Product development is an essential part of economic growth and social progress. Big industries, including automotive, aerospace and defense, telecommunications, medical devices, and consumer products, expect a third of their sales to come from new products. Over the next five years, that means $30 trillion in revenues depends upon successful product development projects in those sectors.

With so much value at stake, advanced product development capabilities are a key strategic priority for companies. And those capabilities increasingly depend upon access to sophisticated digital technologies, along with the skills, processes, and organizational structures to use them effectively.

In this article, we look at an area of digitization with central relevance to the product development process: simulation. The ability to simulate product performance and behaviors in a virtual environment has been the catalyst for profound changes in the way engineering is done, offering product development teams the ability to derive new insights, identify and fix issues earlier in the cycle, and accelerate product testing and validation.