Collaborative product development at a global scale: The role of PLMIT solutions

Globalisation is not only a manufacturing question, but it is a complex phenomenon affecting also the world of product development. Global Product Development (GPD) is a unified product development process where design teams work collaboratively on a single process or product across multiple geographic locations; this process often involves countries with a low-cost labour structure. Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) Information Technologies (IT) are playing their role in GDP, allowing product data sharing among distributed engineering centres. Many multinational companies are tightly investing for adopting the most advanced PLM solutions. Even if GDP seems to be a phenomenon only for big companies, also some Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are facing it, supported by PLM techniques. The present paper aims at investigating the relationship existing among GDP and PLM in Italian companies, presenting the results of an empirical study conducted in 21 enterprises.