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Although much research is devoted to high reliability contexts, relatively few works focus on the reliability of more conventional processes in industry or services. In these more traditional situations of performance improvement, the criterion of reliability is often coupled with that of productivity. This article captures the contribution of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) technology to the reliability and productivity of new product development. Through a longitudinal case study within an industrial group of small appliances, we study the effects of PLM on productivity and reliability through explicit knowledge integration, routines and actors’ vigilance. We highlight the non-adversarial nature of productivity and reliability in two different contexts, co-development and internal development, and discuss the joint effects of PLM and of context on these two dimensions of performance.