Craig Brown & Matt Heying

Craig A. Brown, retired PLM Leader, Global Engineering Systems Development & PLM, General Motors

Craig Brown has 40 years of experience in systems engineering, both in the automotive and aerospace industries. Since 1995, Craig has been dedicated to improving General Motors Powertrain’s product development process through the application of CAE/CASE/CAD tools for product development, initially with Embedded Electronic Controls and then in 2004 all Powertrain products. As the Engineering Math Processes Application Engineering Group Manager, he focused on moving more development and validation of GM’s products to the virtual world. Craig received the Boss Kettering Award in 2003, using OnStar to monitor and report Vehicle Diagnostics.

The acquisition of knowledge applied across product portfolios and generations of new products is key to the next wave of Product Lifecycle Management. Effective change in any company only happens when technology, people, and processes are developed in harmony. Craig’s teams are looking for Process Integration opportunities to further expand the use of virtual engineering, especially as it applies to mechatronic systems – a key aspect of vehicle electrification. Craig was appointed the GM PLM Leader in September 2012 responsible for GM’s Enterprise-wide PLM Strategy and Planning. He became PLM World’s Community Director in 2015.

In early 2019, Craig retired from over 30 years of work at GM, including the last 10 years in PLM leadership roles. In his retirement Craig looks forward to helping others apply their knowledge and wares within the digital enterprises of the future.

Matt Heying, Director of Product, Vertex Software

Matt Heying has over 15 years of experience in designing and building B2B cloud-based collaborative applications in manufacturing, finance, and defense. In his role at Vertex, Matt has led the development team since August 2018, including the product management, user experience design, and engineering teams.

Previous to his role at Vertex, Matt served as Vice President of Product and User Experience at Workiva. Over the course of his nine years at Workiva, Matt tackled many strategic and leadership roles including the creation and implementation of a new enterprise product line and building product strategy to grow the product footprint within existing customers.

Matt received his Bachelors, Masters, and Ph.D in Mechanical Engineering from Iowa State University. Matt’s doctoral work at the Virtual Reality Applications Center (VRAC) was funded through research grants from DARPA, the Office of Naval Research, and the National Science Foundation.

Elevating 3D Collaboration

To design and develop products quickly with low risk, the extended enterprise needs to collaborate seamlessly. But today’s 3D visualization and collaboration process is riddled with many challenges. Only the engineering team is able to access 3D models, and even then users struggle to collaborate with massive models. Today’s technological innovations and capabilities allow opportunities for companies to mitigate—and even eliminate—many of the challenges plaguing discrete manufacturers today. This presentation will explore many of the pain points associated with 3D collaboration and how Vertex Software is removing barriers to 3D collaboration, giving companies limitless collaboration capabilities.