PLM and PIM Integration: One Product Lifecycle Strategy

Product lifecycle management (PLM) and product information management (PIM) both hold product data, for different people at different moments. PLM follows the product through its development, from idea to end of life, for design and engineering. PIM holds the current product information and hands it to marketing, sales and the channels. Connect the two and design data becomes sellable product information, without a second, retyped record in between.

This guide covers what PLM is, how it differs from PIM and the other systems that hold product data, why the two belong together, and how to integrate them step by step.

What PLM (product lifecycle management) is

PLM stands for product lifecycle management. A PLM system follows a product for its whole life: the idea, design and prototyping, manufacturing and release, the service needed after the sale, and the disposal of what never sold.

Product lifecycle management is also the way of working behind the software: running the product as one process across those stages instead of a chain of handovers. The aims are a shorter time to market (TTM), lower development cost, better quality, new markets, and a smaller environmental impact at the end of life (EOL). The system gives everyone involved, from designers to quality and sourcing, one shared place to work on the product.

The four phases of the product life cycle

Every product that reaches the market moves through four phases, together called the product life cycle (PLC): development, growth, maturity and decline. A phase can last weeks or decades. Some products never reach the market and so never pass through every phase. A product that does reach the market eventually declines.

Where PLM comes from

American Motors Corporation (AMC) started PLM in 1985 (Product lifecycle management: from its history to its new role). The automaker wanted to compete faster, with shorter innovation cycles and a shorter time to market. PLM is now used in almost every sector.

What a PLM system does

A PLM system helps an organization handle the growing complexity of its products and the technical work behind them. It holds information about developments, markets, techniques, processes and the organization itself, and supports the product in each of the four phases. Companies often pair it with a method such as Design for Six Sigma, so quality is designed in before launch.

Typical parts of a PLM setup:

• Design collaboration tools for communication between designers and engineers on the product design.
• Cloud-based PLM for remote access, with real-time updates and collaboration.
• Lifecycle analytics for insight into each phase, so decisions rest on data.

PLM also connects to the rest of the business, such as ERP (enterprise resource planning) and SCM (supply chain management), so every department works from the same engineering data. Product data management (PDM), the store of engineering files that PLM often grows out of, has its own guide.

Why companies use PLM

With PLM in the working process, the organization sees each phase as it happens instead of discovering problems at the next handover. The system does two jobs: it collects the product information, and it is the channel between marketing, engineering, production and support.

Implemented with the knowledge and the people to run it, PLM gives better outcomes, higher customer satisfaction and less wasted time. An Autodesk study of mechanical engineering companies found that a successful PLM integration made companies more profitable, more efficient and more innovative. On average, organizations using a PLM system generated 10% more sales and 7% lower costs than other mechanical engineering companies, and they lost 7% less time on data management, time they could spend on the product.

PLM vs PIM: what each system owns

PIM is often put in the same comparison as PLM. The split is the job. PLM follows the life cycle and the development of the product. PIM works on the current product information and how that information reaches the customer. Both sit next to PDM and ERP, which own other parts of the same product.

PLM, PDM, PIM and ERP: what each system owns

System	What it owns	Who works in it	The question it answers
PLMProduct lifecycle managementYou are here	The product while it is designed and engineered: specifications, bills of materials, changes and compliance.	R&D, engineering, quality and sourcing.	What exactly are we making, and which version is released?
PDMProduct data managementPDM guide	Engineering files and technical data: CAD models, drawings and revisions.	Engineers and product designers.	Which revision of this design is current?
PIMProduct information managementPIM guide	Sellable product content: attributes, descriptions, asset links, translations and channel versions.	E-commerce, marketing, category and product content teams.	Is this product complete and ready to sell on this channel?
ERPEnterprise resource planningERP guide	Transactions and operations: orders, stock, purchasing, pricing and finance.	Finance, supply chain, purchasing and sales operations.	What did we buy, make, sell, ship and invoice?

• PLM versus PIM. PLM data is technical and versioned: specifications, materials, bills of materials, engineering changes, test and compliance results. Its users are internal. PIM data is commercial: the same product in the buyer's language, with copy, images, translations, classifications and a version per channel. PLM answers which version is released. The PIM answers whether the product is ready to sell on a given channel.
• PLM versus PDM. PDM stores the engineering files: CAD models, drawings and revisions. PLM manages the process around them: changes, approvals, releases and the people involved.
• PLM versus ERP. The ERP takes the released product and its bill of materials to buy, make, sell and invoice. How a BOM splits between systems is covered in BoM in PIM and ERP, the wider boundary in where ERP stops and PIM starts.

Because PLM and PIM each own a different part of the same product, they need to be connected. The rest of this guide is about that connection.

Why integrate PLM and PIM

Without an integration, the handover from engineering to marketing is manual. Someone copies specifications from PLM exports, PDFs or spreadsheets into the PIM, and every engineering change has to be noticed and retyped before the webshop, the datasheet and the distributor feed are right again. An integration replaces that copy with a flow.

• Visibility across the life cycle. Marketing sees what is coming from engineering, and engineering sees what reaches the market.
• Collaboration between engineering and marketing. Both teams work from the same released data, which smooths the move from development to launch.
• Consistent data, fewer errors. Specifications are entered once, at the source, and reach every channel unchanged.
• Faster time to market. Content work starts when the product is released, not when someone has time to retype it. According to Industry Week, companies that integrated their PLM and PIM systems report up to a 30% improvement in time-to-market efficiency.
• Compliance. Regulatory data, such as declarations and certificates, travels with the product to the channels that have to show it.

Both systems also exchange data with the ERP and with the systems that run the supply chain. The PLM and PIM integration is one part of that wider stack, not a project on its own.

How PLM data flows into the PIM

Released data leaves PLM and enters the PIM. The PIM maps it to its own data model, adds what the channels need, checks it and publishes it.

The data touchpoints

Map where data has to flow between PLM and PIM before you build anything. The usual touchpoints:

• Product design specifications. Dimensions, materials, performance values and other technical attributes from PLM and the CAD tools behind it. In the PIM they become the specifications buyers compare and the basis for product descriptions.
• Bills of materials (BOM). Components, spare parts and options. The PIM uses them for product relations such as spare parts and accessories, and for the supply chain data channels ask for.
• Regulatory compliance data. Certificates, declarations, safety data and the other product data regulations require, so every channel shows the current version.

Work in progress, unreleased versions and the engineering files themselves stay in PLM or PDM. The PIM receives the released facts and, where a channel needs one, a derived document such as a drawing or a datasheet.

Who owns which attribute

The integration works when every attribute has one owner. PLM leads for engineering facts. The PIM leads for marketing content, translations and channel versions. A value owned by PLM is read-only in the PIM, and the PIM never writes marketing copy back into PLM. Clear policies on who may change what, and who approves, keep both systems consistent. Product information governance covers how to set that up.

PLM and PIM integration, step by step

A PLM integration is a project with business owners on both sides, not only an IT connection. The steps below cover the link to the PIM. A PLM implementation itself, choosing and rolling out the PLM system, is a separate project. If one is planned, design the interface to the PIM as part of it.

1. Define the objective

   Decide what the integration has to fix: faster launches, fewer errors in specifications, better supply chain integration, or current compliance data on every channel. The objective decides which data comes first and how you measure the result.

2. Map the touchpoints

   List the attributes, documents and relations that flow from PLM to the PIM, per product family. Note the format and the units in each system, and where the PIM needs a value PLM does not have.

3. Set ownership and governance

   For every attribute, decide which system leads and who approves a change. Write it down as policy, so the integration has rules to follow and both teams know where to fix a wrong value.

4. Choose the trigger

   Decide what moves data: a release in PLM, an approved engineering change, or a scheduled sync. Only released data moves; drafts stay in PLM. A cloud-based PLM can make the connection simpler to run, because the provider handles updates and scaling.

5. Build and test on one product family

   Connect the systems for one product family first. Check that values land in the right attributes and units, that a change overwrites what it should and nothing else, and that unreleased data never reaches a channel.

6. Train the teams

   Resistance from users is the part teams overlook most. Show engineering, marketing and IT what changes for them and why, and keep them talking after go-live. Engineering needs to know that its data now goes straight to customers.

7. Monitor and improve

   Go-live is the start. Track errors, rejected records and the time from release to publication, and adjust mappings and rules as you add product families.

When you need both PLM and PIM

Not every company does. Manufacturers that design their own products usually run PLM, PDM or both, and add a PIM once they sell through several channels or partners. Retailers and wholesalers that resell other brands often have a PIM and no PLM. Brands that develop their own ranges, private label included, often need both.

Where both exist, the integration is what makes the pair pay off. The PIM side of a manufacturing stack is covered in PIM for manufacturing, what a PIM is and does in what is PIM, and choosing one in how to select the right PIM.

Where to go from here

Both tools are free and independent of any vendor.

Not sure you need a PIM yet?

A short check that shows whether a dedicated PIM helps your catalog, or whether spreadsheets and ERP still do the job.

Check if a PIM fits

Ready to compare vendors?

Answer questions about your scale, sector and must-haves and get a ranked shortlist.

Build my vendor shortlist