New Aberdeen Group Report Finds Global Design is Integral in Meeting Market Demand for Product Development Across Five Key Industries
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Released in June 2008(1) and spanning Aerospace & Defense, Automotive, Consumer Packaged Goods, High Tech & Electronics and Machinery industries, the research identified key strategic initiatives and challenges specific to each industry and how manufacturers can best implement global design strategies to address these initiatives.
"The Aberdeen findings truly present an opportunity for manufacturers to re-focus their efforts on implementing new global design initiatives or improving upon the ones they have in place," said Leif Pedersen, vice president, industry marketing, Siemens PLM Software. "Manufacturers and companies across all industries are constantly faced with the challenges of cost pressures and market demand for rapid product development. As they look to maintain their competitiveness, they must embrace innovation and global design as a way to help them stay ahead of the pack."
"Our research indicates that companies are viewing global design more strategically," said Michelle Boucher, research analyst, Product Innovation and Engineering Practice, Aberdeen Group. "However, to realize the full potential of their global design strategies, manufacturers should re-assess their progress in implementing these strategies to adopt Best-in-Class practices so they can remain competitive in their respective marketplaces."
A summary of the Aberdeen Sector Insight report findings follows.
Aerospace & Defense
The report finds that while A&D manufacturers have begun to change how they think about global design, they are behind other industry averages across all key performance indicators. Furthermore, A&D manufacturers face the greatest consequences of losing product intellectual property given the complex nature of the components and subsystems involved. A&D manufacturers are behind the industry average in terms of implementing capabilities that would help to protect IP -- 44 percent compared with 69 percent respectively. As A&D manufacturers look to capitalize on the growing global workforce, it will be even more important for them to implement secure global design strategies that address this challenge and help better control who has access to the data as well as the amount of time that access is available.
Automotive
With more and more automotive companies finding it hard to turn a profit, the report finds that lowering costs is the top concern. In keeping with this focus, meeting revenue targets is the area in which automotive manufacturers lagged behind the most compared to the industry average -- 55 percent compared to 67 percent. As automotive manufacturers address the challenge of lowering costs, they are taking advantage of different labor costs around the globe. Furthermore, automotive manufacturers are beginning to leverage a global workforce to not only reduce the cost of product development but to gain more insight into unfamiliar markets.
Consumer Packaged Goods
In a challenging retail marketplace, consumer package goods companies are constantly faced with the challenge of getting products to market faster while making sure costs are kept at a minimum. Working across multiple disciplines (R&D, marketing, packaging, sourcing, regulatory and manufacturing, among others), CPG manufacturers must successfully coordinate with these teams to ensure the successful launch of products within short time windows. Overall, CPG manufacturers indicate performance that is consistently at or below multi-industry average levels. While they are behind in meeting cost targets, they remain ahead of the industry average in meeting launch dates. In order to take full advantage of their global design networks and to remain competitive within the retail marketplace, CPG manufacturers must continually look to global design initiatives to help them get products to market faster in a cost-effective manner.
High Tech & Electronics
One of the biggest challenges that HT&E manufacturers face is getting products to market faster before technology becomes obsolete. Despite this recognition, the report finds that HT&E manufacturers are only slightly ahead of the industry average when it comes to meeting target launch dates. The majority of respondents report that they have had global design initiatives in place for over a year (71) percent. High tech manufacturers will need to capitalize on the opportunity for further improvement by leveraging these design chains to effectively accelerate the design process.
Machinery
Global design is a newer trend for Industrial equipment manufacturers as only one-third of respondents to the study reported that their initiatives were less than a year old. Industrial equipment manufacturers fall behind the industry average across all metrics with a gap seen in the ability to meet product revenue targets (56 percent compared to 67 percent) and development cost targets (52 percent compared to 67 percent). Moving forward, industrial equipment manufacturers will need to learn from the experiences of other manufacturing industries with more mature global design processes in place.
Methodology
Aberdeen Group examined the global design strategies of more than 170 enterprises. To gain an understanding of how manufacturers can best take advantage of global design chains, respondents were benchmarked according to their performance across five key performance indicators and divided among three performance categories: Best-in-Class (top 20 percent of performers); Laggard organizations (bottom 30 percent) and the Industry Average (the remaining 50 percent). These measures included the percent of products meeting targets for revenue, product cost, product launch, quality, and overall product development costs.
As companies look increasingly toward globalization, they must continually look to address the issues of protecting product intellectual property, designing in parallel, and coordinating global design teams. For more information about how Siemens PLM Software is helping customers address these issues and transform their process of innovation with product lifecycle management software solutions, please visit: http://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en_us/industries/index.shtml
Full reports can be found at the following links:
(Due to the length of the URLs, please copy and paste into browser.)
-- Global Design Strategies in the Aerospace and Defense Industry: The Road to Safe, Effective, and Parallel Development http://www.aberdeen.com/summary/report/sector_insights/4925-SI-aerospace- defense-design.asp
-- Global Design Strategies for the Automotive Industry http://www.aberdeen.com/summary/report/sector_insights/4988-SI-global-design- automotive.asp
-- Global Design Strategies for Consumer Packaged Goods http://www.aberdeen.com/summary/report/sector_insights/4951-SI-global-design- strategies.asp
-- Global Design Strategies in the High Technology Sector http://www.aberdeen.com/summary/report/sector_insights/5045-SI-design- strategies-technology.asp
-- Global Design Strategies for Industrial Equipment Manufacturers: http://www.aberdeen.com/summary/report/sector_insights/4990-SI-design- industrial-equipment.asp
About Siemens PLM Software
Siemens PLM Software, a business unit of the Siemens Industry Automation Division, is a leading global provider of product lifecycle management (PLM) software and services with 5.5 million licensed seats and 51,000 customers worldwide. Headquartered in Plano, Texas, Siemens PLM Software's open enterprise solutions enable a world where organizations and their partners collaborate through Global Innovation Networks to deliver world-class products and services. For more information on Siemens PLM Software products and services, visit http://www.siemens.com/plm.
About Siemens Industry Automation Division
The Siemens Industry Automation Division (Nuremberg), a division of Siemens Industry Sector, is worldwide leading in the fields of automation systems, low-voltage switchgear and industrial software. Its portfolio ranges from standard products for the manufacturing and process industry to solutions for whole industries and systems that encompass the automation of entire automobile production facilities and chemical plants. As a leading software supplier, Industry Automation optimizes the entire value added chain of manufacturers -- from product design and development to production, sales and a wide range of maintenance services.
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(1) Automotive Sector Insight report issued in April 2008.
Web site: http://www.automation.siemens.com/