Mechanical Technology June 2016

⎪ Innovative engineering ⎪

Smart connected PLM launched in SA

The engineering bill of materials (eBOM) as well as the manufacturing (mBOM) and servicing (sBOM) are sepa- rately accessible to relevant responsible persons in the same way. “For manufac- turing, IGIS, STEP or STL portable file for- mats used by product manufacturers, are directly downloadable onto CNC machines or 3D printers on factory floors. Through Windchill 11, these files are maintained and automatically updated should any modification be made to the design model. “In addition, the latest versions of documents in pdf, Word or any other format, containing instructions or speci- fications, for example, are accessible via any net connected server. Drawings and related assembly instructions and notes, for example, are more accessible than ever before,” Strydom points out. Coming, in the second release of the View App, will be the opportunity to feed information and ideas back to the system. Called the Contribute App, this tool will enable users to report back about what works, what does not or which pieces of vital information are missing. Du Plessis adds: “All of this Windchill 11 PLM capability is available for down- load. That is what we mean by smart and connected. There is no longer any specific software installation required for people to access the Windchill PLM repository. Other than the role-based app that re- sides on the phone, tablet or computer,

PTC’s Windchill 11 Smart Connected PLM solution was launched into South Africa on May 11 and 12, 2016 in Johannesburg and Cape Town, respectively. MechTech catches up with business development manager, Riaan du Plessis and PLM solutions architect, Johan Strydom, of local channel partner productONE.

for each users role within the product lifecycle,” he explains. Strydom continues: “The first set of these apps on the Windchill 11 plat- form are the viewing apps. These give personnel peripheral to the mainstream design processes the tools to view PLM data in a minimal structure. And this is all portable. Models, 2D drawings and data can be viewed on any smartphone – including Android- OSX- and Windows- based phones or tablets – as well as any laptop or computer,” he says. “The View App is ideal for design reviews or for communicating and collaborating with stakeholders and partners,” he says. Once a design moves into produc- tion, a new set of stakeholders becomes involved. “From the viewing perspective, shop floor managers might be interested in the 2D-orthographic drawings for the workshop, for example, or the manufac- turing instructions. These are now ac- cessible from any device with an Internet connection. The data is also guaranteed to be 100% up to date, while the product IP remains as well protected as ever,” Strydom assures.

Riaan du Plessis, business development manager for pro- ductONE; PLM solutions architect, Johan Strydom; and the company’s marketing manager Mpho Ntuane.

M odern product designs, which leverage a com- bination of mechanical, electrical, software, and connectivity technologies, require a robust, multidisciplinary development approach, yet these products must be released to market faster, with better quality, at a lower cost, and with more desirable features. In response to these ever complex demands, PTC has developed smart con- nected role-based PLM, which strives to target stakeholders at their point of need, aligning Windchill with the underpinning role-based approach now adopted for the Creo Suite of product design applications (apps). “Our Windchill software is now being supplemented by an online plat- form, accessible via several different apps that access different data sets, designed to suite all of the different stakeholder roles of a product’s lifecycle,” begins Du Plessis. “Infrequent users of traditional PLM packages used to have to go through several days training. But, because they didn’t use the software often enough, it was still difficult for them to be effective users. Now they can access the role- based app most suited to their needs. These apps have been streamlined and simplified to make them easier to use – and different apps have been developed

PTC Windchill 11: the first smart connected role-based PLM platform.

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Mechanical Technology — June 2016