I am currently working on implementation of a Product Lifecycle Management
(PLM) system, the comments about the required effort and time are somewhat
accurate.

The single biggest hurdle to implementation of these types of systems is
that they usually end up being bolt-on additions to other systems that lack
required PLM functionality. It's commonplace for companies to jump into ERP
solutions without consideration for PLM. Add to the equation several other
afterthought-type systems established to handle issues not in the scope of a
standard ERP system.

Task: a system that ties all of the others together.

There's no "out of the box" solution that exists. The PLM systems I've been
involved with are all add-ons which provide functionality missing from the
corporate ERP system. The best system was Agile PLM on an existing SAP ERP
which was highly customized and took a dedicated implementation team about
24 months to complete. 

A few other PLM offerings:

ARAS (opensource)
Omnify
PDXpert
PDMLynx

Some have supported implementation paths with specific ERP systems, but all
will require customization for your specific needs.

Hth,
Dave

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