15 January 2016: Stephan Sprink

Product lifecycle management (PLM) is the concept of integrating any information generated and provided in the entire lifecycle – from engineering design and manufacture through distribution and application to disposal. PLM integrates suitable processes, methods and tools creating an infrastructure required to provide a product information backbone gathered in and outside the company. The respective information is available in the requested quality and at the right time.

“Phase model of product development“, “product lifecycle“ or even “quality loop“ (according to Masing) are the names of similar approaches. Examining the entire lifecycle of a product systematically offers a high potential for optimization, cost reduction and continuous improvement of products, at least from a quality management perspective. This is where Q-DAS products contribute significantly to product lifecycle management since they acquire knowledge by processing collected quality information.

Many quality assurance tasks intertwine in all phases of the product development process – from product design to the actual application. Different tools and procedures are used including statistical methods evaluating and qualifying equipment and processes relevant to production and inspection. The same applies to process optimization.