Introducing and operating a PLM system is a cost-intensive undertaking. According to PLM expert John Stark, half of all PLM projects end in failure. The networking of products and services via the Internet of Things (IoT) raises the question of whether PLM is now no longer up to the demands placed on it. Is PLM, as we know it today, on its way out, rendered obsolete by linked data, big data and self-learning systems? Or, to put the question differently, how will PLM have to change in order to provide companies with optimum support during their digital transformation?

PLM experts from user firms, software vendors, consulting companies and universities addressed these questions in a workshop and raised a variety of issues concerning "Future PLM" in order to prompt a discussion of requirements and possible solutions. The authors of this position paper are Sylke Rosenplänter (Opel), Bodo Machner (formerly BMW), Thomas Kamps (CONWEAVER), Karsten Theis (PROSTEP), Martin Eigner (Kaiserslautern Technical University) and trade journalist Michael Wendenburg. All of them agree that we need a new type of PLM.

This Position Paper comprises the 22 work out theses and invites all reader, to provide comments and discuss it in public.