PLM as a tool for collaboration in aerospace industries - A review

In the era of rapid growth in the industries across the globe, organizations are becoming more efficient in manufacturing processes to fulfil and deliver the customer needs. Organizations are moving towards globalization, focusing on continuous improvements in product design and developments with effective techniques like concurrent engineering and real time collaborations within and outside the organizations which helps them to reduce time to market. Organizations use various state of the art collaboration techniques to reduce the design and development time for increasing efficiency and productivity whilst utilizing less resources in manufacturing processes. Product lifecycle management (PLM) is a 21st century tool especially designed and built for effective collaborations and product data management. The aerospace and automobile industries use PLM as a primary tool for product design and development processes, and also after sales service processes. PLM as a collaboration tool and as business approach for aerospace industries helps to manage various products quite effectively throughout their lifecycle. Concurrent engineering technique with PLM makes organizations to become much more efficient with collaborative product processes in the aerospace industries right from the early generation of an idea to the finished product. Different processes in aerospace industries collaborate to reduce time and increase efficiency for greater profits and reduced wastages. Collaboration in aerospace organizations these days is very much needed for a new product introduction because of the rise in competition in global markets. In this paper collaboration processes between teams within and outside the organizations globally with effective use of PLM as a tool has been reviewed. This paper also shows the gaps in PLM utilization by the aerospace organizations and an area for future researches to make.