Product lifecycle management – from its history to its new role

This paper is a result of comprehensive consultation among the authors, with the scientists and leading actors in the area of PLM, which is a reference term for a list of phenomena currently ongoing in the industrial community. This paper discusses the pervasive concept of product lifecycle management (PLM), starting from its history to its constituent elements and its role in the current industry. The authors propose and elaborate their vision for the future steps of the PLM in terms of emerging issues and topics that industrial practitioners and researchers need to address