In brief

A report out of Framingham, Mass.-based IDC Manufacturing Insights cites a movement to “democratize” product life-cycle management (PLM) as manufacturing execs call for improvements in next-generation tools.

According to Joe Barkai, PLM strategies practice director, IDC, “In the next generation of PLM, we expect to see that it is as much about effective product life-cycle decision-making as it is about product engineering.” Barkai also points to a new type of knowledge worker—called the “wiki worker”—who will emerge to influence the design and workflow of next-gen PLM tools. “We expect to see more and more stakeholders call for a new generation of analytic PLM tools that support innovation, optimize product portfolio management, accelerate time-to-market, and promote product quality and regulatory compliance,” he says.