Understanding PIM (Product Information Management system)

Product information management system is product based enterprise-data-management solution which enables its user to centralize all product information from heterogeneous systems to create a single view of product information

Many people who come from manufacturing domain think PIM and supply chain are interrelated, in some sense they are true but rarely do they know how they are related.

Their understanding can be depicted by the following diagram

Manufacturing->PIM->SCM

But the real flow is given below.It’s neither unidirectional nor bidirectional its infact circle which doesn’t have end point.

Manufacturing->PIM->SCM->PIM-> Manufacturing

Oracle, SAP and IBM all three are major player in PIM area

Who are the targeted customers?

1. Any one can say manufacturing industries should be targeted customers
2. Country like China, Japan, and South Korea which excels in electronic and automotive industries are its targeted customers.
3. Other developed and developing countries where manufacturing industries are blossoming are also its targeted customer.
4. Ecommerce Industries can be its biggest customer if we don’t bind PIM to geographical locations.

Its future

Product information management system has good future ahead as ecommerce industries are widening and other than Supply chain system they are also maintaining big warehouses full of inventories of different kind.

Vendors should not always look to look east policy and concentrate on (CHINA ,JAPAN or South Korea) but they should start focusing on emerging countries like India and Brazil too, which is going to be the major manufacturing hub. Automotive and electronic industries have seen sudden growth in these two countries.

In My Next Blog I will focus more on Domain aspect of PIM