September 5, 2025 Designing Resiliency Amid Global Trade Uncertainty

How industrial firms can leverage the digital thread to stay resilient amid rising tariffs and global trade uncertainty.

By Florian Harzenetter, Sr. Director, and Industry Advisor on Industrials and Electronics

New and looming tariffs on industrial components, electronics, and machinery are creating harsh realities for industrial manufacturers. These tariffs complicate production processes, drive up costs, create design delays, and squeeze margins.

Higher tariff costs put companies at a disadvantage against competitors who avoid these expenses and barriers. According to a Q1 2025 outlook survey by the National Association of Manufacturers, 73% of respondents cited trade uncertainties, including tariffs and trade negotiations, as a top business challenge—up significantly from previous quarterly surveys.

With long-term impacts still uncertain, manufacturers must prioritize bridging the gap between engineering, production, and service for agility and flexibility throughout manufacturing processes. By closing the engineering-manufacturing divide, companies can better adapt to shifting market demands and regulatory pressures.

Closing the Engineering–Manufacturing Divide

Manufacturing companies can connect engineering and manufacturing workflows by adopting technology that streamlines processes across the business. Companies can achieve this by implementing product lifecycle management (PLM) systems that centralize data, improve traceability, and ensure teams work from the same source of truth. This improves communication and coordination when issues like supply chain delays arise, allowing companies to react quickly and pivot to new strategies with minimal disruption.

For example, tariffs on raw materials may force companies to change design direction to avoid additional costs. This could include a bill of materials (BOM) substitution to replace materials or late-stage design changes. Without connected workflows, these changes create bottlenecks in product design and cause misalignment.

Companies wanting to avoid last-minute design changes must prioritize cross-functional visibility and collaboration. Leaders need technology that provides real-time updates on manufacturing constraints and supply chain data to prevent costly impacts.

Design Smarter to Avoid Component Disruptions

In today’s volatile supply chain environment, early collaboration between engineering, sourcing, and production teams is no longer optional – it’s a strategic necessity. When these functions operate in silos, companies encounter late-stage disruptions that cause expensive reworks and extend time to market.

For example, if engineering teams finalize designs without sourcing input, they may unknowingly specify components subject to tariffs, restricted by export controls, or unavailable due to market shortages. When sourcing flags this issue after design lock-in, costly substitutions ripple through production schedules and budgets.

Similarly, production teams provide critical insights into manufacturability and lead times. Early involvement ensures design choices align with real-world constraints, reducing last-minute changes that disrupt workflows and increase costs.

Close alignment across teams with proactive planning gives manufacturers a competitive edge in an unpredictable global landscape.

Industrial Firms Modernizing Product Development

Many industrial firms are getting ahead of tariff-related disruption by leveraging the digital thread.

Bosch takes this approach by implementing a strong PLM foundation that enables scalable product design approaches. This technology allows Bosch to collaborate across departments using one dataset for each product, simplifying production workflows. Data from field testing new products feeds into future design processes, helping manufacturers identify shortcomings and improve designs.

Volvo CE has also benefited from establishing a PLM-enabled digital thread. Volvo faced urgent pressure to increase efficiency without compromising its ability to release high-quality, innovative products to market. However, its legacy IT system didn’t support concurrent work across global teams.

This created redundant designs and products that were difficult to manufacture and service. By implementing a PLM system, Volvo drove a 30% reduction in the cost of poor quality and the number of late loopbacks.

German manufacturing company Trumpf utilizes PLM technology to handle high data volumes across the business. This technology allows Trumpf to build out systems that handle additional complexities bound to arise in the future. This will also enable Trumpf to build products using model-based approaches and structured information covering the complete lifecycle across all functions that work with these structures.

Staying Competitive in a Unique Landscape

As industrial companies navigate growing global trade complexity, the ability to adapt quickly and collaboratively has become a defining factor in long-term success. Tariffs and supply chain disruptions are no longer isolated challenges – they’re systemic pressures demanding integrated solutions. By investing in digital infrastructure like PLM systems and embracing cross-functional collaboration, manufacturers can transform volatility into a catalyst for innovation. Companies that modernize their product development processes now will better position themselves to maintain agility, protect margins, and deliver value in a market where resilience defines competitive advantage.

About the Author:
Florian Harzenetter is the Senior Director and Global Industry Advisor for industrials and electronics customers at PTC. In this role, Florian identifies the specific needs of industrials and electronics customers and proposes which PTC solutions will help address pain points.

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