How to Claim the Benefits of PLM

If you asked 10 people in your company to give you a definition of PLM, you would likely get 10 different answers. That's because people have very different experiences with PLM, or maybe a lack of experience with PLM. To claim the benefits of PLM there are some steps you must follow. This post will not try to mention every single step that you must follow, that would take way too long and I want to eat lunch. But, this list represents some of the key activities that you must follow in order to claim the full benefits of PLM for your business:

Education

The first step in any PLM activity is to education everyone. By that I mean the executives, the PLM team participants, and others that will be supporting your PLM initiative. Once people are education, and they understand the comprehensive nature of PLM, they will be more likely to support your efforts. A good PLM definition to start with is:

PLM is the collaborative creation, use, management & dissemination of product related intellectual assets.

Some key aspects of PLM include the following:

•     PLM is a strategic business approach, not just a collection of technologies.
•     PLM supports the extended enterprise.
•     PLM spans the full product life-cycle, from concept to end of life.

Once you have educated people about PLM, you will be able to have important discussions about your business on a level playing field. When everyone is on the same page regarding PLM, you will find that making progress is much easier. To claim the benefits of PLM for your business, you must educate your people.

Information Management

Managing the information within your business is one of the core features of PLM. Without managing your information (intellectual assets), you won't be able to have the confidence to make decisions. This leads to delays, mistakes, redundant reviews, unnecessary signatures, and an overall inefficient business process. Until you can manage your information effectively, and guarantee that all information is valid, complete, and available, you will struggle to claim the benefits of PLM for your business.

PLM is Strategic

Understanding the strategic nature of PLM will lead you to seek out more understanding about your strategic business objectives. Once you understand the strategic direction of your business, you can craft a PLM vision that supports your business. This leads to a long list of business requirements. This, along with other requirements will drive the selection and implementation of PLM in your business.

In order to claim the benefits of PLM you must consider three important factors:

•     People - How will people be encouraged and supported through the changes that PLM will bring.
•     Processes - What new processes are needed to support the implementation of PLM.
•     Technology - What is the proper technology to support strategic business objectives and the PLM vision.

You cannot consider just one of these three in isolation if you want to get the most out of PLM. All three will have a major impact on the success of PLM at your company. Our experience shows us that most of the failed PLM implementation we have seen are not a result of bad technology, but more often a result of process or people issues.

Measure PLM Benefits

It is important to convince your executives, and your users that PLM has benefits. That also means that you need a way to measure and illustrate the degree and timing of PLM benefits. We recommend using a spreadsheet model that allows you to calculate cost vs. benefits and then show a valid ROI for PLM. Once you have charts and graphs of how PLM will impact you business, it becomes much easier to convince others about the value of PLM.

We recommend an early benefits appraisal analysis for feasibility to show the potential benefits of PLM. Do this early and use this to sell PLM to the organization. Then, you can gauge additional benefits as your PLM program progresses to determine the real ROI. This repeatable methodology also allows you to do this benefits analysis as often as needed. To claim the benefits of PLM for your business you will need to sell these benefits to many organizations using a repeatable appraisal methodology.

Conclusions

Making PLM successful requires education, managing your information, strategic planning, and measuring benefits. There are many other activities and plans you will need to be successful with PLM, but if you start with these key items, you will be well on your way to claiming the benefits of PLM for your business.

Source: http://plmjim.blogspot.in/2013/12/how-to-claim-benefits-of-plm.html

Teamcenter Product Cost Management

Increase profitability by taking control of procurement costs

When procuring a part, it is important for procurement officers to understand the supplier’s costs, their material costs, manufacturing costs, machine rates, labor and burden costs, etc. This wealth of  information provides a foundation for procurement officers to judge if the price quoted by the supplier is realistic, improving their negotiating position and allowing them to take control of procurement costs.

Unfortunately, obtaining these information is not easy, the efforts required to gather these information varies from one industry to another. In automotive, mechanical engineering or aerospace for example, it is especially difficult because a large portion of the purchasing budget applies to complex systems and assemblies. Another factor affecting costs is the lack of viable supplier choices, because only a few suppliers are able to produce such complex parts.

Traditional methods for cost analysis are based on stale and anecdotal after-the-fact data. Teamcenter Product Cost Management allows you leverage the same product lifecycle management (PLM) system you use to manage product development to predict and control product costs using data such as geometry, materials selection, part volumes, assembly and product definition. Teamcenter also provides a common database for critical information such as labor rates and material costs so that they can be updated once with the most recent data and reflected across multiple cost models.

Teamcenter Product Cost Management efficiently and accurately calculates costs and prices of purchased components from various material groups by performing process-based “shadow calculation” and bottom-up validation of purchase prices. With Teamcenter Product Cost Management you can easily calculate target prices for project purchasing, perform price verification for series purchasing, compare costs across multiple production sites to determine the best-cost country to source from, and perform make-or-buy analyses.

By having more accurate cost models and knowing the cost composition of a product, its materials, manufacturing and overhead costs, you can take control of the procurement negotiation to arrive at the desired product costs and increase your profitability.

A Brief Guide to Integrating Teamcenter with other Enterprise Systems

Executive Summary
Companies are often faced with the challenge of integrating standalone PLM systems with ERP and there are clear business benefits that can be derived from achieving a robust bi-directional flow of bill of material (BOM) information between the two environments.

The sheer variety and complexity of the integration challenge means that ‘off the shelf’ ERP connector products may not always provide the level of flexible bi-directional integration that is demanded.

In these circumstances a more bespoke approach becomes necessary. In this context, there are a number of different ways for integrating to Teamcenter ranging in complexity from the very simple file based to a more sophisticated SOA type approach. The most appropriate approach will take into account the complexity of the integration challenge as well any infrastructure and financial constraints.

The paper begins by looking at basic XML approaches with a particular focus on PLMXML. The various ways of exporting PLMXML are reviewed and the appropriateness of using PLMXML is also discussed. The paper explains when & why PLMXML may not always be the most effective approach and discusses alternatives.

This leads into a fuller discussion of the various Teamcenter APIs. Server side approaches are discussed with particular focus on the Teamcenter Integration Toolkit (ITK) and the new C++ API which is an alternative to ITK with Teamcenter Unified.

The paper then discusses how server side customisations (or user services) can be made accessible from a Teamcenter client via another module in Java (weaved into the Teamcenter Rich Client interface).

The paper explores variations on this theme. For instance, how ITK can be bypassed completely and Java integration programs written directly into the Teamcenter Rich Client Platform using the Teamcenter Portal API. There is also a discussion of how & why it may be desirable to expose server-side (ITK) functionalities through the thin or web client.

The final part of the paper explores the Teamcenter SOA client toolkit. The SOA approach becomes very useful when you have other enterprise applications that cannot be run in the context of a Teamcenter client or server environment but which still needs to access Teamcenter functionality or data.

Read more at AESSiS
 

Vishwakarma Engineering Works - Solid Edge Case Study

Business challenges: Make parts that are more standardized Promote design re-use Develop new products consistently

Keys to success: Convert to a 3D process Utilize experienced users in training of new users Implement synchronous technology

Results: Enabled faster product development Eliminated non value-added work Reduced errors found during manufacturing stage

Limitation of 2D Drawings: Although 2D drawings had been the primary design deliverable for many years, Vishwakarma Engineering Works (VEWorks) found that there were drawbacks to a 2D approach. If there was a design change, 2D drawings could not be easily updated in a timely manner. Changing complex assemblies involved considerable drafting hours. Engineers faced pressure to revise the drawings, which was not only time consuming, but also arduous. Moreover, VEWorks often is tasked with producing a prototype to be approved by customers before getting the go-ahead for production.

“The conventional way of designing in 2D was an impediment,” says Jay Patel, CEO. “It was time-consuming and often human errors would surface during the manufacturing stage.”

He notes, “Our production orders are usually for small batches in varying sizes. Any change in dimension requires updating the entire assembly. This is more common when we are manufacturing process equipment.”
The solution was to convert to a 3D design process.

Choosing Solid Edge: VEWorks chose to implement Solid Edge® software from product lifecycle management (PLM) specialist Siemens PLM Software. The most complete hybrid 2D/3D computer-aided design (CAD) system, Solid Edge with synchronous technology enables a company to accelerate design, makes changes faster, and improve the reuse of imported CAD data.

Patel notes, “One meeting with Siemens PLM Software was sufficient for our management to understand the advantages Solid Edge had to offer. The biggest advantage with Solid Edge is that it offers far better editing and updating capabilities than any of its competitors. It’s backed by support that is among the best in the industry. Plus, Siemens PLM Software offers a comprehensive range of product development solutions that can be easily integrated into our growing organizational structure.” Read Full Story.

Why PLM Is So Important For High-Tech Manufacturers

Product lifecycle management (PLM) may sound like one of those deep-in-the-weeds business terms, but it has become one of the most important arenas for accelerating product deliveries, reducing costs, and generating more revenues in major manufacturing industries. Going forward, aerospace, consumer electronics, medical device, semiconductors, and wireless infrastructure manufacturers would need to invest even more in product lifecycle management technologies and capabilities and Product Lifecycle Services to make this complex process more streamlined, cohesive, and simplified.

So what is product lifecycle management? Put simply, it’s all the processes and systems involved in product development from the original product conception through the end of its life. Product lifecycle management involves numerous corporate groups such as marketing, engineering, manufacturing, and purchasing. These processes and systems are particularly designed for use by manufacturers employing thousands of highly skilled designers, scientists and engineers working within global processes across hundreds of current and future products.

Why is PLM so important?

Product development has become strategically crucial to the financial performance of these manufacturing companies so they are investing more in it. They understand and appreciate problems PLM addresses and the benefits it can reap such as lower production costs, as well as accelerations in new product designs and launch schedules and engineering cycle times.

What’s at stake for high-tech manufacturers?

Each year these manufacturers companies spend as much as 25 percent of their revenues—in some cases billions of dollars—on innovation and product development, according to Accenture analysis. But nearly half of the investment is on products that are either late to market or don’t  address customer requirements. A one percent reduction in the time it takes to deliver a product to market by improving PLM, for example, can translate to major financial benefits.

While PLM can solve a plethora of problems, a one-size-fits-all offering does not exist. The correct remedies depend on the company, industry, specific needs, and competitive dynamics. Based on Accenture’s extensive experiences with clients, however, the most pervasive and common problems are inefficient end-to-end processes, fragmented data systems, mounting offering and product complexity, and difficulties adhering to more and increasingly stringent regulations.

Four Product Development Problems Vex Manufacturers

Inefficient end-to-end processes: Because of deeply ingrained silos within these companies, the marketing, product planning, engineering, manufacturing, purchasing, sales, and service groups often operate independently. Too often these groups are disconnected islands that rarely talk to each other. To boost efficiency, they need to operate in a more coordinated and streamlined fashion by determining areas where the overall process can be improved. To further improve end-to-end process efficiency, they should enhance and supplement their work forces, as well as enhance product design, validation, and manufacturing.

Fragmented data systems:  When investing in product development, companies seek data about requirements, designs, parts, bills of material, software codes, and quality. But within these companies such data often remains disorganized, unclear, redundant and dispersed throughout different groups spread among hundreds of applications. Valuable product development data does not get captured, categorized, managed nor disseminated efficiently. These firms need to create centralized data owners and management systems. By doing so, they increase accessibility of accurate, timely and reusable data throughout the business. This increases process efficiency and re-use of product development data and, therefore, investment dollars.

Mounting product complexity: Most companies have seen a steady increase in their number of product offerings, which often combine sophisticated services and features. But due to the mix of mechanical, electronic, software, and service elements, these products are increasingly complex. As such, the offerings are more complicated to conceptualize, develop, and deliver to market. These companies need to examine and enhance the profitability of different product types and features as well as project platforms. Furthermore, if companies are challenged to gather excellent internal and external product ideas, they can accelerate innovation processes, incubate new businesses, and create and mine new product ideas.

Difficulties adhering to increasingly stringent regulations: In the product development arena of high-tech companies, the number of global regulations continues to grow and often has become more complex. To avoid fines and penalties, these companies need to be vigilant and well-organized in following product regulations. They need to more uniformity in the ways in which these regulations are abided by and tracked.

Final Thoughts

It’s not an overstatement to say that PLM is fast becoming one of the most important areas in manufacturing companies for improving business performance. The potential improvements PLM offers are widespread and significant. They can be realized using a number of approaches and techniques. This is the time for manufacturers to derive all the benefits they can out of their PLM processes.

Source: http://www.mbtmag.com/articles/2013/07/why-plm-so-important-high-tech-manufacturers

Shop Floor Work Instructions Made Easier With PLM

How do you create the work instructions for your shop floor workers? How do you reconcile them with the manufacturing structure? How do you communicate changes?

If you’re using paper-based methods to create and communicate work instructions, or finding your electronic methods cumbersome, you may want to consider switching to interactive, PLM-based electronic work instruction.

Electronic work instruction (EWI) refers to computerized visual tools to instruct shop floor workers to perform their jobs. Unlike paper-based work instructions, electronic work instructions may also include 3D models of the parts to be assembled, information about the tools as well as product and manufacturing information (PMI). In addition, EWI may be interactive, allowing the reader to manipulate the 3D view, play animated assembly sequences as well as browse through a sequential list of steps to be performed per job order.

EWI is in use by many manufacturers from various industry segments. Any production line that requires manual operations requires a certain level of shop floor documentation. Regulated industries such as aerospace and shipbuilding must invest significant efforts to define and implement high standards for shop floor documentation. In many cases, government regulations mandate that shop floor documents meet certain criteria.

There is no single way to author work instructions. Some manufacturers may use inexpensive Microsoft Office® software tools to author documents, while others implement integrated work instruction and routing planning tools. In general, work instructions are tightly connected to the engineering design and manufacturing planning processes, constituting a significant component of the communication flow. Authoring of work instructions requires the availability of engineering and manufacturing information, as well as the validity of assembly processes. In some cases, work instructions may include instructions for machine operators. Shop floor work instructions also have to satisfy intra-company formatting and layout standards. Therefore, customized template creation is a key requirement of any work instructions solution.

Traditionally, work instructions would be printed and distributed to the shop floor with accompanying 2D engineering drawings. Many manufacturers still use that method, at least partially. Electronic work instruction, however, may be embedded into the enterprise manufacturing execution system (MES). This allows manufacturers to combine all manufacturing execution tasks and information into a single backbone, and to link the work instructions to work orders, resources and parts stock. MES systems also allow data collection which is required for many processes (for example, nonconformance).

Building on the value of MES-based electronic work instructions, Siemens PLM Software now offers an end-to-end, PLM-based solution for work instruction authoring and publishing. The basic concept is that the entire authoring process – from engineering design through manufacturing planning to shop floor execution – is performed using product lifecycle management (PLM) software. PLM applications support the workflow, and the work instruction data, including CAD-neutral visualization using the JT format. The PLM system manages electronic work instructions in one single source that spans the lifecycle, from Design to Manufacturing Planning to Process Instructions Planning to Execution.

Because the authoring process is managed using a single PLM backbone, your company reduces the risk of quality escapes, increases engineering efficiency and eliminates the need for data conversion. The PLM system supports smooth change management, minimizes data conversion and provides state-of-the-art 3D-based interactive authoring. Your company can realize significant savings in engineering time, as well as minimize time spent by manufacturing experts on the shop floor.

Source: http://www.mbtmag.com

PLM Licensing is so Old School

The way enterprise PLM software is licensed to businesses is wrong, period. Pay now. And pay later. Then pay even more. And why not pay for things you can’t even identify. Traditional PLM licensing schemes are complicated, confusing, expensive and broken… and their days are numbered.

To understand why, you need to experience it first-hand. Start by getting a quote from your friendly, knowledgeable PLM salesman at any of the major legacy PLM system providers.

User-seat licenses are the first thing you'll want to know the cost for; however, as you get into the quoting process you will soon learn that each User license has accompanying "modules" access. This is a fancy way of magically justifying higher and higher fees.

From there you learn that server licenses are needed, along with a lot of other ancillary things such as developer licenses and other mysterious costs. Next thing you know, you've got a multi-million dollar quote and the salesman is telling you he's going to do you a favor by providing a "discount." But wait, there's more.

If your PLM software deployment gains wide-spread adoption (a goal of every successful PLM implementation), you will need to purchase more licenses. PLM license expenses can be huge up-front, but broad, global roll-outs are where the costs absolutely skyrocket. Effectively, the PLM project becomes a victim of its own success.

The reality is that many PLM implementations have been stuck as "engineering only" systems or worse, "limited to a few designers only" because it is economically unfeasible to spend the small fortune required to provide everyone that needs access with a license.

If it is proposed that PLM licenses be purchased for "only those that need them," then the company's competitive position is being sacrificed. Collaboration is essential to innovation and without it your company is sure to lose its edge.

Yesterday's safe answers are today’s death knell. That's why the days of expensive enterprise PLM software's User-Seat License schemes are over. Buyer beware, you may be jeopardizing your company's future (and your own career) if you purchase PLM licenses from one of the major providers.

So, if User-seat PLM licensing is broken and wrong for the enterprise, then what's the answer? What's the alternative? No user licenses, end of story.

Panso Solutions to Sponsor PLM World® Detroit Regional Users 2013 Conference

Regional Conference Provides Opportunity to Learn About Latest Innovations and Collaborate on Best Practices for the Siemens Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) Software Suite.

India – 18-10-2013 - Panso solutions a new age PLM, IT and Engineering solutions and services firm today announced that it will sponsor Detroit Regional Users Group 2013 conference which takes place on 5th November , in Troy, Michigan.

Detroit Regional Users Group 2013 Conference – 5th November, 2013
Troy Marriot - Troy, MI
Details and Registration: http://www.plmworld.org/detroitrugevent

Sriram Chitlur, CEO of Panso Solutions, said, “Panso Solutions is excited and honored to sponsor and participate the PLM World ® Detroit Regional Users Group 2013 Conference. It’s an excellent forum and brings people together from all over the Siemens Corporate Community and all over the world, providing an excellent opportunity to interact, learn and listen to the voice of users, understanding their challenges and provide solutions for their business problems.”

The Detroit Regional Users Group conference of PLM World is the local voice for the users of the Siemens product suites of PLM tools in SE Michigan. The event provides an excellent opportunity to learn about the latest innovations, talk to users that have achieved PLM success and find out what’s coming next in the future from partners and collaborate on best practices within Siemens Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) Software Suite.

About PLM World ®
PLM World ® is an independent, not-for profit organization. Their mission is to be the Voice of the User in providing an open forum for the exchange of ideas within the Siemens Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) Software product environment. Through networking, these users share best practices and technical techniques for implementing and using the software more effectively. For user-to-Siemens PLM Software interaction, they helped Siemens create the Customer Involvement Process, which allows the user community to play a key role in the future development of Siemens PLM Software products. Through Enhancement Request voting and discussion during special sessions at annual conferences, users directly affect future product direction. To learn more, please visit the PLM World ® website at http://www.plmworld.org

About Panso Solutions:
Panso Solutions is a company focused on providing high value and fierce competitive advantage to its customers in the areas of Product Lifecycle Management, Engineering Service and Procurement & Sourcing. Panso develops solutions for its customers that enable faster product launches, strategic sourcing and better business intelligence that are absolutely critical in today's global markets. We use the latest, most innovative, open source and cloud-based technologies and deliver our products and services in a cost efficient business model. Visit http://www.panso.in/ for further information.

5 Things You Need To Know About IHS & Aras

Aras recently announced their partnership with IHS to connect the IHS cloud-based CAPS Universe Electronic Component Data into their PLM platform for component engineering of new products and systems. What does this mean for you? It means you can quickly find the right parts, compare electronic details, part availability and more right from within your PLM environment. Here’s what you need to know:

1. IHS CAPS Universe is the leading electronic component database containing part-attribute data and documentation on hundreds of millions of parts from more than 2000 manufacturers worldwide.
2. You will be able to seamlessly and securely access IHS CAPS Universe data with powerful analytics from within Aras. 
3. With up-to-date information you will be able to make better decisions from initial design through production and beyond. 
4. Improved innovation, productivity and compliance with component information integrated directly into the PLM workflow. 
5. You will reduce risk and improve component lifecycle planning with automatic product change notices, counterfeit alerts, end-of-life forecasts and more.

Change Management: One Size Will Never Fit All

Change management is the toughest thing inside of PLM. It's also the most important. How important? It's about the patient not dying, the plane not crashing, the missile landing where it is supposed to. You get the idea.

Take safety out of the equation, and enterprise change management is where companies can lose all their profit margin. It's as simple as ordering a truck load of the wrong parts, choosing a "fix" that isn't cost-effective, taking too long to make a change, or making a change that engineering wanted but didn't make sense to manufacturing and/or the customer.

Real change management goes beyond the instruction to make the change and answers the questions: Who ran the cost numbers on the change? Who validated the change? Approved it? Does the customer agree with the change? If you're regulated, how about the FDA?

If all you're managing is MCAD files, you've got things like tooling and fixtures with a slow steady rate of change. You'd be hard pressed to manage all that manually, but you might be able to get by with a PDM system.

Add in electronics and the rate of change quickens. There's no tooling, so you can send a circuit board change to your contract manufacturer today and tomorrow your circuit boards are coming out different.

Now add software, where you have firmware changes happening daily, even hourly, and they're being cut into the units on the shop floor on the fly. You literally have continuous change.

How do you harmonize that into your build process for real products?

There are quite a few PDM / PLM companies that would like there to be one standard out of the box change process. Not because it's good for their customers, but because it makes their lives as software developers easier. It's infinitely harder to create a system that implements the customer's change process correctly and fast.

Many of these providers offer only linear workflows. The problem is I've never seen a company with a linear workflow. They're always branching, looping and doubling back on themselves. That's a real customer process for getting a change validated and then communicated out to the organization. It's not simple. It's probably the hardest thing to get right in PLM.

These vendors will tell you their systems are based on "industry best practices". The fact is there is no such thing as the best change process. The "best" really depends on the company, their customers, their product lines, their compliance mandates, etc.

Aras is the first PLM solution with a whole series of out of the box options for change management. We're also the first PLM company honest enough to tell you that there's no silver bullet and you shouldn't expect to use any of them without optimizing for your specific process requirements.

They're not hard coded system solutions, they're application templates. We've captured change processes from different industry standards - aerospace, automotive, high tech, consumer products, FDA, etc. We have 3 that come in the initial Aras install today. We might have 5 or 10 a year from now. It's a matter of creating accelerators to help companies with specific practices.

What makes Aras unique is that we've taken the business rule behaviors of change workflows and driven them down into the core of our platform so you can implement a secure, validated, very fast change process that is unique for your business then, typical Aras, we ensure that it is upgradeable and we do the upgrades for you.

In the real world, a company may be running 3 different change management processes under a single umbrella. The software guys may be operating at an entirely different pace than the team working on hardware, with their own rules and different workflow. With Aras, there's one system level change process that incorporates everything and keeps the configurations correct.

Get to Know Your Change Management Options

Change. It's inevitable. Products across all industries undergo change for a variety of reasons, everything from product improvement, to compliance and changes in customer requirements.

So what's the big deal about change? Well, if it's not managed properly it can lead to longer development cycles, miscommunication which leads to inaccuracies in production, higher costs and more. And with today's increasingly complex products, change is almost continuous.

That's where Product Change Management comes in.

At Aras, we start you off with three out-of-the-box change management templates: Simple ECO, CMII Change and Express ECO. All are easily configurable to better fit your needs. And if none of them work for you, don't worry, you can create a custom change process.

To figure out which change management option is right for you, watch this video where Rob McAveney, Director of Product Management, goes into the business reasons behind choosing simple and CMII change.

And to learn more about your out of the box change management options.

An intuitive web-based shop floor work instructions solution

The quest is still on to find the most efficient way to provide work instructions to the shop floor. After all, we all know the problems associated with paper based, uncontrolled work instructions. They are not always clear, accessible or accurate. Evidently the answer is to rely on IT systems to create, publish and manage shop floor work instructions. However, there is always a debate about what kind of IT system is most suitable for managing work instructions.

First option is to install a dedicated work instructions software packgage capable of managing 2D/3D product and process data. In most cases, these dedicated systems are quite useful for managing work instruction templates, presenting visual data and making sure that shop floor workers have easy access to the system. However, they lack the ability to ensure that product design and manufacturing information are all interconnected. They cannot give manufacturers the confidence that the work instructions are always current and up to date.

The second option is to manage work instruction using the ERP and MES systems. It is true that MES and ERP systems are enterprise platforms, and they are capable of resolving data associativity issues, but traditionally they lack the ability to provide rich process instructions with 2D/3D data and animated steps to the shop floor.

The third option is to manage the work instructions as part of the PLM platform. This allows manufacturers to verify that work instructions are always up to date with the latest product and process data. In addition, because of access to the CAD data, PLM systems are much better equipped to present 2D/3D visual data in the work instructions.

For our manufacturing customers, we have recently launched a new way of accessing work instruction at the shop floor. The Teamcenter Electronic Work Instruction (EWI) solution is a web-based application that helps manufacturers communicate all manufacturing process information, including process steps, 2D/3D visuals, markups, standard texts and PMI information to the shop floor.

EWI is especially developed by keeping in mind the daily tasks and processes of shop floor workers. Shop floor workers can access the work instructions using an easy to navigate and intuitive user interface. You will find that the EWI user interface has a touch based navigation optimized for mobile devices, and it’s lightweight architecture ensures it doesn’t take significant computing resources of the device.

Most importantly, EWI is directly connected to the Teamcenter database. Therefore, any time there is a change in product design or manufacturing process, it can be immediately reflected at the shop floor. Watch the below video and learn how Teamcenter EWI can help you manage work instructions documents and allow your shop floor employees to have easy access to up to date process steps.

Standard Time Management in Teamcenter

You might be surprised to learn that according to estimates 90% of all manufacturing activities are non-value added. Non-value activities for which we know customers are not willing to pay us when we sell our products. Therefore, the idea behind lean manufacturing is to remove, reduce and streamline non-value activities as much as possible so that we can boost profitability. So imagine the scope for improvements if you know 90% of your manufacturing activities do not add value to the final product.

You can start off by identifying and managing every activity that will be involved in manufacturing the product before you start production. This will certainly give you more visibility to the value added and non-value added activities and allow you to optimize your manufacturing processes more efficiently.

The video also demonstrated the integration between Teamcenter and TiCon®. TiCon is developed by the MTM association, and the software provides work measurement tools to help manufacturers improve operational performance. MTM has standards that describe average time a worker should take to complete certain tasks. The MTM standards are currently used by many leading manufacturers. For example, tasks such as walking and loading parts, installing fixtures, performing maintenance and so on have defined standard times. Manufacturers have used these standard times as guidelines to determine labor costs, cycle time and for overall process management.

With this video you will learn how Teamcenter integration with TiCon will allow you to efficiently reuse the time analysis and optimization already done in TiCon.

FEATURED COMMUNITY SOLUTION: Collaboration Folders

Formerly known as the Item Folder solution, Collaboration Folders is an Aras Community Solution that offers a quick and easy way to organize multi-level folder structures for both files AND items. It's simple, intuitive and very powerful. And it was just updated for Aras Innovator 9.4.

With the Collaboration Folders solution, each folder can list attachments (files) or controlled (related) items such as documents and parts (poly item list). It also enables the creation of folder structures from folder templates. The Multi-level Folder Tree Grid allows dropping files onto folder rows. Users can view, lock and unlock items. You can also add controlled items or sub folders to folder rows. Folder Templates enable the creation of pre-defined folder structures with pre-defined files or controlled items linked. These get copied to folders created from a template. Team Access facilitates collaboration on data managed in folders by allowing access permissions to team members with roles: Manager, Member or, Guest for example. In addition, the entire folder structure or sub structures can have their own "private" teams.

Folder Structure combined with Team Access make this solution an effective way to organize, manage, share and collaborate on attached files and controlled documentation in hierarchical folders with other Aras users over the web. This free solution has been downloaded over a 1000 times already and is being used in production by a wide range of Aras users.

TRUaras - Secure File Exchange

Secure File Exchange leverages Aras's connected cloud capabilities to enable managed file transfer from directly inside Aras Innovator, providing a secure way to transfer files and conduct regular data transactions while adding encryption, tracking and traceability.

Secure File Exchange replaces disconnected multi-step procedures, such as FTP, and non-secure methods, such as email and consumer file sharing sites, to enable users to safely and confidently collaborate from within the Aras PLM environment across the extended enterprise with customers, suppliers, outsourcing partners and contract manufacturers.

TRUaras

TRUaras embeds Trubiquity's advanced managed file transfer (MFT) inside the PLM workflow so that users can securely share and exchange large CAD files, technical data packages, manufacturing data, inspection and test results, and other intellectual property with full tracking and traceability.

TRUaras is ideal for companies that need to exchange large sets of files with suppliers, such as CATIA, Creo and NX assemblies, or for companies that frequently transmit product designs such as PDX files to contract manufacturers.

Secure File Exchange: 

• Powerful - Allows global supply chain partners with thousands of users to securely manage transfers of large, complex sets of files
• Seamless - Embedded in the Aras PLM platform for an integrated user experience and maximum productivity
• Performance - Industry leading transfer speeds with high availability and uptime
• Encryption - Endpoint-to-endpoint security capabilities via authentication and multi-layer encryption including 128-bit SSL, 256-bit AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) and 1024-bit private key
• Traceability - Complete audit trail of all file transfers including the date & time, companies and individuals that conducted file uploads/downloads
• Visibility - Track and monitor file movement in real-time from pending transfer status to post transfer receipt
• Compliance - Support for Odette OFTP2 compliance and export compliance such as ITAR and EAR (Export Administration Regulations)

Configuration Based PLM Implementation

Presently configuration based Software development is highly desirable and demanded by client. PLM products are coming with high level configuration with the aim of reducing the solution cost to client. But in most of cases in PLM domain client have some way or other unique feature which can’t be satisfied with configuration and some customization required to be done. Client prefers to have custom solution developed so that future changes can be incorporated through configuration rather than new implementation and the solution can be reused in similar requirement situation. This can reduce the future cost to them. In this blog I will discuss different way of configuration in Teamcenter and balancing between configurations driven development. As overloaded configuration based implemented may kill the real benefits and increase cost of development and maintenance.

Configuration Driven Implementation:
Configuration driven implementation can be define as development which can incorporate future change of requirement through change in some property or attribute define in a system. Basically it can be said that change can be done without changing the code. So configuration driven implantation laid its foundation at requirement itself, as the constraint of requirement define how much configuration approach can be taken. If the requirement is too specific and unique than configuration approach may be not a good idea. But if requirement is generic enough that configuration driven approach can be taken. For example if requirement presently is to process some logic for specific part type only but it future other part type can also have same business process. Also while doing design of configuration approach it should also be taken in to account whether there is any possibility of change in requirement. For example rarely any Organization changes there Change Management process once develop. Making this solution, too much configuration based may not be sound approach. Also other factor is reusability, usually for example Workflow Handler can be written in such a way that it driven by argument and can be reusable for similar case but with different business object type and status. To summarize this are the three factor which define for going for Configuration approach.

1) Requirement is generic or too specific.
2) Expected change in future.
3) Reusability of implementation.

Configuration based approach in Teamcenter:
In teamcenter you can drive configuration based approach through various means. The main tool which is also use in Product provided Configuration is Preferences. Preferences are internal Teamcenter environment variables store in database. Teamcenter provide various API both at server and client side to access those preferences. One of the advantages of preference based approach is that Teamcenter provide different level of preference control based on Site, Group, role and use. Also access control for edit for preferences is also defined. Hence different configuration can be wisely used . Second approach usually is through Configuration file. We define set of property in specific format which is read by code during runtime. The config file usually help in specific location usually in tcdata directory. This approach has its limitation as specific code to be developed to read and understand the config file. Also it not store in Teamcenter environment. Third approach is used for Workflow Handler development which can be configured by providing argument and its value while designing the Workflow. This approach widely used for making Handler behavior generic enough to be driven by argument. For example Handler can check state of target object type. The object type can be defined in argument.
To summarize different approach Configuration driven implementation in Teamcenter usually can be categorize in three types.

1) Preference based approach.
2) Configuration File based approach.
3) Argument based approach.

Usually implementation is driven by mixed of the above, but most prefer way should be preference based approach.

 Source: http://teamcenterplm.blogspot.in

eBOM and mBOM configuration management in Teamcenter

Manufacturing bill-of-materials or mBOM is a configuration of the product to show how it will be assembled. On the other hand, engineering bill-of-materials or eBOM is a configuration of the product to show how it is designed. The ability to connect and manage these two structures together so that whenever there are changes made to the product design it triggers a corresponding change in the manufacturing processes is an essential part of any successful PLM implementation. I guess it doesn’t require lots of explanation how a seamless eBOM and mBOM management process can save you a great deal of time and money. Now we need proof that it is indeed possible to manage eBOM and mBOM in a single software system and check impacts of design change on manufacturing processes. 

Watch the below video and check how Teamcenter can help in bridging the gap between eBOM and mBOM

RASCO Automotive Systems leverages Solid Edge and NX to deliver customized products

A pattern of sustained growth RASCO Automotive Systems Private Limited was originally formed in 1953 as Radiator Supply Company. At that time, it functioned as a retailer of after market copper brass automotive application radiators. “RASCO has evolved into a full-scale supplier and exporter of copper-brass radiators, as well as one of India’s leading automotive engineering design companies,” says

Aman Bir Singh, director, RASCO Automotive Systems. He explains, “The engineering services arm of the company was established in 2005. Over the next five years of business, we became one of the most trusted names in engineering design in the Delhi NCR region.”

The company also was able to realize its growth by providing computer-enabled services for the automotive segment. To facilitate this expansion, RASCO diversified into the computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), computer-aided engineering (CAE) and computer-aided styling (CAS) services business by collaborating with Siemens PLM Software. RASCO uses Siemens’ Solid Edge® software and NX™ software including I-deas™ software) for product development. In addition, RASCO serves as Siemens PLM Software’s channel partner for the aforementioned design and manufacturing systems as well as for its Femap™ software an advanced engineering simulation program that creates finite element analysis models of complex engineering products and systems, and displays solution results.

While RASCO’s product offerings vary, most of its product development business comes from custom product orders. Its CAS services typically cover automotive accessories such as body kits, spoilers and such. Moreover, its product development process has to be extremely flexible since each customer order is often unique and requires a different design deliverable. RASCO also faces increasing time-to-market pressures as new competitors are continuously emerging and offering low rates for delivering similar products.

With these considerations in mind, RASCO decided to transform its product development process. The company focused on achieving more accurate designs in significantly shorter time frames.

Moving to 3D design

The company had been using 2D design software to develop its products. However, with the need to deliver more complex parts and products faster and more efficiently, RASCO management knew it needed to implement 3D technology. To achieve this objective, the company adopted a two-pronged approach, leveraging Solid Edge and NX (and NX I-deas). Solid Edge is primarily used to remodel parametrically over solids generated from NX via white light scanning, and to model sheet metal components, assemblies and fasteners. NX is largely used to convert stereolithography (STL) scan data into nonuniform rational basis splines (NURBS) models and for mold and tooling applications.

“We chose Siemens’ CAD solutions for a variety of reasons, including their ease of use, competitive pricing and excellent support,” says Singh. “Each solution provides distinct price/performance values, so we use the one that we feel gives us the highest return on investment for particular applications. It’s important to note that you can utilize data between Siemens’ CAD systems and maintain associativity. This interoperability is invaluable as changes are automatically maintained between the various CAD models generated by our different design groups.”

Singh explains, “Most of our work starts with reverse engineering – for example, an automotive water pump assembly, which has a housing, shaft, bearing, fasteners, etc. We first scan the housing and convert the data into an STL file, then generate cross sections at various positions of the STL file to get reference data as points or curves. We import this data via IGES (initial graphics exchange specification) into the NX technology and build 3D models using the reference data. Once we have the 3D models, we send them to Solid Edge using Siemens’ Parasolid or as .prt files, as applicable.”

The company uses Solid Edge to remodel the 3D data as parametric models. Singh continues, “Then we make smaller components like shafts and bearings in Solid Edge from drawings, measurements, etc. With all of the components prepared, we assemble them in Solid Edge using Solid Edge libraries to add fasteners. After completing the assembly in 3D using Solid Edge, we generate drafts for individual components and assemblies. In addition, we use Solid Edge extensively for sheet metal applications, such as generating blanks for bent sheet metal components.

For tooling, we employ NX surfacing and Boolean operations, which are excellent. Once extracted, we export the molds to Solid Edge for mold assembly and final checks, and then deliver them to our

clients as IGES files. We use IGES because most of our clients have their own tool rooms and IGES is the format they typically prefer.”

RASCO’s investment in Siemens’ technology has generated impressive results. The design process has significantly improved as the company’s development teams are now able to produce far more accurate designs. Designers are able to more quickly identify and resolve problems, as well as to make better design decisions. This translates into higher quality products. In terms of speed, Singh notes the difference is dramatic, “Our design cycle is up to 50 percent faster.”

Singh adds, “With Siemens’ tools, our designers are now communicating far more effectively with each other, especially relative to design intent. And we are now communicating with our customers completely digitally. The whole product development process means not just faster and better, but ultimately, it means enhanced customer relationships and more business.”

Business challenges: Delivering customized products for each client order Facing new competitors who deliver products at highly aggressive prices Need for faster product design/development processes

Keys to success: Ability to design complex 3D parts easily and in less time Accurate designs needed for delivering high quality products

Results: Reduced design time by leveraging 3D to easily find and fix design problems Eliminated design errors by delivering more accurate drawings Improved decision making, which resulted in improved product quality Improved customer satisfaction by delivering final 3D design output faster

About Company: RASCO Automotive Systems is an engineering service provider that offers automotive styling, machine design, reverse engineering and CAD/CAM services to the automotive and machinery industries. www.rascoauto.com

New Teamcenter Rapid Start Speeds Product Data Management Deployment; Streamlines Product Development

Teamcenter Rapid Start Helps Businesses Quickly Realize the Benefits of PDM - Siemens introduces the next generation of easy to deploy product data management (PDM) based on Teamcenter® software and designed to streamline the product development process by enabling businesses to quickly find, share and re-use product data. The Teamcenter Rapid Start configuration delivers Teamcenter, the world’s most widely used digital lifecycle management system, with a preconfigured PDM deployment. Teamcenter Rapid Start is the next step in the evolution of Siemens’ Teamcenter Express software. It provides companies a quick, low risk method to realize the benefits of PDM today, while protecting their technology investment. Teamcenter Rapid Start uses the same software code as Teamcenter, so it provides a simple growth path to full PLM implementation.

Teamcenter Rapid Start provides multi-CAD data management capabilities that enable manufacturers to effectively and efficiently manage, control and share mechanical computer-aided design (CAD) data across the entire design and supply chain. Supporting most popular CAD solutions, Teamcenter Rapid Start provides a single view of product data. This combined with its visualization capabilities help enhance collaboration, enabling businesses to make smarter decisions that result in better products.

Teamcenter Rapid Start also manages everyday tasks and processes with preconfigured best practice workflows for engineering change and product release. These processes enhance efficiency to meet design and schedule targets.

“Teamcenter Rapid Start simplifies entry into PDM, allowing companies to start managing their multi-CAD data, change, and release processes, and then advance their PLM maturity over time as their needs grow,” said Eric Sterling, Senior Vice President, Lifecycle Collaboration Software, Siemens PLM Software. “Once you have Teamcenter Rapid Start up and running, you can add on Teamcenter capabilities as you need them, targeting the transformational business processes for which Teamcenter is built. Teamcenter Rapid Start allows customers to start experiencing the benefits of Teamcenter with a simple, easy to deploy, easy to use PDM solution.”

Teamcenter Express customers can exchange their current licenses for equivalent Teamcenter Rapid Start licenses and after a straightforward upgrade will benefit from both the preconfigured PDM capabilities of Teamcenter Rapid Start and easy access to the full PLM capabilities of Teamcenter.

Siemens PLM Software, a business unit of the Siemens Industry Automation Division, is a leading global provider of product lifecycle management (PLM) software and services with seven million licensed seats and more than 71,000 customers worldwide. Headquartered in Plano, Texas, Siemens PLM Software works collaboratively with companies to deliver open solutions to help them make smarter decisions that result in better products.

The Siemens Industry Automation Division (Nuremberg, Germany) supports the entire value chain of its industrial customers – from product design to production and services – with an unmatched combination of automation technology, industrial control technology, and industrial software. With its software solutions, the Division can shorten the time-to-market of new products by up to 50 percent. Industry Automation comprises five Business Units: Industrial Automation Systems, Control Components and Systems Engineering, Sensors and Communications, Siemens PLM Software, and Water Technologies.

Siemens Simplifies PLM Software Implementation; Provides Faster ROI

New Approach Delivers Solutions up to Three Times Faster – Siemens PLM Software has implemented a new application based approach to product release, simplifying how manufacturers adopt Teamcenter® software, the world’s most widely used digital lifecycle management system. The new approach separates Teamcenter applications from being dependent on a specific version of the larger Teamcenter platform. As a result, new customer and market driven solutions will now be available up to three times faster, and customers will be able to implement new applications without being required to upgrade the platform, helping them achieve a faster return on their PLM investment. Siemens also announced the latest release of the Teamcenter platform, Teamcenter 10.

Over the past year, Siemens has introduced a number of transformational applications that can now be used with multiple versions of the Teamcenter platform, including Briefcase Browser for supplier integration, Substance Compliance for sustainability initiatives, Product Cost Management, providing visibility into cost throughout the product lifecycle, and a Quality Management with CAPA solution.

“Our separation of application releases from major platform updates significantly simplifies PLM implementation for our customers and is a game change in our market,” said Eric Sterling, Senior Vice President, Lifecycle Collaboration Software, Siemens PLM Software. “PLM customers need to be able to react quickly to changing demands. Our new approach to deliver targeted PLM applications that work across multiple versions of the Teamcenter platform will enable us to focus on developing applications that help transform our customers’ businesses, and allows them to more easily take advantage of the latest and best in PLM. This approach provides customers a faster return on their PLM investment and gives them the agility required to stay ahead of their competition.”

Teamcenter 10 will be available later this month. The new Teamcenter solutions for supplier integration (Briefcase Browser), Substance Compliance, Product Cost Management, and Quality Management with CAPA are all available immediately. For more information please visit www.siemens.com/plm/teamcenter.

Siemens PLM Software, a business unit of the Siemens Industry Automation Division, is a leading global provider of product lifecycle management (PLM) software and services with seven million licensed seats and more than 71,000 customers worldwide. Headquartered in Plano, Texas, Siemens PLM Software works collaboratively with companies to deliver open solutions to help them make smarter decisions that result in better products. For more information on Siemens PLM Software products and services, visit www.siemens.com/plm.

The Siemens Industry Automation Division (Nuremberg, Germany) supports the entire value chain of its industrial customers – from product design to production and services – with an unmatched combination of automation technology, industrial control technology, and industrial software. With its software solutions, the Division can shorten the time-to-market of new products by up to 50 percent. Industry Automation comprises five Business Units: Industrial Automation Systems, Control Components and Systems Engineering, Sensors and Communications, Siemens PLM Software, and Water Technologies
 

Latest Release of Siemens' Solid Edge Software Helps Get Quality Products to Market Faster

New Software Capabilities Enable up to a Six-fold Increase in Productivity on Certain Tasks - The latest release of Siemens PLM Software’ Solid Edge® software (Solid Edge ST6) includes several new enhancements in the areas of design, simulation and collaboration that enable certain tasks to be performed up to six times faster than the previous version. New functionality also helps Solid Edge ST6 users to learn, share and collaborate with other Solid Edge users. The combined enhancements included in Solid Edge ST6 are designed to help businesses improve overall product development productivity. Along with Solid Edge ST6, Siemens is announcing the latest release of Solid Edge™ SP design management solution (Solid Edge for SharePoint) to enhance collaboration. The company also added Android tablets and the iPad® mini support for its Solid Edge Mobile Viewer.

The announcement was made at Siemens PLM Software’s Solid Edge University 2013, being held this week in Cincinnati.

Olivier Pellerin, IT Innovation Manager for Groupe SEB, the maker of Krups coffee machines, T-Fal and Wearever cookware performed some early “beta” testing of Solid Edge ST6. “Surfacing command enhancements in Solid Edge ST6 have enabled us to create some models 40 percent faster compared to other CAD systems,” said Pellerin. “Faster is better, but the quality of models is essential for the manufacturing process and the new inspection tools available in Solid Edge ST6 help us guarantee the inherent quality of the surfaces modeled. These along with other enhancements in Solid Edge ST6 will help us bring better products to market faster.”

Solid Edge ST6 features new surfacing functions that help create stylized designs up to four times faster, and new sheet metal capabilities that help create stamped parts up to five times faster, based on internal testing. New Solid Edge simulation tools automatically optimize designs up to six times faster which helps lower product costs without sacrificing product quality. Synchronous technology enhancements help designers import and re-use files up to six times faster which enables improved collaboration with partners. In addition, support has been added to make importing SolidWorks® software files even easier.

“The new features in Solid Edge ST6, driven by our strong focus on our customers’ need to get innovative products to market faster, help designers create modern new designs in a fraction of the time while maintaining the same high quality standards,” said Karsten Newbury, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Mainstream Engineering Software, Siemens PLM Software. “The Solid Edge system addresses all aspects of the design process – 3D design, simulation, manufacturing, design management, collaboration – and enables companies to make smarter product related decisions that result in developing better products more efficiently.”

In addition to the new design and simulation capabilities, Solid Edge ST6 also provides new functionality to learn, share, and collaborate with other Solid Edge users. The new Solid Edge YouTube docking pane gives users the ability to record, upload and directly share a modeling session on YouTube, and search YouTube for other Solid Edge videos. Users can also access discussions, tutorials and expert advice via a new online Solid Edge Community.
 

Solid Edge ST6 - Synchronous Delete

Let's say that you imported a part from SolidWorks. Maybe that part looks like this to the right. The part has lots of rounds on it. If you are used to working with history-based modelers, getting a model with all the edges rounded usually means that you're going to waste a lot of time trying to get rid of those rounds. If the faces are drafted, that's even worse, because your extrudes aren't going to line up right. If you're really good, (and super patient) you can break the model down into surfaces and extend and trim the faces to get your corners back.

Well, Solid Edge Synchronous Technology gives you better tools than that. In the first place, you can edit a lot of imported models, even with draft and rounds in place. But in the cases where you can't, getting rid of rounds in Edge is so much easier than in your outdated straight history-based modeler. Have a look at this.

You want to make some changes to this model, but you want to make the changes without the rounds. Maybe you read one of my earlier blog articles, and you decided you wanted to make edits to the overall model using Synchronous, but apply the rounds as Ordered features at the end (which, in my opinion, is totally the way to go). In any case, we need some scenario here where you want to remove the rounds from this model. We're going to use a function called Synchronous Delete.

Synchronous Delete just means that you select geometry, and press Delete on the keyboard. In this case we will be deleting rounds. Let's start down near the bottom. You might want to refresh your memory on the "CAD Geek Terminology" section of the blog post link mentioned above. As we delete the faces of the rounds, the adjacent faces are going to extend until they intersect - just the reverse of when you create rounds in the first place, where the adjacent faces are trimmed back to fit the round. Anyway, let's just try it and see what happens.

See what happened? It got rid of only part of the round. This is the part of Synchronous Delete that is new in ST6. If Solid Edge had not capped off the end of the round, then the delete may have failed. In a competing history-based modeler, this would have failed or sent you into a surface model, depending on your settings.

Granted, this may not be what you are really looking for, but dealing with functions failing for reasons you don't understand is not cool. With this intermediate step, you can go ahead and select some more faces to get rid of the rounds that you need to be rid of.

Now that whole round feature has been removed cleanly, without fussing with failed features or surface models. Let's do a little more. In the image to the right, I've just selected three faces of a round I want to get rid of. Again, the left side of the selection would cause a similar function in your old-fashioned history-based modeler to fail, while the right side of the selection would cause it to throw you into a surface model. Solid Edge can find an intermediate solution that allows you to keep working in a solid model.

The geometry that it leaves isn't anything that you would want to keep, but it does allow you to keep on working.

In the next step, I'll select the faces of the remaining parts of the round and use the Synchronous Delete to get rid of them. This is a really clean method for getting rid of rounds on imported models. But you can also use the same method for native Solid Edge files. If you have built a model with Ordered rounds, you can use history-based methods (deleting or editing round features from the tree), but for any Synchronous rounds on a part, the Synchronous Delete in ST6 is doing a little topological magic in the background to keep you productive.

But wait! It gets even better!

Your round-reducing rampage might be needed because you are creating a Simplified model for FEA, or a large assembly. The Simplified mode is found on the Tools tab, in the Model group. When you switch to the Simplified mode, you get some additional tools to help you select and delete rounds, making it even faster. On the Home tab, the Modify group contains the features shown below.

 With the Delete Rounds function in Simplified mode, I can box select rounds, and Solid Edge will delete them for me. This, as you can imagine, is extremely helpful. The selection in the image to the right was made by dragging a box. Clicking Accept (or just right mouse button clicking) adds a Delete Round feature under the Simplify collector, and allows you to move on to another box selection for deleting more rounds. This kind of functionality is pretty exciting, if you've ever had to deal with imported models, you know this is golden. Next time you have to wrangle an imported part, just remember Synchronous Delete and Delete Rounds in Simplified mode. It's even better than working in the native modeler.

PS: I've attached the original part in *.SLDPRT format (in a zipped folder), so you can import it for yourself and have fun with the rounds.

Say Goodbye to Old School CAD File Management

Say the word PLM and CAD users are bound to pop out of the woodwork, ensuring that their complex data is protected, their designs are not accessible before they’re released and all their other needs are met along with the rest of the organization’s. And it’s be expected. After all, PLM was born from PDM – the original CAD file management.

Back in the day, you bought your CAD file management solution from your CAD vendor. It made sense to get your file management solution from the folks who designed your CAD technology. But things have changed. Today, you don’t just have one CAD application. You’ve got at least 2 for MCAD, at least 1 more for ECAD and then there’s CAE, etc. So who do you buy your CAD file management system from? How do you ensure that one system will manage all your CAD files – when they often come from competing vendors – and how do you avoid getting boxed in to one vendor?

The answer is you work with a CAD-neutral vendor that lets you buy only what you need, maintain control of your data and move on whenever you’d like. The answer is you work with Aras. Take a look at the video below to learn about our approach to CAD integration, including the best Multi-CAD solution available today.

Import BOM (Bill of Materials)

Bill of Material is at the core of PLM for most manufacturing companies. Aras Innovator provides user friendly UI for structure browser of an Item up to nth level. However all the information in the BoM structure is visible to all types of users. Many times the Design Engineers want to view only the Engineering Bill of Material (EBoM), Manufacturing Engineers may want to view only the Manufacturing BoM(MBoM), Shipping department may want to see only the Shipping BOM(SBoM) and all of them may want a custom view of the BOM based on the effectivity dates and Revision (CBoM).

Bill of Materials Aggregator

Product Data Files in a BOM Structure is tedious to handle and requires continues monitoring across revisions until released Users download the files and check manually accordingly and sometimes there are 1000's of Components where the files have to be downloaded. What is the solution? Panso's BOM Aggregator!

Teamcenter SOA : Introduction

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) framework is offered by many enterprise product vendor due to its advantage of interoperability as well reusability.  Also due to service based framework based on buisness use case maje SOA API are easy to use as it hide all complexity to Application Developer. Teamcenter also offer SOA framework for customization as well for integration with other Application. In series of Blog's I will provide detail concept of Teamcenter SOA framework and creating your own SOA based on Tc SOA Framework.

Teamcenter UA SOA :
Teamcenter provide SOA framework as well set of out of box SOA service for direct consumption. Teamcenter SOA can be basically used in two ways.

1. Using OOTB SOA service as SOA client.
2. Creating your own SOA which can consume by others.

Teamcenter SOA support following language presently C#, C++ and Java. Development can be done in any of above language either using OOTB SOA service for Application Development or developing your own SOA for other developer usage. The list of SOA service can be seen in BMIDE under extension -> Code Generation->Services. It provides all the list of Service available for given Teamcenter environment. Also you can get all detail of Data Type and Operation corresponding to SOA services in the BMIDE as shown in below image.

Teamcenter SOA Framework:

Teamcenter SOA service Framework provide set of connection protocol like HTTP, Corba and auto generated stub in the  server  as well Data Model to support client application. SOA server architecture resides above Business Object layer (AOM layer). SOA server code can call ITK API to perform business logic as shown in below diagram.

Teamcenter SOA is set of API or programming interface used for application developer. The API libraries are present  in soa_client.zip file on the Teamcenter software distribution image. The libraries are present inside soa_client for respective supported programming language Java, C++ and C#. This ZIP required to be extracted preferably in TC_ROOT folder for linking Application code which usage SOA service. soa_client.zip also contain some sample SAO code in all supported language.We will see in my next blog how to use SOA API , establish connection through SOA and use OOTB SOA services.

Source: http://teamcenterplm.blogspot.in

Teamcenter Dispatcher Framework

Presently I am working Translation Service of Teamcenter. Though to share my learning experience with you people. Translation service comes as a Dispatcher Service under teamcenter installation. Translation service is nothing but to translate one file format to other. For example Doc to PDF. The broader task any translation are as follows.

a) Extract Data from Teamcenter.
b) Execute Translation.
c) Load translated result to teamcenter.

Hence the Dispatcher Service of teamcenter has three main components.
1) Scheduler
2) Module
3) Dispatcher Client

There is one more component called Dispatcher Admin which is basically used for Admin activity and it is optional component. Each of the above three component run independently and can be run as service or in console. Each component can be run in different server. As name suggests scheduler manage the whole framework by interacting between Module and Dispatcher client. Dispatcher Client component basically manage extract and loading of data. Module does actual translation. The below diagram depict the Translation Frame work.

Dispatcher Client is the front end of Dispatcher Framework which basically interacts with Teamcenter through SOA for translation request. Teamcenter required to be configuring through ETS preferences for new translation services and object type on which this service is valid. Once the request is received to Dispatcher Client, it processes the request and put all extracted files required to be translated in to directory called staging directory. Staging directory is required to be configured during Dispatcher Service Installation. In staging directory a unique subfolder is created for each request by Dispatcher client based on Task ID generated during user request in Teamcenter. Once Dispatcher client completes the extract, it inform scheduler for translation processing. Scheduler in turn informs Module to start processing the task. Module translate the file and put the output in staging directory. Once completed schedule ping the Dispacher client which load translated file back to Teamcenter. Siemens PLM provide lot of out of box translation service which required to be make active.

Source: http://teamcenterplm.blogspot.in/

Introduction to Teamcenter Customization

 Teamcenter provides variety of mechanism for customization of teamcenter based on business requirement. The customization is based on base framework of API provide by teamcenter. In this blog I will discuss all customization options and its architecture.
Customization Architecture
Teamcenter customization architecture can be broadly distinguished based on Teamcenter technical architecture. It can be categorized in to three layers.

• Server or Enterprise Layer
• Web Layer
• Client Layer

Client Layer is basically portal or thin client customization which usually deals with UI and data handling of the result of server request.  SOA client is SOA API for calling SOA services. You can see in detail of Teamcenter SOA service in my SOA blogs. Web Layer is nothing Teamcenter based J2EE deployment layer which basically communicate between Server and client.  Server customization is core of all customization as most of the Business logic is written in this layer. It mainly deals with all business transaction as it interacts with data base through Persistence Object Layer (POM) API.  FMS is resource layer which support actual file transfer between client and server through FMS framework. For more detail in FMS you can visit my blog on Teamcenter FMS. Server customization is done through C based API provided by Teamcenter. This API is also called Integration Toolkit (ITK). Apart from above discussed customization there is SOA customization and BMIDE extension which are basically either server and client\web customization or both.  Below diagram depict Customization Architecture diagram for Teamcenter. As shown in diagram, all BMIDE extension is in server side. This is because most of BMIDE extension overrides or changes object behavior based on business requirement. This can be only accomplished in server layer; hence all extension is implemented by using core ITK API provide in server layer. Below diagram shows the Customization Architect of Teamcenter.

Based on above Customization Architect, Teamcenter customization can be categorized in to following area.

1.     Server Customization
2.      Portal Customization
3.     Web or Thin client customization
4.     SOA based customization
5.     BMIDE extension customization

Server Customization: Server side customization is a most frequently used customization, as all business logic are written in this layer. Basically all requests pass through through server layer for all teamcenter transaction. Hence it is core of teamcenter customization. As discuss in Customization Architecture, Teamcenter provide C based API called Integration Toolkit (ITK) for server side customization. This toolkit provides hundred of API for processing various business process based on Teamcenter functionality. The ITK is categorized by various modules and functionality of Teamcenter. Also various extension mechanisms are provided by ITK toolkit to plug in custom code based on various Teamcenter events and object status. The detail discussion of ITK customization is out of scope of this blog and I will cover it another blog.

Portal Customization: Teamcenter Client is layer is written on Java JFC and eclipse SWT. The core client API are written in Java JFC framework and slowly it will ported to eclipse SWT framework. Presently Teamceter support both JFC and SWT customization, but it is recommended to do customization in SWT looking at Teamcenter future vision. The Portal Customization can be done extending OOTB Plug-in or developing your own plug-in. Apart from JFC/SWT UI api, the Teamcenter client API also provides object interface component which is an encapsulation of Teamceter Data model through Client object model. This Object Interface component also form interface layer between client and server.

Web or Thin Client Customization: This customization is for Teamcenter Web client. Teamcenter provides standard web interface for viewing and editing Teamcenter object in web browser. Web client is builds on asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) to allow dynamic loading of data in the browser. The HTML pages are renders by java script on XML data. Most of the thin client customization is carried through JavaScript which allow the rendering as well managing request\response from web server. Both client-to-server requests and server-to-client responses in Teamcenter thin client are standard HTTP responses.

SOA Customization: It is also called Teamcenter services. It is a standard SOA based services provided by Teamcenter for integrating with third party as well custom client. Also Teamcenter provides framework to create your own custom SOA services. I covered Teamcenter SOA services in detail in my SOA blogs.

BMIDE Extension Customization: This is mainly a server customization using Teamcenter BMIDE. BMIDE provide various extension customization mechanisms for implementing desired behavior in Teamcenter. Some of example of BMIDE extension is pre-action or post-action operation for Business object, Runtime property etc. This extensions are implemented in BMIDE environment by writing C\C++ server code mainly using ITK API. BMIDE framework create stub code and other require classes for extension implementation. Developer only required implementing base logic of the extension.  I will try to cover extension implementation in one of my future blog.

Apart from the above customization; Teamcenter Dispatcher module can also be customized for required translation behavior. Most of time Dispatcher client required to be implemented for extracting and loading translated file from Teamcenter. The Dispatcher Client Framework is based on Teamcenter SOA service and most OOTB SOA API is used apart from Dispatcher API which encapsulates most of complex Teamcenter SOA API calls.

Source: http://teamcenterplm.blogspot.in/