Drawings could be marked up and stored in real-time. The product data management challenge proved too ambitious. Instead there were separate engineering and production data bases. Also, a third temporary bill of materials data-base was developed. PDM is more than an engineering tool.
Interpersonal relationships are critical too.
Everyone had access to all drawings and could comment on them. Only the team with responsibility for a system had authority to change drawings for that system. All key stakeholders had to sign off before final release of the product to the company for manufacture. The project was completed in 39 months, which was about on schedule. The project produced a successful new product which was produced in a new factory.