Definition of Product Lifecycle Management Including Stages and Examples
By the name of Product lifecycle management (PLM), we can guess what work it does. It is a process of handling a product as it moves forward through 4 typical stages of product life. The stages include production and introduction, decline, growth, and maturity/stability. The manufacturing and marketing of the products are both involved in the handling process. The concept of Product lifecycle management helps a lot in making various decisions such as promotion and pricing of a product to an increase and cost-cutting. We will give you more brief detail further on how this process can benefit you with product management.
- Part 1：Product lifecycle definition: What is the product lifecycle?
- Part 2：4 Product Life Cycle Stages
- Part 3：3 Examples of the Product Life Cycle
- Part 4：Product Prototype Tool You May Need
Product lifecycle definition: What is the product lifecycle?
Product lifecycle definition and management has been made easy with four stages of the product lifecycle. These stages are known as the lifecycle of a product. It involves many departments, companies, and employees. Streamline of product's production activities has only one ultimate goal of producing such a product that defeats all of its competitors. It will be highly profitable and will give a satisfying result for customer desire. Setting up a bill for materials will help you too significantly. Handling of 4 product life cycle stages can be very beneficial for a product. You can distribute the product in the market faster, introduce a higher quality product, improved product safety, opportunity to increase product sales, reduce the risk of errors and waste.
Specialized product lifecycle management software has been launched in the market that can assist PLM functions significantly such as integration of design, process management, and document management. Many other benefits are included in the product life cycle such as improvement in quality and dependability of product, prototyping cost of product reduced, minimum product waste, maximum collaboration in the supply chain, and more. It is necessary for a product to go through life cycle stages in order to generate maximum sales and profits.
4 Product Life Cycle Stages
1. Introduction Stage of Product: This starting stage of the cycle can be considered the most costly for a company because it includes the launching expense of a new product. The small market size of the products results in low sales, although the sales will be increasing gradually. The production life cycle management team may have to afford the cost of many things such as manufacturing and research, samples for customers for testing, and the marketing cost to launch the product will be very high, especially if there is already competition in the market. Every company works day and night to approach new creative plans for product development.
2. Growth Stage of Product: This stage of the product life cycle is typically characterized by solid growth in profits and sales, this way the product will be recognized by the public and your product will be sold at a much faster rate than before. The profit margin and overall sales profits will be significantly increased. Once the product capabilities are recognized, offers can be changed slowly. This stage also depends on whether you are promoting or advertising the product. This stage motivates businesses to make more investment in promotional activities so growth stage potential can be maximized.
3. Maturity Stage of a Product: This phase of a product indicates that the product sales are at a peak. Your product demand is very high and orders are booking out. In no time, another product like yours will be introduced in the market for competition. This time might be very sensitive to take any kind of action. The company needs to invest very wisely in any marketing strategy. They can also make certain improvements and changes to the production process of the product which might help them to maintain their position in the market and a competing advantage.
4. Decline Stage of a Product: This stage of a product is very critical as the product sales reach their endpoint. The product price at this stage may be very good but the orders will begin to decline. The sales of the product will begin to shrink. At this point, the company needs to make a decision, whether to continue manufacturing the product with some changes or move on to another product. This will be happening because the consumer is moving to another product that is less expensive in production and available at cheaper rates in the markets. You will have to come up with a new product or a better alternative in this situation.
1. Growth Stage Product Life Cycle
Electric cars can be taken as an example, we all know about the Tesla Model S. It is in its growth phase. Electric cars still need to convince their customers that it will work and worth it. If there are more reasons and electric charging points more people will adopt them in the future, generating sales and profits will be easier for those who are more suspicious of new technology like Tesla S electric car.
2. Maturity Stage Example
One of the best product life cycle examples of maturity can be taken from Ford Focus. Who doesn't know the Ford Focus? It is a well-organized car. Its brand reputation is very good in the market and has reached its peak level of sales and demand in the market. It would be very difficult to gain a market share of Ford Focus. The product life cycle of this car manufacturing company was extended by constantly making upgrades and redesigns to maintain the product position in the market.
3. Decline Stage Example
This stage is every company's nightmare. We can take diesel cars as an example. We all know that diesel car is so old fashioned now. Governments are very concerned about the level of pollution because of diesel cars. Some educated cities have even threatened diesel car companies to ban their manufacturing. Sales and demand for such cars are significantly fallen and the market for diesel cars may collapse at any time. Diesel cars are maybe in the final decline stage.
Product Prototype Tool You May Need
Wondershare Mockitt is an online prototyping and project management tool appreciated by product managers. This platform allows users to instantly create product wireframe samples. Project management related tasks are executed quickly with this prototyping tool.
This tool doesn't require any heavy experience isn't necessary to operate. You can now stop worrying about writing a single line of code. Wondershare Mockitt is a tool that supports project managers and web developers. This platform is trustworthy to get project related task done cost-effectively and quickly. This platform offers its users a unique environment in the form of a sleek workspace. For user ease of access, a pre-defined library full of built-in templates and UI assets is integrated. Wondershare Mockitt features include collaboration with no restrictions and witness real-time changes by the team members.
This tool is an expert in designing multiple graphics that will be displayed on any Android and iOS device. A list of custom-sized layouts with manageable drag and drop features is available. They provide a very user-friendly interface. Users can blend different object templates, add combos, and predefined widgets and icons into their managing projects, and much more. Wondershare Mockitt allows generating a QR code or URL to receive feedback on their current project progress.
