PIM vs PLM

What are the differences between PIM and PLM? This is one of the questions we hear frequently when starting a dialogue with a client who is considering introducing Ekr Orchestra, a method that is based on Ekr-Pim technology. PLM (Product Lifecycles Management) is a system dedicated above all to the creation of the product, therefore all the information necessary to ensure that the Technical Office designs the product in the most efficient way and that the interaction between the design and business objects of the IRP are always aligned. The goal of PLM is to ensure that the product is industrialized with maximum efficiency and that its costs are always aligned with business objects, components to be purchased, components to be produced, which have a defined cost. Sometimes documentary elements are also included within the PLM which, however, are to be considered as information aggregates that are not easy to distribute in a granular way.

Instead, PIM is a system often at the end of the PLM system, which allows you to collect all the information describing the finished product, such as the final technical characteristics, operating characteristics, operating modes or even more generic information such as guarantee, description of functional processes up to more specific information such as troubleshooting, maintenance procedures, maintenance tables or in the marketing field, information such as images, emotional images, detailed images, explanatory videos and so on.

This is the fundamental difference between PIM and PLM: PLM is used to build the product, PIM to collect the product information to be distributed to the world.