Most aerospace and defense executives think their companies would improve their ability to collaborate with suppliers in engineering and manufacturing design by making more use of product lifecycle management (PLM) processes, but few of them believe their companies are making significant progress in this regard. This was the main conclusion of a new survey on product engineering and manufacturing published ahead of the Farnborough International Airshow by Accenture (Chalet J/1). The survey found that 79 percent of executives accepted the case for improving performance through the application of PLM but only 21 percent rated their own companies as “good” at design collaboration with suppliers using these processes.
“The survey results are unsurprising,” said John Schmidt, managing director of Accenture’s North American Aerospace and Defense business. “The need for the industry to move data through the supply chain quickly is increasing and it will continue to increase. There is still much to do and it’s all about getting data into the hands of the assembly and support people.”
