PLM is maturing. The vendor community is continuing to mature - although not stagnate as discussed in the "Is PLM Innovating" post. But more importantly the use of PLM in industrial companies is maturing. PLM has transitioned from the bleeding edge to the leading edge, and is on it's way to best practice. But how many are really using it today?

Are PLM Programs in Manufacturing Done Yet?
PLM is not "done" by a long shot. Sometime it's easy to get caught up in the reports from the software and analyst community (guilty as charged personally) that highlight how leading companies are exploiting PLM for higher profits. Sometimes when you hear that over half of the Best-in-Class are using a technology (58% for PLM according to our report published 3 weeks ago), it's easy to forget that a significant percentage of even the leading companies (42%, I knew you were going to do the math) haven't adopted it yet. And the average and poorer performers still have not adopted it as frequently. So there is a long way to go. Our recent research on the status and direction of PLM and product innovation still shows that of all companies, only 32% have implemented PLM. On the contrary, PDM implementations across all companies rose to 48% (and just over 3/4 of the Best-in-Class).

Implications of PLM Penetration
What does this mean? Clearly Best-in-Class companies are much more likely to be using PLM. That makes it an easy conclusion that PLM is providing value, as these leading companies are hitting the product development metrics that drive profitability. That's an easy conclusion, and one that is backed up by conversations and case studies about successful PLM implementations. But there are other questions that are important to ask as well:

• What about those without PLM? Are they just ignoring it?
• What about those with PLM? Are they sitting on their laurels?
• What will people do next? Protect what they have? Extend what they have?
• What companies are lagging? Which industries are slower to adopt? What size companies are using PLM?

These are some of the questions that we have been asking, and I look forward to sharing some of my thoughts and our benchmark results with you. In the meantime, what have you seen? What do you want to know?