About KnowPLM

KnowPLM is a small, independent site about Product Lifecycle Management, written for the engineers and programme leads who have to make these systems work in practice.

Why it exists

Search for almost any PLM topic and the first page of results belongs to the vendors — Siemens, PTC, Dassault and their partners, each explaining why the answer is their platform. That material has its place, but it is written to sell, and it is silent on precisely the questions that matter once a licence has been signed.

This site tries to fill the gap between the datasheet and the reality: what a migration actually costs in effort, where data models bend and where they break, why adoption stalls, and what you would do differently the second time.

What you will find here

• Implementation notes — scoping, migration, and rollout, with the failure modes included.
• Platform assessments — how the major PLM systems behave in practice, not on feature checklists.
• Product data and BOM — CAD integration, BOM structure, and change management at scale.
• Process and adoption — workflow design, governance, and the organisational side of a PLM programme.

Who writes it

KnowPLM is written by a working PLM practitioner and published anonymously. That is deliberate: the writing should stand on whether it is useful, not on a byline.

Everything here reflects personal experience and opinion only. It is not associated with, endorsed by, or written on behalf of any employer or PLM vendor.

Get in touch

Corrections, questions, and disagreement are all welcome — the contact page is the best route. New articles are announced through the RSS feed.