Title: Maturity assessment for implementing and using product lifecycle management in project-oriented engineering companies

Authors: Hannu Kärkkäinen; Jussi Myllärniemi; Jussi Okkonen; Anneli Silventoinen

Addresses: Department of Business Information Management and Logistics, Tampere University of Technology, P.O. Box 541, 33101 Tampere, Finland ' Department of Business Information Management and Logistics, Tampere University of Technology, P.O. Box 541, 33101 Tampere, Finland ' TAUCHI – Tampere Center for Human Computer Interaction School of Information Sciences, University of Tampere, FI-33014, Tampere, Finland ' LUT School of Industrial Engineering and Management, Lappeenranta University of Technology, P.O. Box 20, 53851 Lappeenranta, Finland

Abstract: Product lifecycle management (PLM) is a systematic and holistic way to approach challenges that exist in managing product-related information along a product's lifecycle from product design to its disposal. There is an established set of information management approaches that address important subsets of lifecycle information management challenges, e.g., product data management (PDM), customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP). A common characteristic of PLM is that implementation is a very challenging and complex long-term process, requiring changes in organisation, systems, conventions and importantly, skills and capabilities. The aim of this paper is to discuss the issue of PLM maturity assessment and its use and application in the specific industrial context of project-oriented engineering companies. Within this context, the empirical part of the paper studies the usefulness and tailoring needs of generic capability maturity assessment in implementing and facilitating PLM.

Keywords: PLM; product lifecycle management; maturity models; CMM; capability maturity model; capability maturity assessment; project business; project-oriented engineering; information management; project management.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEB.2014.060218

International Journal of Electronic Business, 2014 Vol.11 No.2, pp.176 - 198

Published online: 05 Jun 2014 *

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