Use product data in development

Ericsson has a classical product database with product identities, versions and dependencies between products. This is important for the company but usually from development point of view seen as something we have to do but that is not adding value for the development organization.

We have learned that in automotive (e.g. Scania and Volvo trucks) that kind of data is used both during development and as a direct input to sales to create good solutions for customers. Examples of usage is e.g., creating CPI for a specific configuration of the product or using the dependency information to during development know what is impacted if one component is changed.

Can other industries learn from automotive?