Challenges in supporting product design and manufacturing in a networked economy: A PLM perspective

In this paper, we provide an overview of the changing design and manufacturing landscape in the 21 century that has come about because of the arrival of Information Technology (IT), a new disruptive technology, and the changing global conditions. Based on this overview and a review of the current state of IT for Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) support in the design and manufacturing sector, we identify the areas of need for standards. A review of areas covered by standards leads us to the development of an initial typology of standards and a potential path for bringing convergence of these standards in support of PLM. We make a case throughout the paper that given the nature of the task we need to aspire to create open standards with wide participation.