Bangalore: SAP has announced the availability of SAP Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) across Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) region. SAP had committed to support Asian manufacturers' investment in product innovation to ride the economic crisis for future growth. "Innovative players who differentiate themselves will come out of the crisis stronger, as quickly as manufacturers who have been hit hard by the crisis, shutting down operations. What will fuel their growth in the next 2-3 years will be their ability to innovate and accelerate product and service leadership." said Saj Kumar, Vice President, Discrete Manufacturing, SAP, APJ region.

A study by Manufacturing Insights, an IDC company found that most manufacturers are keen to improve PLM processes that drive new product introduction, process control, and demand planning. PLM is getting increasingly important for manufacturers to improve their entire product lifecycle, from product conception through manufacturing, in service support and finally end of life disposal. "Leadership in companies will drive this initiative for increased efficiency across the entire product lifecycle. If companies get this right, they have a real advantage over their competitors," says Joe Barkai, Practice Director at Manufacturing Insights.

SAP, with a strong manufacturing customer base in the Asia Pacific and Japan regions, is confident that its PLM roadmap will enable manufacturing companies to accelerate product innovation. Part of the SAP Business Suite, SAP PLM provides manufacturers with 360-degree-support for all product-related processes - from the first product idea, through manufacturing to product service. To do that companies have to manage an end-to-end process from design and engineer to deliver product innovation, all the way to supply chain management and collaboration with their global suppliers, customers and business partners. Effective PLM is core to this, especially when going global means complying with myriad quality and industry standards from around the world.