, there are also many applications. In this chapter, more than fifty different types of application are described briefly. Within some of these groups, more than one hundred different applications are provided by different vendors. In total, there are thousands of different applications in the PLM environment. Although there are thousands of applications, and they’re used for many different things in very different situations, they have some common characteristics. One is that they need to interface smoothly to other applications. Another is their ability to create huge volumes of product data, which then have to be managed. This chapter provides an introduction to applications in the PLM environment. It gives a basic understanding of PLM applications and related activities. It provides examples of applications and shows why they’re relevant in PLM. Issues with applications are addressed. Data mapping is introduced.