Even in the current (2003) economic downturn, many manufacturing companies are investing in PLM systems—to the tune of $2.3 billion this year [2]. We believe the reason why these companies are willing to take the risk is that these companies see PLM's potential to vastly improve their ability to innovate, get products to market faster, and reduce errors. According to industry analyst CIMdata, “For an enterprise to be successful in today's and tomorrow's global markets, PLM is not an option—it is a competitive necessity” [1].
A critical aspect of PLM systems is their product information modeling architecture. Here, the traditional hierarchical approach to building software tools presents a serious potential pitfall: if PLM systems continue to access product information via Product Data Management (PDM) systems which, in turn, obtain geometric descriptions from Computer-Aided Design (CAD) systems, the information that becomes available will only be that which is supported by these latter systems.