CAD and PLM is the group of software that an engineering team uses to draw a product, test it, prepare it for the machine and keep a record of every version of every part. CAD stands for computer-aided design, and PLM stands for product lifecycle management. Almost every manufactured product, from a car to a phone, is first designed this way.
The zone has six products, and a design passes through most of them in order. An engineer draws the part in computer-aided design (CAD). Simulation software (CAE) tests whether the part will bend, break or overheat, before any real sample is built. Computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) turns the design into the program that a cutting machine follows. Throughout, product lifecycle management (PLM) keeps every version of the design and a record of who approved each change.
Two more products serve particular needs. Packaging design software is used to design a carton or label and prepare it for the printing press. Should-cost analysis works out what a part ought to cost, so that a buyer can judge a supplier's price.
Different people use these tools. A design engineer works in CAD. An analyst runs simulation. A programmer in the workshop uses CAM. A purchase executive uses should-cost analysis. PLM is used by all of them, and it is usually bought by the whole company, not by one engineer. Without PLM, two engineers can work on two different versions of the same drawing, and the factory may then build the wrong one.
Consider a company that makes ceiling fans in Kolkata. Its engineers change the shape of a blade. The new shape must be redrawn, retested, reprogrammed for the cutting machine and recorded as a new version. Because these tools use the same design file, a change made in one place reaches all of them. This unbroken record is called a digital thread.
The finished design also goes to the factory, where a coordinate measuring machine (CMM) measures the real part against it, within the allowed engineering tolerance.