The market is becoming more and more competitive as a result of technological improvement. Businesses must become resilient against rivals and relevant to customers. Therefore, before releasing any product on the market, the companies should develop some key strategic actions to meet this aim. Using free product lifecycle management software (or free PLM software) is an example. PLM software may be used to manage the entire product life cycle process, which can help you increase efficiency inside your company. With PLM tools, you may design and produce any type of product, from small consumer goods to huge manufactured goods.
Table of Contents
1. Arena PLM & QMS
With integrated cloud-based PLM and QMS technology, businesses can design, develop, and deliver innovative goods more quickly.
To combine electrical, mechanical, and software designs into a single solution, Arena also assists more than 1,300 sophisticated high-tech electronics and medical device customers globally. It provides the opportunity for everyone involved in the whole product lifecycle to collaborate, enhancing visibility and traceability. By streamlining procedures, automating review cycles, and lowering errors to boost profitability, this speeds up new product development (NPD) and new product introduction (NPI).
Your internal teams and external partners can use a complete product development platform to accelerate product launches while lowering costs, boosting profitability, and shortening the time to market with Arena’s tested cloud solutions.
2. OpenBOM
OpenBOM is a digital network-based free PLM platform that connects suppliers and manufacturers while managing product data. CAD files, Item Masters (Catalogs), Documents, Bill of Materials, Vendors, Production Planning, and Purchase Orders are all managed by OpenBOM. OpenBOM links the many data silos in your company (including CAD, Bills of Material, POs, ERP/PLM, and more) into a single, manageable connected process.
3. Teamcenter
With a digital thread for innovation, Teamcenter software unites people and processes across functional silos in a contemporary, adaptable and free product lifecycle management (PLM) system. Because of the unequaled depth and breadth of the Teamcenter offering, you can overcome more of the difficult problems necessary to create very successful solutions. People across the business may participate in the product development process more simply than ever before because of the simple, intuitive Teamcenter user interface. You receive the same tried-and-true solutions created to help you develop more quickly regardless of how you choose to install Teamcenter, whether it be on-premises, on-cloud, or SaaS offered via Teamcenter X.
4. Propel
Propel’s Product Value Management platform, which is built on the most reliable business cloud platform in the world, enables businesses to completely engage their entire value chain throughout the product lifecycle. A single platform provides the company with the data, insight, and context required to effectively build winning solutions, commercialize them, and resolve difficulties. As a result, businesses can produce better products more quickly, acquire new clients, and increase profitability.
5. Duro
The remote hardware engineering and production teams are empowered by Duro’s- a corporate and free PLM software to improve their product data management, create a dependable supply chain, and quicken product development. Duro uses software automation, which is as simple to use as a spreadsheet, to boost employee productivity and lower the risks involved in designing and producing hardware products. Engineering teams may communicate more productively with their suppliers and reduce the time it takes to get a product into production by using simple revision management for BOMs, CAD files, and supply chain data.
6. Backbone PLM
Backbone, a platform used by top consumer goods firms, assists fashion and clothing brands in transforming ideas into products more quickly, efficiently, and at scale. The cloud-based software is perfect for rapidly expanding businesses that design and manufacture clothing, accessories, outdoor, home, and luxury goods, among other things.
Backbone’s platform, which was created to improve the efficiency of the production cycle, includes limitless custom fields, line sheets, a tech pack maker, an image annotator, a bill of materials, connected libraries for product and component data, palettes & colors, reports, and more. Whole teams may transition from manual data tracking to digital speed thanks to these tools and practical integrations.
7. Odoo MRP
Odoo’s unique database provides a completely integrated solution for MRP, Quality, Maintenance, free PLM, and much more. Odoo MRP enables multi-level precise BOM tracking that integrates with your entire product catalog and inventories.
Utilizing work centers, operations, and thorough procedures, organize, simplify, and streamline production. With the help of Odoo’s real-time reporting, you can easily handle cost analysis, time tracking, and lot serial number traceability.
Odoo includes all the tools you could need for effective manufacturing process management. Real-time communication, work center control, shop floor automation, and advanced reporting will all benefit from this MRP. Additionally, it will optimize your inventory levels, but that is just the tip of the iceberg!
8. Aras PLM
For digital industrial applications, Aras offers a stable platform. For the engineering, manufacture, and maintenance of complex products, only Aras provides open, low-code technology that enables quick delivery of adaptable, upgradeable solutions. Users from various disciplines and departments can access essential product data and procedures throughout the product’s lifecycle and the extended supply chain thanks to Aras’ platform and product lifecycle management applications. Aras supports more than 350 multinational customers from across the world and more than 250,000 users from its headquarters in Andover, Massachusetts, and significant locations throughout the globe. Downloading the Aras Innovator platform is free. A single subscription fee covers all applications and covers any upgrades made by Aras. Airbus, Audi, GE, GM, Honda, Kawasaki, and Microsoft are a few of Aras’ clients.
9. BOM Creator
BOM Creator is a SolidWorks, Solid Edge, and Inventor Add On tool that satisfies the ongoing demand for Bill Of Materials in many organizational areas. It is known as the best free PLM software which facilitates the rapid creation of big assemblies’ Bills of Materials. It not only manages standard BOMs but also aids in the creation of detailed lists based on the lead times for manufacturing parts and all the purchased products for the entire machine. It makes it possible to collaborate between Design, Production, Planning, and Purchase more successfully and to accelerate the entire manufacturing cycle.
10. Onshape
CAD, data management, and analytics are all integrated into Onshape, the exclusive cloud-native, and free product lifecycle management software. Designers and engineers can communicate and view their design papers using Onshape from any location and on any device, including a tablet and an iPhone. By removing the version-control problems and data loss associated with file-based CAD, Onshape enables teams to reduce time to market and delight their clients. Onshape is currently the CAD/PDM product development platform with the fastest growth rate in the world, expanding at a rate seven times faster than the general CAD market. Leading businesses throughout the world rely on Onshape to expedite and optimize their product development process, with more than 2 million users worldwide.
11. ACE
ACE is a user-friendly, one-stop shop Quality Management System that has been rated HIGHEST User Adoption by industry leaders. We may offer you greater cost savings than your existing provider with NO ADDITIONAL CHARGE for support, additional modules, or even upgrades. We have thousands of monthly users who trust ACE, and we offer everything from document management, and office 356 connection, to inspection management. Reach out to us right away for a free sample of cloud-based software that can be tailored to your highly regulated business, no matter how big or little!
12. Altium enterprise solutions
For component data, real-time sourcing data, component traceability inside designs, and cooperation with your mechanical design team, Altium-free PLM software solution offers a single source within the unified Altium Designer environment.
13. FusePLM
Using a cloud-based technology called FusePLM, engineering organizations may streamline their parts, bill-of-materials, documentation, and change management processes to enable them to release products to market more quickly. Reduce the learning curve and cut setup and training expenses with FusePLM’s user-friendly interface, flexible Kanban workflows, and AI-enabled chatbot, PLMBot.
14. 4G:PLM
For small to medium-sized (SMB) manufacturing businesses, 4G:PLM is a free product lifecycle management software (PLM) system that is Simple, Powerful, and Affordably priced. The Product Structure (BOM), Approved Vendor and Manufacturer Lists (AVL/AML), and the Change Process (ECO/ECN) are all managed by this Master Data Management solution. At a fraction of the price of rival systems’ software, implementation, and ongoing support, 4G:PLM maintains product data across the whole production process.
15. beCPG PLM
beCPG PLM is a free PLM software that manages finished products, recipes, raw materials, and packaging with their technical and regulatory data. It produces specifications for customers, R&D, and manufacturing. beCPG was created to manage the lifecycle of food and beauty products, speed up innovation, shorten time to market, and enhance product quality.
16. Knyo
Knyo is a PLM platform in the cloud for managing your product lifecycle successfully. It offers PLM capabilities like document management, workflow management, and part management with versioning. Additionally, Knyo assists businesses in effectively managing their product data from the early conceptual stage through design and manufacturing. This system can be easily accessed from anywhere at any time because it is cloud-based.
17. ShareAspace
ShareAspace is a cutting-edge collaboration software platform that enables companies and technical disciplines to exchange, manage, and secure product data. Bring design specifications, product information, BOMs, drawings, 3D models, purchase orders, modification orders, and more into the ShareAspace cloud to simplify partner collaboration procedures while simultaneously ensuring intellectual property protection for businesses. The ideal tool for quality managers, strategic buyers, or collaboration managers is ShareAspace cloud.
18. ClickUp
Work silos are eliminated with ClickUp, an all-in-one free PLM software. Teams congregate there to plan, arrange, and work together on projects utilizing tasks, Docs, Chat, Goals, Whiteboards, and other tools. ClickUp, which is quickly customizable with only a few clicks, assists teams of all shapes and sizes in producing work more successfully. Teams can save one day every week by using ClickUp to replace rigid and redundant tools!
19. Canny
Canny assists in gathering, compiling, and analyzing user input in one location so that you may make informed product decisions. Its duties also include setting priorities for feedback, creating a plan, and completing the communication loop with an integrated changelog.
20. Trello
Trello makes better week organization possible and is relatively easy to use. Additionally unique are the templates and sources of inspiration, sharing accountability, and ease of access/data sharing. Comparing Trello to other, more powerful options, it has shown to be a good collaboration tool. Trello is great if you need it for just yourself or a team.
21. Jira
With more than 15 years of experience in the agile community, Jira offers teams the greatest tools and best practices to lay the groundwork for success. Additionally, it is a great piece of free PLM software for increasing productivity and providing excellent development support. This software is incredible since it makes it incredibly simple to manage and keep track of newly created Bugs, Tasks, or Improvement requests.
22. monday.com
monday.com Work OS is a platform that can be customized where you can plan and manage the complete lifespan of your product in one location. The automation and the simplicity of teamwork across projects and boards are standout characteristics. Projects benefit from being organized, and it’s quite simple to monitor each one’s progress. Easy to use, adaptable, and functional, a top-notch product.
23. Wrike
A free product lifecycle management software called Wrike features templates for product launches, time tracking, Gantt charts, Kanban boards, and other features. Wrike has been great so far in keeping everyone on top of projects and assisting us in switching to a more natural workflow. This has been a great addition to the toolkits of our Projects Division and has contributed significantly to the accomplishment of various projects that we have managed through Wrike.
24. Airtable
Anyone can use the database Airtable, which has a lovely spreadsheet interface. This program is fantastic for working with non-Google users. Airtable is a godsend for our Sales and Marketing teams’ communication as well as for easy visibility (corporate-wide) into the many plans, calendars, and other items for those teams because of its smart capabilities. The coordination of all of the employees’ tasks was a significant accomplishment. It is necessary to restrain the urge to streamline operations to make them more user-friendly.
25. Quip
Quip is a cutting-edge of free PLM software for product management and task collaboration that incorporates checklists, spreadsheets, and documents into a single interface. Quip demonstrates how to preserve and easily organize all the documents in the business and departments. An excellent tool for any business owner to have, with a beautiful design overall.
26. Productboard
The customer-driven product management system called Productboard enables teams to bring the best products to market more quickly.
With the ability to link direct user feedback to certain features, it is an excellent approach to coordinate your plan with stakeholders. It can group insights into different categories, allocate them to users or businesses, and affix them to features or concepts on the roadmap.
27. Pivotal Tracker
It is a collaborative, portable, and free PLM solution that the leaders in agile software development have brought to you. The features that Pivotal Tracker offers are thoughtfully designed and are quite dependable. It works well for small teams that don’t have any prior project management experience and want to use a project tracking application.
28. Lucky Orange
More than 300,000 websites worldwide employ this website optimization tool. All plans include live chat, surveys, heatmaps, recordings, and more. It was simple to set up and operate, and the program includes several analytics tools that can aid in understanding user behavior by developers. In Lucky Orange, the session recorder is quite helpful.
29. Heap
Heap is the only tool that demonstrates every user action on your site or product and then offers advice on what to correct and how. Heap is a great platform for automatically gathering customer information. It records all of the customer’s actions, including the categories they looked under and the products they expressed interest in. It works well for making personalized reports and dashboards (Offers the ability to track almost everything). Creating flows is fairly simple.
30. Proteus
Proteus is a free PLM software tool with many features that is affordable and made to fulfill the demands of difficult projects. Time is saved, and it is simple, uncomplicated, and straightforward to use.
Summary
In today’s manufacturing environment, it is crucial to take care of a product over its whole lifecycle to increase organizational productivity. Free product lifecycle management software technologies give businesses solutions to be successful in the market. The free PLM software controls the processes involved in product conception, follows its development, and maintains a record of the comments made throughout product testing and design production. In custom software development process, PLM software solutions make it easy to track and share data along the product value chain, from initial design to production; supply chain management and operations as well as warranty and maintenance.
The list of free and open-source PLM software provided above will enable organizations to efficiently manage product life cycle in all phases, produce better-quality goods, and improve their chances of hitting cost and revenue targets.
