Over the last 60 years, Sikorsky -- which finished 2005 with sales of more than US$2.5 billion -- has introduced more than 50 different helicopter models. Its models include the H-60 BLACK HAWK, which is used by all five branches of the U.S. military and more than two dozen governments around the world, Sikorsky said.

But legacy systems and formats limited interoperability at the company, making collaboration and review difficult and delaying the completion of designs. That, in turn, forced Sikorsky designers to use incomplete or outdated product data, which sometimes meant work had to be redone, according to Parr.

To meet its aggressive business goals, Sikorsky settled on version 5 of the Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) tool from Paris-based Dassault Systems, with the software running on Dell Precision workstations. The products being used include Dassault's CATIA V5 for 3D digital product definition and ENOVIA VPLM for collaborative product knowledge management, according to Sikorsky.

The company selected version 5 of the PLM tool to transform its product development environment into a single, digital platform where engineers can work seamlessly with the many design and development groups in the company as well as with outside partners, according to the company.

Previously, the company relied on file-based 3D data management processes that were unable easily exchange information.