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Windchill 10.0 door de ogen van Al Dean (Develop3D)
27-05-2011
PTC has just launched the latest major release of its Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solution, Windchill. Those that follow the PLM market will know that Windchill has become one of the leaders in the field, since PTC acquired it in 1998. From its genesis as a new breed of tool for managing the complex data, interactions and workflows associated with the product development process, it's now on its 10th major revision.
For those already engaged with using Windchill, the biggest news is going to one of a much streamlined and customisable user experience. While undoubtedly powerful, Windchill has always had a reputation for being 'less than intuitive.' This changes for Windchill 10.0. The user interface has been completely rethought in line with today's expectations.
The focus of that redevelopment has been to allow customisation by both the enterprise implementing the system and those interacting with it on a daily, if not hourly, basis. On a per-user basis, this means that each user can configure the interface to present the information they need, whether project updates, work items, and such, where it's needed most.
Richer product models = Deeper knowledge
Alongside user experience, some of the biggest update work to Windchill 10.0 has been the increase in depth of the product data that can be managed within Windchill. The last few years have seen the company add support, within Windchill, to support not only the traditional 3D and 2D CAD data but the usual raft of documents as well. The integration and management of electronics data was added a while back, but 10.0 also enables the management of embedded software development information. Not only does the system manage development of the software (in terms of build, release and delivery), it'll also integrate fully into complete digital models and their inherent product structures. This ensures that the correct code is available and linked to the correct product, throughout its development. Windchill integrates with a wide range of today's development platforms, whether it's ClearCase, JIRA or more open source options, such as Eclipse, Bugzilla or Subversion.
Greater complexity vs customisability
For those involved in the development of complex products, Windchill 10.0 also brings a raft of new capabilities intended to make life much easier.. In the first instance, the system now allows you to more effectively manage complex variants in your product range. It also allows for creating product variants, long before you get to the point of bringing CAD data into the mix. .Through an intuitive interface, product requirements can be taken and product offerings created that accurately reflect complex variants, dependencies and configuration rules in a very short space of time. These Variant and Design Generation tools allow an enterprise to see exactly what's being specified, and worked upon and give those responsible for programme management the tools they need. These can then be taken from what's essentially a list of product features (and/or sub-systems) and options in the form of a Bill of Materials and use it to drive the design and engineering process.
This is backed up with greater support for large assemblies and tools for top-down design approaches that are associative to the eventual CAD structures. This means that in the first pass, your product configurations can be more intelligent, but in subsequent projects, existing knowledge can be reused as and where needed.
Product Analytics
Analytics is a word that seems to have risen in its importance over the last few years. It describes the application of computer technology, operational research, and statistics to solve problems in business and industry. Within the context of PTC's PLM offering, it can be further broken down into taking the wealth of data that Windchill can manage and providing gateway and greater visibility of what's going on with development projects.
The analytics tools introduced into Windchill 10.0 are found in four core areas. Three of those areas relate to tracking materials used within products, but each has a discreet function. At the core is Windchill Materials & Substances. This provides a central storage facility for all of the substance and materials content of parts and products. Those experienced in compliance, will be aware that all materials must be stripped down to their chemical level (or CAS reference).
On top of this, Windchill Compliance brings together the technology that PTC acquired from PlanetMetrics last year to build in tools to manage and report upon the compliance of products with a wide range of regulations and requirements, such as REACH and RoHS. Finally on the materials front, the Windchill LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) manages and reports on the environmental impact of parts, products and supply chain.
Cost Analytics: Alongside these materials-related updates, is the fourth arm to the Analytics products, which has the potential to provide much greater insight into the cost of projects and products. This uses a range of tools that allows an organisation to define rough estimates at the very beginning of a project, and then add in more accurate costs as things progress. What's interesting is how this takes advantage of the BOM management tools to gain an insight into costs at both a high level and a very detailed view. When combined with the integration of 3D data visualisation tools from Creo Elements/View (as well as more traditional charting tools), you have a set of tools that can allow anyone to find out where costs lie, where they're building up and where things are on track - in a very digestible manner.
Conclusion
PLM adoption faces several challenges outside of the age old question of enterprise level management. To make the most effective use of the system, it’s critical that users are engaged and the system doesn't present a barrier. The work done at a core level means that users can customise the system and ensure they're getting the most out of it from the word go.
Work done on areas that add depth to the system, such as the new embedded software development tools, means that everyone involved in the development, sales and servicing of a product, has a much more holistic understanding of the complete product. Considering today's high-tech products across all manner of industries, the ability to have a single source of truth is ever more appealing. That single source can now be not only for the geometry and documentation of the product, but also electronics, and the associated embedded software as well.
The Analytics portions of the Windchill 10.0 update are intriguing. In the first instance, the Compliance and LCA tools are going to increasingly become more critical for many organisations. If you're within an OEM environment, the ability to centralise all of the materials and substance data pertaining to your products, whether generated in-house or by suppliers, then interrogate them from both the compliance and environmental impact perspective, is invaluable. Conversely, if you're part of a supply chain, as most all companies today are, these types of tools allow you to manage the data of your own products, then effectively manage the data you're supplying to your customers.
Windchill is a leader in the PLM world and allows you to track almost anything involved in the product development process. While its background is in 3D design and the associated data, Windchill 10.0 shows that PTC are expanding both what can be managed and what should be managed during a product's lifecycle.
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