Christa Prokos
Autodesk Fusion streamlines data management for manufacturers with real-time collaboration, unified cloud tools, and seamless integrations, eliminating version confusion, improving control, and boosting efficiency for greater agility and innovation.
In this post, we delve into our recent LinkedIn Live event, Ask Me Anything: How Fusion is Transforming Data Management. Hosted on July 9, 2025, this insightful session featured Autodesk experts Jon den Hartog and Bankim Charegaonkar. The two discussed how Fusion is transforming the way design and manufacturing data is managed.
Elevate your design and manufacturing processes with Autodesk Fusion
Why is data management crucial?
Imagine looking at a Windows Explorer folder filled with multiple versions of the same file. It’s often unclear which file is the latest one. This challenge is a reality for many organizations dealing with product data. Fusion aims to eliminate these hurdles through built-in data management features.
Meet the experts
Jon den Hartog is a Senior Director at Autodesk, specializing in product development and manufacturing solutions with a focus on data management and product lifecycle management (PLM). He brings extensive industry experience and valuable insights into how Autodesk tools can streamline data management for engineers globally.
Bankim Charegaonkar, also a leader in product development and manufacturing solutions at Autodesk, is instrumental in developing data management and collaboration tools in Fusion. His extensive experience includes developing design and data management capabilities spanning Autodesk applications, Inventor and Vault, in addition to Fusion.
Collaborative bill of materials (BOM) and property editing
Bankim explained how Fusion’s approach to defining products with metadata and BOMs allows collaborative work beyond the engineering department. Fusion’s manufacturing data model ensures a single source of truth, mitigating the risks associated with data mismanagement.
Fusion’s property editing capabilities allow users to enhance product descriptions, ensuring comprehensive data across all departments from design to procurement, for example. This allows real-time collaboration and editing, evidenced through a live demo showing how changes made by an engineer and procurement team are instantly synchronized.
Tracking changes over time
Jon expanded on tracking changes, comparing Fusion’s capabilities to modern spreadsheet applications like Google Sheets. Fusion offers real-time collaboration with continuous history tracking, making it easier to manage and review changes without manual versioning. For critical changes, Fusion allows a managed process with designated versions, providing control and ensuring manufacturing integrity.
Fusion API connectivity
Bankim shed light on Fusion’s desktop and cloud APIs, facilitating the connectivity between various systems. Using GraphQL APIs, users can fetch specific data from the robust manufacturing data model in Fusion. This enables efficient integrations with ERP systems and other cloud tools, showcased through a Power BI dashboard demo extracting comprehensive project data via Fusion’s API.
Looking ahead: What’s next for data management in Fusion?
Jon provided insight into the future vision for Fusion, aligning with Autodesk’s industry clouds: Fusion for design and manufacturing, Forma for architecture and construction, and Flow for media and entertainment.
Autodesk has been evolving Fusion’s data management and product lifecycle capabilities with a clear vision towards an integrated and seamless future—establishing a unified platform where users leverage comprehensive design, manufacturing, and lifecycle management tools through a flexible, interconnected approach, supported by the data model.
Looking ahead, the plan is to further unify additional capabilities, enabling more integration of tools and workflows. Plus, advancements in AI are poised to play a significant role, amplifying task automation, generative design, and sophisticated data handling and integrations, thereby further transforming the efficiency and capabilities of Fusion.
Learn more – watch the replay of the LinkedIn Live Ask Me Anything: How Fusion is Transforming Data Management.