| Abstract: | Product innovation specialist Invention Machine teams with PLM heavyweight PTC to establish connections between the companies' applications. |
| Keywords: | Product innovation, repeatable product innovation |
Product data management provider Parametric Technology Corp. (PTC) and Invention Machine, a purveyor of software focused on product innovation, have teamed up to deliver technology that generates and validates the content that feeds the product lifecycle process.
Invention Machine, which has been developing an application programming interface for PTC software, today announced a product called the Connector to PTC Windchill, which ties Invention Machine's flagship product, Goldfire Innovator, to PTC's Windchill content and process management software.
Goldfire Innovator software is designed around a semantic search engine technology that provides precise access to context-specific content. Coupled with PTC's Windchill, it enables users to access information that is already available but hard to reach, company officials said.
For example, companies use PTC Windchill to organize technical information related to the product development effort — information that is not always easily accessible. The connector application provides a way for users to mine concepts directly from the Windchill repository.
"In the past, users would have to do a keyword search to find a document that may reference certain words," said Jim Todhunter, CTO of Invention Machine, in an interview with Managing Automation. "But this technology allows a design-intent-based search. If you are working on a problem and have a specific type of function you are trying to produce or you are trying to understand the causes of an effect you are observing, you are going to be able to find that information precisely and quickly without sifting through irrelevant data."
Invention Machine describes its Goldfire Innovator product as a way to bring predictability and repeatability to product design through an automated approach to idea generation. The question is, can innovation — traditionally a creative process — be governed by software?
Yes, industry observers say, at least to a degree.
There's a tremendous need to improve innovation, said Joe Barkai, practice director, product life cycle strategies at Manufacturing Insights (an IDC company). But companies must understand what needs to be innovated. "How do I know I'm innovating something relevant? How do I know I'm not reinventing the wheel?" he told Managing Automation. "How do I decide if it is better created in-house vs. out? These are key questions that most companies don't have good answers for."
"I'm all for disruptive innovation not formalized by specific direction or strategy, but we find that companies are poor learning organizations. This is where Invention Machine and PTC bring value," Barkai said.
As part of today's announcement, Invention Machine has joined PTC's PartnerAdvantage program, but the relationship is not exclusive. Managing Automation reported in November 2007 that Invention Machine is also working on similar APIs for Siemens Teamcenter and Dassault Systemes SolidWorks.
Invention Machine brings visibility to the knowledge sources, which allows PLM software to incorporate new ideas with existing best practices. "We are a key component in the successful delivery of what PLM promises," Todhunter said.
Until now, experts say, there's been no way to obtain a holistic view of a PLM framework, from ideation, to engineering, to product end of life. "Today companies either don't do it all or they have a loose collection of tools," Barkai noted.
The Connector to PTC Windchill is available now as a free upgrade for customers using both Goldfire Innovator and Windchill. An entry-level deployment of Goldfire runs about $100,000, the company said.
 |
|
|
|