Product innovation and mechanical CAD: a strategic proposal for engineering manufacture

This paper gives an appraisal of how current mechanical computer-aided design (CAD) technology may be best used within the product innovation strategies that have been identified and recorded. In this connection, the paper focuses on and reviews the implications of CAD with respect to the interdependent issues of new product strategy, the product design spectrum, and product lifecycles. On the basis of the review, it is proposed that these issues must shape present and future CAD implementation and application policy within any manufacturing business attempting to be successful in competitive markets