An assessment of the current state of product data technologies

Industrial organizations can benefit from the exchange or sharing of digital product data across the borders of disciplines, organizations and vendor-specific solutions. A number of international standards have been developed to make this possible. Of these, ISO 10303 (STEP), ISO/PAS 16739 (IAI/IFC) and ISO 15926 are the most prominent. The first release of STEP was published in 1994, the first release of IAI/IFC in 1997, and ISO 15926 in 2003. Today, many years after their introduction, it must be concluded that the industrial uptake of these standards has been poor. It must be concluded further that, with the current generation of PDT standards, the loss of data or meaning can hardly be avoided. Data exchange between heterogeneous applications is not really supported. In industrial practice, product data are still exchanged in native file formats, less ‘intelligent’ electronic standards, or–even worse–via paper media. The anticipated benefits of PDT standards are not yet reaped by industry. This article discusses the causes of poor performance and poor industrial uptake, with the aim to encourage the development of new strategies and technologies.