CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive

12 October 2004

Company News

U.S. Army Largest Program Leverages Software from PTC to Win Army Knowledge Award

PTC announced that the U.S. Army, having deployed PTC Windchill as part of their Advanced Collaborative Environment (ACE) for their Future Combat System (FCS) Program, has been recognized with an Army Knowledge Award. This award is part of a U.S. Army program that acknowledges outstanding examples of enterprise knowledge management solutions that have achieved success improving situational awareness and decision-making.

FCS is a networked "system of systems." Essentially, it is one large combat system made up of 19 individual systems that includes a variety of manned and unmanned ground systems, unmanned air vehicles, a wide spectrum of sensors, the network (which connects everything including space, sea and air assets), and of course the soldier. FCS ACE uses Windchill to enable the collaborative design, development, testing, production and support of weapons systems. PTC was selected by Boeing, the lead systems integrator for the FCS program, because Windchill was uniquely able to meet the Army's Distributed Product Description (DPD) requirements. With Windchill, ACE provides project collaboration on authoritative program data that may exist in multiple internal/external residencies, automated process control via workflows, program management and visualization tools that offer 3D and 2D prototyping and review. Today, approximately 7,000 users across Boeing, the Army, and 12 key suppliers are engaged in 850 concurrent collaboration projects and hundreds of running workflows.

"The Future Combat Systems Advanced Collaborative Environment has already had a major impact on the lifecycle of the FCS weapon platforms and helped to reduce the FCS program timeline," Brigadier General Charles Cartwright, PM UA, stated. "Use of the ACE is absolutely key and essential to all we are trying to do to achieve program objectives."

"This award is tremendously encouraging for the team that created and maintains ACE," said Rich Crispo, director of the Boeing ACE integrated product team. "Two years ago, we started with five people and a set of customer requirements and today we're 130-strong and growing. It's very gratifying to know the Army appreciates what we and our partner, PTC have accomplished."

"The Aerospace and Defense industry is a strategic vertical for PTC, and our success with Boeing on the Army FCS ACE project further validates the unique differentiators we bring to the table," said Berry Gibson, director A&D Product & Market Strategy, PTC. "We look forward to continuing our work with Boeing and the U.S. Army to advance the positive impact that FCS ACE brings to Army transformation."

 

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