Networking and More

The factory environment is filled with disparate equipment and systems that make it very challenging to respond in real time to disruptions or even prevent issues from arising.  Until now, visibility has mainly come from the rearview mirror with reports telling you what went wrong yesterday. This approach leads to maintenance issues, unplanned downtime, lower return on assets, and exposure to higher operational risk. In this session, Aron Semle of PTC described the business opportunity derived from unlocking machine data to provide manufacturing teams with real-time visibility across their various assets, systems, and people.  Justin Hester of Hirotec America, a leading global Tier 1 auto supplier with factories worldwide, then presented the phased strategy for operational excellence that his company is rolling out. Today, Hirotec is working to harness the data from the equipment on the shop floor to enable real-time visibility. Tomorrow, analytics will be applied to the aggr

Connecting to “things” in an industrial environment can be difficult. Yet connection is critical to Operations and the ability to make smarter business decisions. In this session, attendees learned about the complexities of the Manufacturing plant floor, including devices, networks, data, and applications. The presentation explored the connectivity challenges resulting from this complex environment. Specifically, the session reviewed the challenges that disparate devices, legacy equipment, high speeds of communication, and large data volumes present. Finally, the introduced Kepware’s KEPServerEX connectivity platform as a solution to these industrial connectivity challenges. Showcasing customer case studies from Faurecia and Maclean Fogg, the session offered real-world problems and solutions. This session was ideal for attendees with a limited understanding of Industrial Control Systems who are seeking more information about Manufacturing Operations.

Today, manufacturers suffer from delays in introducing new products, and have difficulty making product and process changes after production starts.  This is especially the case for manufacturers of complex products that include many customer specific options, such as CNB/Groupe Beneteau, builder of luxury yachts.  In this session, Jean-Claude Niyonkuru of PTC outlined utline how digitally defining and simulating manufacturing processes, leveraging engineering model-based data, enables faster ramp-up of new products.  Wilfried Cadiou of CNB described how his organization has tightly integrated their manufacturing and global R&D processes with PTC Manufacturing Process Management Solution. By unifying the major elements of design, manufacturing planning, and resources within a common system, CNB is positioned to ramp up production more quickly while ensuring high product quality.

Connecting to “things” in an industrial environment can be difficult. Yet connection is critical to operations and the ability to make smarter business decisions—if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. In this session, attendees learned about the complexities of communications in the Oil & Gas industry, including devices, networks, data, and the various applications that need field data to realize the power of the Industrial Internet of Things. The presentation explored the connectivity challenges resulting from this complex environment. Specifically, the session reviewed the challenges that disparate devices, legacy equipment, limited bandwidth networks, and large data volumes present. Finally, the session introduced Kepware’s KEPServerEX connectivity platform as a solution to these industrial connectivity challenges. Showcasing customer case studies the session offered real-world problems and solutions. This session was ideal for attendees with a limited understanding of In

Product design and assembly are complex and continuously changing, making it difficult to design manufacturing processes, train operators and ensure peak productivity. Factories are also filled with disparate machines and systems that do not make production data readily accessible to decision makers. In this session, Jean-Philippe Provencher of PTC outlined a vision for connecting all systems and assets on the factory floor, and deploying role-based applications for workers throughout the factory. Eric C. Horn, PLM Solution Architect at Solar Turbines, outlined how this leading manufacturer of gas turbine engines is using advanced methods to bring work instructions to the shop floor, and exploring new technologies to enhance production execution.

In this session, manufacturing system integrators discussed use cases for the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) in the factory, and share their experiences, best practices, and what they hear from customers worldwide. The panel of experts presented their perspectives and support a group conversation around key topics, such as standardization trends with groups like MESA and the IIC, and where an IoT solution can add modern technologies (analytics, augmented reality, cloud, mobile) and flexibility to the manufacturing landscape, overcoming the limitations of traditional systems like MES/MOM, and ERP.

Connecting to “things” in building automation systems and within data centers can be difficult. Yet connection is critical to operations and the ability to make smarter business decisions and often to meet federal regulations.   In this session, attendees heard about the complexities of building automation and data center networks, including devices, networks, data, and applications.   The presentation explored the connectivity challenges resulting from this complex environment. Specifically, the session reviewed the challenges created by disparate devices, legacy equipment, secure networks, and high volumes of data. Finally, the session introduced Kepware’s KEPServerEX connectivity platform as a solution to these industrial connectivity challenges. Showcasing a variety of customer case studies and offered real-world problems and solutions.

In this session, PTC customers described the steps they are undertaking to enhance their manufacturing systems today, before outlining their longer term strategies for operational excellence.  Anders T. Laursen, Senior Specialist and Manager of Configuration Management at Vestas Wind Systems AS talked about his company’s strategy for industrialization, and the role that manufacturing process planning data will play at other stages of the product lifecycle, such as the onsite construction and service of their wind turbines. Bob Ibe, Global IT Engineering Leader for GE Industrial Solutions discussed his company’s vision for establishing the Digital Thread, developing bi-directional supply chain portal, and deploying GE’s Brilliant Factory model to optimize production for its Industrial business.

The emergence of IoT has brought a dramatic increase in productivity and new business opportunities. However, an IoT approach that lacks an end-to-end to security approach that includes elements such as strong device authentication, encryption and data signing, could lead to leaked data and result in business-disrupting or life-threatening outcomes.   In this session, attendees heard about real world case studies from industries such as home automation, healthcare and industrial IoT on how these industries are strengthening their security efforts to safeguard connected devices. These case studies provided an understanding on the next-generation of IoT security practices that could address vulnerabilities in your connected devices.

Modeled after the success of Creo's Performance Advisor, this new support technology in Windchill 11 makes Windchill itself a smart, connected product. When users opt-in, they automatically begin sharing the health of their Windchill system with PTC's experienced technical support personnel, who compare data - completely anonymously - across various systems to pinpoint common problems, determine root causes, and offer solutions. This session showcased how this technology delivers a more proactive support experience to our customers, improving customer  experience and lowering the cost of ownership.

In the design and development of safe, effective medical devices, the FDA’s “case for quality” calls for manufacturers to ensure the highest levels of device quality and safety throughout product design, manufacture and service.  It is no longer adequate to rely on inspections and citations alone.  Device manufactures are now encouraged to take an independent, predictive, and proactive approach to ensure that products are manufactured to quality and safety standards for patients.  In order to switch from a reactive to proactive mindset, manufacturers must be willing to invest in new technology to reduce the overall cost of poor quality. This session described PTC’s Medical Device Industry Value-Ready Deployment™ (VRD) offering and highlight Stryker’s case for quality and business case, which showcases Partners Kalypso and USDM Life Sciences, and industry leading best practices to deploy an out-of-the-box approach.  Attendees to this session learned how PTC and Partn

As companies look to evolve from a simple engineering CAD data management environment to a fully integrated PLM strategy, they are often faced with two major challenges.  The first is organizing and displaying the data from multiple systems in one tool focused on the context of a Part (Part Centric) so that the entire enterprise speaks a common language. The second is making all the part centric data available for consumption to the casual user without them getting lost in an overwhelming user interface, tailored for the power user. At Raytheon, like most companies, the environment reflects the company's history of growth through mergers and acquisitions as well as the evolution of technology.  The result is a heterogeneous technical environment that utilizes a variety of different vendor tools to manage all the various aspects of delivering and supporting the  products (product development, supply chain management, manufacturing planning,…). This leads to having part da

Hallmark has been on a product development journey for more than two decades. “At times we thought we could develop our own software and for one of our product lines, we did.  Twenty years later, 22 systems, 100+ spreadsheets and more than 50 hand-offs in the process, we have made the commitment to move to one product development process and system across ALL our product lines" The presenters shared the Hallmark and PTC product development journey.

Is your enterprise up and running with Windchill PDMLink, but you have no way of knowing if you or your company is using your PLM product to its maximum potential? This session was a must attend for any enterprise concerned about optimizing itself in preparation for the future connectivity brought forth by the internet of things. The presenter discussed the vast amounts of data that exists within current Windchill PDMLink implementations, and how this data can be harnessed via Thingworx and ThingWorx MachineLearning to expose areas where an enterprise is weakest, and provide options for how to turn those weaknesses into strengths. Attendees learned about the current status of big data analytics with Windchill 11, where PTC is going with these analytics, and what they can do starting immediately to better prepare for future of optimization efforts.

Out-of-the-box functionality in Windchill FlexPLM facilitates the creation of new products based on existing products. This time saving feature includes the option of linking products together in pre-defined relationships. Full Beauty Brands discussed how they used copying and linking to improve the user experience and align data across related products.

This session discussed how to use freestyle in a product design environment, the best way to integrate freestyle tools and techniques with core Creo capabilities to quickly iterate concepts.

Attendees received a roadmap update and learned about the exciting new enhancements in Creo Elements Direct 20.0, along with data upwards compatibility to Creo 4.0.

Attendees learned about the exciting new enhancements in Creo 4.0 in the area of surfacing and graphics.

This session discussed the updates in Windchill 11 that provide new levels of support for Creo 3.0 technologies, specifically Creo Unite and Creo Design Exploration Extension (DEX).  The presenter shared how these technologies deliver new levels of collaboration and innovation support when integrated with Windchill. In addition, the session introduced the new capabilities supporting companies move from simple CAD data management to managing a complete engineering Bill of Materials (eBOM) with Windchill.

GE Aviation has sustained a Windchill implementation for many years, from the days of the “6.2.6 lighthouse” ProjectLink migrations to the latest/greatest release of 10.2. Throughout its lifecycle, it has always been problematic to proactively monitor and measure Windchill performance and availability. Monitoring the application health is imperative in any production environment. No one ever wants to hear “Windchill is Down!” Quickly identifying the issue and resolving it is critical. Sometimes this becomes a “scratch of the head” and bounce…”oh, that fixed it.”  Then you are left with a problem report to identify a root cause that is sometimes impossible to resolve. GE have used a plethora of tools to check the application process existence and heartbeat types of monitors, but by the time they alert you, the problem is typically already affecting the end-user – engineers, change management, manufacturing floor, etc. – all ultimately suffering from productivity losses and ultimate

Are you considering upgrading your current Windchill solution and wondering where to start? Panelists from Cummins, NASA, ITI and TRW discussed how their organizations approached their Windchill migration including the rationale for an upgrade, creating an effective plan to reach goals in a timely and cost-effective manner, considerations for the resources and requirements needed to help the migration process.

Attendee at this session heard from a panel of leading customers who shared their Creo tips to help you learn new ways to be more productive and gave insight on how they are using  Creo.

Options and variants generated in engineering can multiply the complexity of the manufacturing process. Attendees to this session learned how the powerful capabilities in Windchill 11 handle these complexities while advancing the transformation from eBOM to mBOM, mBOM to process planning, and process planning to execution in ERP.

The presenter shared their success story about how the organization implemented Windchill MPMLink into their manufacturing plants. The session focused on how their company: - Distributed design and manufacturing departments all over the world (7 plants total, and 2 of them uses MPMLink now) - Approached process unification between multiple plants - Managed manufacturing libraries for multiple plants in one system (Raw material, tooling inventory, manufacturing standards etc..) - Planned workshop documentation and process plan management (including of how to customize process plan reports according to strong Russian regulation requirements) - Combined the structures for ERP and documentation for workshop

It's impossible to re-use valuable product data if you can't find it: which is why Search in Windchill is so vital to the success of your teams. Windchill 11 offers a brand-new user experience in its Search and Query-Builder functions, including faceted searching for a familiar "Web shopping" like experience, context-driven findings to understand the context of the item under search, and much more. This session showcased these capabilities to demonstrate how Windchill 11 helps you gain even more value out of your PLM data.