PLMClub
Research project

LitePLM — AI-native PLM for small engineering teams.

Most small engineering teams have to choose between an enterprise PLM platform that's too heavy and too expensive, or no PLM at all — usually a tangle of spreadsheets and shared drives. LitePLM is our attempt at a third option, built around agentic AI from the ground up so smaller companies can go to market faster — without an enterprise PLM in the way.

Currently in research · GA targeted late 2028 · pilot companies welcome
Motto

AI-native PLM, built for the companies that can’t wait.

Agentic AI, built in

AI agents handle the busywork of PLM — drafting change orders from descriptions, summarising long drawings, answering BOM and where-used questions in plain English, flagging risk before it becomes rework. Less time managing PLM, more time shipping product.

Lightweight by design

Every feature has to earn its place. We start from the smallest useful PLM and add only what small engineering teams actually need to ship product.

Modern stack, open interfaces

Built on ASP.NET Core, PostgreSQL and React — with clean REST APIs for everything. No proprietary middleware, no custom query languages, no gatekeeping.

Easy to run, affordable to own

Single-command Docker deployment. On-premises or cloud, your choice. Pricing aimed at teams of 5 to 50 engineers — sized to compete with spreadsheets and shared drives, not enterprise PLM.

Scope

What v1 will cover.

The first release focuses on the PLM fundamentals — done well, done modern, done with clean APIs.

  • Parts and BOM management with revision control
  • Engineering Change Orders and approvals
  • Document management with full versioning
  • Any-format CAD storage with browser-based 3D preview (STEP, STL, OBJ)
  • AI agents for ECO drafting, BOM Q&A, document summarisation and impact analysis
  • User, team and role-based permissions with single sign-on
  • REST and JSON APIs for everything — including the AI layer
  • Web-first UI with mobile-friendly PWA
Timeline

A deliberately unhurried timeline.

Honest milestones, not aspirational ones. We'll publish progress updates as each phase completes.

01 · Now → early 2027
Research

Domain modelling, schema design, UX exploration and interviews with small engineering teams about what they actually need.

02 · 2027
Build

Core platform implementation — Parts, BOMs, ECOs, documents, identity, REST and the AI layer.

03 · Early 2028
Pilot programme

A small number of volunteer companies running real engineering work on LitePLM, shaping it before anyone else sees it.

04 · Late 2028
General availability

Public launch, once the pilot teams tell us it is ready — not before.

Call for pilot companies

Would your team volunteer as a pilot?

We're looking for a handful of small engineering teams to pilot LitePLM on real work and tell us plainly what is missing. No cost, no commitment and no obligation to keep using it — pilot teams simply get to shape the product and use it free for as long as the pilot runs.

If that sounds like your team, write to us at admin@plmclub.com and tell us a little about what you make and how you manage engineering data today. We read every one.

Volunteer as a pilot