Development of composite parts is characterized by a high degree of parallel processes and dependencies between structural analysis, design and manufacturing planning. Composites allow a higher degree of freedom in the design of products than other materials. On the other hand manufacturing processes for composites influence material properties, product characteristics and quality decisively. Increasing requirements in terms of product reliability, low production costs and development time require software solutions, which allow to design and virtually test the behavior of composite parts and their manufacturing processes. Software applications for composite parts allow the realistic simulation of the product in the full life cycle, from the manufacturing through the operation to the recycling processes. But despite the consequent usage of simulation applications ramping up a real production of complex composite products often provides some surprises and new experiences. Intelligent PLM software solutions support here to explore unforeseen dependencies between influencing parameters and allow to optimize the real production in regards of quality and manufacturing costs. Systematic collection of manufacturing data and automatic pattern recognition are the key for reliable and reproducible manufacturing processes.