The Factory of the Future is a connected world of everything.
We will explore the benefits of IoT in manufacturing, including asset monitoring and utilization, quality control, predictive analytics, automation, safety and compliance, OEE visibility and productivity, and more.
With IoT solutions, companies can achieve their Industry 4.0 goals and increase their bottom line.
What is the Internet of Things (IoT)?
The Internet of Things (IoT) is the network of physical objects, people and other assets that are connected to the internet. IoT allows you to collect data from devices and analyze it in real time.
The goal is to make processes more efficient by optimizing performance and reducing costs.
IoT can be used to monitor machines in factories, track inventory at warehouses or even monitor traffic conditions on roads. It’s also used for home automation tasks like turning off lights when you leave a room or adjusting your thermostat based on your location inside (or outside) the house.
IoT Ecosystems
An IoT ecosystem refers to the network of devices, sensors, software, and services that are interconnected and work together to collect, analyze, and act on data.
They are often utilized to gather data on connected assets, and tools in order to gain real-time insights into their condition for predictive maintenance purposes.
The goal of predictive maintenance is to detect and address problems before they cause equipment failure, downtime, or safety issues.
By predicting maintenance needs in advance, organizations can schedule maintenance during planned downtime, minimize the impact of maintenance on operations, and extend the lifespan of equipment.
Connected Products
A smart, connected product (also known as a smart object or SCoT) is a product, asset, or other object embedded with processors, sensors, software, and connectivity that allows data to be exchanged between the product and its environment, manufacturer, operator/user, and other products and systems[1].
Smart, connected products enable the comprehensive monitoring of a product’s condition, operation, and external environment through sensors and external data sources[2].
This technology stack provides a gateway for data exchange between the product and the user and integrates with other systems to enable a new level of customer experience[3].
Connected Factory
Similar to connected products, a smart, connected factory is a digitized manufacturing facility that uses connected devices, machinery, and production systems to continuously collect and share data.
This data is then used to inform and improve processes and proactively address any issues that may arise.
It is an interconnected network of machines, communication mechanisms, and computing power, which uses advanced technologies to analyze data, drive automated processes and learn as it goes. It uses the sensors and software of the connected products to bring together the factory floor.
A connected factory is implemented to track the overall equipment efficiency or effectiveness (OEE) of the factory.
A smart connected factory is the telltale sign of a manufacturing floor that is functioning at its most optimal ability.
Having access to data insights regarding production health helps companies optimize earnings and minimize production downtime.
Augmented Reality
Integrating augmented reality (AR) with IoT involves using sensors and other IoT devices to collect data from the physical world, which is then used to augment the user’s experience in the digital world.
For example, AR can be used to display real-time data from IoT sensors, such as temperature or humidity, on a user’s mobile device. When a cell phone or tablet uses Augmented Reality (AR) to display data, it overlays virtual information on top of the real-world view seen through the device’s camera.
This can be particularly useful in industrial settings, where workers can use AR to monitor the performance of machines, detect any issues immediately, and take corrective action. This kind of data can be turned into a Digital Twin.
Digital Twin
With a Digital Twin, you create an exact replica of a working product, process, or service as a simulated model in a virtual space that performs under real-world conditions.
A Digital Twin in manufacturing helps companies find performance issues, schedule predictive maintenance, reduce downtime, and minimize warranty expenses.
This allows anyone to take a digital version of your factory with you anywhere in the world and know the exact, real-time data of how it is functioning. This is extremely helpful for decision-makers who often travel and need to know how their factories are doing.
Additionally, a digital twin of your factory helps maintenance teams find precisely where an issue may have occurred by giving them visual prompts of where the problem is originating from.
The Benefits of IoT in Manufacturing
IoT has a plethora of benefits for manufacturers that overall saves companies time and money, and solves frustrations with outdated processes and siloed data.
Bellow are different ways the IoT solutions could benefit your production process:
Asset Monitoring & Utilization (AMU) & Real-Time Production Performance Monitoring
Gain real-time insights from connected assets and legacy systems such as your PLM and ERP systems to align your IT and OT systems
Make more informed decisions faster
Increasing flexibility and agility
Monitoring the status of inventory in real-time
Quality Control
Monitoring Distributed and Outsourced Processes
Spare parts management
IoT sensors allow organizations to gauge the specific use and deploy practices for more effective usage of resources.
Machine Learning & Predictive Analytics
By integrating machine-learning capabilities there is a whole new level of predictive intelligence brought to the factory floor – identified problems and resolved issues with minimal impact on operational performance. Other benefits include:
Detect problems before they occur
This helps to maximize factory production utilize data analytics to perform predictive maintenance
Optimizing Maintenance Schedules
Automation & Connected Work Cells (CWC)
In manufacturing, many processes are streamlined with IoT technology. For example, one IoT strategy is to use Automation. With IoT, using sensors allows you to automate certain tasks such as temperature monitoring or product tracking.
This means less time spent on manual labor and paper-based processes while increasing productivity simultaneously!
Safety & Compliance
Making sure that machines are running at a safe capacity and within the compliance standards creates a well maintained work area that brings employee satisfaction and confidence in a safe workspace.
All these things can be tracked through IoT technology, along with others:
Increasing energy efficiency of machines
Reduce human errors
Ensuring Products Comply with Set Standards
Increased employee and customer satisfaction
OEE Visibility & Productivity
A factory enhanced by IoT solutions offer complete visibility into all of your factory operations. You can see all of your work orders, lines, and all critical KPIs through dashboards that pull together
IoT sensors allow organizations to gauge the specific use and deploy practices for more effective usage of resources.
Cost reduction
Increase bottom line
Decreased Machine Downtime
Optimizing Factory Production
Reduced lead time
Improved efficiency
Improvement of Operational Performance
These are just some of the many ways companies can reach their goals with Industry 4.0. With out-of-the-box solutions or even custom IoT apps, the possibilities are endless.
Implementing IoT
The first step in implementing IoT in manufacturing is to identify your goals. Are you looking to improve efficiency, reduce waste or increase profitability?
Do you want to improve customer satisfaction by delivering products on time, or do you want to create new revenue streams with data collected from connected devices?
Once you’ve determined what kind of impact IoT can have on your business, it’s time to evaluate the current technology that’s not only available but that easily integrates with your current systems and shop floor.
Finally, develop an action plan for implementing these strategies broken down into digestible phases. It’s critical to understand what solutions fit best and most align with your unique business and prioritized initiatives.
Common Challenges
We hear from companies all the time regarding what challenges they feel stops them from implementing IoT in manufacturing.
The first is cost. However, with any good investment, the benefits of using IoT solutions offset the cost. While IoT ROI doesn’t happen overnight, the full impact IoT has on manufacturing organizations is tenfold.
NORMA Group met with EAC experts to understand what sort of impact an IoT initiative would have on their business growth and determined the challenges were well worth the wait – something we find other companies can relate to. Another early adopter, JR Automation was able to save $1.4 million by investing in IoT.
Security
The second common challenge that comes with implementing IoT is security. This includes both physical and data security issues that need to be evaluated and addressed before implementing any type of data management change.
Finding a solution with integrated automated tools and detailed monitoring is key to preventing attacks. Check out this article that talks further about data security and how PTC’s Kepware supports cybersecurity.
Data Management
Another challenge we see is considering how well your organization will be able to manage the new information coming from all over your facilities. It’s key you create a plan to integrate the new data flow into your existing systems.
With user-friendly IoT-connected solutions like PTC Thingworx, data is captured, consolidated into a dashboard, and presented in a consumable visual format for real-time insights.
Hardware
Another consideration is requirements: What sort of hardware do you have to support that software change? Replacing or updating existing systems and hardware to increase efficiency may be necessary to keep up with the fast pace environment of shop floors.
There is no doubt that these are important things to consider when making enterprise-wide changes. While implementing IoT can feel difficult and intimidating, it does not have to be.
EAC has a number of business assessments that can help you evaluate your current state and create a highly strategic roadmap to successfully scale your digital transformation initiatives.
Ultimately, Digital Transformation is a game changer for manufacturing companies who are unsatisfied with the “status quo” – and IoT will open up major opportunities for long-term success and sustainable growth that would not have been possible without making changes.
Connected Future
Empower your organization with enhanced connectivity to your products, systems, and customers.
IoT can provide significant advantages for manufacturers across the enterprise, but it is important to properly evaluate, plan and implement the right technology and the right solution at the right time in order to maximize the potential benefits.
Our IoT consulting and connect services provide comprehensive support from extracting valuable insights, and developing strategic plans to executing and implementing efficient IoT solutions that accelerate your digital transformation.
Chat with one of our experts on how we can help you identify the best IoT solution for your needs and how we can help your company implement it the right way.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here’s a hypothetical situation to paint the story ‘how real-time information and predictive analytics unlock value.’
To start, imagine a fully functioning assembly line with a robot, a pneumatic system, a series of conveyors, and a vision system.
Let’s pretend the supply station in the back is bringing in our raw materials. The robot is assembling those materials with precision. The resulting assemblies are then passed on to the quality station, and the vision system inspects each of those assemblies to ensure proper alignment of the parts.
This is a pretty generic operation, but it can show how unified real-time information and predictive analytics unlock value.
Now imagine yourself as a maintenance engineer, who wants to check the status of your asset pool.
Using software, such as ThingWorx Navigate by PTC for example, you launch a role-based maintenance application. All of a sudden you see a complete list of your assets with real-time performance stats and relevant alerts or notifications. You also have a complete list of all your outstanding maintenance work orders.
From here, you have the ability to drill into any of your assets, but you start with the quality station. You immediately see the key characteristics of the station. You see that speed vibration and temperature are all operating within their specified range. You could also see notifications of any warnings, malfunctions, or potential future problems.
Next, you use your device to take a look at the pneumatic system. The pneumatic system also looks fine. Both pressure and flow are operating within the specified range, and there are no outstanding maintenance tickets or work order notifications on your screen.
Now, let’s consider a situation where there was a leak in the pneumatic system. Let’s say a loose fitting was releasing pressure, a fairly common problem in pneumatic systems. Now, rather than looking fine, your device displays flow readings outside of the designated operating range. Furthermore, an alert has automatically been sent to notify you that a system has an error. The overall status indicator on your screen has now switched from green to orange – operational, but not optimal.
Your software solution’s machine learning is now predicting that this air leak, if not repaired, will result in a pneumatic gate failure in approximately 10 day’s time. The good news for you is the system has already issued you a maintenance work order to address the problem before asset failure and unplanned downtime.
This scenario is made possible by a system equipped with primary and secondary sensors, and a complete Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) solution that can turn raw machine data into valuable information.
For example, your pneumatic system has an airflow sensor, as well as a pressure sensor. The conveyor systems are equipped with motor temperature sensors and vibration sensors.
In addition to the sensors, the rest of the assets on your line are controlled by typical PLCs, which are connected to software such as ThingWorx and Kepware.
You have also used your software to integrate manufacturing floor systems with real-time IT applications, asset maintenance tools, and ERP systems. This provides you with a real-time alignment of your IT and OT systems.
Now, all of your systems are throwing data out at a staggering 800 data points per second.
Your software’s machine learning then uses that real-time streaming data to establish a baseline of normal operating conditions. This way it can immediately connect and broadcast any anomalies that occur. It uses these anomalies, in conjunction with its prediction capabilities to notify you of future problems, just as in the case of the pneumatic failure.
Now that you have an understanding of what is happening under the hood, let’s take a look at how all this comes together to enable real-time operational intelligence.
Pretend you are a production manager. Using software like ThingWorx Navigate and Kepware you have complete visibility into all of your factory operations. You can see all of your work orders, lines, and all of their critical KPI’s.
On your device, you notice an orange status indicator on line one (that was created from the air leak earlier). Once that air leak has been repaired, everything returns back to normal, just as you would expect.
Let’s explore one more hypothetical situation. Consider yourself to be an operator. In this case, you have just been assigned a new order for a thousand units that need to be delivered and expedited for an end-of-day delivery.
You’re notified of the order and in this smart connected scenario you, as an operator have a single portal from which you can see and execute all of your work. Through a single pane of glass, you now have access to your business systems information and your operational data including the KPIs from your line.
On your device, you also have up-to-the-minute visibility of the OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness). You see real-time data measurements of your manufacturing operation’s availability, quality, and performance.
Let’s see how some of these metrics might change if we go ahead and speed up the line to accelerate the current order, in order to make room for that expedited order.
To do that you switch the line speed from level one to level two. What you see in seconds on your device is that line speed has increased, and your assemblies are still passing the quality check.
Within a couple of minutes and a few additional cycles, on your device, you see both your performance and OEE trending upwards.
As an operator, you now are assured that you are going to meet your end-of-the-day deadline.
Using these hypothetical situations, together we have painted a picture demonstrating how you can connect disparate assets from different vendors, to provide real-time information.
You’ve also seen how you can leverage role-based applications that combine business systems information and operational data to empower your workforce with real-time actionable intelligence.
By integrating machine-learning capabilities you brought a whole new level of predictive intelligence to your factory floor, identified problems, and resolved issues with minimal impact on operational performance.
This is exactly how real-time information and predictive analytics can unlock value for your organization.
If you have Windchill, a PLM (product life cycle management system from PTC), odds are it’s where your organization stores a lot of really great product data and information. It also means there’s a high likelihood many employees in your organization need access to that valuable product information.
But what happens when people within your organization need to access valuable product information, but they aren’t necessarily veteran Windchill (or PLM system) users? What happens when your ‘casual Windchill users’ only want to quickly get to the information but simply don’t want to be “Windchill users”? 90% of the time this scenario involves your experienced Windchill users being disrupted by requests to pull product information.
Right at this point – exactly when people in your enterprise need access to information in systems they don’t use on a daily basis – is when you lose efficiency, productivity, and revenue. This cross-departmental disruption leads to wasted time, and wasted time leads to wasted money. PTC realized these challenges and created a solution to combat complicated enterprise system interfaces, varying user needs, and disparate enterprise data sources – It’s called ThingWorx Navigate.
To make Windchill PLM, or any PLM information more accessible and solve disruption challenges, PTC designed ThingWorx Navigate role-based applications (apps) that allow users to easily access and consolidate information from secure systems like ERP, MRP, CRP, and PLM systems like Windchill. For instance, by using these applications, a tool designer could call up drawings without having to go through the whole interface of Windchill. The applications pull up windows to look directly into systems, without forcing a user login in and navigate complex product design or enterprise planning systems.
For example, by using PTC’s ThingWorx solution, a tool designer could simply type in a drawing number he or she was looking for on the PTC ThingWorx Navigate application, and the drawing files would pop-up instantly on the screen. These simple product data navigation features also work with product information that purchasing, quality, or any other departments might need access.
PTC’s ThingWorx Navigate applications make it easy for anyone…ANYONE in an organization to obtain product information without having to be a Windchill system expert. One of the great things about these role-based applications is – depending on who you log in as – the apps can be set up to determine what type of information access someone has, as well as what types of product info an employee can access.
For instance, someone on a shop floor could access ThingWorx Navigate applications, and with a simple click in a window would display all the information they need about a drawing. Or perhaps someone only needs to see bills of materials, they could do that in one location by accessing a ThingWorx Navigate application. Just like PTC Windchill, PTC Navigate is a web-based application. This means all an organization really needs is a web browser and a login and instantly anyone can start working.
ThingWorx Navigate applications are also completely customizable. This allows your organization to control exactly what displays on the search screens, as well as, how that information would be delivered to your users. In fact, PTC even created a Thingworx Navigate Productivity calculator to demonstrate how much money enterprise collaboration can save a business. It even lets you estimate your exact company’s potential annual productivity savings!
Bottom line, there really are a lot of great benefits that come along with being able to easily deploy Windchill access throughout an enterprise in a unique and stress-free way. And remember, ThingWorx Navigate also integrates with other enterprise systems, not just Windchill.
But wait…there’s more!
You can make the user experience even better by implementing ThingWorx Navigate and extending functionality and configurability with EAC Productivity Apps. In case you are not familiar with us, our company (EAC Product Development Solutions) specializes in transforming the way companies design, manufacture, connect to and service their products.
One of the ways we do this is through implementing, maintaining, and helping customers with PTC Windchill product lifecycle management systems. Being the Windchill experts that we are, with extensive years of experience (over 23 years to be exact), we work with hundreds of organizations and their PLM systems. This is precisely how we know the need many manufacturing organizations have to extend enterprise system data and capabilities even further!
Working with our Windchill customers over the years, we recognized patterns of system requests and capabilities that just didn’t seem to be specifically addressed by existing solutions. We recognized and researched system challenges that many organizations tended to face with their PLM systems and realized the need to help organizations quickly deploy Windchill, increase user adoption, and capitalize on system functionality. After all, we live in a world obsessed with speed and efficiency. So, to quote the wisdom of Daft Punk, we needed to make complex PLM systems Better, Faster, and Stronger.
Furthermore, we realized valuable data our customers acquired from their other disparate enterprise systems never seemed to be tied together with product data from PLM systems. This was increasing our client’s risk of transferring obsolete inaccurate data. With that knowledge, we knew our solution needed to be able to connect multiple streams of data from different locations and enterprise systems, and even different databases.
All these reasons drove us to develop what we refer to as EAC Productivity Apps. They help organizations quickly advance and capitalize on Windchill PLM capabilities. Although EAC apps are different from Navigate applications in many ways, what I believe really sets them apart is how they use and leverage the concept of data mash-ups. Multiple sources of information brought together to simplify a role-specific workflow.
EAC productivity applications take product data and information from a variety of different systems and transform that data into an easily consumable visual dashboard for any user. Essentially, our apps create a way for organizations to easily connect data from multiple enterprise databases, bring it into one accessible location, and tailor it to the needs of a specific user. This allows any user to easily have all the information he or she could desire with a few simple clicks.
EAC apps also help users access product information, search for information, get bill of material reports, create and manage other related documents, and look at associated parts.
These days product data is everywhere. Everyone seems to collect it, have a lot of it, but the question remains; how exactly can you ensure your organization’s product data is being put to good use?
It’s time to take your product development one step further by providing role-based data access, connecting your enterprise systems, and learning how to make the most of your product data. I am going to explain exactly how easy that is to do.
The current state of product data
Companies today have many different roles that require access to product data. This may include people outside of the typical roles of which you may be thinking.
Departments such as engineering, manufacturing, that’s a given, but expand your thinking to include operations, purchasing, and marketing. They all need data access in order to edit and consume information. Think about sourcing…I’ll stop there, but you get the idea.
Let’s focus on the engineering department for a moment.
People could be involved from the mechanical side, the electrical side, or even a quality standpoint. Beyond that, people need to either contribute or consume information that could include manufacturing, service, sales, and more.
Product data game-changers
Product data silos limit productivity – PTC & EAC have the answer.
PTC ThingWorx Navigate was designed to address data accessibility problems by providing simple role-based apps that deliver just the right information to different groups (or departments) in the way that they need
When non-engineering colleagues need access to vital information, they typically interrupt an engineer or designer with a request. ThingWorx Navigate eliminates that distraction and “double-billing.” Through role or task-based self-service applications, data can be securely shared with a team. That way non-expert teams can use a simplified user interface to access the product data they need, right when they need it.
To help accelerate product development processes and take product data even further, our company (EAC Product Development Solutions) has also created what we call EAC Productivity Apps that work alongside ThingWorx Navigate apps.
So what’s the difference between ThingWorx, ThingWorx Navigate and our EAC Productivity apps?
This is a great question- I am going to try and paint the picture for you.
First, it’s important that you understand what ThingWorx is and how it is different from ThingWorx Navigate.
ThingWorx is the proper name of PTC’s Internet of Things (IoT) platform comprised of 5 components; foundation, industrial connectivity, analytics, studio,
The foundation component is the heart of the ThingWorx loT platform used to make connections to ‘things’ which could be machines, products or software systems or pretty much anything with an IP address and a communications interface.
User interfaces to the data coming from these connections are displayed on websites called ‘mashups,’ created with ThingWorx foundation. You might know these perhaps as ‘data mashups’ or possibly as ‘data dashboards’. Simply put, Thingworx is the IoT platform that makes everything possible. (Here’s exactly what makes Thingworx the leading technology for industrial IoT)
Then you have ThingWorx Navigate.
ThingWorx Navigate is the proper name of PTC’s applications that
ThingWorx Navigate Apps use a Windchill (PLM) connector to extract product data for presentation to Windchill Product Lifecycle Management users.
Fundamentally, ThingWorx Navigate Apps are all simply data and product information mashups created with ThingWorx. With ThingWorx Navigate you receive out-of-the-box apps that are instantly ready to be used with your PLM system. The idea behind these product lifecycle management apps is to ensure users can capture the complete functionality of their PLM (product lifecycle management) investment.
ThingWorx Navigate PLM Apps include:
View Design Files – A design file would be a format of a file that isn’t the native CAD format. This could be a staph or Induce or perhaps a 3D PDF
View Drawing – Allows you to look at just drawings. This application pulls drawings from your Windchill PLM system.
View Part Properties – This feature allows you to look at part properties- as if you were hitting the ‘Information button’ next to a file.
View Parts List – Allows you to look at bills of Materials (BOMs)
View Part Structure– With the View Part Structure App, ThingWorx is actually going into PDMLink and showing different aspects of a specific part instead of different ways of going at it (such as having to open several different tabs to get information). Using this application, you can get all your information together on one page. This feature also includes capabilities that cross-highlight part structures within your product. For instance, you could select a component and it would highlight that part and create a hyperlink that allows you to directly look at that specific part. This feature essentially creates a mash-up that takes information from different places inside of Windchill PDMLink and brings them together putting them on one screen, allowing you to have all your information at your fingertips.
View Document & View Document Structure
If you would like to learn more about ThingWorx Navigate technology or if you have any questions, you can always request to talk with Thingworx Navigate specialists here.
PLM Applications created by EAC
Our EAC Productivity Apps (also known as product lifecycle applications)
They allow departments to access content and perform common tasks through a very simple interface, versus having to use a complex product lifecycle management system (PLM) or Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system.
PTC Navigate Apps vs. EAC Productivity Apps
Our EAC Productivity Apps provide capabilities beyond that of the out of the box ThingWorx Navigate apps.
In short, ThingWorx Navigate applications allow you to securely access and present role-specific data from your Windchill system. They provide all of the power of a Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) system to someone who is not familiar with its ins-and-outs of product data management.
EAC Productivity Apps take it a step further by taking the underlying technology of ThingWorx Navigate, and the ability to get at the information in the PLM system and create even more complete applications that really give individuals instantaneous access to the information and product data they need to do their job. EAC’s PLM applications are created using PTC’s ThingWorx IoT platform, however, they can run independently of ThingWorx Navigate.
These apps are unique to EAC.
While built using the same ThingWorx foundation, ADK and [Windchill connector], they have their own look, feel and functionality. These mashups are packaged and sold together as a collection. EAC Productivity Apps created for Windchill promote user adoption and amplify the return on the investment you’ve made in your Windchill system, as well as extending role-based visibility into relevant product data and the impact PLM has on your organization.
Take your product data further with EAC Productivity Apps
Every subscription of EAC Productivity Apps includes free access to EAC Productivity Home. EAC Productivity Home is a proprietary framework, or launcher, for ThingWorx Navigate applications.
It sits on top of Windchill and
The EAC Productivity App, Quick Search, provides a simple way for users to find content in Windchill. It removes the need for users to apply an understanding of how Windchill objects are related in order to find the information needed to do their job.
The Quick Search PLM application also allows users to search for components and retrieve information and file formats. For instance, if you were to grab a drive system and do a quick search, it’s going to find product information such as parts, EMP like documents, CAD files and more. See EAC Productivity Application Quick Search in action here.
You can also learn more about the Quick Search features in this brochure.
The Quick Access EAC Productivity Application streamlines access to critical and select data sets. Simplifies downstream users feeding critical quality information back to engineering with minimal effort.
This EAC Productivity App allows downstream users to feed critical quality information back to engineering with minimal effort. The simplified interface and consolidated task workflows help users easily submit new problem reports, new change requests, and new variances.
For instance, you could select a component (such as a product), pick its name (the end item number), search for it, and you would get straight to assemblies. With the use of Quick Access users can easily submit new problem reports, change requests, variances and more.
You can learn more about Quick Access features in this brochure.
The Part Associations EAC application provides a “shortcut” for non-CAD users to access critical files and documentation associated with designs like drawings, parts, assemblies, and other documents associated with CAD files and part data.
You can learn more about Part Association features in this brochure.
BoM Reports App provides a visual representation of cost
This EAC Productivity App allows users to quickly assess a Bill of Material and ensure projects stay on-time and on-track. The simplified view helps ensure products are built with the appropriate design iterations. With the use of BoM Reports users can easily see BoMs, lists of unreleased parts, parts that have been created or modified by specific users and more.
This app allows users to see the progress of a bill of materials, and apply filters to focus on parts that are not yet released. It is also useful for viewing all of the “make” parts or “buy” parts in a given BoM, or all parts created/modified by a particular user.
Get better access to your product data
See all the features of EAC P
If there’s one thing I hope you take away from this post it’s this – there’s no reason to keep product data in your company a secret from other people in the organization that need it to do their jobs. Being able to access accurate data helps everyone in all departments to maximize their output and ultimately reduce costs, increase product quality, and get products to market faster. We offer a few solutions to help you make better decisions and have a transparent view of the data you need to do your job.
According to the International Data Corporation only .05% of data we create is ever analyzed and used. To be clear – there is a lot of data floating around out there and not a lot of us are properly using it. Why should you care? Your organization could be losing a ton of money. Bernard Marr, Strategic Business and Technology Advisor says, “By some estimates, just a 10% increase in data accessibility will result in more than $65 million additional net income for a typical Fortune 1000 company.”
Where does the problem stem from? It’s typical that the author of specific product data is the only one who can access that data. This can result in the author involuntarily withholding it from others in the organization that may need it.
For example, a designer or engineer may have CAD data that a technical publications manager needs to distribute to his team in order to create accurate and easy to understand product manuals or instructions. In this case, why can’t the technical publications manager ask the engineer for that data? Well, they can… if the engineer is immediately available. But what if that engineer is on vacation? Sick? On-site with a customer? In a meeting?
In addition to the challenge of getting the author’s immediate attention to get the information you need – how long would it take for the engineer to stop what he or she was doing to get you that data? What if they’re in the middle of a project? You’re interrupting him or her and throwing off their productivity for the day.
So how do you get around accessing the data without interrupting your peers?
ThingWorx Navigate
PTC recognized this exact problem and developed ThingWorx Navigate, role-based apps that allows users to access that data that they need within their organization. In most cases, there is no need for a Windchill (product lifecycle management software) upgrade or training for individuals in your organization to use the apps. ThingWorx Navigate is meant for anyone who wants a convenient platform to securely access product data with simple tailoring that is easy to deploy and adopt.
Role-based offerings, like ThingWorx Navigate, which are targeted to different organizational roles and use cases, are essential to optimizing access to up-to-date product data across the extended enterprise. – CIMdata
EAC Productivity Apps
EAC Productivity Apps takes ThingWorx Navigate to the next level and provides customized tailoring to your specific organization’s data accessibility needs. These apps promote adoption and amplify the return on investment in your Product Lifecycle Management (or Windchill) system and allows more robust functionality and visibility into Windchill PDM, ERP, CRM, and QMS in single role-specific dashboards for increased interdepartmental collaboration.
We offer the following EAC Productivity Apps (and are constantly developing more!):
Quick Access
Quick Access was created to provide an improved user experience, and by extension, user productivity for shop floor personnel requiring streamlined access to critical and select data sets.
This EAC Productivity App allows downstream users to feed critical quality information back to engineering with minimal effort. The simplified interface and consolidated task workflows help users easily submit new problem reports, new change requests, and new variances with product data management (PDM) and product life cycle management (PLM) software.
BoM Reports
BoM Reports app provides users with a visual representation, a cost rollup for materials, and detailed listing of the current status of an end item or product. This app displays information about each part contained in the bill of materials (BoM) and groups them in a chart for simple viewing and cost comparison.
This EAC Productivity App allows users to quickly assess Bill of Material (BoM) costs and helps projects stay on-time and on-track. The simplified view helps ensure products are built with the appropriate design iterations.
Part Associations
Part Associations provides a “shortcut” for non-mainstream Windchill software users and shop floor personnel to access critical computer-aided design (CAD) files and documentation associated with part data.
This EAC Productivity App allows users to quickly access all drawings, parts, assemblies, and other documents associated with CAD files and part data. If you’re having issues searching for specific information or content in Windchill, this app consolidates results into a single screen.
Custom App Development
Not finding what you’re looking for with ThingWorx Navigate or our EAC Productivity Apps? We have application experts at our organization that are dedicated to creating custom applications just for your organization.
If you think your organization is ready to save time and money by boosting your organization’s productivity with one of these data management solutions – then reach out to us and we’d be happy to give you a demo and answer any questions you may have.
Communicating product data across an organization has become more complex than ever. Here are 9 reasons it’s time to connect your enterprise systems.
With different departments gathering product data form a variety of systems including Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) Systems, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems, Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES), and Quality Management Systems (QMS) and more, how do we know our organizations are making the most out of all the information we’re collecting?
Just think about it for a second. Our systems and departments speak different languages, while a company likely aims for a single goal. This is why it can pay to connect your systems and provide company-wide access to business and product knowledge
With an estimated 90% of the world’s data created in the last two years alone (Conner, n.d.), it’s no wonder that companies have trouble utilizing it all. The IDC estimates that just 0.5% of the data we companies produce is ever used. It’s time to change that.
1. Increased Usability
Data experts believe that if Fortune 1,000 companies increased the amount of data they used by just 10%, they could realize over $65 million in additional net income (Marr, 2015). These numbers are huge. Hopefully, they help you understand why I’m writing this blog and pleading my case.
The truth is – our systems are currently too complex for many roles within our organizations to navigate, find, and transfer the right information. This leaves our separate departments accountable for communicating different product data.
So how do we make our product data more usable? By democratizing our product data from all existing sources into one single system.
2. Better Access to Data
The most important reason your product data shouldn’t (internally) be kept a secret is because product data is your company’s most valuable asset. Not everyone who needs access to specific product information hosted in your PLM system is from your engineering department, so why force them through the same vigorous Product Lifecycle system training?
In order to effectively use data, departments must have ready access to it.
After all, the solution to this problem must make rich product information easy to accessible for a broad set of roles. By creating an organized system that connects all of your product data, your organization’s information is easily assessable to users beyond those who have created it. Just think of the possibilities if you connected your data from multiple systems and delivered it to all departments through individualized, role-based views.
3. Complete Data
Imagine an entire enterprise with access to real data, at the right time, when it’s needed. By connecting your product lifecycle management systems with your other enterprise systems, every stakeholder within your organization can leverage product data from multiple systems. They can make accurate decisions based on the latest, most accurate information from EBoM, MBoM, SBoM, ERP, MRP, and QMS data.
4. Better Insights
Better data + better visibility = better insights. Your teams are demanding more at lightning speeds from your PLM processes and solutions. This is another reason why your organization might consider integration technologies and custom front-end solutions.
An enterprise with insights into how current products and processes can be optimized can drastically improve overall productivity. Providing your team with access to up-to-date, accurate product data will allow your organization to have better insight into areas for continuous improvement.
5. Better Decisions
Ready access to information is especially important to any company involved with product development.
Users without access to information often make assumptions and resort to workarounds. This opens the door to poor decisions and errors, quality problems, and waste. Decisions made from out-of-date, inaccurate data threaten product quality and delay time to market.
By providing everyone in your organization with broad visibility into your organization will drive better, more accurate decisions. This will improve your quality, reduce waste, scrap, rework, and meeting your time-to-market goals. The analytics resulting from connected systems help users across your organization make accurate decisions throughout your entire development process.
6. Better Products
Who doesn’t want to create better products faster? Providing your organization with universal access to data will allow your company to drastically accelerate product development. How so? By connecting disparate systems, you will have access to real-time data allowing you to achieve better product decisions. Because your decisions and actions are now driven by up-to-date information, you will achieve a higher product quality.
7. Increased Productivity
Why waste time manually reading, entering and analyzing data, when it could be automatically collected, filtered, and combined? By linking enterprise systems into one simple interface, any user within your organization can access contextual, up-to-date, real-time product information anytime they need. I guarantee your productivity will grow when your organization is able to plan earlier with manufacturing, order materials sooner with purchasing all while your engineering team is spending less time pulling reports.
8. Increased Collaboration
Using a system that provides role-based access for stakeholders provides every role with the ability to quickly understand the status of a part number, inventory, and the part or assembly’s role in the “big picture.” This will not only help mobilize and inform the work of teams throughout the organization, but it will also help maximize the success of your product development. Giving your team the ability to extend and connect your PLM data into the rest of your enterprise will rapidly increase your overall organization collaboration.
9. Real Results
The ultimate benefit your organization will achieve by connecting your systems comes from your ability to get to real results faster. It makes the “to” in “Quote-to-Cash” just a little bit faster. What does that mean? Data gives your organization confidence to quickly deliver value. Good decisions, accurate manufacturing, knowledgeable service groups, self-sufficient marketing and sales teams. This all adds up to faster time to market, faster time to revenue — real results.
So.. what now? It’s time to connect your enterprise systems.
I know what you’re probably thinking, ‘this sounds great, but it’s not that easy to connect and provide role-based access to enterprise systems.’
And you’re right. It would take a tool that connects all of your enterprise systems, right? I’m glad you’ve stuck it out for the long haul — because this is what I’ve been waiting to tell you. There IS a solution. It’s called ThingWorx Navigate. What is it? It is a single role-based app that you can easily access from your smartphone, tablet, or computer where you can literally see all of your product data in one place — no matter what department you’re from. Mind blown? We knew we needed to get our hands on it the moment we found out this solution that everyone has been looking for — which is why PTC has trusted us to be a valued Solutions Provider for their product ThingWorx Navigate.
Watch our video on how easy it is to use ThingWorx Navigate and how it may change the way your company does business.
