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Today's engineers must meet program management demands within the context of the challenges facing the industry as a whole. Resource scarcity, both people and capital, is forcing the automotive industry to optimize the deployment and consumption of enterprise resources. As globally dispersed project teams become more commonplace, efficient and effective communication across geographies is critical. Market segmentation and technology are influencing how well manufacturers deliver products within performance and timing guidelines. Future success means providing global engineering teams with state- of- the- art tools and processes to unify disparate business groups in a virtual workspace -24/7. The solution to this is Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), a strategic business approach that supports collaborative creation across the enterprise and all stakeholders. PLM solutions link information from different authoring tools and others systems to the developing product configuration.

Mechatronics development continues to be a challenge for automotive OEM's and suppliers. Multi-disciplinary collaboration and development is critical, especially as architectures and solutions evolve in the automotive industry to satisfy changing needs of the customer and environment. New approaches to mobility, sustainment, and infotainment create the need for new combinations of electrical, software, mechanical, and chemical know-how. Whereas most frameworks for requirements-driven model-based design support a single discipline, what is really needed is a framework for requirements-driven model- based design that can capture the multi-disciplinary architecture of the vehicle or system. This would and allow development organizations to then further decompose the objects in support of further refinement and validation.

For over 20 years, automotive manufacturers have been harnessing the power of 3D to help create, optimize and produce great vehicles. Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) capabilities such as concurrent development, seamless integration, simultaneous engineering, single source database, and real-time visibility have long been capable within the automotive development process. However, the reality is that these tools have existed for a select few within a corporation, and have never been pervasive to every person involved in a product’s development process. Today, there are certain market drivers requiring more from PLM technology. This includes the fact that companies must drive innovation to survive in today’s increasingly competitive and global auto industry.