Cloud and SaaS-based PLM solutions manage the entire lifecycle of a product from ideation, design, and development to manufacturing, maintenance, and disposal. Key points of the approach include: All data in one place, access to all conceivable software, the cloud’s exponentially growing performance to process the growing amounts of data that come with the digitalization of the entire product development and operations processes, its scale-up and scale-down capabilities, the globally connected collaboration platforms via AWS or Microsoft’s Cloud Azure, etc., all of which point to the unbeatable accessibility, value for money and simplicity of this combination.
In general, approaches according to this pattern enable faster innovation by integrating tools and processes, improving efficiency and reducing time to market. As a subscription-based model, SaaS minimizes upfront costs and maintenance, which among other things helps make the model accessible to companies of all sizes. With built-in security, automatic updates and scalability, it adapts to changing business needs while ensuring data integrity and compliance.
Four Teamcenter X Variants
That said, the Siemens Teamcenter X platform Teamcenter X is available in four packages, solutions that are continuously updated throughout the year:
- Teamcenter X Essentials: Designed with ease of implementation and low administration costs, Teamcenter X Essentials delivers data management for companies focused on mechanical design. It includes CAD data management and product structures with revision management, including search, check-in/check-out, and 3D view and markup—while maintaining full scalability as an organization grows and evolves.
- Teamcenter X Standard: New this month, Teamcenter X Standard extends the capabilities of Teamcenter X Essentials and adds additional PLM functionality such as easy change management, project scheduling, document management, and report generation—all delivered with out-of-the-box configurations and can be customized to meet customer needs.
- Teamcenter X Advanced: Also new this month, Teamcenter X Advanced supports companies that need to collaborate across multiple domains in mechanical, electronic, and electrical design throughout their product lifecycle. Teamcenter X Advanced builds on the standard offering to add data management for electrical and electronic design integration and classification. Like Standard, Advanced ships with out-of-the-box configurations and can be customized to meet customer needs.
- Teamcenter X Premium: Full breadth of PLM and available on your choice of cloud provider, Teamcenter X Premium is built for companies that want to leverage the full capabilities of Teamcenter in a purpose-built solution to fit their business needs. It covers the full spectrum of Teamcenter capabilities, from enterprise BOM and ERP integration, model-based systems engineering (MBSE), manufacturing planning, quality and compliance management, product cost and lifecycle management. The Premium tier also delivers preconfigured solutions tailored for industries such as industrial machinery, medical devices, and semiconductors.
From the Teamcenter X CASE-BOOK: Electric Trucks for Urban Transportation
Workhorse Group is an American technology company focused on pioneering the transition to zero-emission commercial vehicles. The company operates in the Teamcenter X environment and has made this solution the company’s corporate standard. This is to streamline activities across its development teams and supply chain as they build electric trucks for the sustainable transport of goods from a distribution hub to the final delivery destination – the customer’s door.
“Standardizing on Teamcenter X has enabled us to effectively integrate our design, engineering and supply chain functions. Previously, our multi-CAD environment was costly and required additional resources. With Siemens, we have eliminated these inefficiencies and can focus on building complex electric trucks more efficiently,” says Jeff Mowry, chief information officer, Workhorse Group.
He further claims that Siemens tools can effectively handle things like complex bills of materials and technical change notices:
“This is key given the dynamic nature of electric vehicle production. This strategic move has not only reduced our operating costs but also strengthened our ability to protect intellectual property and ensure cybersecurity.”
For those planning to attend Siemens Realize LIVE Americas in Detroit, June 2-5, there is a chance to meet Mowry live on stage, where he will demonstrate how Workhorse implemented Teamcenter X and NX X in just six months to reduce IT overhead, improve collaboration and streamline operations.
PLM&ERP News/Commentary: From on-premise to cloud-based PLM
The shift from on-premises to cloud-based PLM is a reflection of a drive for agility, scalability and cost-effectiveness. Investments in this direction have their challanges, but are in many cases worth investing in. Traditional on-premise PLM requires significant infrastructure, IT resources and maintenance. This is expensive and the advantages of cloud-based are that the costs and obstacles normally associated with local installations are significantly reduced. At the same time, the cloud approach offers remote access, real-time collaboration and seamless updates. Integration is sharpened, while security and scalability enable faster innovation and better adaptability. These are not bad features in the dynamic world of product development that is now gradually emerging.
In the press material Siemens claims that the Teamcenter X solution offers best-in-class capabilities. Right or wrong? Let’s leave it at that Teamcenter generally gets high scores and top rankings from analysts, and that PLM is generally one of the company’s strongest “distances.”
