The maturity of Product Lifecycle Management in Dutch organizations A strategic alignment perspective

Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is increasingly important for organizations acting in dynamic and competitive markets. In practice however, companies struggle with adopting and implementing PLM. PLM is rather a concept than a system, as its main premises are to improve competitive advantage through agility and innovation. The concept implies structural, crossfunctional and long-term cooperation between actors inand outside the firm. This complexity hampers the achievement of a solid PLM approach that truly integrates all organizational aspects and levels. The central aim of this paper is to develop a framework that supports such an integrative PLM approach. This framework builds upon insights from business/IT-alignment and capability maturity. It is made suitable to assess organizations that are in different stages of adopting, implementing or evaluating PLM. The results of a first empirical assessment of 23 Dutch organizations are presented. This data set is used to empirically validate the framework and to provide benchmark data. The framework and benchmark data provide a basis for a PLM roadmap towards competitive advantage.