The manufacturing industry in India is now entering a period of complexity never seen before. Whether it is electric vehicles or advanced engineering solutions, the products are no longer based on a single stream of knowledge alone. They have become integrated systems involving mechanical, electronic, and software elements, which need to work together in perfect harmony.
This is no longer a matter of innovation but one of orchestration.
In an interaction with Express Computer, Ravikiran Pothukuchi, Director – Manufacturing & Logistics, Dassault Systèmes, explains how enterprises are struggling to manage this complexity and why platforms like ENOVIA, within the 3DEXPERIENCE ecosystem, are becoming critical to enabling scale, governance, and faster decision-making.
The complexity challenge is fundamentally structural
Product architecture evolves, and the issues surrounding their construction become increasingly complicated. Businesses are faced not only with individual engineering difficulties but rather interrelated systems of them that must be synchronised.
Pothukuchi highlights that the nature of products itself has changed significantly over time. “Today’s products are very complex because gone are the days where products are one dimension or one discipline. They are mechanical, electrical, and software components coming together. And these pieces are designed by different people with different expertise, but the expectation is that all of them have to come together and perform optimally.”
This shift creates a structural bottleneck. While individual components may be designed efficiently, the real challenge lies in ensuring that everything integrates seamlessly. Without a unified system to manage product structures and data, organisations risk inefficiencies, misalignment, and delays. “That orchestration of bringing these different artefacts together and managing the product structure and product data in a structured manner is what product lifecycle management enables,” he explains.
In essence, complexity is no longer just a design problem, it is a coordination problem.
Control layer of ENOVIA for governance and collaboration
In order to counteract this problem, according to Pothukuchi, ENOVIA can act not only as a tool but also as a control layer that unites people, process, and data throughout the product life cycle.
The underlying premise here is that silos should be eliminated and collaboration made possible in real-time among groups of individuals who previously did their work in silos. “People work in silos sometimes, but the only way to get everyone on one plane is by using a governance tool which allows collaboration, ideation, and design,” he says.
This control layer ensures that all stakeholders operate under a structured environment that includes roles, responsibilities, and access management. At the same time, ENOVIA enables what Pothukuchi describes as “collaborative design” where teams can work together in real time, even across locations.
This ability to collaborate within a governed environment significantly reduces integration risks and accelerates innovation cycles.
Tearing down silos
Numerous companies operating in India still use isolated legacy systems, with engineering, manufacturing, and other processes being separated into their silos. “Isolated legacy processes create inefficiencies not only on a strategic level but also operationally,” says Pothukuchi.
In order to overcome this challenge, it is vital to establish a unified digital thread. “Enterprises need a digital layer where legacy tools can be federated and brought together. That reduces complexity across both product development and operational dimensions,” he points out.
This is not just about technology consolidation but about creating a unified view of the product lifecycle, where every stakeholder has access to consistent, real-time information.
Driving measurable outcomes with speed, efficiency, and reliability
For CXOs evaluating digital transformation investments in information technology, the question itself has changed focus, and now the discussion revolves more around the value of such investments rather than the reasons behind them.
According to Pothukuchi, the influence of platforms such as ENOVIA and 3DEXPERIENCE can be observed in many ways, starting from shorter time to market to improvements in quality and efficiency. “Organisations today are evolving into an area where speed matters, and speed and innovation result from such collaboration and governance.”
It becomes much easier to coordinate activities and eliminate any possible inefficiencies, thus resulting in shortened design cycles and quicker reactions to changing market needs. Meanwhile, the presence of proper governance guarantees quality and compliance.
All things considered, collaboration, control, and transparency contribute to greater reliability of products and predictability – two crucial factors in fast-growing segments such as electric vehicles and advanced manufacturing.
Moving forward from complexity to control
As Indian manufacturing moves towards scaling up, complexity management will be one of the key elements of competitive advantage. Organisations that will try to rely on disparate and uncoordinated systems will find themselves unable to cope with modern challenges related to product design.
From all perspectives expressed by Pothukuchi, it is evident that the solution does not lie in adding more tools but in creating a unified control layer that brings everything together.
In a world where products are increasingly multi-disciplinary and development cycles are shrinking, success will depend on how effectively organisations can orchestrate people, data, and processes at scale.
And in that journey, platforms that enable governance, collaboration, and a connected digital thread will move from being enablers to becoming foundational.