MDM, or master data management, is integral to any business, concerning as it does the aggregation, collating, distribution and usage of data within the company, to ensure consistency and control. PLM is an important part of this, concerning the entire lifecycle of a product from conception to disposal. It encompasses many areas, from CAD migration to ROHS/ WEEE legislation.
Master data management and product data information have been linked for many years. In fact, the two were lumped together under the acronym of PIM, short for Product Information Management. At this time, producers with PLM strategies were accumulating large amounts of product data, which needed to go somewhere other than their Enterprise Resource Planning departments or systems. The result was a flood of PIM software onto the market. The hype died down for a while, but today Product Lifecycle Management software is once more in vogue, though still very immature and poorly understood compared to other areas such as Supply Chain and Customer Relations Management.
In today’s workplace, enterprise data management spans a large number of areas. Mechanical engineering of a consumer line, for example, could cover mechanical CAD, procurement of materials, supply chain supervision and environmental compliance issues. Looked at from this angle, MDM and product lifestyle management slot into each other quite nicely. However, to avoid a conflict of interest, it’s essential to have efficient, professional Master Data Management tools able to assimilate large volumes of data.
We at Enventure Technologies offer a number of master data management solutions, which allow easy retrieval and management of long-term product data files.
