
Manufacturing enterprises must continuously innovate to develop new products and
processes. They should capitalize on knowledge assets and Internet-enabled IT to manage
their extended enterprises effectively. Business processes should also be streamlined to
achieve greater synergies and efficiencies.
Research has shown that nearly 80% of product costs are built-in during the design and
development stages. Consequently, enterprise resource planning (ERP) and supply chain
management (SCM) applications only impact the remaining 20% of product costs.
E-Commerce, e-Markets and business-to-business (B2B) applications also have limited
impact as they tend to address post-design activities and supply chain needs. Conversely,
product data management (PDM) and collaborative technologies can create higher potential
impact and cost savings during the design and development stages.
This implies that multiple systems and complex interfaces are required to meet the entire
business requirements of companies with substantial design, planning and production
activities. Large organizations may afford both PDM and ERP systems, but most companies
will find such solutions too complex and costly. The high costs of implementing, integrating
and maintaining different systems are generally beyond the means of small and medium-size
enterprises (SMEs).

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