Web-centric product data management

Communicating and sharing information through Internet technologies have become common practice in most enterprises. Communication and web-centric applications are also influencing the design process. Driven by the need to compete in a global economy, companies are using Internet technologies to concurrently collaborate on design problems. Global collaborative engineering helps to decrease time-to-market while also decreasing production costs. Computer-aided design developers have recognized the potential of the Internet for collaborative engineering and have implemented applications for the sharing and communicating of design data. This paper reviews web-centric product-data management (PDM) applications available from four leading computer-aided design companies: Dassault Systemes, Parametric Technology Corporation, Structural Dynamics Research Corporation, and Unigraphics. Commonly available web-centric PDM functions and the potential impact that web-centric PDM will have on design industries are discussed.