There are massive economic and political pressures for manufacturing companies (such as in the G8 countries) to which they are forced to respond. The combined pressures and responses are radically transforming the industry. The pressures include high-cost labor pools, and costly raw materials (e.g. steel and petroleum). The responses include internal consolidation, outsourcing to global product development, and assembly flexibility. The companies must change their operations to suit these.

Studies on manufacturing product development have been done that give a picture of the present situation in the industry along with a 5-year forecast. The studies include key areas such as business philosophy, product design tools, communication types and engineering efficiency. A definitive response flagged in the study is a climb in using a global product development service, or outsourcing to global suppliers.

GPD can be defined as the maximization of financial and operational productivity of the product development process by distributing product development tasks across different regions of the globe to efficiently match value-addition and cost. Part of product development includes marketing activities to recognize and record the needs of the customer.

A key part of product development is engineering activities to conceptualize, design, analyze and refine new product ideas; tasks that plan and document manufacturing, operations and maintenance processes; and sustenance activities for the making of ongoing product updates, changes and refinements.

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