Product lifecycle management: What your team needs to know about data, quality, and regulation

GS1 research shows that 77% of consumers consider product information necessary when deciding what to buy, and many will pay more when the details you provide are accurate and complete. Early decisions about materials, suppliers, and safety shape the information your teams rely on as products move through development, launch, and service. Strong product lifecycle management helps you keep those details consistent, traceable, and ready for regulatory scrutiny.

In this article, you’ll get a clear view of how PLM works today, how it differs from a PIM solution, and why it acts as the information backbone across your product journey. You’ll also see the pressures driving PLM adoption, the traits of successful systems, and how Inriver strengthens your lifecycle data strategy.

When you implement a product lifecycle management system with these capabilities, you create the foundation for accurate product data that flows reliably from development into your commercial channels. The structure you establish in PLM becomes the backbone for everything that follows.

How does PLM differ from PIM?

PLM manages the engineering, technical, and regulatory information that shapes how a product is designed and built. PIM manages the commercial, channel-ready information your customers, partners, and regulators rely on at launch and beyond. 

You need both working together: PLM secures accuracy early, and PIM carries that accuracy into every market-facing environment.

Here is the table describing the five stages.

Teams often evaluate whether they need PLM or PIM, but the real advantage comes when both systems work together to keep data accurate from concept to customer.

How PLM supports the full product information backbone

According to a commissioned 2025 study conducted by Forrester, nearly one-third of manufacturers say they can resolve quality issues but cannot trace their root cause, revealing how easily product lifecycle management data becomes fragmented across teams. Greater regulatory scrutiny across materials, design, manufacturing, launch, service, and end-of-life increases the pressure on your upstream data to remain accurate.

Your lifecycle information now carries two responsibilities:

• Proving compliance with rules on sustainable materials, sourcing, repairability, and environmental impact.
• Supporting customer expectations for clear sustainability claims, maintenance guidance, and transparent product information.

As regulations like the digital product passport take effect across Europe and beyond, your product lifecycle management foundation becomes even more critical for compliance. You need to capture sustainability data, material origins, and traceability information from the start of your product journey, not scramble to assemble it later when regulators come calling.

PLM keeps those details structured from day one. Reliable engineering, supplier, and material data flow into the rest of your ecosystem. 

Manufacturers in the Forrester study reinforce this need. Many point to poor data quality limiting digital progress and supply chain pressures, making traceability harder to maintain. When your upstream data is consistent, every connected system gains the clarity it needs to support development, audits, sustainability reporting, and customer-facing experiences.

Why do businesses need a PLM system?

Every product decision you make creates a ripple. One late material change you approve can trigger new supplier negotiations. A missing compliance document can pause your manufacturing. A slow update to a technical spec can delay every downstream channel you manage. These delays stack quickly, and the cost lands on your team.

You feel these pressures most in three areas:

• Time to market
  Launch timelines keep shrinking while product variants and regional requirements grow. A single bottleneck in design data or approvals can push entire programs off schedule.
  
• Cost control
  Rework caused by inaccurate or outdated information becomes expensive fast. Correcting supplier inputs, resolving mislabeled components, or repeating testing cycles drains budgets that should support innovation.
  
• Regulatory and compliance demands
  Material disclosures, sustainability reporting, and audit-ready documentation now sit across the full lifecycle. Missing or inconsistent data slows approvals, increases risk, and limits confidence during audits.

A PLM system stabilizes these moving parts by keeping product information current as specifications evolve and giving your teams the visibility needed to avoid rework, delays, and compliance gaps.

You can see how this plays out in the AMAC example. With 12,000 SKUs and 47 stores, the company struggled to keep pace with Apple’s rapid release cycle until its product data ecosystem aligned. Connecting PLM-driven workflows with Inriver’s PIM cut launch preparation time by 50% and replaced manual updates with automated, reliable information flows.

“Without a PIM, you need to be an Excel expert. Otherwise, it’s time-consuming and inefficient. With the right PIM—and with AI to support it—your life becomes easier. It’s definitely worth the investment.”

– Raymond Timmer

Category Manager, AMAC

Read the full case study

When your lifecycle data works this way, you protect time-to-market, control costs, and meet compliance expectations without slowing your teams down, and every decision that follows becomes easier.

The role of PLM in the product ecosystem 

Early product decisions generate the information your wider ecosystem will depend on later. Material choices, supplier inputs, compliance reviews, and design updates all produce data that must remain accurate throughout development, launch, and service. 

Because your downstream systems rely on this foundation, PLM works as a data layer as much as a process tool. You’re shaping the technical information that PIM, ERP, quality systems, and customer-facing channels use to perform their jobs well.

As your products move closer to launch, product lifecycle management becomes the bridge between engineering and all systems that support selling, servicing, and regulatory reporting. Your product data management strategy takes over once technical data is stable, with PIM converting lifecycle details into channel-ready information that your shoppers, partners, and regulators expect to see.

PIM steps in at that point, converting upstream technical records into clear, channel-ready information for your shoppers, partners, and regulators.

Core elements that place PLM at the center of product data

1. A single source of truth for product foundations

Engineering specs, materials data, testing records, and approvals stay organized in one place. Once those details move into PIM, your commercial teams gain a downstream single source of truth built on accurate foundations.

2. Supplier data capture that strengthens quality

Certifications, material details, and component updates from suppliers flow into PLM rather than being scattered across fragmented documents. Strong supplier data capture gives your teams reliable information from the start.

3. Component-level traceability from day one

Design changes, part substitutions, and approval history remain visible across the lifecycle, supporting audits, investigations, and documentation needs.

4. Upstream and downstream visibility across systems

PLM provides the upstream accuracy your teams need before products move outward into commercial and regulatory environments. PIM then extends that visibility downstream, carrying clear product information across e-commerce, marketplaces, and customer touchpoints.

5. A backbone for compliance and sustainability reporting

Lifecycle data within PLM supports material disclosures, environmental reporting, and repair or recycling guidance without last-minute scrambles.

6. Data prepared for automation

Clean PLM inputs enable PIM and connected systems to automate updates and maintain consistency across channels.

What to look for in a PLM solution

Use the following checklist to evaluate your PLM system options. Look for capabilities that support your lifecycle processes and complete product data ecosystem.

• A unified product data platform
  Your PLM should centralize design files, materials data, change records, and approvals in one structured environment. This helps you connect data flows across engineering, quality, and commercial teams.
• Built-in traceability and compliance controls
  Strong versions, component history, and supplier documentation are essential. A capable PLM strengthens supply chain traceability and provides the records you need for audits, sustainability reporting, and regional compliance checks.
• Smooth integration with downstream systems
  Your technical data needs a clean path into customer-facing environments. Look for a PLM that offers reliable PIM integration, enabling verified lifecycle information to flow directly into enriched product content.
• Clear relationship between PLM and PIM
  Teams should understand how upstream design data transitions into downstream commercial data. A modern PLM supports full handoff and reinforces how PIM and PLM work together, eliminating manual rework.
• Analytics that reveal lifecycle performance
  Dashboards should show approval times, cost impact, change activity, and compliance status. When those insights flow into Digital Shelf Analytics, your commercial teams can react faster to issues that surface downstream.
• Scalability for product growth
  The system should handle expanding catalogs, new geographies, sustainability requirements, and more complex product structures as your business grows.
• Workflow automation
  Automated change requests, supplier updates, and approval chains reduce delays and keep your lifecycle moving at speed.

How Inriver enhances a PLM strategy

Inriver strengthens the connection between your product lifecycle management data and the commercial experiences your teams need to deliver. The platform turns verified product information into clear, enriched, and traceable content across every channel.

Key ways Inriver supports your PLM foundation

• Creates structured handoffs from PLM and reinforces how PIM powers the full journey.
• Moves upstream engineering and supplier data into Inriver without manual rework.
• Prepares PLM data for e-commerce, retail, translations, and sustainability needs, including Digital Product Passports (DPP).
• Carries component and materials information downstream, improving channel clarity and supporting DSA insights.
• Maintains consistent data for launch, service, repair, and retirement stages.
• Helps teams evaluate and align on tools when choosing a solution to meet both technical and commercial demands.

Get a firsthand look at how Inriver connects lifecycle data with enriched, channel-ready product information. Your team will see how the complete PIM solution supports accuracy, speed, and consistency across every stage of your product journey.