For today’s industrial enterprises, the pace of business is accelerating at an astonishing rate. Product complexity is increasing. Facing fierce competition, automotive and aerospace manufacturers are using innovation to win new programs and customers. Nearly all competitive product characteristics are determined during the design stage. Generally, 80% of the product’s final cost is committed during the conceptual design phases.
Industry experts predict that the demand to develop more complex products with the same or fewer resources will continue. Manufacturers are striving to spur innovation, improve efficiency and cut costs by deploying new and innovative forms of collaboration, in particular with their partners and suppliers. The winners in the marketplace will be those who have a flawless execution of the right strategy. But this puts tremendous pressure on the engineering departments of manufacturers and suppliers and is straining the information technology (IT) infrastructures that support them.
