First Arena Solutions. Then Tecumseh Products Co. This month there has been a number of announcements made around product lifecycle management (PLM).

From design to disposal, product lifecycle management (PLM) has brought manufacturers a long way toward managing the flow of manufacturing products and collaboration, but it still appears that these platforms have a long way to go.

Many PLM platforms focus on one portion of the project, expecially if the project includes electronics and textiles, two different materials.

Managing a product's full lifecycle, from idea to end-of-life, requires collaboration and integration. Consider this: design in the U.S., Israel or India, assembly and manufacturing in China or Singapore, and testing in the United Kingdom or the United States.

Now compliance demands compound complexity and extend the required scope of product lifecycle platforms. Who would have thought we would need to track the semiconductors or capacitors built into iPods or other MP3 players or microprocessors in computer.

But companies do because there are laws and directives, such as the European Union's directive on Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS), and the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) initiative to protect the Earth.

Spending on PLM software and services rose 13 percent to $10.4 billion in 2005. The market is forecast to reach nearly $12 billion this year, up 14 percent since 2004, according to research firm Daratech Inc.

AMR Research Inc. said product portfolio management (PPM) remains one of the strongest sectors, with 10 percent growth.

Total system design, the combination of mechanical, electronics and software design remains the hottest area for PLM, said AMR analyst Eric Karofsky. (Several PLM systems are integrated together because there isn't one platform that does it all.)

"Nearly every day you're reading about Airbus pushing out delivery dates another six months for their new plane because there wasn't enough room for cabling," Karofsky said. "Well, if there wasn't enough room for cabling that means you must go back in and revise some of the discrete products."

Today's PLM platforms do a good job of supporting the work flow and visualization, with well-defined product change collaboration, product definition and supplier management. It's in the business process support area that requirements have exploded and PLM systems are coming up short. Standard applications simply aren't flexible enough to meet specific process demands to integrate large numbers of disparate systems and databases.

News expected on Monday should alleviate some of the pain. I had an opportunity to speak with an executive at one of the largest consumer companies in the world. The executive agreed to speak with me under the condition I keep his identity anonymous.

This executive said the company's culture remains the biggest obstacle. It would mean moving from posting yellow sticky notes on computer corners and handwritten calculations on lined paper.

"If people are not use to that type of scenario they don't get in the habit of fulfilling their piece in the cycle," the executive said. "You can have people trained in using the system, but if a Q&A or R&D organization isn't checking off wants been done in the system you create all types of bottle necks."

People think PLM constrains creativity. They worry it will limit their ability to innovate, so they stick with Excel spreadsheets and a paper-based system.

The system is complex. There are workflows within each portion of the business, and each portion of the business needs to have a separate PLM platform that integrates with others to form a massive system across the enterprise and around the world (Wow, gives me a headache thinking about it).

There were interesting announcements made earlier this year, too, I want to mention. In May, Microsoft Corp. said it would build bridges to UGS Corp.'s PLM platform by integrating it into Microsoft Office 2007.

PLM software tools, historically used by industrial manufacturing companies, such as automotive and electronics, to document and support the complete life cycle of products, has gained acceptance in recent years from industries, such as textile and consumer goods.