For many manufacturers, PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) is still mostly seen as document management or CAD. At the Tech For Industry Show, Jean-Pierre Tirault, Managing Director (Transition Technologies PSC), the French subsidiary of a group of Polish origin and a major partner of US vendor PTC, presented a broader vision: an enterprise PLM able to connect the design, production and after-sales of an industrial product.

PLM refers to the full set of solutions used to manage an industrial product's lifecycle, from design to production, through sales and after-sales — tracking, repairs, warranties. Transition Technologies PSC distinguishes this from ALM (Application Lifecycle Management), which covers the software applications involved in implementing PLM.

Transition Technologies PSC works with PTC at three levels: it is embedded within the vendor's R&D teams (giving it early visibility on upcoming product developments), it handles the integration of PTC solutions at customer sites, and it also acts as a reseller. The company has seven competency centers, two of which were highlighted during this session: PLM and artificial intelligence. The other five cover Industry 4.0, custom software development, cybersecurity, augmented reality (for remote maintenance) and public or private cloud hosting.

Transition Technologies PSC cites references in automotive (Audi, BMW), wind power (Vestas), industrial equipment (Fayat), as well as defense, energy, telecommunications, medical devices and luxury watchmaking.

Jean-Pierre Tirault describes a maturity path followed by most of Transition Technologies PSC's clients.

Most manufacturers start out with mechanical CAD, electronic CAD and basic document management — generally referred to as PDM (Product Data Management).

The next stage introduces collaboration between engineering departments, bill-of-materials management (parts management), and project-based planning of the various design activities. This is the most common maturity level among clients who have already moved from PDM to PLM.

The final goal, enterprise PLM, adds several dimensions: the link between design and production (often a friction point when these two worlds use disconnected systems), supplier and production bill-of-materials management, compliance with regulatory or environmental standards and constraints, quality management (reducing scrap), and finally after-sales tracking — warranties, returns, repairs.

Beyond document management, a need that comes up very often among clients: connecting PLM to the company's other systems, particularly the ERP, in order to designate a "master" system and avoid any data duplication between teams. Transition Technologies PSC also supports its clients on migrations to Windchill (PTC's PLM solution) and version upgrades.

To illustrate his approach, Jean-Pierre Tirault uses the example of an onshore wind turbine manufacturer, structured around three main assemblies: the tower, the blades, and the power production/distribution system.

Tower construction varies depending on the site's topological conditions (wind, terrain): height and steel type differ from one site to another, which falls under an engineering-to-order logic.

The blades, meanwhile, follow more standardized production methods, but with variable dimensions (between 45 and 100 meters, 14 to 20 tons, manufactured as a single piece) adapted to the site's topology and wind type — with significant transport logistics challenges.

This client made PLM, rather than ERP alone, the foundation of its corporate strategy, notably to be able to react quickly in the event of an incident on a blade (precisely identifying where the incident occurred, rerouting a replacement part, and getting the turbine back into operational condition).

Transition Technologies PSC's support is structured around four main scoping steps with the client: defining the product's composition and requirements, understanding its sales model (for example configure to order, similar to a laptop configured at the time of order, sold directly or through distributors), understanding its production model (single or multi-site, design in Europe or the US and production in Asia, for example), then defining the after-sales strategy (full replacement or targeted repair of a component).

Operationally, the company steps in upstream through a consulting phase, then on managing the necessary PLM and ALM applications, with a recurring objective: helping clients rationalize environments that often include several CAD, PLM or MES systems, rather than replacing everything. Deployment can be done in SaaS mode (public or private) or on-premise, depending on client needs, with ongoing support and maintenance.

In conclusion, Jean-Pierre Tirault discusses the arrival of agentic AI in PTC's PLM (Windchill) and design (Creo) tools. Unlike traditional AI, agentic AI is presented as capable of defining a list of tasks in natural language and executing them, while keeping a human in control of their execution.

Enterprise PLM, as presented by Transition Technologies PSC, goes beyond CAD and document management to cover the entire product lifecycle: design, production, suppliers, quality, compliance and after-sales. The onshore wind turbine example clearly illustrates how a comprehensive PLM approach can handle both the customization driven by each site's constraints and the responsiveness needed in the event of an incident after commissioning.

Watch the full session, along with the other Tech For Industry Show replays, on our dedicated page.