ENGINEERING.

com

Research Report:
How Design Teams
Manage Product Data
Table of Contents

1. Executive summary
2. Which design teams use formal PDM systems?
3. What do design teams value in a PDM system?
4. Data management for seven design processes
5. Survey demographics

2
Executive Summary
In May we surveyed 151 product development professionals about how
they manage product data. Our analysis focused on the types of systems
used, how they were used, and the correlation between system types
and common product design failures.
The results of this analysis should provide design and development teams
information to help them benchmark their results relative to the industry.
Here are a few selected insights that we gleaned from the survey data:
• Approximately half (49%) of all respondents do not have a formal
PDM/PLM system.
• Design teams spend a surprising number of hours each week looking for
files and on other non-productive activities.
• Respondents were generally disappointed with their team’s performance
on seven measures of design process control, from sharing data, to ECOs,
to avoiding redesigning the same part.
• Respondents consider it extremely important to have an easy connection
between their CAD systems and their PDM systems.
The data supporting these findings are presented in charts and graphics in
the following pages. I would like to thank the survey participants for
generously sharing their insights.
We hope you find this research useful.

Thanks,
John Hayes
ENGINEERING.com

3
Which design teams use
formal data management
systems?
 Almost half of all product design teams do
not have a formal PDM system
There are numerous ways a product design and development team can
track product data. We asked respondents to select from a list of several
possible ways and then recoded that data into various levels of
sophistication.

PLM
13%
49%
38%

PDM No Formal
System
Q: “What type of system does your company primarily use to manage product
data?”

5
 Unsurprisingly, larger teams tend to have
more formal data management systems
We asked respondents how many people in their company needed access
to product development data and compared that to the level of
sophistication of their data management systems. What we found isn’t
surprising – the more people who need access, the more sophisticated the
system that is in place to manage the data.

Percent of Respondents with a Formal Data

Management System, Grouped by Number of
People with Access to Product Data
69%

45%

31%

1 to 5 people 6 to 50 people >50 people

Q: “How many people in your company need access to product data?” cross
tabulated with “What type of system does your company primarily use to
manage product data?” – Percent using formal PDM system shown.
6
 Number of locations also correlates to
having a formal PDM system
As shown in the table below, companies accessing product data from
multiple sites are more likely to use a formal system to manage product
data. Only 37% of companies with just one site use a formal system, while
63% of companies with 10 sites or more reported using formal PDM or
PLM.

# of Locations One 2-3 4-10 >10

% of Respondents Using a
37% 46% 59% 63%
Formal System

Q: “How many locations in your company need access to product data?” cross
tabulated with “What type of system does your company primarily use to
7
manage product data?” – Percent using formal PDM system shown.
 Certain industries, such as aerospace &
defense, have a higher level of PDM
adoption
Shared folders are the most popular product data management technology
amongst respondents, particularly in the consumer products & electronics
and engineering design services industries. Formal product systems are the
most popular amongst general manufacturing and aerospace & defense
manufacturers.

Types of Systems Used to Manage Product Data

by Industry
80%

64% 66%
56%
52%

36% 38%
33% 34%

20%
11% 10%

Eningeering Design Consumer Products Automotive Manufacturing - Aerospace &

Services & Electronics other Defense
None Shared Folder Formal

Q: “Which industry sector does your company primarily serve?” cross tabulated
with “What type of system does your company primarily use to manage product
8
data?”
What do design teams
value in a PDM system?
 Easy connection to CAD systems is
important or very important to 76% of
design teams
We asked respondents about certain common features of data
management systems. Of all the features mentioned, “easy connectivity to
your primary CAD system” received one of the highest rankings, indicating
that respondents felt that this was a very important attribute.

How Important is it that your PDM System is

Easy to Access from Within your Primary CAD System?
76%

14%
10%

Not Important Somewhat Important or Very

Important Important
Q: “How important is the attribute ‘easy to access from within your primary CAD
system’ of a data management system to your team?”
10
 71% also say that easy, secure external data
sharing is important
Respondents were aware of the risks of using email and FTP to share
product data outside the company. Modern PDM systems allow users to
share links to view-only models rather than sending the model file.

How Important is it that your PDM System allows

Easy, Secure External Data Sharing?

71%

18%
11%

Not Important Somewhat Important or Very

Important Important

Q: “How important is the attribute ‘allows easy, secure external data sharing’ of a
data management system to your team?”
11
 Respondents rated having a data
management system that is easily
adaptable to their workflows as important
or very important
Although there are general best practices for managing product data, every
company tends to evolve its own workflows to support its unique
processes. Accordingly, 71% of respondents said that it is important or very
important that their data management system be customizable to fit their
workflows without having to bring in an external consultant.

How Important is it that your PDM System is

Adaptable to Your Workflows Without External
Customization? 71%

22%

7%

Not Important Somewhat Important or Very

Important Important

Q: “How important is the attribute ‘adaptable to our workflows without external

customization’ of a data management system to your team?”
12
 Despite the importance of these three
features, not everyone reports having
them…
There is a gap between what survey respondents want from their data
management system and what they say they currently have. The table
below shows, for example, that while 71% of respondents rank “easy,
secure external data sharing” as important or very important, only 55%
reported that their current system meets that requirement.

% of Respondents
whose current PDM
Feature Degree of Importance
satisfactorily has the
feature

Easy connection to
CAD systems 76% 69%

Easy, secure external

data sharing 71% 55%
Adaptable to
workflows without
external 71% 56%
customization

Q: “How important are the following attributes of a data management system to

your team?” & “Please indicate your agreement with the following statements in
reference to your PDM system on a scale of strongly agree to strongly disagree” 13
 Almost half of product development teams
reported struggling to deliver new products
to market on time.
Just over half of survey respondents ranked their team as “Pretty Good” or
“Spectacular” at meeting product launch dates. The balance of nearly half
of respondents report that they struggle to meet these dates.

Success in Meeting Product Launch Dates

Pretty Bad
Rotten So-so
11%
Spectacular 32%
12%

42%

Pretty Good

Q: “Rate your organization’s success at launching products on time on a scale of

Rotten to Spectacular”
14
 Product team members report spending
significant time on non-productive activities

Average Hours Per Week

Sharing files with people who don't

have access to the PDM system

2.2
Hours Creating a new model because it is
faster than finding an existing one

2.6
8.9 Hours
Hours Reworking a model due to using the
wrong version

2.2
Hours
Looking for a file

1.9
Hours

Q: “How many hours per week does a typical design engineer in your company
spend …?”
15
 As product teams grow in size, an
“efficiency gap” emerges between those
teams with a formal data management
system and those without.
Formal product data management systems tend to be more valuable to
larger teams. The example below shows that the average time spent
looking for a file increases with the number of team members, unless
technology and processes are implemented to save that time.

Time Spent Looking for a File per Week

4 as a Function of Team Size
No formal system
3.5
Hours Wasted per Team Member

3
Δ = 1.94 hours
2.5

2
Formal system
1.5

0.5

0
1-5 6 - 10 11 - 20 21-50 >50
Number of Team Members

Q: “How many hours per week does a typical design engineer in your company
spend looking for a file?” cross tabulated with “How many people need access to
product data?” and aggregated by, “What type of system does your company
primarily use to manage product data? 16
Data management for
seven design processes
 Survey respondents gave their companies
failing grades when asked about sharing
product design data
We asked respondents about their success with several design processes
and issues. Almost half of design teams reported that their teams were
either “Rotten, Pretty Bad or So-so” at sharing product data for the
purposes set out below.

Success in Sharing Product Design Data

48% 47% 48%

Of product design teams are rotten, pretty bad, or only
so-so at…
giving purchasing accessing models securing product
personnel access to from another data that travels
design data to obtain location in their outside of their
quotes company product team

Q: “How successful is your company at the following things on a scale of Rotten,

Pretty Bad, So-so, Pretty Good, and Spectacular?” 18
 Companies with formal PDM or PLM
systems fared better at sharing product
design data
When it comes to sharing product data, having some type of formal system
correlates with reported success. In each of the processes queried, those
with formal data management systems reported superior results to those
teams using informal systems such as shared drives.

Success Sharing Product Data

Shared Drives vs Formal PDM/PLM Systems

62% 62%
57%
47% 44% 45%

Giving purchasing Accessing models Securing product

personnel access to from another data that travels
design data to location in your outside of your
obtain quotes company product team

Q: “How successful is your company at the following things on a scale of rotten,

pretty bad, so-so, pretty good, and spectacular?” Percent responding Pretty Good
or Spectacular is shown. 19
 Companies fared even worse on four other
common product development processes
Design teams reported having difficulty with four common processes.
These types of issues may stem from or be exacerbated by having poor
processes or systems for managing product data.

Percent of design teams reporting being rotten, pretty

bad, or only so-so at…

42% 51%
avoiding designing
managing change
the same part
orders
multiple times

57% 55%
implementing /
bringing new users
documenting
up to full fluency on
product
accessing product
development
data
workflows

Q: “How successful is your company at the following things?” Respondents saying

Rotten, Pretty Bad, or only So-so is shown
20
 Companies with formal PDM/PLM systems
performed better than companies who use
shared folders
Data management systems are designed to help product teams with several
processes, such as avoiding designing the same part multiple times, and
implementing more formal workflows. As expected, those companies that
have implemented formal data management systems report better
performance for these processes.

Success with Product Processes

Shared Drives vs Formal PDM/PLM Systems

63%
58%
52% 50%
46%
40% 40% 40%

Avoiding Managing Bringing new Implementing

designing the change orders users up to /
same part full fluency on documenting
multiple times accessing product
product data development
work flows

Q: “How successful is your company at the following things on a scale of rotten,

pretty bad, so-so, pretty good, and spectacular?” Percent responding Pretty Good or
Spectacular is shown. 21
Demographics
 Size of design teams
Survey respondents represented a wide range of size of product design
teams, from only 1-2 person teams up to 250 or more.

1-2
>250

17% 7% 3-5
14%
17% 17%
51 - 250
16% 12%
5 - 10

20 - 51
11 - 20

N = 151

23
 Job roles of respondents
Survey respondents spanned all job roles you would expect on a design
team, from technician to C Level executives, with the largest pool
representing engineers and senior engineers.

Number of Respondents by Job Role

Technician Engineer / Manager Director VP or

Sr. Engineer C Level

10% 60% 17% 5% 8%

N = 151

24
 Formal systems used
For those respondents who reported using a formal data management
system, SOLIDWORKS PDM was the most common, followed by Autodesk
Vault, Autodesk PLM360, PTC Windchill and Siemens Teamcenter.

Formal Data Management Systems in Use

Windchill
14% SOLIDWORKS PDM
29%
Teamcenter
13%

Omnify
1%

ENOVIA
6%

Autodesk
PLM360
Autodesk Vault 14%
23%

25
 Conclusions
Many product teams appear to be dissatisfied with their ability to manage
their design processes.

They report that the average design team member spends almost 9 hours
per week on non-productive activities. Almost half of participants said that
their teams were no better than “so-so” at achieving product launch dates.
As often as not, they gave their teams failing grades on core design
processes.

Teams who had implemented formal data management systems

experienced a higher rate of success with process control. However, not all
data management systems will be suitable for all teams.

The most commonly reported important features to look for in a data

management system were:
• Easy to access from within your primary CAD system
• Allows easy, secure external data sharing
• Adaptable to our workflows without external customization

Thank you for reading. If you found this report useful, please share it with
your colleagues.

Thanks,
John Hayes
ENGINEERING.com

This research has been sponsored by SOLIDWORKS.

To learn more about SOLIDWORKS PDM, visit
http://www.solidworks.com/sw/products/product-data-management/packages.htm

26