Collaboration off the shelf

Major software suppliers are using their experience supporting aerospace customers to develop solutions that make suppliers more efficient.

Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) software has been around for a few years now, and Product Data Management (PDM) applications even longer. Because the investment required to implement either is substantial, it has so far been mainly major corporations that have been able to reengineer their processes to be more efficient. Software developers and implementation consultants have learned a great deal from this journey toward working collaboratively.

Now, that experience is being coded into new products to provide customers with the benefits of that knowledge, and not rely on companies adapting general-purpose tools to their needs. One method is to develop specialty tools for specific industries, and another is to introduce a suite of products that share data easily from concept design through manufacturing. A consistent theme from all the developers is the need to manage product data effectively. And that smaller manufacturers and suppliers are the future of innovation.