Product lifecycle management solutions act as the single source of truth for all product data within enterprise manufacturing organizations. This single source of truth is now critical because product development has become increasingly complicated as teams are expected to innovate constantly while battling supply chain limitations. In addition, manufacturing organizations must be incredibly agile to stay competitive in the global economy. In order to coordinate all of this industry push and pull, enterprise organizations must leverage the best PLM software available.
Enterprise organizations must remain agile to stay competitive in the global economy.
The Best PLM Software Focuses on Collaboration
In the world of manufacturing, collaboration and innovation go hand in hand. Therefore, the best PLM software focuses on multi-enterprise collaboration tools and features. Manufacturing organizations must ensure that all internal and external teams work based on the same information. PLM helps to establish a digital thread as a single source of truth for all product data.
The Best PLM Software also . . .
While the best PLM software focuses on collaboration features, that collaboration can only occur with modern tools that support the latest technology.
Includes Digital Thread Capabilities
Collaborative work hinges on a digital thread foundation. The best PLM software solutions have these digital thread tools built right in. Today’s distributed workforce uses numerous design formats and document types, so a single source of truth is essential. A digital thread ensures that internal and external teams have the most up-to-date data throughout the product development process.
In terms of features, the best PLM software will include features like:
- Digital thread traceability
- Digital product definition
- Multi-CAD compatibility
- Managed data relationships
- Change and release management
- Digital visualization tools
The best PLM software lays the foundation for a digital thread that helps facilitate collaboration between internal teams and external partners.
Supports Concurrent Engineering
Downstream data sharing can provide numerous benefits for large organizations. In addition to getting feedback earlier, other teams can also start their work earlier. This means future design tooling, QA process development, and more can all occur sooner, further reducing product lead time. In addition, concurrent engineering allows distributed teams to work 24/7 to further compress product development time.
The best PLM software includes concurrent engineering features such as:
- Role-based application permissions
- Enterprise-level change control
- Cross-step data sync
- Data reuse tools
- Comprehensive data integration
- Self-serve data retrieval
- Downstream data sharing
Feedback early and often, thanks to concurrent engineering, can significantly reduce product lead time.
Simplifies Partner Collaboration
Much of product innovation relies on supply chains. Therefore, the ability to set up relationships and systems quickly with supply chain partners is a must. The best PLM software makes it easy to share just the right amount of information with customers and partners. This data needs to be self-accessible but also have limited permissions just for what is required.
The features to look for include:
- Controlled access permissions
- Data access audits
- IP protection
- Data and design sharing support
- Project management
- Problem reporting and corrective actions
Windchill PLM: The Best PLM Software
The best PLM software includes all of these features and focuses on collaboration tools for internal and external teams. Of course, as the largest PTC reseller on the West Coast, we might be a bit biased, but we think Windchill takes the cake for best PLM software.
Windchill PLM supports enterprise-wide collaboration while streamlining and improving product development. By leveraging the variety of tools in Windchill PLM, teams can get products to market faster while reducing costly, time-consuming errors. In addition, picking the best PLM on the market serves as the foundation for improving the entire product development cycle from design to engineering to manufacturing.
Want to learn more about why Windchill is the best PLM software? Contact us.