CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
24 September 2013
Implementation Investments
PTC Helps BISSELL Accelerate Product Innovation and Delivery
PTC today announced that BISSELL is using PTC Windchill® to enable digital collaboration and product development across its entire engineering organization worldwide. The company’s strategic alignment around PTC Windchill has allowed BISSELL to improve sharing and coordination of product information between its global design teams and manufacturing partners. This has allowed the company to evolve its internal communications, external relationships with suppliers and customers, its business focus and its core product line development goals.
Since 1876, BISSELL has been developing cleaning tools designed to keep customers’ living environments up to the highest standards. Over the years, the company has been at the forefront of product development innovation, with everything from the original carpet sweeper, to shampoos and carpet deep cleaners with built-in heaters. As the industry’s business model has changed, BISSELL has maintained its leadership position by evolving across multiple fronts including the expansion to global business, external partner collaboration, a transparent Bill of Materials (BOM) and continuous cost reduction.
“Early on we recognized that a unified, consistent view of all product data would be imperative to meeting our innovation, quality and accuracy goals. PTC Windchill makes this happen with its robust PLM environment,” said Roger Johnson, VP, Product Design and Engineering, BISSELL. “Where digital collaboration was once optional, now it is mandatory in the global engineering enterprise. As the core of our product development platform, PTC Windchill has allowed us to improve our workflow and process automation, doubling our throughput and facilitating global expansion.”
And while all of BISSELL’s six global research and development centers rely on PTC Windchill, other functions in the organization are taking advantage of the solution as well. Multiple disciplines across the enterprise are now collaborating digitally – including professionals from purchasing, testing, quality and analysis, as well as external manufacturing partners around the world. This collaboration has resulted in a unified, consistent view of all product data and has transformed the way the company functions and focuses, allowing for global business project teams, consumer-driven attribute focus and increased on-time project completion.
“Work is done collaboratively as opposed to sequentially; information flows in parallel without chaos,” continued Johnson. “Because of this, we can have more valuable conversations about priorities instead of the process.”
Additionally, the company uses PTC Windchill to drive detailed planning with partners so that ultimately they are equipped to deliver value through quality manufacturing.
“When PTC Windchill is at the center of the iteration process – as it is and has been at BISSELL for many years – it not only allows companies to communicate better and drive detailed planning with external partners, but it also enables improved execution and ultimately faster product delivery to customers,” said Mark Hodges, divisional manager, PLM segment, PTC. “We are proud to have been working with BISSELL for over a decade and are excited that their strategic alignment with PTC Windchill has helped them to become a global industry leader.”
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