The current global scenario calls for enterprises to be ever dynamic and innovative. In simple terms to win the business race enterprises need to build winning products. A winning product is characterized by customer satisfaction, cost reduction, global competitiveness, time to market, growth and profitability.

Enterprises are striving to achieve this in every possible way, and IT has come handy. Technology has enabled them to manage production process, efficiently, to meet every market requirement. And it has helped them to collaborate product planning and product marketing, two major professional disciplines As a result, big and small businesses are counting rich dividend.

Technology requirements
"Turning market information into products is the key to successful business", says Swamy Narayanaswamy, Founder chairman & Managing Director, CSM software, one of the PLM solutions providers. However he sees a challenge here. As inputs from market are seldom uni- dimensional, they can be extremely complex and demanding. These inputs need to be assessed from various points of view, the most important being costs and manufacturability, he says. He enumerates some useful tools available that help translate market requirements into real products. In R&D these products can be classified as products that help in

• Concept Design (Styling, Aspects of Industrial Design)
•  CAD Tools (Computer Aided Design) for 2D and 3D modeling
•  CAE Tools (Computer Aided Engineering) for simulation and testing

Additionally, in the Manufacturing area, there are

•  CAM tools (Computer Aided Manufacturing) that aid in NC Programming,
•  Tool Path Generation,
•  Robotic Simulation,
•  Factory Layout Simulation,
•  Cycle Time Optimization and so on.

Together, these tools are sometimes referred to as the CAD/CAM/CAE segment of mechanical design.