Nowadays, virtually all companies share the burdens of developing their products, relying on the specific strengths of suppliers, engineering offices, partners and, increasingly, even their own customer communities. The methods and processes needed for this are defined and constantly improved within the companies. Many of the tasks during the course of development are supported by PLM systems, methods and processes. It is, however, often the case that these no longer work outside the company itself. So, what are the requirements when, in the context of an end-to-end PLM strategy, product development extends over a whole network of companies? In order to identify them, the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Systems and Design Technology IPK, together with CONTACT Software and the Association of German Engineers VDI conducted an expert study. The study initially took stock of current practice in respect of cross-company collaboration. Once this had been done, the senior managers, divisional heads and experts from the relevant specialist fields and disciplines were asked how they expect collaborative development to change and what methods and technologies will be needed for the development networks of the future.

In 2013, the partners responsible for this study published a predecessor study [1] on collaborative product development. The new study published in January 2016 builds on this foundation. In-depth interviews were conducted with 40 experts from selected industries: automotive, aerospace, rail engineering, mechanical and plant engineering as well as PLM research and consulting. Focus was placed on collaboration within company networks rather than on collaboration within the companies themselves. The object of this study is to take account of the increasing importance of such networks and to investigate the particular conditions and requirements associated with them. 

All the experts surveyed said that they worked with external partners. One insight gained is that capacity smoothing (12%) is by no means the prime motivation. Sourcing external expertise was named by a good quarter of those surveyed, putting it at the top of the list, followed by cost pressure. Around one fifth of those questioned gave this as a reason. These responses apply to all industries apart from the aerospace industry, which has outsourced development activities to system suppliers in the past.

Outsourcing development tasks to partners with specialist knowledge also means that enterprises are increasingly initiating collaborations with companies outside of their own industry sector. The experts who were questioned predict that this trend will continue: More than two thirds said that collaboration with parties outside their own industry will continue to increase. This trend is explained by the fact that traditional products from the realm of mechanical engineering such as cars or production equipment are being enhanced by functions from the realms of communications and information processing. Relevant concepts in this context include the "Internet of Things" (IoT) and Industry 4.0, which are moving the traditional boundaries between the mechanical engineering and IT sectors. In order to be able to offer IoT functions for Industry 4.0 on the market, companies must outsource the required skills and know-how.

In doing so, companies are primarily interested in long-term partnerships, even if individual projects tend to be shorter-term. The shorter duration of development jobs results from the ever more rapid innovation cycles with which the companies bring new products to market. The reason for the long-term nature of the partnerships that are established can be seen in the trust that is necessary for successful collaboration between partners. Restriction of a contract to a given concrete frame of reference within a development partnership is becoming increasingly less important for more than three quarters of those surveyed. If trust has been established with a partner, and if that partner proves to be reliable in using the specified procedures and standards, those surveyed would choose to intensify collaboration on development.