Mastering Global Product Development for Business Advantage

Transcription

1 Mastering Global Product Development for Business Advantage Including Case Studies and Six Best Practices of Successful GPD To an unprecedented degree, today s businesses are operating in a global marketplace. For organizations of every size, not only are customers and competitors located worldwide, but so too are employees, suppliers, contractors and partners. And while this ever-shrinking world of global manufacturing holds tremendous opportunities for businesses everywhere, there are also associated challenges of immense complexity. In discrete manufacturing, the term globalization was initially understood to represent mainly cost-saving benefits from the ability to utilize previously unavailable, low-cost human resources in design or manufacturing. However, globalization is now recognized for its strategic value in spurring efforts that constitute powerful drivers of business growth across the board. As a result of this realized value, today s manufacturers seek to leverage global networks of employees, partners and suppliers across the design chain in ways that will: Enhance product development collaboration Improve distributed team management Streamline business operations Increase profitability Ease entry into new markets Identify creative engineering talent, and Many progressive organizations are experiencing the compelling business benefits of successfully implemented GPD strategies. By enabling scores of geographically dispersed individuals and groups to work collaboratively on the same products and product development processes via a seamless, integrated information flow, manufacturers are seeing value on many fronts: accelerating time-to-market and process cycle times, reducing product development costs, maximizing productivity, enhancing product quality, driving innovation, and optimizing operational efficiencies while simultaneously mitigating risk. While there are obstacles to overcome in successful GPD execution, the key to a successful implementation involves pairing product development processes with the appropriate enabling support technologies. This paper discusses common GPD challenges and corresponding solution methodologies in the context of PTC technology-enabled best practices derived from numerous customer engagements worldwide. With this information, business leaders will have the foundation they need to make intelligent, informed decisions regarding their own organization s initiatives toward global product development. The top three pressures driving global product development are: availability of engineering/ design talent (42%), new global competitive threats (41%) and direct product costs (41%). Aberdeen Group, Design Anywhere report, Oct Ensure intellectual property (IP) protection And although definitions of this manufacturing revolution may vary, this dynamic initiative is commonly referred to as Global Product Development (GPD). Page 1 of 13 Mastering Global Product Development for Business Advantage

2 In essence, therein lies the formula for successful Global Product Development (GPD) implementation: Robust product development processes require the support of equally robust, best-in-class PLM technologies. Business Drivers of GPD The emergence of GPD as a critical business initiative is the direct result of recent developments precipitated by an increasingly competitive business environment, including: Offshoring and outsourcing. Amid rising costs, organizations have turned to offshoring and outsourcing to access lower-priced talent and gain specialized external expertise that will enhance operational efficiencies and free up internal design resources to focus on innovation thereby yielding financial benefits. Mergers and acquisitions. Fluctuating and often debilitating economic conditions, combined with aggressive corporate growth strategies, have made mergers and acquisitions commonplace, and enabled organizations to gain instant footholds in foreign markets. Emerging markets. Rapidly changing political and governmental landscape a worldwide phenomenon over the past several decades have fueled the growth of emerging markets, requiring manufacturers to understand and satisfy completely new sets of dynamic consumer needs and demands. At face value, the notion of developing products globally seems to be the ideal way to respond to these developments and capitalize on the associated opportunities. Yet even though technological advancements like digital work products (e.g., CAD models), high-speed Internet connections, and workflow automation software make the sharing of complex information assets possible, significant challenges must still be surmounted before product development processes can be fully and seamlessly integrated, and GPD strategies can be successfully deployed. PTC s Approach to Global Product Development Above all, an effective GPD strategy requires the right technology infrastructure. And for nearly a decade, discrete manufacturers have applied various enterprise solutions to manage the many complex GPD processes, from 3D product design, to global team collaboration, to change and configuration management. Right now, Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) technologies are emerging as the preferred enablers of business value. PLM consists of sophisticated solutions that allow collaborative product development processes to support shared decision-making through improved communication across the extended enterprise (i.e., inside and outside a firewall), from product conception through product retirement. The core of PTC s industry-leading PLM solution, Windchill, manages interdependencies across all forms of product information by linking users to one, central data repository. With this single, integral system architecture the only one of its kind Windchill provides a single source of truth for all product information across the lifecycle. This common, uniform view of product data allows team members located anywhere to quickly and easily understand how their input directly affects a product s definition, as well as the associated product development process. Ultimately, PTC s Windchill solutions for PLM, in combination with PTC s leading CAD solution, Creo, and the company s Creo View visualization collaboration software all seamlessly working together enable processes to flow smoothly and concurrently. Windchill also provides a proven digital backbone to manage the common scenario of multiple CAD systems involved in contributing to the overall product definition. In essence, therein lies the formula for successful GPD implementation: Robust product development processes require the support of equally robust, best-in-class PLM technologies. Page 2 of 13 Mastering Global Product Development for Business Advantage

3 Mastering Six Critical GPD Challenges The following discussion focuses on six common GPD challenges, and how PTC s technology-enabled best practices are being used to overcome them. 1 Making Distributed Design Work The Challenge: Enable concurrent work on separate design elements, and synchronize those collective efforts while minimizing product integration issues. With design teams distributed throughout the world, it s difficult to divide up product development activities and manage them, so they re ultimately integrated into a properly functioning product (referred to as the complete product definition ). The Solution: Architect the product in a way that enables greater design collaboration. Separating the product into manageable modules, with well-defined interfaces, fosters efficient product development distribution and integration. Formalization of module interfaces simplifies management of the evolving product definition including change management and thereby eliminates costly surprises during integration, for example, designers working with outdated specifications, who distribute components that are incompatible with the final product, resulting in design revisions and production delays. Additional benefits of this approach include: Maximized reuse of proven, tried-and-tested designs and parts Accelerated product development cycles Improved product quality Enhanced ability to develop customized products/product variants for new markets Best Practices: A. Modular Product Architecture definition. In contrast to a traditional, integral product design architecture, defining a modular product architecture (MPA) organizes products into interchangeable modules, and formalizes product module interfaces to better manage the transfer and reintegration of design data, while preserving its integrity. The result is that design activities can occur independently and concurrently in a highly synchronized manner. This proven, modular approach involves: Capturing, organizing and analyzing platform and variant requirements Translating requirements into key functions Organizing functions into module clusters to efficiently distribute design activities Assessing and identifying the best modular architecture Identifying appropriate interfaces B. Generic Product Platform Design. The intent here is to provide an infrastructure that captures and manages a modular product architecture and the associated detailed product platform design as it is developed. Capturing and managing high-level platform architecture including related product options and managing required interfaces Defining module interfaces and controlling changes Developing detailed product structure with CAD designs Managing detailed platform CAD structure and associating it with the product structure Connecting engineering design with overall corporate goals, through the use of flexible platform designs, allows the company to work in a more integrated manner FMC Einar Jørgensen, Manager, FMC FMC applied modular product architecture definition to significantly improve on-time delivery of its subsea systems. Page 3 of 13 Mastering Global Product Development for Business Advantage

4 CASE IN POINT PECO II Reduces Costs Using Modular Product Architecture To better meet customer demands and lower product costs, PECO II the world s largest independent, full-service provider of telecommunications power systems decided to shift from producing hundreds of one-off products, to establishing a handful of common platforms with multiple variants. By implementing a PTC modular product architecture (MPA) program that revamped its product development processes, the company reduced assembly test time by 60 70%, decreased customer RFQ turnaround time from weeks to days, and achieved 90% part reuse on one new platform. FMC Technologies Increases Engineering Productivity by Using a Modular Subsea Production System Architecture As a leading total subsea system supplier in the oil and gas industry, FMC sought to increase its engineering productivity by implementing a modular subsea production system architecture for its System Design and Detail Engineering processes. Applying MPA not only improved FMC s understanding of its product development processes, but more standard products could be used in a variety of tenders, and overall engineering cycle time, efficiency and ontime delivery improved significantly. 2 Extending Collaboration Across the Enterprise and Beyond The Challenge: Ensure information flows smoothly to all design stakeholders both inside and outside the firewall so productivity is maximized. Collaboration is arguably the most critical element in successfully executing GPD strategies. If manufacturers employ unreliable or outmoded communication methods, such as manual transfer of data between disconnected, disparate systems, then information flow and consequently collaboration is impeded. Furthermore, such situations inevitably result in confusion and misunderstandings about project expectations and parameters, which usually leads to process bottlenecks and costly delays. The Solution: Establish a single data source for fast, accurate sharing of design data. Leveraging a scalable, digital backbone infrastructure enables dynamic, cross-discipline collaboration, for efficient, traceable sharing of product data. Allowing stakeholders to access the right information at the right time keeps projects on schedule. As an example, distributed teams representing all relevant disciplines can provide frontloaded and continuous feedback that identifies potential errors early in the design process, thereby streamlining review cycles and averting costly and time-consuming delays downstream in the production phase. Additional benefits of this approach include: Less time spent working on redundant paths Increased productivity due to less searching for information Fewer process bottlenecks More valuable and insightful review processes, involving more internal and external stakeholders Enhanced product quality and innovation due to greater stakeholder participation Page 4 of 13 Mastering Global Product Development for Business Advantage

5 CASE IN POINT Schneider Electric Makes its World Smaller in One System One of the world s largest manufacturers of equipment for electrical power distribution, industrial control and automation, Schneider Electric operated seven incompatible engineering systems that greatly impeded information sharing. By migrating to Windchill s single, integral system, the company enabled its 6,000 geographically dispersed users to collaborate on product design and change management in ways never before possible via a highly secure, controlled environment. Implementation of this robust collaboration infrastructure enhanced designer productivity, eliminated process bottlenecks, significantly reduced engineer-to-order (ETO) process time and shortened time-to-market ultimately resulting in annual savings of several million dollars. Best Practices: A. Integrated, cross-discipline bill-of-materials (BOM). This approach involves defining a single, accurate, global BOM that integrates product development domain silos. Providing global access to a single, synchronized source of product data Relating, visualizing and managing cross-discipline product information such as mechanical, electrical/ electronic, embedded software or technical information in a single product structure Providing rich configuration management Managing concurrent tasks with automated workflow B. Traceable sharing of product data. This best practice provides multiple, flexible methods for the dynamic sharing of design data among internal and external stakeholders through a single system. With the capability to automatically trace design history whether in document or digital form, this approach eliminates version-control and change-management errors typically associated with manual data exchange. Sharing product data in secure, collaborative workspaces Sharing rich design visualization data in real-time through traceable work packages Regulating user access to data through flexible control methods Streamlining design change integration 2012 Schneider Electric Schneider Electric converted seven incompatible engineering systems into a single Windchill PLM system to improve global collaboration By involving manufacturing stakeholders up front in product development, organizations concurrently define manufacturing deliverables and product and manufacturing process plans early in the design lifecycle. C. Efficient design review. The key here is to streamline product development by enabling team members to provide continuous feedback throughout the design process. With ongoing feedback, critical design issues, which might otherwise not be resolved until formal review sessions, can be identified and rectified immediately. A continuous, collaborative and cross-discipline feedback loop throughout the enterprise (both inside and outside the firewall) makes early problem detection possible and improves management of formal design review preparation, execution and follow up all of which ultimately eliminate costly downstream changes that delay time-to-market. Page 5 of 13 Mastering Global Product Development for Business Advantage

6 Giving team members continuous access to latest design data and design status updates Supporting multi-disciplinary 2D/3D visualization, simulation and markup capabilities during design review sessions Analyzing mechanical information and initiating changes during design review Assigning workflows and ensuring all stakeholders have links to the latest design representations as part of design review preparation Sharing product information across domains Standardizing and streamlining review processes Tracking, capturing and resolving stakeholder concerns, for faster development of coherent total design D. Associative ebom/mbom. By involving manufacturing stakeholders up front in product development, organizations can concurrently define manufacturing deliverables and product and manufacturing process plans early in the design lifecycle and consequently generate associated manufacturing (mboms) and engineering bills-of-materials (eboms). The creation of an mbom from an ebom allows manufacturing engineers to engage in production planning concurrently with design teams. This coupling avoids the traditional overthe-wall handoffs, leading to better change management synchronization, minimized production errors, reduced manufacturing costs and accelerated time-to-market. Building associated mboms from eboms to ensure products will be accurately manufactured in accordance with design specifications Dynamically generating mbom 3D mock-ups for interactive review and analysis of process plans Accommodating manufacturing-specific requirements (e.g., equivalent parts, plant-specific sequences and operations, alternate BOMs) Fully managing manufacturing data configurations Streamlining analysis and resolution of ebom/mbom discrepancies Managing part/process plan relationships in a common PLM system Automatically integrating engineering, manufacturing and change information with ERP and SCM systems 3 Sharing Data Securely The Challenge: Ensure that the security of valuable proprietary information is not jeopardized when it is shared among internal and/or external design stakeholders. The risk of inappropriate usage or theft of IP is greatly heightened in globally dispersed design environments. As such, collaborative GPD requires a careful balancing of sharing information and controlling disclosure of valuable IP. The Solution: Institute IP protection controls. Implementing security protocols and safeguards ensures that user access to data is tightly monitored and controlled. This requires that a well-defined, robust product development process is supported by an equally robust technology infrastructure with one overriding goal: to regulate data flow, so that the right design information is disseminated only to clearly designated, previously authorized users at the right time. In this way, organizations minimize disclosure risks and simultaneously experience the enhanced product quality, cost-savings, and accelerated time-to-market benefits that are unique to GPD. Additional benefits of this approach include: Maximized protection of sensitive product-, process- and change-related information Heightened product development process efficiencies through information-sharing arrangements and collaborative design structure that can be flexibly managed More effective data utilization because authorized users have access to the right information whenever they need it Page 6 of 13 Mastering Global Product Development for Business Advantage

7 Best Practice: IP protection support. PTC s collection of best practices representing the industry s most robust security infrastructure involves the implementation of a multi-layered security system whose components and benefits are described below: Component Access Control Safeguards Timing Restrictions Compartmentalized Content Adjustable Data Formats Usage Auditing Benefit Specific data can only be accessed by authorized personnel and only be used in previously approved ways. The point at which personnel can access data during a project as well as the period of time during which it can be used is strictly defined. Information is stored in containers and folders, and user access to that information is controlled by access domains associated with the compartmentalized structure. The manner in which information is presented matches the level of user authorization, such as lightweight product views that hide underlying detailed CAD data. Monitoring tools ensure there are no improprieties in data access and usage. CASE IN POINT Applying Secure Collaboration to the U.S. Army s Future Combat System Safeguarding IP in defense-related product development is critical. It is also extremely complex, given the thousands of users (e.g., employees, suppliers, contractors, subcontractors) involved throughout the design lifecycle. By employing Windchill s access control capabilities in the U.S. Army s Future Combat System (FCS) program, lead system integrator Boeing leverages a collaboration platform that can: 1. Identify if a business object contains sensitive information (e.g., data that is Classified, Export-Controlled, Corporate Proprietary, etc.) 2. Manage the set of users with unrestricted access to that information (e.g., individuals who have Top-Secret Clearance, members of the hosting organization, etc.) 3. Manage the set of users with agreement-based access to specific items only (e.g., individuals permitted access to International Traffic in Arms Regulations documents) Securely organizing and compartmentalizing information Implementing granular, role-based access control Applying security labels and implementing electronic agreements for restricting access to highly sensitive data, especially in the aerospace and defense sectors Creating designs with lower-fidelity file types that hide confidential/sensitive data, or that present simplified views of detailed content Configuring usage auditing 4 Managing Complex Programs The Challenge: Improve visibility into program status, so that better, more-informed decisions can be made. Complex product development programs generate huge volumes of data. To ensure success, managers need a reliable way of continuously monitoring project status and activities including assessing progress, tracking milestones, identifying issues, and measuring performance against defined objectives. Poor visibility increases the risk that potential problems may go undetected, which can adversely affect product quality and time-to-market. Page 7 of 13 Mastering Global Product Development for Business Advantage

8 The Solution: Standardize program management processes, as well as establish and communicate key performance metrics. Defining and implementing uniform methodologies for driving product development processes enhances program management. When projects are executed consistently across the enterprise, managers can objectively evaluate them against each other, and thereby improve risk management and allocate resources more strategically. Furthermore, setting clear performance expectations instills within team members a concentrated focus on quality assurance, key performance indicators (KPIs), and risk mitigation a proactive orientation that helps expose issues as soon as they are detected, for immediate resolution. Additional benefits of this approach include: Greater management visibility into program status through progress-tracking and performancemeasurement capabilities Increased consistency and quality of program execution Reduced ramp-up time for team members More efficient access to accurate data The net effect is to significantly enhance collaboration, resulting in more effective decision-making and improved control/ measurement of project deliverables all precipitated by design teams and program management operating in a single, integral system environment. CASE IN POINT Carrier Corporation Needing to improve its product delivery collaboration process and to increase management visibility into program performance, Carrier Corporation the world s largest provider of heating, air-conditioning and refrigeration solutions implemented a Windchill solution. Used to support Carrier s stage/gate product delivery process, Windchill helped: enhance decision-making with real-time dashboard visibility that projected KPIs and stoplight status; improve the company s ability to make decisions earlier in the product delivery process; and enable Engineering Standard Work reuse and predictability. Best Practices: A. Program process standardization. This approach employs flexible, reusable templates to standardize the execution of product development processes. Managers can consistently implement and measure programs, so that risks are minimized, design quality is enhanced, product introductions are streamlined, and, ultimately, project goals are realized. Connecting program deliverables and issues to relevant product data Providing consistent definitions for: development program phases; standard activities; deliverables for each phase; and process deliverable templates for each project type Establishing common benchmarks to allow comparison of varying development project executions Developing automated performance-tracking capabilities B. Integrated program data management. A great degree of product data pertains to multiple projects that are in development at any given time. By helping program managers to systematically collect, organize and search this network of project-related data in a highly secure environment, this best practice enables them to dramatically streamline stakeholder data access and direct web-based collaboration with maximized efficiency. Since distributed design teams have consistent, timely access to accurate, up-to-date information, design rework is minimized as are the downstream delays caused by version-control errors. Controlling collaboration and management of program data across projects, products and libraries Defining policies on what data can be accessed by which individuals and when Directly linking program decisions to product data Electronically searching, retrieving and tracing all activity Page 8 of 13 Mastering Global Product Development for Business Advantage

9 C. Program dashboards. For optimal program management, program managers need to be able to view the myriad of details that support aggregations of project-related data, such as KPIs, progress-tracking measurements, and resource utilization summaries. Offering live, secure, web-based views, program dashboards provide detailed profiles of project activities, so managers can proactively identify potential performance issues, assess risks, and more effectively direct the project overall to address key drivers, such as scheduling and design changes. Defining program scope, and providing a context for reporting across program networks Using flexible tools to report metrics across a set of projects within a program Controlling distribution of key information through notification, workflow and routing capabilities 5 Managing Change Across the Lifecycle The Challenge: Ensure all changes are shared expeditiously with affected stakeholders throughout the design process, so costly changes at the downstream production stage are avoided. Changes are inevitable in product development and can occur at any stage of the lifecycle. In a GPD environment, poor management and integration of the change process across distributed networks of employees, partners, suppliers and contractors can result in increased rework, cost overruns, delayed product launches, and, ultimately, loss of customers. As with the design process, change management often consists of manual data exchange processes between disconnected systems that inhibit speed and accuracy. The Solution: Institute a standardized, automated change process that can be applied consistently and securely across all relevant disciplines, both inside and outside the firewall. Enabling fast and accurate communication via a reliable, repeatable, web-based change and configuration management process can control how changes are proposed, analyzed, planned, implemented and released. Engineering and manufacturing change activities are synchronized and connected to impacted product configuration data in a single, integral system and driven by powerful workflow automation software thereby ensuring overall process integrity. Additional benefits of this approach include: Shortened change and design cycle times Reduced scrap and design rework Traceable change and product configuration history throughout the design lifecycle Greater design-process accuracy through integrated BOMs Strengthened partner relationships 2012 Carrier Corporation PTC s Windchill solution increased overall visibility into Carrier s program performance, so more effective decisions could be made earlier. Page 9 of 13 Mastering Global Product Development for Business Advantage

10 CASE IN POINT HP, ITT, Plug Power and KOEL Realize Productivity Benefits of Change Management Solutions HP s Imaging and Printing division spans 23,000 products and tens of thousands of suppliers across 160 countries. By implementing a PTC-based change management process, HP s Imaging and Printing division realized an 80% improvement in design and process reuse; increased productivity between 20 30%; reduced time-to-market, product costs and warranty costs; and experienced a 2% decline in part counts. ITT Industries the world s premier supplier of pumps, systems and services to move and control water and other fluids implemented a global engineering change process with a one-year payback. In addition, the company reduced the time to implement engineering changes by 50%, eliminating significant scrap and rework costs. Plug Power designs, develops and manufactures on-site electric power generation systems utilizing Proton Exchange Membrane fuel cells for stationary applications. The company was able to cut its ECN cycle time by 62% and reduce variability in the time to complete an ECN by 76%. Lastly, Kirloskar Oil Engines Ltd. (KOEL), a leading diesel engine manufacturer in India, transformed its manual change process to automated online tracking of engineering changes. In addition to achieving an overall reduction in cycle time of 40%, KOEL employees could more easily identify parts and share knowledge online across multiple locations. Best Practices: A. Standardized, automated change process. This best practice involves the implementation of a consistent, repeatable, closed-loop change process through a single system that captures the complete product definition and its iterations over time such as evolving product structure hierarchy. Given its inherent configurability, this solution can accommodate all degrees of change complexity and rigorousness, as well as varying rates of change implementation speed. Synchronizing change with product configuration data in a single, integral system Using closed-loop change management process templates Applying predefined and configurable change process workflows, activities and roles, so the right people are involved in assessing the impact of changes, and the broader enterprise can understand the status of changes Automating change routing and task notifications B. Integrated, cross-discipline change management. As the data that today s organizations manage becomes more complex, so, too, do the electrical-design/mechanical-design relationships in product development thereby driving the need to better understand product configurations and related information. The ability to manage highly sophisticated, detail-rich product deliverables within the context of those interdependent relationships as well as to control and communicate complex product structure changes over time is critical to successful product delivery. As such, the key here is to synchronize changes and enable fast, accurate communication of those changes across a range of data and disciplines via a single, integrated process that continually updates the complete product definition. Page 10 of 13 Mastering Global Product Development for Business Advantage

11 Connecting the change process, using a single product information repository to coordinate change across the complete product definition Providing stakeholders with access to all required product data (subject to configurable controls) at all change stages Providing product structure with a single view of heterogeneous product information (e.g., ECAD data, MCAD data, specification documentation) Associating links between ebom and mbom views to provide integrated BOMs C. Partner change integration. Seamless partner involvement in the change process is critical to ensuring that problems are identified and that changes are assessed and implemented effectively and efficiently. Changes need to be easily traced, and quickly and accurately communicated in ways that are vastly superior to disconnected methods, such as sending or using FTP to exchange files. This best practice incorporates partners within the change management environment through a change process integration method that tailors shared information, so that it corresponds with the appropriate level of a given partner s relationship. For example, a parts supplier may only receive limited, as-needed information in controlled zip file packages, while strategic partners may have full collaborative access privileges (subject to configurable controls) for CAD data, product structure information, or product specifications. Integrating partners into change review, approval and implementation activities Exchanging design and change information offline Tracing history of information shared, including timing of sharing activity 6 Leveraging Scalable Performance The Challenge: Enable fast, global access to the most current product data. If distributed team members have to contend with deficiencies or limitations in IT infrastructure functionality such as being stranded behind a low-bandwidth WAN with slow download/ upload speeds then their ability to access or share timely, accurate information is severely compromised. These disruptions to information flow often result in significant delays for design development and time-to-market. The Solution: Establish a distributed server network to ensure that rich product and process content can be quickly disseminated regardless of user location. For distributed design teams, IT solutions must be scalable. A GPD environment is only successful to the extent that its supporting technological infrastructure can deliver reliable and consistent performance. Such an infrastructure needs to manage not only internal processes across varying disciplines, but also critical points of external interaction, so that virtual teams can be synchronized in real time to drive 24/7 productivity. The ideal infrastructure enables users to work efficiently regardless of network quality, and offers behind-the-scenes data synchronization that s invisible to network users. In short, scalability helps organizations overcome inherent network limitations, to enable fast content access and effective collaboration that prevent process delays. Additional benefits of this approach include: Increased speed and efficiency in establishing new and remote user sites, to accommodate an expanding network of collaboration partners or mergers and acquisitions Greater local access speed to heavyweight content, such as CAD models, for enhanced local productivity Automatically synchronized content between system nodes Richer interaction with product content including greater review, markup and printing capabilities using lightweight visual representations Page 11 of 13 Mastering Global Product Development for Business Advantage

12 Best Practices: Adopt PLM technology for data replication and WAN acceleration. With this approach, a downloadable file server provides an easily installed content replication system, facilitating a single, consistent collaboration context in which remote participants can access heavyweight content from local servers. Smart data replication and vault management functionality anticipate user needs by automatically adapting to changes in working practices and making frequently accessed content readily available. A second approach one that can be used independently of, or in combination with, file servers leverages both PTC s and PTC partners WAN acceleration technology to markedly improve content transfer performance over lowbandwidth, high-latency connections. Inviting remote participants into integral, accesscontrolled contexts Enabling the download and installation of remote file servers at every collaboration site Applying smart replication rules to minimize network load and maximize availability of content for users Optimizing network transference of PTC-based or third-party-based product data Using file servers, WAN accelerators (employing Cisco Systems and/or Riverbed Technology solutions) or both, to maximize network performance, including high-performing, accurate product visualization CASE IN POINT StiebelEltron AchievesFastAccess to Key Data over its WAN Stiebel Eltron, a leading manufacturer of high-end water HVAC products, needed to accelerate its development of innovative, next-generation products. With manufacturing operations in Germany, Slovakia, China and Thailand, effective collaboration between sites was essential to streamlining concurrent engineering and maximizing design reuse. With Windchill as its single data management information hub, Stiebel Eltron also leveraged the powerful visualization capabilities using a standard web browser and PTC s Creo View visual collaboration capabilities. The result: stakeholders across the enterprise can now view 3D assemblies in Creo View s lean visualization format, without having any access to a Creo license. This visualization capability not only accelerates the search for designs in the repository, but also simplifies communication with downstream departments that don t have or don t need access to CAD authoring systems. Visualization data is created using an automatic background process on the Windchill server, and once the data has reached a defined maturity stage, it is then stored in the repository and made available for viewing in ProductView Stiebel Eltron Windchill enabled better design reuse across Stiebel Eltron s global network of design centers and manufacturing locations to speed up development of a new generation of products. Page 12 of 13 Mastering Global Product Development for Business Advantage

13 Conclusion Take the Next Step Toward a Successful GPD Implementation In today s global marketplace, difficult economic conditions and increased competition have converged to drive fundamental changes in the way businesses operate. Organizations are increasingly offshoring and outsourcing tasks, participating in mergers and acquisitions, and penetrating emerging markets. These trends, in turn, have resulted in the growth of geographically distributed work environments that extend beyond corporate firewalls causing industry leaders everywhere to recognize the critical importance of implementing a successful global product development (GPD) strategy. As this paper has demonstrated, GPD comes with an array of unique and complex challenges. However, with our singular focus on improving product development for discrete manufacturers, PTC has a lengthy history of providing superior PLM technologies including an integral suite of Product Development System (PDS) solutions that are as robust as the product development processes which underlie GPD. PTC s Value Roadmap is a proven framework that helps companies tie their corporate goals to product development improvements. Accordingly, Windchill, with its single, integral system architecture along with PTC s technology-enabled best practices provide the ideal enabling infrastructure for GPD, and render possible the host of collaboration, productivity, cost-saving, and time-to-market benefits that only a well-conceived GPD strategy can deliver. Take the next step. Visit /go/gpd to learn about partnering with PTC to develop your own GPD Value Roadmap. This roadmap will create a powerful framework that aligns PTC s best practices with a successful GPD implementation, helping you realize your ongoing and future corporate goals. 2012, Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC). All rights reserved. Information described herein is furnished for informational use only and is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for PTC products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services and nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. References to customer successes are based upon a single user experience and such customer s testimonial. Analyst or other forward-looking statements about PTC products and services or the markets in which PTC participates are those of the analysts themselves and PTC makes no representations as to the basis or accuracy thereof. PTC, the PTC Logo, Windchill, Creo, and all PTC product names and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of PTC and/or its subsidiaries in the United States and in other countries. All other product or company names are property of their respective owners. The timing of any product release, including any features or functionality, is subject to change at PTC s discretion. J0446 GPD BestPractice WP EN 0712 Page 13 of 13 Mastering Global Product Development for Business Advantage