The activity of Product Design and Development (PD&D) is defined as the design of the all the goods and services that compose the process through which a good or a service is created. It incorporates not only the design of the product itself, but also the design of new technologies used in the manufacturing processes¹ . It includes the traditional design sectors who provide design services to firms, but also all the activity of PD&D; that is done by firms in house.

Globalization has caused international trade models to shift from “trade in products” to “trade in tasks”² . This implies that firms are no longer going through all the required steps to produce a good or service within their own factories or country, but that they are trading and/or outsourcing required tasks. Added to the surge of information technologies, globalization has caused firms to shift from a cost decreasing business model, to a profitable growth one, where the emphasis is on reducing costs while simultaneously increasing revenue³.

These drivers have brought PD&D to the forefront. By providing higher value added and differentiable goods and services, PD&D allows firms to increase their revenues, reduce their costs, increase market shares and become more competitive; all of which are building blocks for sustained economic growth.