Globalization has been instrumental in increasing collaboration, interdependence and connectivity between world countries. The impact of which was seen in the field of product development.

1. A Close Look at Global Product Development
Globalization has been instrumental in increasing collaboration, interdependence and connectivity between world
countries. The impact of which was seen in the field of product development.
Product development is a mission critical process involving many risks. Companies and enterprises are forced to
reinvest a percentage of their revenue back into the product development process, as they cannot afford to take
any chances. A lot is at stake and therefore most companies and enterprises tend to spend more for the
productivity and achieve less returns for the same thereby making product development an expensive process.
When companies and enterprises could no longer proceed in this way, new solutions were sought to better match
value-add to cost. The advancement of technology in the form of computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided
engineering (CAE), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) technologies
also accelerated this business transformation. As part of this transformation, companies and enterprises started
rearranging or distributing their product development activities across different regions of the world. This move
helped them to increase the financial and operational productivity of the product development process.
Outsourcing and off shoring were the two fundamental tools used to make the concept of global product
development a realistic one.
As part of this new approach, product development activities were divided into high value and low value activities
and resources. Those activities that gave higher levels of value were done in higher cost regions while the low
value activities were assigned to lower-cost regions. This helped companies and enterprises to better align cost
and value-add.
Advantages of Global Product Development Approach
The significant advantages of this approach are
 greater engineering efficiency
 utilization of lower-cost resources
 access to technical expertise distributed internationally
 better product designs
 faster time to market
 lower-cost production
 enhanced flexibility
Companies can achieve reduced product development costs, shortened lead times, and increased engineering
resources availability by partnering with companies that provide excellent global engineering services.
Those companies and enterprises that have not treaded this path before can get answers to their queries with the
help from companies who offer engineering consultancy services. They collaborate with customers to understand
their long-term vision and based on their experience provide consulting services either upfront in the relationship
i.e. in the definition phase or later in tenure of the relationship during the scaling phase, or when the customer is
evaluating strategic options.
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