Introduction:
Every product will have a life cycle which is called PLC and maintaining the life cycle using technology in a systematic process is called a Product Life Cycle Management System (PLC). Every product shall have an expiry date. Any product management, right from the introduction to disposal is called PLC. It helps companies to increase profitability by selling products within expiry dates. If companies don’t have systematic expiry dates process management of their products leads to having a huge quantity of stocks without a sale and for disposal which is a loss for any organization.
If we see apparel, accessories, etc., usually companies sell products with discounts and offer if their products are going to expire in the near dates. There are products that cannot be sold using discounts and offers and a few of them are medicines etc., where companies have to dispose of the expired medicines is a process defined by the pollution control board etc.,
The entire product management cycle consists of five important steps they Stage of product development, the Stage of Introduction of the product to the market, the stage of growth which can also be called sales, the Stage of maturity, and the final stage id decline or disposal. Every product and service will have all these five steps irrespective of the company size and volume. It is not mandatory to follow these five steps exactly where based on products and companies’ strategies they can also be further divided into smaller steps.
Objectives of the study:
- The understanding of the concept of PLC.
- The process of PLC management system.
- How PLC helps organizations to increase their profits or to control losses.
- How technology is incorporated in PLC.
- The practical applicability of PLC and analysis.
Scope of the Study:
The scope of the study is to understand the concept of PLC and it can be designed using technology with well-defined systems and processes. The examples of a few real-time companies and their case studies shall also be studied, and the findings and the conclusions shall be derived, and the scope is limited to study using books, articles, journals, and case studies.
Need of the Study:
The success of any organization depends on the performance and sales of its products or services. There are many areas where organizations operate and one of the important and crucial areas is managing the product life cycle. Unless companies have the data pertaining to the expiry dates of their products with alarming pop-up mechanisms etc., companies will not have any clue and finally, products shall remain expired before sales within timelines, if the pop-up mechanism is there then the companies can sell their products with various strategies like offers, discounts, etc. if the product expiry dates are coming close. Hence there is a huge need for studying this concept called PLC management system.
Limitations
Every study shall have limitations and the limitations in this research are:
- Time is one major constraint
- The availability of data where in case of studies there may be many aspects that might have been included in that particular case study.
- Working on Applicability in industry type could not be done
Research Methodology
Denscombe (2007) cited that a social analyst can make use of a variety of surveys to perform this. While carried out, however, the alternatives have the tendency to rotate around the philosophy of qualitative and quantitative research the primary data and the secondary data were collected through books, journals, articles, and other internet sources and the same is applied by talking case studies of different companies and finally the findings and recommendations along with conclusion were given. The future scope of further research is also given in the conclusion chapter. This research is qualitative research.
Conclusion
Except in product development, stage rest of the stages the price, promotion, distribution, sales, market share, competition, etc., plays an important role. Companies can sustain themselves only if they follow the technology-driven product life cycle. The key components of PLC are Strategic goals and competitive analysis of Product, price, Promotion, Logistics, and Distribution at all stages of PLC which are product development, Introduction, growth, Maturity, and decline. Their PLC management should be done using technology which shall enhance quality in strategy at all levels of the PLC.
There should be a separate standard operating procedure and policies which should have guiding principles and which shall help companies to develop and execute PLC to have sustainability, consistent growth, and increase in profitability. There are so many organizations that were there in our childhood but do not exist now. The products which are there in our childhood are not there now. Landline phones are rarely seen, and the big and remote TV is not there now, which clearly shows that every organization should have well-defined PLC in place.