In today’s world, it’s not uncommon for companies to be rich in data but poor in insights. Despite having access to a wealth of information, organizations struggle to properly analyze performance and drive transformational improvements. This is where ThingWorx Digital Performance Management (DPM) steps in to bridge the gap.

This week in your factory, you’ve applied maximum effort, pouring countless hours into perfecting your product. As the work week ends, a feeling of slight disappointment remains.

Could you have accomplished more? Where did it go awry? You may not be able to find the answers on your own, leaving your factory inefficient and operating below its full potential.

If this is you, look no further. With the capabilities of Thingworx Digital Performance Management, you will unleash an untapped potential of data and boost your manufacturing processes.

What is Digital Performance Management?

ThingWorx Digital Performance Management (DPM) is a cutting-edge solution designed to help organizations identify, prioritize, and improve production issues.

By capturing lost production hours and their causes, DPM indicates where to focus for the most critical impact. Also, it optimizes the finite time available, allowing organizations to reclaim lost hours and increase effective time by 20% or more. Thus, directly impacting the bottom line.

How Does DPM Work?

Consider a manufacturing facility that can produce one unit per hour. In a week with 88 hours worked, the facility manages to manufacture only 44 units. Let’s say 12 hours are lost through planned downtime and 14 hours are lost due to changeovers.

That leaves about 18 hours unaccounted for. Where did those come from? With ThingWorx DPM, you can quickly identify issues, and why they happened, and then take appropriate actions to fix them.

Moreover, DPM calculates and analyzes discrepancies, providing valuable insights to improve productivity. DPM is a comprehensive toolset that propels organizations towards peak performance by tracking performance, conducting in-depth analysis, planning, and validating improvements.

The Production Dashboard

One feature included with DPM is the Production Dashboard. The visual dashboard is a crucial tool for supervising shift performance and gathering vital data to inform reporting and analysis. It is designed for supervisors and line managers to track productivity across various production lines.

Some key features of the Production Dashboard include:

• Provides insights into shift progress at the production block level

• Allows for automated and manual data entry, including reason codes to capture all losses

• And offers a simplified interface to minimize disruption

Bottleneck Analysis

The Bottleneck Analysis tool is designed to automatically detect and monitor the most significant bottlenecks in your factory, providing valuable analysis and insights into OEE and OLE.

One of the challenges that customers face is a lack of visibility into bottlenecks, which leads to a disconnect between continuous improvement efforts and their impact on the business. However, bottlenecks are often dynamic and complex.

To address these challenges, DPM offers key capabilities to help identify and resolve:

• Automatically identifying and tracking bottlenecks.

• Systematic identification of the top constraints, which can significantly increase factory efficiency by 5-20%.

• Management of the dynamic nature of competing bottlenecks.

Overall, DPM works relentlessly, making up for lost time by tracing the root cause of issues and providing precise remedies to ensure smooth and efficient functionality. Consider DPM an invaluable employee, working tirelessly around the clock without additional overtime costs!

Accelerate Problem Solving with DPM

DPM’s capabilities extend beyond surface-level analysis. By combining Pareto analysis and time loss analytics, DPM users can uncover and address a significant percentage of production problems.

Additionally, with the further integration of AI and machine learning, DPM streamlines the identification of patterns in data, resulting in faster problem-solving and decision-making.

For instance, a DPM user noticed quality losses between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. Thanks to DPM’s automated analysis, the manufacturing team quickly determined that the issue was caused by a glare from the sunset, making the inspection camera unreliable.

All in all, DPM helped accelerate the problem-solving process saving valuable time and resources.

Reap the Benefits

Digital Performance Management is as remarkable as it sounds. DPM holds the secret to your production improvements and is ready to share them with you. Discover the plethora of benefits that are tied to DPM:

• Standardized Measurement: DPM provides a consistent and standardized approach to measure losses, ensuring accurate evaluation of bottlenecks, and their impact on performance.

• Efficient Root Cause Analysis: Leveraging AI technology, DPM identifies the root causes of bottlenecks and facilitates their permanent resolution, eliminating recurring issues.

• Automated Problem Identification: DPM’s powerful AI algorithms automate the process of surfacing common issues, exponentially reducing the time spent on problem-solving.

• Real-time Insights: What once took months to identify critical insights now becomes easily accessible through DPM’s intuitive interface, providing teams with immediate access to actionable insights.

Get Started with DPM Today!

In conclusion, if you want to revolutionize your performance management and take your organization to new heights, it’s time to embrace Digital Performance Management.

Remember, in today’s fast-paced world, those who leverage technology to gain insights and make data-driven decisions are the ones who thrive.

Are you ready to unlock the true potential of your organization with Digital Performance Management? Talk with an expert now to take your first steps toward success.

1. Complex User Interface especially for infrequent users
2. Cumbersome Navigation
3. Slow Performance & Speed
4. Customization Limitations
5. Limited Task Support & Access for departments outside of Engineering
6. Lack of Workflow Synergy between multiple departments

• Run pre-configured reports and saved reports
• Save new reports
• Access pre-built report dashboards that utilize the Windchill search engine

Looking for a reliable platform to perform complex calculations and solve problems with the utmost precision and transparency? Meet your perfect workflow companion. With PTC Mathcad Prime 9, engineers can seamlessly integrate calculations into their workflow, capturing crucial assumptions and decisions every step of the way. Because making it easier to communicate and collaborate with colleagues and stakeholders ensures complete transparency for better designs.

PTC Mathcad Prime 9 delivers numerous productivity and functionality enhancements. As with the previous release of Mathcad Prime 8, PTC continues to invest in the math engineering notebook software. PTC showcased some of the new functionality as part of the 2022 Mathcad Virtual Conference. Of note were demos of text styles coming to Mathcad Prime 9, but the new features don’t stop there.

In case you missed it, PTC hosted a webinar on April 4, 2023. In the webinar replay, Andy McGough, PTC’s Mathcad Product Manager, provided demos and commentary on the new functionalities, an update on the PTC Mathcad Prime development roadmap, and answered questions.

The software has been improved with new features such as enhanced geometry processing capabilities and new support for 3D modeling tools such as sketching, drawing, assembly design, and drafting (including 2D drawings).

In addition, PTC Mathcad Prime 9 offers an expanded library of functions for solving specific problems in mechanical engineering applications such as Fluid Dynamics and Thermal Analysis.

Mathcad Prime 9 New Features

The user interface has been redesigned. Now, engineers without any programming experience can create their own custom applications using PTC Mathcad Prime 9’s visual programming environment, also known as PTC Creo Elements/Pro.

Text Styles

Use text styles for all elements of the document, including equations and cell comments. This feature makes it easier to apply formatting consistently throughout documents.

Mathcad Prime 9 Internal Hyperlinks

As of the new release, you can create internal hyperlinks between cells or equations within Mathcad Prime documents by typing in the link text followed by an exclamation mark (!). When you hover over these links with your cursor, they will turn into live links that automatically open when clicked. For example: “!Cell 1”.

Internal Links are a game-changer when it comes to document navigation. They allow users to easily connect notes and calculations across worksheets. Reference important information with minimal effort. Say goodbye to tedious scrolling and searching!

Go-to Page

With the new Go-to Page feature, finding a specific page within a lengthy document has never been easier. Jump directly to a desired page, saving valuable time and effort. No more endlessly clicking through pages!

Current Page Tooltip

The Current Page Tooltip provides an easy tool for instant reference. It displays the current page number as you scroll through the document, allowing you to keep track of your progress effortlessly. Stay organized and never lose your place again!

Enhanced Color Selection Menus

Color selection menus have been enhanced in PTC Mathcad Prime 9. Now, you can select from a wide range of pre-set colors, as well as utilize a custom color picker. Whether you want to highlight specific sections, make equations or plots stand out, or simply add visual appeal, this feature allows you to choose the perfect color for the job.

Quick Text

Mathcad Prime 9 introduces a convenient feature that allows users to convert a new region from the default math region to a textbox by simply pressing the spacebar and eliminates the need to manually click on a text box to input text into a worksheet. This enhancement provides a more seamless and efficient way to incorporate text into your calculations and explanations. By utilizing this keyboard shortcut, users can save time and streamline their workflow. No more wasted time on numerous mouse clicks!

With these new enhancements, PTC Mathcad Prime 9 offers improved document navigation and customization options. You can now easily find what you’re looking for.

IMPROVED MATHCAD FUNCTIONS 

PTC Mathcad Prime 9 has a new Symbolic Engine that delivers improved performance and new functions. This includes faster symbolic calculations, new functions such as trigonometric and hyperbolic functions, and more operators available to work with expressions. New logarithmic integral functions and elliptic integral functions have also been added.

Mathcad Prime 9’s Solve Block

PTC updated the Solve Block, which now expands the range of solvable problems. The pdesolve function is now available in the Solve Block. The function makes it easy to resolve equations and inequalities with multiple variables. You can also use this new feature to find solutions for single-variable problems by setting all other variables equal to zero. This allows you to solve for any variable that is not explicitly given as a constraint or independent variable.

Additionally, inside a Solve Block, users can now use the find function to symbolically solve a system of equations.

Symbolic Calculations, Functions & Solutions

Calculus operators, such as derivatives, limits, integrals, and summations, have been enhanced for symbolic calculations and can be applied to a wider range of scenarios.

The functionality and utility of various symbolic keywords and functions have been expanded. For instance, the assume keyword enables users to specify assumptions about the result of a function.

Symbolic solutions for Ordinary Differential Equations (ODEs) are now supported, allowing users to solve first-order ODEs and higher-order ODEs that can be reduced to first-order systems.

The Gradient Operator calculates the gradient of a Scalar Function by providing both numerical and symbolic solutions.

Upgrade to Mathcad Prime 9

PTC Mathcad Prime 9 allows you to perform mathematical calculations faster and easier than ever while retaining the flexibility needed to handle complex models.

The latest updates bring a wide range of enhancements to the platform’s productivity and functionality.  As a result, Mathcad Prime 9 continues to empower users to solve, analyze, document, and share all their engineering calculations quickly and accurately.

Whether you’re a seasoned engineer or a novice, these new features ensure seamless and efficient workflows. As a result, companies can boost engineering productivity and create more innovative products.

Ready to upgrade to PTC Mathcad Prime 9 and experience these features for yourself? Talk to an EAC expert to continue the conversation or schedule a demo to learn more.

I’m sure at least once in your life you’ve heard the saying, ‘Work smarter, not harder.’ But what a cliche, right?! Well, for those of you managing your Bill of Materials (BOMs) in Excel, it’s time to step away from the cell block prison (pun intended).

In this article, we’re going to break down what it actually means to revitalize your BOM strategy with the Digital Thread to start seeing the results you want.

What Is The Digital Thread?

First of all, let’s start with the basics. The Digital Thread is a term used to describe the seamless flow of information throughout the manufacturing process. From design and engineering to production and after-sales support. It provides a way to connect all the data and information generated at different stages and from systems of the product lifecycle.

Generally, the Digital Thread provides value by enabling better visibility and control of any processes that require or produce product data. It enables manufacturers to collaborate more effectively, automate and optimize workflows, and quickly respond to changes. All while adjusting quickly to customer needs. 

Bill of Materials (BOM)

Next, let’s break down the concept of a Bill of Materials. A complete Bill of Materials (BoM) list usually contains all of the parts and components needed to create or manufacture an end product. You might think of a BoM as a recipe ingredient list. The information about each part can include details such as part names, part numbers, quantity required, and cost per unit. Not to mention, BoMs contain other relevant part details such as material type, color, or size if applicable; supplier information; serial numbers, etc.

By consolidating and organizing all the pertinent information product information, the BoM becomes a centralized resource. A critical resource that facilitates the manufacturing processes of specified products.

Ultimately, the goal of the BoM is to help track inventory and verify missing parts during assembly. Equally as important, BoMs are critical to support a healthy supply chain, as well as help with purchasing decisions and more.

The Digital Thread and Bill of Materials Working Together

Balancing a plethora of product information – it’s no surprise, the best BoM management strategy used within the industry does not leverage solely Microsoft Excel. Nor does it rely upon one Enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. Instead it works to unite data from multiple systems into a single source of truth. 

Sounds great doesn’t it? But, if you’re like most – your product data lives all over the place in different systems from different departments. This situation tends to create data siloes resulting in time-consuming manual tasks using outdated operational processes. Generally, these are some of the biggest problems that inhibit manufacturers from achieving their business initiatives. 

Oftentimes, during our EAC Assessments, we hear multiple teams across the enterprise and different management levels are frustrated by broken processes. In short, there is a lack of key information employees need to do their jobs right, at the time they need it most.

Meanwhile, the digital thread uses advanced technology (such as product lifecycle management systems as well as the Internet of Things) to connect critical disparate processes. This, in turn, helps minimize manual tasks, and breaks down data siloes. Implementing the digital thread to your BoM strategy creates a major impact for all stakeholders involved. For instance, design teams, engineers, manufacturing, assembly, operations, finance, purchasing, and even marketing. 

How The Digital Thread Supports Engineering

Furthermore, the Digital Thread plays a crucial role in supporting engineering and bill of materials (BOM) management by providing seamless connectivity and accessibility to relevant data throughout the product lifecycle. Here’s how the digital thread benefits these areas:

1. Engineering Collaboration

Firstly, the digital thread allows engineers to collaborate effectively by providing a centralized platform for sharing and accessing engineering data. This facilitates cross-functional collaboration, enables real-time communication, and reduces errors or miscommunications during the design and development process.

2. Design Consistency

Secondly, the digital thread ensures design consistency by maintaining a single source of truth for engineering data. Changes made in the design phase are automatically propagated throughout the digital thread, ensuring that all related documents, models, and specifications remain synchronized.

3. BOM Accuracy and Visibility

The digital thread integrates BOM management, configuration management, and BoM transformation capabilities. This enables accurate and up-to-date BOMs, as the data will automatically reflect changes. Additionally, it provides real-time visibility into the BoM status, including component availability, sourcing information, and cost implications.

4. Change Management

Next, the digital thread streamlines change management processes. By automating change notifications, approvals, and tracking. Essentially, it ensures that engineering changes are effectively communicated, documented, and implemented across the relevant stages of the product lifecycle, minimizing errors and delays.

5. Manufacturing Process Optimization

By connecting engineering data with manufacturing process management, the digital thread enables better coordination and optimization of production processes. By in large, system and data integration allows for improved manufacturing planning, efficient resource allocation, and reduced lead times.

6. Enhanced Visualization and Analysis

Another example includes leveraging augmented reality (AR) design sharing to provide visual representations of designs. In detail, enabling stakeholders to view and analyze products in a virtual environment. It’s recommended to use AR to enhance design reviews, simplify communication, and facilitate better decision-making.

Overall, the digital thread improves engineering and BoM management. Markedly, by streamlining processes, enhancing collaboration, ensuring data consistency, and providing visibility across the product lifecycle. It promotes efficiency, accuracy, and agility in engineering and BoM-related activities. Leading to improved product quality and faster time to market in the long run.

How A Digital Thread BoM Strategy Streamlines Manufacturing

Simultaneously, the digital thread plays a significant role in enhancing the bill of materials (BoM) management for manufacturing, assembly, and quality control processes. In sum, here’s how the digital thread benefits these areas:

1. Manufacturing and Assembly Planning

The digital thread enables seamless integration between the BoM and manufacturing planning systems. It provides real-time visibility into the BoM, ensuring accurate and up-to-date information for manufacturing and assembly operations. This allows for efficient production planning, optimized resource allocation, and improved scheduling in all.

2. Supply Chain Integration

By connecting the BoM with supply chain management systems, the digital thread enhances supply chain visibility and collaboration. It enables better coordination with suppliers, accurate tracking of component availability, and improved procurement processes. As a result, it minimizes the risk of production delays and ensures timely delivery of materials.

3. Work Instructions and Assembly Guidance

Thirdly, the digital thread facilitates the creation and dissemination of detailed work instructions and assembly guidance based on the BoM data. This ensures that assembly operators have access to accurate and step-by-step instructions, reducing errors and improving productivity on the shop floor.

4. Quality Control and Traceability

The digital thread enables better quality control and traceability throughout the manufacturing process. By integrating the BoM with quality management systems, it ensures that quality requirements and specifications are adhered to during production. It also enables traceability of components and materials, making it easier to identify and address any quality issues or recalls.

5. Continuous Improvement and Feedback Loop

Additionally, the digital thread supports continuous improvement initiatives by capturing data and feedback from manufacturing and quality control processes. It enables the analysis of production data, identifies areas for improvement, and facilitates data-driven decision-making to enhance manufacturing efficiency and product quality.

6. Post-Market Monitoring

Finally, the digital thread extends beyond the manufacturing phase to support post-market monitoring and quality assurance. Integrating BoM data with field service management systems and customer feedback enables organizations to identify and address product issues, initiate product improvements, and provide timely support and maintenance.

All in all, the digital thread enhances BoM management for manufacturing and assembly processes by ensuring accurate and up-to-date information, facilitating supply chain integration, enabling effective work instructions, improving quality control, supporting continuous improvement efforts, and enabling post-market monitoring. Concurrently, it streamlines operations, improves product quality, and enhances customer satisfaction.

The Polaris Story

Polaris utilized PTC Windchill, an advanced product lifecycle management system, to transform their Bill of Materials into a reliable new business model backbone. As a result, it allowed them to create a connected enterprise.

Windchill PLM combines the digital thread framework with a maximized BoM and change management strategy. This powerful product lifecycle management platform organizes all information associated with the development of its products, allowing every stakeholder to access the latest up-to-date information in a dynamic format.

Once it was clear to Polaris that they had outgrown certain tools and processes, they coordinated and synchronized a digital thread of data throughout the enterprise by leveraging PTC Windchill.

As of today, Polaris’ Windchill PLM system enables them to manage and organize the bill of materials (BoM) and implemented configuration management practices. This helped transform their BoMs as needed, effectively managing changes, overseeing manufacturing processes, and utilizing augmented reality (AR) design-sharing capabilities.

By orchestrating these elements, the digital thread ensured seamless connectivity and flow of information across different stages and departments within Polaris. This enabled improved collaboration, streamlined workflows, effective change control, and enhanced manufacturing processes. On top of giving the ability to share and visualize designs using AR technology.

Attention engineers! There’s an easier way to conduct Tolerance Analysis for your CAD designs.

Transforming CAD designs into real and tangible parts is not only rewarding on a personal level but also professionally fulfilling. It combines creativity, problem-solving, and hands-on experience, all culminating in the sense of accomplishment that comes from creating something real from an abstract concept.

However, as you already know, physical parts deviate from the idealized representation (the design model) due to many different challenges and manufacturing constraints. Tolerance analysis involves assessing the impact of variations in dimensions, geometries, and other parameters on the final product’s performance and functionality. By utilizing Tolerance Analysis, designers ensure proper fit and alignment of the product components.

Improve Quality & Design Innovation

If the goal is to improve quality and design innovation, enable your engineers to perform comprehensive tolerance stack-up analysis. Traditionally this process is a massive pain i.e. repetitive trial-and-error tasks and tedious testing. This part of the design process can be frustrating and often slows down design teams. However, it doesn’t have to be this way!

The PTC Creo EZ Tolerance Analysis Extension is a dynamic computer-aided engineering (CAE) tool powered by leading Sigmetrix technology. This extension helps designers by creating a faster, more intuitive workflow to assess the impact of dimensional specifications on your product designs before prototypes or production.

The software provides algorithms to help engineers identify the optimal tolerance values that meet the design objectives while considering various constraints. This aids in making informed decisions and reducing the time spent on manual analysis and evaluations.

By considering these variations even earlier in the design process, engineers can make more informed decisions to ensure that the final product will perform as intended. Cheers to reinforcing Closed Loop Manufacturing!

The Positive Business Outcomes of Using EZ Tolerance Analysis

Below is a high-level overview of the positive business outcomes this PTC solution proves to provide for manufacturing companies:

• Speed time to market
• Mitigate risk
• Improve productivity
• Reduce costs by reducing rework and scrap

Related Technologies To Use With Tolerance Analysis

Combine Tolerance Analysis with Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&T) to ensure your designs comply with ASME and ISO standards. Or take your designs even further to contain all the data needed to define the product with model-based definition (MBD). With MBD, your model becomes the source authority across the enterprise. The outcome is shorter product development cycles, reduced costs, and enhanced product quality.

PTC continues its investments in enhancing simulation-driven design and generative design with the new Creo 10. Some new features include Rotational Symmetry, Mass Point Constraints, and Remote Loads. Additionally, Creo Simulation Live now includes Contact Simulation options and improved options for fluid and structural results. Creo Flow Analysis and Creo Simulation now have better animation and multibody support. 

For more Simulation and Analysis, we also recommend PTC’s Creo Simulation Advanced powered by Ansys technology. The brand-new Creo Ansys Simulation Advanced analyzes nonlinear contact and materials, with combined thermal and structural analysis. For more information about the latest release of Creo 10 check out the blog here.