METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DATA MANAGEMENT PERFORM THE FUNCTIONS OF AUTOMATICALLY PROPAGATING CHANGES IN INFORMATION RELATED TO PRODUCT BEING DESIGNED OR MANUFACTURED FROM A CENTRAL LOCATION TO REMOTE AND DISPARATE USER INFORMATION SYSTEMS HAVING VARYING DATA FORMATS

A data management system propagates changes in product information. The product information is stored in a central data base for transfer to remote systems having disparate formats and protocols. The system includes an administration module to validate product data stored in the data base. This ensures that the data is accessible by the system. The system also includes a product change module configured to determine whether a change has been made to data related to a product. When changes are discovered, a data management server is alerted to the change. In response to the alert, the data server extracts, formats and transmits the changes in product data from the central data base to an appropriate user system. An application adapter communicating with the user system then receives the changed data from the data server and formats the data according to the user system platform.