Nokia Siemens Networks

From cradle to grave (and back again)

Managing product lifecycles can help breathe new life into business

In recent years product lifecycle management (PLM) has become a tool of great interest to corporate executives – primarily those focusing on environmental concerns and corporate responsibility.

But with its implementation many companies have now begun to realize the benefits of PLM even in their bottom line, as better control of the product lifecycle helps bring more efficient products to market more rapidly than ever before.

According to authors Antti Saaksvuori and Anselmi Immonen, whose Product Lifecycle Management describes this phenomenon in great detail:

The return on investment for PLM is based on broader corporate business value, specifically the greater market share and increased profitability achieved by streamlining the business processes that help deliver innovative, winning products with high brand image quickly to market, while being able to make informed lifecycle decisions over the complete product portfolio during the lifecycle of each individual product.

Saaksvuori and Immonen show in their well-researched book that companies can see economic as well as environmental benefits to better managing their product lifecycles.
Their research has led them to conclude:

… PLM can result in impressive cost savings, with many companies reporting pay-off periods of one or two years or less based solely on reduced product development costs. PLM also enables better control over the product lifecycle. This gives opportunities for companies to boost revenue streams by accelerating the pace at which innovative products are brought to market.

Nokia Siemens Networks is one such company embracing the idea that environmental innovation can drive real business benefits.

PLM is one way that Nokia Siemens Networks is helping operators to use their networks’ environmental performance to improve competitiveness, profitability and differentiation. It’s part of an overall environmental offering, which provides operators with:

• Low power consumption in products and solution

• Intelligent network and site design    

• Reduced footprint of products, enabling for more efficient transportation and installation

• Efficiency-improving software

• Usage of renewable power sources

• Sophisticated take back and recycling services

Many of these operator benefits grow out of our Design for Environment program, which helps ensure better system and product design, closer control of production processes and greater re-use and recycling of materials, thus reducing the overall use of natural resources, materials and energy.

To be sure, there is still plenty of room for improvement – in PLM and overall environmental impact of ICT. In Europe, for instance, electronic waste is growing at three times the rate of other municipal waste.

Once corporations begin to understand that PLM can improve their bottom line as well as their corporate and social responsibility, we should see this new this holistic philosophy cleaning up in all industries, not just ICT.

i. Saaksvuori and Immonen, Product Lifecycle Management, Berlin and Heidelberg: Springer Publications (2008)
 
ii. Ibid