Matra finds engineering data management take-up sadly lacking

A survey among 102 senior UK engineering company executives shows that far too many still don’t know what they’re doing when it comes to using IT to support and improve manufacturing processes. Tim Illingworth, managing director of CAD services company Matra Datavision, which conducted the survey, said: “Of the organisations we spoke to, over 80% said that engineering data management (EDM) was a priority, yet over half don’t have, or know about, their company’s EDM strategy. And a quarter have no plans to improve their processes. “51% of respondents said that their customers needed to share information, but the majority have no consistent way of doing this, relying on the customer to take the lead.” In other key findings, 68% of respondents were able to identify areas where they believed their product development processes could be improved, but almost a third did not know what their engineers thought about their data management processes. 65% of respondents were part of larger groups with a high requirement to share engineering data, yet only 19% were very satisfied with communications across divisions and departments during product development. Over a third of respondents (36%) would not know where to seek assistance in the area of data management. Suppliers into the automotive sector were found to be the most advanced in their adoption of data management processes and technology, leaving their aerospace, consumer products and electronics counterparts behind.