PDFCIMdata recently attended PlanetPTC Live 2012 in Orlando, Florida. PlanetPTC Live gives PTC customers the opportunity to showcase their work, network with peers, share ideas, and discuss how they are addressing their challenges. PTC reported that over 1,200 attendees were present at the event. A major theme for PlanetPTC Live was that inspiration is the spark that drives innovation and fuels the technology breakthroughs that help transform great ideas into great products. Several PTC customers shared their stories of how inspiration can impact the world around us.
PTC President and CEO Jim Hepplemann opened the annual end-user conference, repeating the bold statement recently published by The Economist magazine that the world is entering into a “third industrial revolution.” Mr. Hepplemann noted that the new era is defined by the transformation of global manufacturing in the digital world, and the leveraging of technologies and the process changes that technology enables. According to Mr. Hepplemann, as a solution provider for product lifecycle management, PTC is poised to facilitate this revolution. He introduced PTC’s new tag line: “Technology solutions that transform how products are created and serviced.”
In a fundamental realignment to this message, PTC has organized into five business segments to better deliver solutions to the marketplace, and to align directly with the organizational structure of the modern manufacturing enterprise. PTC has established five internal leadership teams focused on driving its technology solution strategies in the areas of product lifecycle management (PLM), computer-aided design (CAD), application lifecycle management (ALM), supply chain management (SCM), and service lifecycle management (SLM). CIMdata believes that this new alignment will better position PTC to deliver the business-oriented solutions that their customers will need to be competitive in the future.
Mr. Brian Shepherd, Executive Vice President, Product Lifecycle Management and Supply Chain Management provided an overview of new capabilities in those segments. It should be noted that PTC takes a more narrow view of the term “PLM” than many in the industry, reserving the term for its Windchill product data and process management capabilities. Mr. Shepherd highlighted several of the enhancements in the recent 10.1 release of Windchill supporting the theme of “Do More, Know More, Get More.” To enable “Do More,” PTC has integrated option rules within Windchill and Creo models and requirements management in Windchill and Integrity, as well as made improvements in variant design and configuration management. They have also introduced new capabilities in cost management and environmental performance. To enable the “Know More” theme, there are new capabilities in cost management, including multiple currency support. New compliance capabilities support 3TG materials and Conflict Materials regulations. “Get More” is delivered by Windchill Mobile and an improved user experience.
CIMdata has noted that mobility is becoming a more important component of PLM solutions and environments; users want the ability to work with their preferred devices. Tablets and smart phones are becoming the devices of choice for users at all levels of the organization, and PLM solution providers must deliver (and are delivering) more mobile capability to address user demands. PTC is providing effective solutions for these devices (e.g., iPads and iPhones) that support product structure browsing as well as review and approval. CIMdata believes that PTC’s mobility initiatives will be well received by their customers. Users of Windchill 10 have been positive about the user interface improvements and CIMdata concurs. It delivers a more consistent and simpler user experience, which is especially helpful for the casual user.
Mr. Mike Campbell, Divisional General Manager, Mechanical CAD provided an update on the release of Creo 2.0. This release continues to build on PTC’s CAD strategy to improve efficiency, deliver value early in the development cycle, and simplify modular product assemblies. New capabilities include the Creo Options Modeler integrated with Windchill. Mr. Campbell described Creo 2.0 as a “destination release” that includes all features available in Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire and that is completely data compatible. He noted that for customers who are on maintenance there is no incremental cost to upgrade to Creo from Wildfire, and that PTC is strongly encouraging customers to migrate to Creo 2.0.
PTC continues to develop focused applications, and with Creo 2.0 they have delivered ten new or improved “Right-Sized Apps” for what PTC calls a “scalable suite of product design apps for creating, simulating, analyzing, and viewing product designs, and leveraging them downstream.” CIMdata believes that this focused approach can provide customers the opportunity to maximize their CAD investments around the functions pertinent to their needs.
Mr. Campbell’s presentation highlighted PTC’s efforts to provide enhanced capabilities in industrial design for conceptual modeling by showing the movement of a 2D image generated in Creo Sketch into a 3D model, using Freestyle capabilities inside Creo Parametric. He explained how combinations of both 2D and 3D geometry could be managed together in Creo Layout. CIMdata welcomes PTC’s efforts in the area of conceptual design, and encourages them to continue, based on the demand we see being raised in the marketplace.
A second area Mr. Campbell emphasized was the array of enhancements made to improve user productivity. Based on advancements made to the user interface in Creo 2.0 and in part from the introduction of new functions, PTC described measured gains in the range of fifty percent in less mouse travel and fewer mouse clicks and menus opened. In many cases, they report over seventy percent less time being spent than in the previous software release.
Mr. Bill Berutti, Executive Vice President for the Application Lifecycle Management and Services Lifecycle Management noted that in the services segment, PTC offers an extensive suite of solutions for product technical information, service parts, warranty and contract management, and service event management. PTC states that service is an important part of a company’s overall business and revenue opportunity, and good service is essential to improving customer loyalty. CIMdata agrees with this assessment and we see service solutions becoming embedded within the PLM environment so that product definition information can be used by field service personnel, and product complaints and failures can be fed back into the design cycle so that they can be resolved. PTC’s new tag line, “technology solutions that transform how products are created and serviced,” illustrates their commitment to service as a fundamental part of the complete product lifecycle.
PTC’s initial service offerings address Technical Information, Service Parts, and Warranty and Contract Management. PTC is building on its Windchill product suite and integrating functionality from acquisitions such as 4CS. The objective is to connect engineering and service and provide contextual, interactive information delivery. The service parts module helps companies create and manage a service bill of material (SBOM) linked to the engineering and manufacturing BOMs and enables service personnel to search part catalogs for approved and available parts. The warranty and contract management module is designed to optimize and manage warranty processes and to capture warranty history information. In future releases, PTC plans to add product support and self-service, and service-event management capabilities. CIMdata thinks that PTC is providing a set of solutions that many of their customers need, and by integration with other PTC solutions they can provide quantifiable benefits to a company and its end-user customers.
It should also be mentioned that PTC is continuing to expand its management of software as part of overall product development and lifecycle management through its ALM program. Product complexity, primarily driven by software, continues to increase and is becoming the differentiating factor in many products. CIMdata has for years stated that the management of software must be an integral part of the product and that it is crucial to successfully developing innovative and market-leading products. PTC has been aggressive in developing ALM solutions and we believe that this provides PTC with an opportunity to better serve their customers’ needs. Key to PTC’s ALM solution was their acquisition of MKS and the integration of the MKS Integrity solution and its requirements management capabilities with the Windchill platform. With each new release of Windchill and ALM, PTC is expanding that integration with functionality, such as BOM management with embedded software.
Over the last several years, through a combination of internal development and targeted acquisitions, PTC has significantly expanded its solution portfolio. It is now bringing the elements of that broad portfolio into industry-focused business solutions designed to address the specific needs of today’s manufacturing companies. As part of this direction, PTC is working to provide its customers with an enhanced ability to make decisions that support their business strategies. CIMdata thinks that this new approach will enable PTC to better respond to their customers’ needs for solutions that can improve their competitiveness. PTC’s approach and solution for ALM addresses the growing product complexity driven by software content in most products today. As service and warranty support become a more important part of a company’s customer loyalty and bottom line, PTC’s SLM solutions should provide measurable value for their clients.
