Windchill 12 Includes New Deployment Options

At its virtual LiveWorx event this week, PTC launched Windchill 12, the latest version of its product lifecycle management (PLM) software. According to the company, Windchill 12 offers "new collaboration tools, capabilities to improve product quality, and enhanced deployment options that provide the tools necessary to adapt to today’s changing work environment."

“Companies are recognizing a greater need for collaboration in their product development processes that allows for speed, confidence, and ease of administration – all while maintaining quality across development stages, stakeholders, and products,” said Jeffrey Hojlo, Program Director, Manufacturing Insights & Product Innovation Strategies, IDC. “This takes on added importance as companies work through the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, such as a more distributed workforce, disrupted supply chains, and dynamic customer needs. PTC continues to position itself to address these market needs, and enable flexibility and resiliency for its customers.”

Building on Windchill’s web-based user interface and highly configurable out-of-the-box applications, Windchill 12 enables companies to improve collaboration across the enterprise with broader access to product data, the company says. Extensions to Windchill 12, including Silicon Expert and IHS integration, provide sophisticated component sourcing, part selection, and risk assessment.

Windchill 12 also gives companies greater capabilities to uncover design issues early and react faster to adverse events, the company says. These capabilities enable companies to drive down the cost of poor quality and enable greater speed to market and customer satisfaction. The new proof of traceability feature, delivered through tight OSLC integration with Windchill 12, Windchill RV&S, Windchill Modeler, and third-party requirements management tools such as IBM Doors NG, allows companies to protect intellectual property at the origin of the digital thread. Leveraging the latest version of PTC’s Creo design software, Windchill 12 and the Creo View visualization solution allow users to identify changes in the view states captured in the CAD design to visually manage critical-to-quality (CTQ) characteristics.

Windchill 12 also helps customers adopt more flexible ways of producing products by providing digital thread continuity between the design and the information on the factory shop floor, PTC says in its press release. Windchill 12 introduces BOM transformation tools that enable manufacturing engineers to quickly view and reconcile upstream changes to downstream manufacturing and plant-specific BOMs.

The new version of the software also includes enhancements based on the ODATA standard to enable multi-system orchestration and compatibility with PTC and non-PTC applications. Windchill 12 provides administrators additional tools to plan and execute upgrades from previous releases, enabling companies to streamline upgrades and get value quickly on the latest Windchill platform.

“With the release of Windchill 12, we at PTC have continued our commitment to an enterprise-wide PLM platform that addresses the changing ways our customers work, with a focus on extended team collaboration and alternative types of work,” said Kevin O’Brien, general manager, PLM, PTC. “We are proud that the latest version provides not only a seamless experience with other products within the PTC suite, but also enables our customers to become more agile with faster access to up-to-date product information required at any given time.”

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.