I don’t know whether I’m cracking up or just losing the thread, but I’m going to have to write things down before I forget them. However, I can’t ­find my glasses and I don’t know where I left them!

The mind boggles when it comes to managing the entire lifecycle of an aircraft programme. Overseeing the design, review, manufacture, review and iterate, ad infinitum, now requires a lot more than a trail of breadcrumbs.

In this issue, Autodesk discusses its latest product lifecycle management (PLM) solutions that enable companies working on multinational aircraft‑ programmes to share data. PLM can help manufacturers work more holistically across all different silos and departments. Faced with increasingly complex products, materials and manufacturing techniques, more companies are increasingly turning to digitalisation to help them remember who’s done what, where and when.

In the same way I spread my belongings around the desk, manufacturers have spread their teams around the world, making it harder to keep tabs on the status of a myriad of projects all running simultaneously.

They say men can’t multitask, but like PLM on a much smaller scale some of us rely on our personal digital gadgets to help remember everything from anniversaries to taking the dog to the vets.

And there’s life in this 50-something old dog yet. I may be getting bad short-term and long-term memory - and short-term memory too for that matter, but I’ve started another chapter in my life. Now, where did I leave my smart phone?

Mike Richardson, Editor