Manage product lifecycle overview
Applies to: Dynamics 365 Business Central, Dynamics 365 Commerce, Dynamics 365 Customer Service, Dynamics 365 Field Service, Dynamics 365 Sales, Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management
This article describes how organizations can use Dynamics 365 to manage the product lifecycle of tangible products. This business process area can cover tasks such as the following list:
- Buying
- Selling
- Trading
- Distributing
- Manufacturing
- Consumption in services and maintenance
Management of the product lifecycle within an organization is of paramount importance for businesses that deal with tangible products, whether they are involved in buying, selling, distributing, or manufacturing. Strategic orchestration of the product lifecycle ensures optimal efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and customer satisfaction.
When organizations use Dynamics 365 to maintain product information, the system plays a pivotal role by seamlessly integrating various products, such as Dynamics 365 Customer Service, Sales, Field Service, Project Operations, and Supply Chain Management. This comprehensive integration provides a unified approach and enables organizations to streamline operations, enhance collaboration, and make informed decisions throughout the entire product lifecycle.
The process of managing a product's lifecycle involves several critical business processes, each of which contributes to the overarching success of the data and downstream process. These business processes include analyzing product margins of products that are sold or produced. Many signals can come from upstream processes in the case-to-resolution process. These processes send signals that inventory should be removed, or that item usage should be restricted in sales, procurement, production, or servicing operations.
For organizations that manufacture products, it's critical to ensure that you:
- Define and document clear engineering policies.
- Maintain accurate product versions and details.
- Process the requested changes with rigor to ensure compliance with established policies and regulations.
Furthermore, the capability to seamlessly request, process, and retire a product underscores the agility and adaptability that Dynamics 365 affords.
Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management includes robust product information management capabilities that seamlessly integrate with other products in the suite. Therefore, organizations can navigate the complexities of the product lifecycle with precision and ensure sustained success and adaptability in the dynamic business landscape.
The business processes for managing the product lifecycle in a Dynamics 365 implementation should be addressed in the early to mid-design and configuration stages of the project.
Stakeholders
Many people across the organization should contribute to the decision-making process and design of the manage product lifecycle business process area. The following list provides examples of such stakeholders:
- Product management and engineering stakeholders: Product managers are responsible for overseeing the entire product lifecycle. They collaborate with various teams to ensure alignment with organizational goals. Product engineers should be engaged in defining and maintaining product engineering policies. They play a key role in the design and development phases.
- Supply chain and inventory management stakeholders: Supply chain managers should be involved in analyzing product margins, determining inventory removal, and managing the overall supply chain to optimize efficiency. Inventory managers are typically responsible for tracking and controlling the flow of goods within the organization to ensure optimal inventory levels.
- Quality assurance stakeholders: These stakeholders include quality assurance specialists. They are involved in testing and validating product changes to ensure that the implemented modifications meet the specified criteria for quality and compliance.
- Operations stakeholders: These stakeholders include operations managers. They are responsible for overseeing the day-to-day activities that are related to product manufacturing and distribution, to ensure smooth operations throughout the lifecycle.
- Finance stakeholders: These stakeholders include the financial analyst or cost accountants. They are typically involved in analyzing product margins and financial implications of product lifecycle decisions. Therefore, they can provide valuable insights for strategic planning.
- Compliance and regulatory stakeholders: These stakeholders include compliance officers. They are typically designated to ensure that all product engineering changes comply with regulatory standards and industry requirements. In this way, they mitigate legal and compliance risks.
- Customer service stakeholders: These stakeholders include customer service representatives. They play a crucial role in gathering customer feedback and insights. Therefore, they can provide valuable input into product improvements and changes.
Manage product lifecycle process flow
The following diagram illustrates the manage product lifecycle business process area.
Each solid gray rectangle on the diagram represents an end-to-end business process. The solid blue rectangle represents the business process area. The diagram shows the subprocesses for the business process area. The arrows on the diagram show the flow of the business process in an organization. If a subprocess can lead to more than one other subprocess, the parallel subprocesses are shown as branches.
Start
Parallel branches from Start include the following end-to-end processes:
- Case to resolution, which connects to Manage product lifecycle
- Order to cash, which connects to Analyze product margins
- Inventory to deliver, which has parallel branches that connect to Determine inventory removal and Restrict item use
- Plan to produce, which has parallel branches that connect to Determine inventory removal, Restrict item use, and Define product engineering policies
- Source to pay, which connects to Define product engineering policies
Design to retire
Parallel branches from Design to retire include the following:
- Manage product pricing, which connects to Analyze product margins
- Define product costing, which connects to Analyze product margins
Introduce new products
Manage product lifecycle
Analyze product margins
Parallel branches from Analyze product margins include the Manage product pricing and Define product costing business process areas that are shown under the Design to retire end-to-end process.
Determine removal of inventory
Parallel branches from Determine removal of inventory include the Define product catalog and strategy business process area that is shown under the Design to retire end-to-end process, and the Inventory to deliver end-to-end process.
Restrict item use
Is manufactured?
The Yes branch connects to Define product engineering policies.
The No branch connects to Is retirement required?
The Yes branch connects to Retire a product, which connects to End.
Parallel branches from Retire a product include the Define product catalog and strategy business process area that is shown under the Design to retire end-to-end process, and the Inventory to deliver end-to-end process.
The No branch connects to Maintain product versions.
Define product engineering policies
Maintain product versions
Request product engineering changes
Process product engineering changes
End
Other connections to End that are shown include Manage product pricing, Define product costing, Define product catalog and strategy, and Inventory to deliver.
Manage product lifecycle benefits
There are many key benefits that can be used to monitor and measure the success of implementing technology to support the manage product lifecycle business process area. The following sections outline the key benefits that an organization might monitor and measure for managing the product lifecycle.
Enhanced operational efficiency through streamlined product information management
You can use the Product information management (PIM) module in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management to efficiently consolidate and manage product data. The centralized repository that it provides for product information helps you reduce data redundancy, minimize errors, and ensure consistency across the entire supply chain. This streamlined approach enhances operational efficiency and helps teams make prompt, informed decisions.
Key performance indicators (KPIs) such as data accuracy rates and time saved in information retrieval underscore the tangible benefits of using Dynamics 365 PIM and contribute to a more agile and responsive organization.
Agile adaptation to market demands with engineering change management
The Engineering change management module in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management facilitates quick and effective responses to evolving market demands. Organizations can swiftly initiate and implement engineering changes to ensure that products are aligned with the latest market trends or regulatory requirements.
KPIs such as the speed of change implementation and the reduction in product recall incidents demonstrate the module's effectiveness at enhancing adaptability and minimizing risks that are associated with outdated products.
Cost optimization through analyzing product margins
The ability to analyze product margins in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management or Sales helps organizations make informed decisions about pricing, production, and inventory management. By understanding the profitability of each product, businesses can optimize pricing strategies, identify cost-saving opportunities, and prioritize high-margin products.
KPIs such as gross profit margins and cost-to-revenue ratios provide quantitative measures of the financial benefits that are derived from using Dynamics 365's analytical capabilities for better cost management.
Efficient inventory management and reduction of holding costs
Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management facilitates precise inventory management, so that organizations can optimize stock levels and reduce holding costs. The system's features enable real-time tracking of inventory movements to minimize the risk of overstock or stockouts.
KPIs such as inventory turnover rates and holding costs as a percentage of revenue showcase the tangible benefits of maintaining an efficient and cost-effective inventory through Dynamics 365.
Improved product lifecycle visibility and decision making
Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management provides comprehensive visibility into the entire product lifecycle to enable informed decision making at every stage. From product design to retirement, organizations can access real-time data and analytics to foster proactive decision making.
KPIs such as decision cycle times and the accuracy of decision outcomes reflect the improved decision-making capabilities that Dynamics 365 facilitates and that contribute to overall organizational agility and competitiveness.
Next steps
If you would like to implement Dynamics 365 solutions to assist with your manage product lifecycle business processes, you can use the following resources and steps to learn more.
Manage product lifecycle (the article that you're currently reading).
Related information
You can use the following resources to learn more about the manage product lifecycle process in Dynamics 365.
Engineering change management overview - Supply Chain Management
Find definitions of terminology that is used in content for manage product lifecycle in the Glossary of terms in Dynamics 365 business processes article. For example, this glossary includes the following terms:
Contributors
This article is maintained by Microsoft. It was originally written by the following contributors.
Principal author:
- Rachel Profitt | Principal Program Manager, Microsoft