Product IP: Why drawings deserve a seat at the strategy table

In manufacturing, product drawings are the blueprint of intent — the origin of every part, process, and prototype. Yet, in the age of intelligence, they remain one of the most overlooked and underutilized assets.

Many companies still rely on physical drawings or store them in legacy PLM systems. The multi-format, messy nature of drawings makes it hard to search and even harder to compare and interpret. As a result, critical design knowledge stays locked away until someone needs it and can’t find it. When experienced employees retire or move on, much of that tribal knowledge goes with them.

It’s a silent bleed for organizations that build complex products. Companies are losing time, money and knowledge every day, often without realizing it, and even if they do, they resign themselves to the pain, as if it’s just the way things are.

The hidden cost of drawing chaos

Drawings aren’t just static documents. They’re intellectual property containing intent, logic, decisions and trade-offs that shape everything downstream – from product, quality, sourcing, and production.

Most enterprise software continues to treat drawings as static files. They are stored in silos, disconnected from real-time collaboration and devoid of context. Teams that work most closely with them viz, Product, Procurement and Quality, are stuck without purpose-built tools to effectively utilise this IP. Consequently, companies run in circles:

• Engineers recreate drawings that already exist.

• Sourcing teams buy similar parts from scratch, again and again.

• QA documents are made manually.

• Sales misses out responding to quotations due to delays in interpreting drawings.

• Onboarding new employees becomes a time-consuming exercise in tribal knowledge transfer.

  
  

When viewed in context it results in the following:

• Poor reuse of past designs = longer development cycles

• Delayed product launches = lost market share

• Supplier misalignment = costly rework

• Compliance delays = regulatory risks and product recalls

  
  

Engineering data, particularly drawings, sit at the core of all these problems. According to Gartner, poor data management costs companies 12% of their annual revenues. In the U.S. alone, that’s a staggering $600 billion annually.

The shift from files to intelligence

What the industry needs now isn’t just better storage, it needs better understanding. 

Advanced AI and vision models have already begun to reshape sectors like healthcare, finance, and retail. They are enabling machines to interpret messy, multi-format unstructured data, spot patterns, and support complex decision-making. In manufacturing, this transformation is quietly taking hold. We're moving beyond isolated tools and static files toward systems that understand context, learn from history, and connect decisions across functions.

From Data to Decisions: Giving Drawings Their Due Place in Manufacturing

AI powered capabilities hint at a future where drawing data isn’t just stored, it’s activated and becomes strategic assets. When treated as sources of intelligence, they can unlock speed, clarity and cross-functional collaboration. As AI becomes more adept at interpreting not just geometry, but context, the opportunities for manufacturing stretch far beyond drawing analysis. We’re beginning to see systems that can connect design, sourcing, quality, and execution and think across the entire product lifecycle.

The shift is no longer about digitization alone. It’s about intelligence. In the new era, manufacturers who learn to harness intelligence across parts, processes, and people will be the ones who move fastest, adapt smartest, and lead with confidence.