Collaboration among Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and their product design and manufacturing engineering partners and suppliers is a key aspect of any major Aerospace and Defense (A&D) program execution. This paper explores the need to enable frictionless operation between OEMs and their suppliers. Process analysis by the A&D PLM Action Group (AD PAG) project team has shown that many different data formats, PLM software systems, and enabling infrastructure technologies exist across the OEMs and their supply base. This position paper, in its first release, presents the problem statement, including use cases, and the project team’s go forward plan. Future releases will include a statement of business performance improvement objectives, a description of the desired future state, and requirements by which that future state can be achieved.

Current research focuses on the complex data flow process during initial design, detailed design, configuration control, and change management. Collaboration during build and post-production will be addressed in a later phase of the project team’s research, and the AD PAG vision for “Collaboration in the 21st Century” will be presented in a future publication.