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This paper presents the results of a survey on the practices, problems, performance and trends in the product development process (PDP) management of the Brazilian autoparts industry. Last decade, this industry underwent a broad process of restructuring following the deregulation of Brazilian economy. In general, there is: a wide dissemination of PDP reference models, but they are partly implemented; application of methods and tools to problem solving, but they are poor integrated; use of development teams to carried out the tasks; integration with automakers; and, there is a lack of PDP performance measurement.

In the global economy, the companies' competitive advantage is directly connected with its capacity to develop new products. So, the professionals' formation, which is part of this development, needs to be one of the main concerns of the companies. This is necessary for the benefits of the techniques and tools of Concurrent Engineering, as well Concurrent Engineering itself, to be extracted. In this context, it was developed at the Integrated Model Factory), at USP/São Carlos, an Environment that uses new education methods to form professionals with knowledge to face these new challenges.