Group decision support for product lifecycle management

Pasley, Robert C.; MacCarthy, Bart L.

Abstract

Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems support industrial organizations in managing their product portfolios and related data across all phases of the product lifecycle. PLM seeks to enhance an organization's ability to manage its product development activities and facilitate collaboration across organizational functions and between organizations. Effective decision-making is vital for the successful management of products over their lifecycle. However, PLM decision-making is an under-researched area. We argue that decision-making theory and group decision support concepts can be brought to bear to enhance PLM decision-making processes. We present and justify a set of six principles to support decision-making in a PLM context. The paper highlights the need to consider and capture decisions as distinct units of PLM knowledge to support product lifecycle management. We derive a generic information flow and a group decision support structure for PLM decision-making that encapsulates the six principles. Three industrial cases are analyzed to illustrate the application and value of the principles in supporting decision-making. The principles enable PLM decisions to be codified, recorded, and reviewed. Decision-making processes can be reused where appropriate. The principles can support future innovations that may affect PLM, such as ontological and semantic reasoning and Artificial Intelligence.

Citation

Pasley, R. C., & MacCarthy, B. L. (2021). Group decision support for product lifecycle management. International Journal of Production Research, 59(16), 5050-5067. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2020.1779372

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 31, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Jun 22, 2020
• Publication Date: 2021
• Deposit Date: Jun 23, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 23, 2021
• Journal: International Journal of Production Research
• Print ISSN: 0020-7543
• Electronic ISSN: 1366-588X
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 59
• Issue: 16
• Pages: 5050-5067
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2020.1779372
• Keywords: Management Science and Operations Research; Strategy and Management; Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/4702841
• Publisher URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00207543.2020.1779372
• Additional Information: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in International Journal of Production Research on 22 June 2020, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/00207543.2020.1779372.