Managing Automation - February 2008 - (Page 37) “We’re not building these vertical applications in a silo,” Boswell says. “We’re building extensions onto the data model and business logic with overlays on top, which provides any capabilities you might need for a particular industry.” SECURITY BLANKET For Wright Medical Technology, Inc., a global Siemens PLM Solutions, like most PLM orthopedic medical device company, having a providers, has been busy over the past few years PLM platform that could handle very specific rounding out its vertical offering story. Initially, regulatory requirements out of the gate provided Siemens offered vertical versions of Teamcenter a huge comfort level, according to Amy Cooper, for aerospace and defense and the automotive quality documentation manager for Wright, which industry — its traditional core markets — which makes reconstructive joint devices and biologics. essentially wrapped up many of the templates, Without major modifications, Cooper’s group workflows, reports, and domain expertise mapped was able to leverage Teamcenter to maintain audit trails, automate the requisite parent/child rela“We put ourselves in the chair of the users tionships for change and uncover the things they need to do management, and validate their job across a global organization.” the system for overall compliance. — Kurt Andersen, Dassault Systemes “When you star t to out by marquee clients in these sectors and made change and monkey with a system, you open them available to the PLM-buying public. up a hole,” Cooper says. “The fact that we didn’t Because of growing demand for these indushave to modify the system was like a security try-specific versions, Siemens branched out in blanket, knowing we’d be compliant. They did 2005 with a packaged Teamcenter edition for their homework. A lot of what’s out of the box is Federal Drug Administration compliance, folusable in most medical situations.” lowing up in the past year with packages for Just as medical device manufacturers have medical device makers and retail and apparel their own lingo and compliance requirements, so manufacturers. do companies in industries as diverse as apparel A packaged version of Teamcenter tuned to and semiconductors. In emerging markets for the needs of small and mid-sized (SMB) comPLM, such as retail and apparel and consumer panies has been another big area of focus via the packaged goods, the Velocity Series. product launch process And, thanks in part to Teamcenter’s open data poses a par ticularly model and services-oriented architecture in the thorny problem. In con2007 release, Siemens and potential partners can sumer packaged goods, INDUSTRY-FLAVORED PLM readily integrate industry-specific functionality for example, a portfolio Here’s what the major players have: into the core PLM platform as new sectors dashboard capability is DASSAULT SYSTEMES: Leveraging technology emerge, Boswell says. critical for understandfrom its acquisition of MatrixOne, Dassault’s newest Siemens addresses the vertical challenge via ing and managing a “accelerator” flavors of PLM target the semiconductor, extensions to Teamcenter’s business logic and multitude of product medical device, and retail and apparel markets; a condata model layers. For instance, in the new lines. Many of the newsumer packaged goods accelerator is slated for release Teamcenter for Medical Devices package, deer packaged ver tical this spring. veloped via a partnership with Tata Consultancy editions, such as those ORACLE/AGILE: Offers AgileMD for medical device Ser vices, the software’s data model has been from Siemens and Oramakers as well as packaged versions for high-tech and extended to handle industr y-specific requirecle/Agile, incorporate electronics and the consumer packaged goods industries. ments, such as capturing the device master that functionality into PTC: Has packaged domain expertise for Windchill record or tracking revisions required by FDA the base PLM offering. covering a variety of industries, including automotive, Title 21 CFR Part 11, a federal regulation govThrough tailored high tech and electronics, and medical devices. Also erning the accepted use of electronic records dashboards, calendaroffers FlexPLM, a PLM system targeted at retail and and signatures. ing, and line planning apparel manufacturers. The vertical versions also have been modified templates, companies SIEMENS PLM SOFTWARE: Offers vertical with pull-down menus, templates, and reports in industries that may versions of Teamcenter for medical device makers, that are specific to the language and tasks of a be new to PLM can get consumer packaged goods companies, automotive given industry as opposed to a generic workflow a better sense of what manufacturers, and retail and apparel companies. that doesn’t look or feel familiar to a user. products are in the if you can give users reports out of the box using the terms they’re familiar with. It’s all about lowering the cost of ownership, faster deployment, and faster time to value.” vertical view Photo courtesy: ENOVIA 37 February 2008
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