What does it take for manufacturers to achieve a competitive advantage in new product development? Our recent survey identified product innovation, product quality, and new product development (NPD) speed as the three most important drivers of that advantage. How do companies overcome the operational challenges standing in the way of improving all three?
Please enjoy an overview of our findings below.* For the full research, please visit our sponsor, SOLIDWORKS.
Table of Contents
- Turning Operational Challenges into Business Value
- What Drives a Competitive Edge
- Inefficiencies Lead to Product Development Delays
- Identifying Sources of Wasted Time
- CAD Data Creates Unique Challenges
- Collaboration Across Teams is Hard
- Ineffective Project Management
- NPD Project Management Lacks Maturity
- NPD Challenges Impact Business
- What Technology Manufacturers Have in Place
- PLM Drives NPD Performance
- PLM Delivers Business Value
- Cloud-based PLM Brings Additional Benefits
- Integrated Project Management Improves On-Time Delivery
- Identifying Top Performers in NPD
- Top Performers Have More Mature Data Management
- Top Performers Digitally Connect Engineering and Manufacturing
- Top Performers Digitally Streamline Processes Across NPD
- How to Gain a Competitive Edge with PLM
- About the Research
- Acknowledgements
Turning Operational Challenges into Business Value
Data Management is an Important Foundation
Manufacturers invest in engineering technologies to enhance product development performance. Core solutions such as Computer-Aided Design (CAD) and design data management deliver real value by improving design efficiency, data access, and collaboration.
Design data management addresses common engineering challenges by helping engineers find the right design data, reduce search time, avoid working from outdated information, and collaborate more effectively. However, our current research shows manufacturers still report missed launch dates, higher development costs, less time for innovation, and difficulty maintaining quality. In other words, while design data management delivers clear benefits, data management alone is not enough to address broader operational and business challenges.
PLM Drives Competitive Advantage
A company’s success depends on consistently bringing innovative products to market on time, within budget, and at the right quality, a challenge that only grows in the face of operational challenges.
To understand how manufacturers overcome these challenges, we surveyed 298 companies about what it takes to achieve a competitive advantage in product development. The research examines how PLM helps manufacturers improve processes, strengthen collaboration, and extend access to product information across the organization in order to advance product innovation, product quality, and new product development (NPD) speed, the three most important drivers of competitive advantage identified in the survey. Let’s take a look.
Inefficiencies Lead to Product Development Delays
Late Design Changes
It’s harder to achieve a competitive edge when engineers face inefficiencies. Well over half of respondents cite late-stage design changes as a reason for missing product development dates. Late changes are often a symptom of broader collaboration issues not only across design and engineering teams, but also between engineering and manufacturing, where misalignment and limited visibility lead to unnecessary rework and downstream disruption.
Wasting Time on Non-Value-Added Tasks
Close to half of the respondents report that wasting time on non-value-added tasks contributes to delays. Time spent on these activities takes time away from design work and meeting delivery dates.
Working with Outdated Information
Over 40% point to outdated information and rework from incorrect BOMs as other major sources of delay. Engineers then need to spend time identifying the source of the errors and making design changes to address them. An inaccurate BOM can also drive poor design decisions and quality issues, problems that often surface only in manufacturing, causing even greater delays.
Waiting on Suppliers
Waiting for supplier data is another cause of delay, cited by 41% of respondents. Engineers need supplier data to complete designs and testing, and when engineers must translate data between CAD systems, the extra step adds time and can introduce quality issues that further slow development.
Validating Regulatory Compliance
Close to a third lose valuable time validating compliance, likely due to hunting for documentation or piecing together information across multiple systems. Without easy access to traceable design data, meeting regulatory requirements takes longer, delaying launches and missing market opportunities.
NPD Challenges Impact Business
Missed Launch Dates
Product development challenges directly impact business performance. More than half of respondents miss launch dates, creating a ripple effect across the business. Sales slip, companies miss market windows, and competitors can launch first and capture market share. And when design teams stay on a project longer than expected, the next projects are delayed too.
Higher Development Costs
Close to half of the respondents say these challenges drive higher development costs, and over 40% see higher product costs. That pressures profitability and competitiveness. These challenges affect not only the business but also individual engineers. When costs run higher than expected, less money is available for engineering tools, additional hires, wage increases, and other employee benefits.
Less Innovation
The impact extends beyond schedules and costs. Nearly half of manufacturers report having less time to iterate and innovate. This is a sign that teams are consumed by rework, issue resolution, and non-value-added work. Less time for design iterations means less time for product optimization and performance improvements. Ultimately, when innovation suffers, so does revenue growth, competitiveness, and long-term resilience in demanding markets.
Lower Product Quality
At the same time, more than 40% of respondents say these challenges lead to product quality issues, which carry multiple consequences. Customer satisfaction and loyalty may decline, opening the door to competitors. Warranty claims and returns drive up costs, especially if quality issues lead to major recalls. In regulated industries, poor quality can mean greater regulatory scrutiny, fines or penalties, delayed approvals, and increased liability and risk.
Individually or together, these findings show that product development challenges are not isolated operational issues; they directly affect business performance, including revenue, profitability, and competitiveness.
PLM Drives NPD Performance
Better Processes
The survey results show PLM delivers improvements that closely align with the challenges manufacturers identified, evidence that PLM can play a significant role in addressing them and improving business performance.
Higher Productivity
A large majority report improvements in the process areas that drive engineering productivity: more current and accurate product data (61%), accurate BOMs (58%), faster engineering change cycles (51%), less design rework (47%), and less time spent on non-value-added tasks (43%). With PLM in place, engineers spend less time searching for information, reworking incorrect or outdated data, and facing late engineering changes. With less time lost to non-value-added tasks, they can run more design iterations, innovate more, and better meet quality targets.
Efficient Manufacturing Handoffs
Half of respondents cite a more efficient design-to-manufacturing handoff as a benefit of PLM. When engineering and manufacturing work together earlier and share accurate product information, issues surface sooner, reducing costly late-stage changes.
Better Data Security
More than a third of respondents cite better protection of product data and intellectual property as a key benefit of PLM. When engineers have common and secure ways to share information, they collaborate more readily with team members and suppliers, leading to better ideas and designs. Stronger security also reduces business risk by protecting valuable IP from unauthorized access or loss.
PLM Enhances Data Management Value
Collectively, the findings show that PLM’s value goes beyond better data management. Its operational improvements address engineering challenges such as late design changes, data inconsistencies, poor collaboration, and program delays. By creating a more structured, connected product development environment, PLM helps organizations improve operational efficiency.
Top Performers Have More Mature Data Management
Implement PLM with Integrated Data Management
We identified the top 28% of companies as Top Performers based on time to market, quality, innovation, and compliance. What do Top Performers do differently? We started with their technology choices. Over three-quarters of Top Performers have implemented PLM; however, research shows that PLM without data management is unlikely to be sufficient. Among companies with both systems, Top Performers are 27% more likely than Others to have PLM integrated with PDM. In fact, the poorer-performing companies, the Others, are 60% more likely to run a stand-alone data management system. The research suggests PLM with data management delivers the greatest benefits when integrated rather than run as stand-alone systems.
Share Design Data Outside of Engineering with PLM
We next looked at how Top Performers share information with people outside of engineering. Since most manufacturers already use a design data management system, Top Performers may gain their advantage in other ways. While sharing through a stand-alone PDM system is common for both groups, Top Performers are 16% more likely to share design data with those outside engineering through PLM. Top Performers are also much less likely to use ERP or informal, ad hoc methods to share design data downstream. Over half of Others exchange data through a shared network drive or folder.
How to Gain a Competitive Edge with PLM
Take Action Now
Addressing product development challenges is not something manufacturers should put off. Inefficiencies in product development undermine the ability to gain a competitive edge. The longer these issues go unaddressed, the more business performance may suffer.
Implement PLM with Integrated Data Management
Those who have PLM experience faster development, higher quality, and greater innovation. Top Performers are more likely to have PLM with integrated PDM. Since most manufacturers have already implemented design data management, it is unlikely to be enough to reach Top Performer territory.
For start-ups and smaller manufacturers, it is best to put the right scalable infrastructure, systems, and processes in place now. Implementing PLM after years of accumulating product design data is more expensive and more difficult. When data and processes are properly managed from the start, manufacturers are ready to grow with the business.
Consider Cloud PLM
Cloud PLM can be a good choice, especially for those concerned with IT overhead and resource constraints. Cloud delivers value faster, enabling teams to access new capabilities more quickly while avoiding major upgrade projects. Cloud provides proven security measures and the scalability necessary to support business growth.
Adopt Digital Connections
Use PLM to adopt new digital processes. Provide PLM and data access, and with proper security controls, to those outside of engineering. Manage engineering changes with structured digital workflows to streamline the change management process. Smooth the handoff between engineering and manufacturing by managing both the EBOM and MBOM in PLM, complete with comprehensive raw material details. And, leverage PLM to trace product design history, helping to ensure regulatory compliance, risk management, and internal knowledge transfer.
*This summary is an abbreviated version of the ebook and does not contain the full content. For the full research, please visit our sponsor, SOLIDWORKS (registration required).
If you have difficulty obtaining a copy of the research, please contact us.