| Abstract: | Touting a unified architecture that improves collaboration capabilities, the company formerly known as UGS rolls out its first major product data management release in two years. |
| Keywords: | collaborative design, design collaboration |
Siemens PLM Software, the newly named successor to product lifecycle management software provider UGS, today released Teamcenter 2007, the first major upgrade to the product data management tool since its 2005 version.
Central to the new version is a revamped architecture that relies on a common data model, a transition process that began two years ago and Siemens is now calling complete. The first pieces of a service-oriented architecture emerged in the 2005 version of the product, according to Bill Boswell, senior director of product marketing for Teamcenter, in a recent briefing with Managing Automation. But that version did not run on a common data model, making data exchange throughout the system and with other enterprise applications more onerous than it needed to be. Siemens turned to SOA for a remedy, and Teamcenter 2007 rolls out as the first product in the line to take full advantage of the new service-enablement.
The revised architecture has also allowed Siemens to create tighter integration with its other PLM products. In April, for instance, the company announced a new version of its Tecnomatix digital manufacturing software that featured simpler data exchange between the Tecnomatix and Teamcenter environments.
Teamcenter 2007 also caps a significant push by Siemens to improve the product's look and feel. Users now see an application that resembles the nearly ubiquitous Microsoft Outlook environment, which, Siemens officials said, should cut training costs for user companies because the interface will be more intuitive.
Other new features in Teamcenter 2007 include some under-the-hood enhancements to the file management system, enabling faster caching of documents and better capabilities for prepositioning needed data, according to Boswell. In addition, the new Business Modeler Integrated Development Environment (BMIDE) aims to reduce the burden on IT staffs at user companies, as it offers an Eclipse-based client that supports configuration, as opposed to more intensive customization, according to a company statement. The BMIDE also supports "rapid deployment of changes to remote sites through implementation templates and live server synchronization," according to the statement.
All told, the latest version of Teamcenter contains hundreds of functional improvements, officials said. A portfolio management component, for instance, has been added for visibility and decision management across a product portfolio, while new embedded requirements management and schedule management aim to help users work more efficiently and collaborate with greater ease. Teamcenter 2007 also features new bill-of-material (BOM) tools that graphically present relationships among products and enable BOM editing and redlining.
Applications dedicated to data management and collaboration have emerged as core components of product development and PLM applications, as the innovation process in many companies stretches to ever-larger teams of engineers and designers, and flouts traditional notions of single-company involvement.
According to Boswell, companies in many industries have taken up the practice of design reuse, which has its roots in sectors such as the automotive industry. A car company that can build multiple models based on a single chassis and power train can realize the cost savings associated with streamlined production. Boswell pointed to companies such as Apple, which has picked up on this concept in reusing some core components of its iPod across multiple versions of the product.
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