ANN ARBOR, Michigan, USA 7 May 2025— Today, the Aerospace and Defense PLM Action Group (AD PAG), an association of leading companies in the aerospace and defense industry, announced its decision to collaborate with member companies of the prostep ivip Association (prostep ivip) to support further development and adoption of the Code of PLM Openness (CPO). The CPO aims to promote openness, making it easier to integrate IT systems into connected IT environments, extending from development and production through to after-sales, with many heterogeneous IT systems provided by numerous IT vendors. The CPO provides a framework allowing industrial users and IT solution providers to self-assess and progressively achieve higher levels of openness, leading to certification.
The announcement was formalized in a Memorandum of Understanding entered into by CIMdata, Inc. (CIMdata), administrator of the AD PAG, and prostep ivip at the industry conference, PLM Road Map & PDT North America 2025, which is currently taking place in the Washington, D.C. area. Recent CIMdata industry research on behalf of the AD PAG revealed that the lack of IT systems openness is a major inhibitor to implementing digital thread, digital twin, and model-based systems engineering strategies. AD PAG members are convinced that these business-critical strategies cannot reasonably be achieved without openness across PLM and interrelated IT systems. Acknowledging this, AD PAG members have prioritized the goal of IT systems openness and believe that by partnering with prostep ivip, they can accelerate refinement of the CPO and IT solution provider compliance.
AD PAG member companies are individually processing statements of their commitment to follow the CPO and, along with CIMdata and prostep ivip, are planning joint actions to advance the common goal of PLM openness.
According to James Roche, Director of CIMdata’s Aerospace & Defense Practice, and facilitator of the AD PAG, “AD PAG members have long sought to join with companies in automotive and other industries that produce complex, regulated products to advocate for common interest PLM-related capabilities. Working with prostep ivip will enable a broad representation across these combined industries to communicate with a unified voice to the PLM solution providers on a topic of great importance – the need for PLM openness.”
He continues, “The CPO has achieved the status DIN SPEC from the German Institute for Standardization. We fully expect that through the combined advocacy of this arrangement, the process for promoting the CPO to an international standard will accelerate, and adoption by industrial users and compliance by IT vendors will more quickly become the norm.”
“I am thrilled to welcome the member companies of the Aerospace and Defence PLM Action Group, and CIMdata to our CPO initiative,” said Dr. Henrik Weimer, prostep ivip’s Speaker of the Board. ”Their commitment to openness and extensive PLM expertise aligns perfectly with our mission to accelerate disruptive ideas and co-create new standards in product lifecycle management.”
Dr. Alain Pfouga, General Manager of prostep ivip adds, “I'm truly honored that our prostep ivip community already encompasses 80 international organizations and five certified vendors—a testament to our growing influence in industry. By joining this community, CIMdata and the AD PAG member companies bring valuable aerospace and defense expertise that will pave the way for sustainable productivity and accelerate product innovation across domains, organizations and industries. This partnership enriches our community and marks a new era of synergistic efforts to drive openness in product lifecycle management. We eagerly anticipate the contributions of these new community members will bring to prostep ivip, enhancing our collective pursuit of excellence.”
For more information on the prostep ivip Code of PLM Openness initiative, visit https://www.prostep.org/en/cpo/initiative.
