PLM in Engineering Education: Purpose and Challenges

The topic of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) should be nowadays part of any engineering degree course in every university worldwide. In an increasingly digital and connected world, students and prospective engineers need to know the interrelationships of holistic product development. Excellent expertise in a discipline such as mechanical engineering is still necessary, but no longer sufficient. This article explains why this is the case and what universities can do to address this issue. It describes in detail the PLM course of the OWL University of Applied Sciences and Arts located in Lemgo, Germany. In addition, suggestions are made on how to improve the course content, based on many years of experience. As such, this article is a valuable source of information for anyone teaching PLM today or intending to do so in the future.