Historically, product development data at LS Industrial Systems was
kept in silos; data was stored in the desktop CAD tool and managed
either by individual engineers or by each department. Because
product design information wasn’t portable enough to be easily
shared between design resources, design reuse was infrequent, and
duplicate work was common. In addition, lack of a centralized knowledge
database meant that when engineers retired or left the company,
valuable intellectual property left with them. The company’s insufficient
CAD data management processes also left data vulnerable to
being exposed to competitors. Lastly, without a Product Lifecycle
Management (PLM) system, data had to be manually extracted
from the CAD tools and entered into the ERP system to create the
manufacturing bill-of-materials (BOM).

Source: www.PTC.com