Glossary · Category Shift
Searches for a “modern PLM alternative” usually surface another PLM, lighter to deploy, but still scoped to parts, documents, and CAD vault. Koddex is not that. It is an Engineering Operating System: the operating layer that owns the typed graph of requirements, BOMs, tests, baselines, risk items, supplier qualification, and audit trail. The legacy PLM becomes one federated input among others. This page is the procurement reference for that category shift, what changes, how migration works, where the cost moves.
Teams searching for a "modern PLM alternative" usually mean two different things at once: a lighter deployment, and a substrate that handles more than parts and documents. Koddex addresses both, but not by being a better PLM. It's an Engineering Operating System, the layer that turns engineering into operational excellence: it subsumes what PLM does, plus the requirements, tests, baselines, AI agents, and cross-discipline collaboration that PLM was never built for, making the infrastructure itself an industrial advantage.
Parts, BOMs, CAD vault, change control. Real value when scoped to that slice. Insufficient as the single substrate for a modern hardware program.
Requirements, components, BOMs, tests, baselines, risk items, supplier qualification, audit trail, AI agents, all typed entities on one graph.
Existing CAD vaults (heavy-weight PLM systems) keep doing what they do well. The Engineering OS holds the structure they all reference.
Most teams don't replace their legacy PLM in one cutover. They federate first, move active programs second, sunset the legacy seat last. Each step delivers value independently, there is no "wait 10 months until the migration completes".
Deploy Koddex in your tenant. Load the sector metamodel (MedTech / Aero / Nuclear / Robotics / Manufacturing / Infrastructure). Import the requirements list of one active program from the RM tool.
End-of-step state
One active program lives in Koddex alongside the existing PLM. Engineers can query both. No production cutover yet.
Connect the CAD vault (the existing PLM vault). Connect ALM (your ALM). Connect MES/ERP. The legacy PLM keeps writing CAD metadata; Koddex holds the engineering graph that references it.
End-of-step state
Bi-directional sync runs. The backbone is the typed structure; the legacy PLM is the CAD vault. Reconciliation jobs start to disappear.
Each new product line launches on Koddex as the system of record. Legacy programs continue on the old PLM until natural sunset. New baselines, audit trails, AI agent permissions all live in Koddex.
End-of-step state
The split is clean: legacy programs on legacy PLM, new programs on Koddex. Onboarding for new engineers stops requiring the old PLM client.
The dozens of scripts that synced PLM ↔ RM tool ↔ spreadsheets ↔ MES retire one by one as the backbone takes over the structural role. AI agents pick up the propagation work that consumed a configuration engineer.
End-of-step state
Engineering time spent on tool maintenance drops 40-60%. Audit prep drops to days. The legacy PLM's role shrinks to CAD vault.
Active programs all on Koddex. CAD vault migration is the only remaining task, done at sunset of each product line, not big-bang. Legacy PLM license renewal becomes optional.
End-of-step state
Legacy PLM license retired. Single engineering substrate. Migration paid for itself in license + admin cost reduction.
A 50-engineer hardware program. The numbers are illustrative; the structural shift is the point.