ABSTRACT
Fierce competition in global markets drives companies to perform better. Product Lifecycle Management is an essential tool for coping with the challenges of increasingly demanding global competition and ever-shortening product and component lifecycles. New and better products must be introduced to markets more quickly, with more profit and less labor, and from financial and environmental perspectives, the lifecycle of each product must be better controlled. In order to perform well financially, companies must be able to make informed decisions concerning the lifecycle of each product in their portfolio. Winner products must be introduced to market quickly and poorly performing products must be removed from the market. To do this effectively, companies must have a very good command of the lifecycle of each product. A good command of product and process definitions over a large product portfolio requires that ways of operation and IT-systems must support each other flawlessly.
