Today, manufacturing companies face a myriad of challenges - fast-changing industry trends, greater customer expectations, increasing price pressures, rapid technology advancements, shrinking IT budgets, regulatory and speed-to-market pressures, and compressed product lifecycles.

To address these challenges, manufacturers must find ways to streamline every phase of the product development cycle, from research and design to testing and manufacturing. Manufacturing companies are increasingly focusing on solutions that improve their return on assets, minimize operating costs, optimize capacity, and promote operational excellence to combat price pressures. Greater customer expectations and rapid technology advancements have compelled manufacturing companies to deploy technology solutions to streamline operations and collaborate with suppliers to reduce costs.