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From CAD User Mechanical Magazine  Vol 20 No 12 - JANUARY 2008

David Chadwick takes a look at Siemens’ PLM Software - hitherto UGS' Teamcenter - which provides a total manufacturing solution

If it is to mean anything at all, a PLM solution has to include every aspect of an enterprises product development system, from concept to production and beyond, providing people with full knowledge of the product and the manufacturing processes used to create it, in a globally oriented lifecycle.
To survive in the current market, you have to make better products, turn them out quicker, deal with government interference (regulations etc!)and keep your staff on your side!
A good PLM solution will provide all of those capabilities, capturing and centralising all product data, business processes, best practices and mechanical and human resources in one central location, accessible to all members of widely flung global enterprises.

Production teams can collaborate on a virtual basis, sharing data in real time, enhancing the decision making process, and managing and sharing the company's intellectual assets.
A good PLM solution will also eliminate costly and time-consuming data translation processes, permit concurrent work on product development and testing, and allow for simultaneous production of visual marketing materials, technical documents and sub-contracted components.
What’s more, with access to a company's history of production online, it can be set up to re-use proven parts, equipment and processes, shortening development cycles and honing the general efficiency of a company.

Siemens PLM Software
Siemens acquired UGS earlier this year. The UGS Teamcenter PLM solution is now officially Siemens PLM Software. I have written about Teamcenter in the past, and seem to recall that, quite a few years ago, I stated that it did everything that you would expect a PLM solution to do.
How limited my expectations were then, for the latest version of Teamcenter makes a mockery of that statement, and although it covers a very large proportion of a products lifecycle, never again will I say that it does the lot (it comes damn close, though!).
Siemens does call it end-to-end PLM, though, insisting that you cannot leverage your product lifecycle as a business asset unless you have visibility into your entire lifecycle. They say that it is the only product available that goes the whole hog, from portfolio planning through product development, manufacturing, service/sustainment and retirement.

General PLM Modules
Teamcenter provides an easy-to-use service-oriented architecture, providing different applications out-of-the-box that can be configured to suit a company's particular requirements, and that can be integrated with existing CAD, CAM, CAE, ERM and SCM applications. It uses a familiar Windows user interface and allows management information to be routed to portals and executive dashboards.
The only way to convey the completeness of the Siemens PLM solution is to use its own descriptions for the many elements involved in lifecycle management. Chief amongst these is Enterprise Knowledge Management, surely the backbone of any product development system, which allows teams to access any information they require at any stage of a products lifecycle.
A core part of this is what they call 'Community Collaboration', which enables a secure and adaptive environment to be created, where distributed, multi-disciplinary teams can work together, sharing data between themselves, and with suppliers, allied partners - and even trusted customers.

Besides using project teams to explore concepts and conduct programme and design reviews, Teamcenter allows virtual teams to be quickly set up to explore alternative ideas, gather related knowledge and integrate this unstructured knowledge within the existing knowledge database.

Lifecycle visualisation provides an accessible view of projects throughout their lifecycle, using 2D and 3D images to share information with non-technical stakeholders, allowing them to comment and mark-up images, thereby improving the decision making process. Process specific add-ons to visualisation include immersive visual reality, automated clearance analysis, virtual human ergonomics, tolerance simulation, animation creation, quality validation and assembly path planning.
No PLM system is complete without a complete set of reporting and analytical tools, which create the basis for establishing, measuring and analysing performances to drive improvements in all areas. Data extracted from reports can also be exported, using Teamcenter's open framework and flexible data formats, to other applications and relational databases.

Task Specific Modules
Instead of diving headlong into a market without detailed planning, Teamcenter's systems engineering and requirement management tools allow companies to mitigate the risk of new product development by helping them to understand product requirements, programme constraints, engineering issues and manufacturing/supply chain issues. Taking this one step further, characteristics such as performance, maintainability, reliability, usability and ergonomics can be assessed in comparison to given requirements.

Portfolios can be managed on a collaborative basis, using weighted strategy objectives, scoring models and performance criteria, and templates to capture key information, and allowing alternative scenarios to be evaluated. The software also allows teams to plan project schedules, work tasks, milestones and baselines and constraints, extending these to include financial control of projects, as well.
Teamcenter provides a single source of engineering knowledge, using open architecture to incorporate information from multiple MCAD, CAM, CAE, ECAD, CASE and ESM systems to support complete product development. For mid-sized companies, Teamcenter Express is an easy to set up and use configuration of this, providing a collaborative product data management solution (cPDM).
Two further modules provide BOM Management and Compliance Management, allowing users to manage BOM changes across product data suites, and proactively supporting compliance as a strategic initiative, rather than as a simple reporting activity. Regulatory control is enforced by fully documenting compliance requirements, tracking accountability and auditing compliance.
Supplier relationship management allows teams to find, qualify and select supply sources from a single information source, and to monitor procurement and supplier spending.
Mechatronics and Simulation process management are provided within integrated environments, enabling disparate processes to work closely together, and allowing teams to understand the processes involved in electro-mechanical products and simulation products, and how they relate to their designs. Simulation processes can also be started earlier on in the design process.
Finally, Manufacturing Process Management is facilitated by the incorporation of advanced BOM/BOP Management, Manufacturing Change Management, Resource Management and Production and Shop floor Management. Product change can be tracked across multiple processes, and tools, fixture and machinery usage optimised for best-practice usage. Teamcenter's open architecture allows CAM, ERP and MES systems to be incorporated into the PLM environment.

Conclusion
I’ve said in the past that Teamcenter incorporates all levels of lifecycle management - and I’m more than happy to say it again about this version too! I can't think of anything left out, but am looking forward to the next stage in Teamcenter's development to see where I will be proved wrong once again!
www.ugsplm.co.uk

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