Teamcenter, a PLM (Product Life cycle Management) solution used extensively at major OEMs and by small and large suppliers across industries. But what does Teamcenter do? We thought you would appreciate a straightforward understanding of its functionality.
At its core, Teamcenter serves as a nerve center that supports the design and development of products. It is specifically designed to help you efficiently manage and optimize the entire product journey from conception to retirement.
Here is an outline to get you acquainted with its fundamentals:
What is Teamcenter?
Teamcenter is an integrated, collaborative, and secure PLM platform. Think of it as a digital ecosystem that supports and streamlines the various stages of product development. It integrates multiple applications into a single, fluid piece of software, like a multi-tool for engineering processes.
Teamcenter affords users a centralized, enterprise-wide collaborative interface from which all the tools and functions can be accessed, underpinned by a robust database system for efficient data management.
A scalable platform for any size enterprise, it is designed to adapt to the unique business needs of an organization. The applications within Teamcenter are organized into three categories: Start, Extend, and Transform. Let us define the three groups and the apps within them.
START: Initial PLM Deployment
Design Data Management: This module is the digital cornerstone for the PLM platform. In addition to storing CAD files, Teamcenter allows you to manage versions, understand the evolution of designs, and integrate various engineering software. And it enables suppliers to synchronize their design data with OEMs in real-time, ensuring that the latest design changes are always at the forefront of development activities.
Document Management: Beyond storage, this entails the organization and governance of all documentation necessary to support engineering data, such as specifications and visual assets, while maintaining appropriate security and access controls.
Bill of Materials (BOM) Management: From Design or Engineering BOMs to a full Manufacturing BOM and Bill of Process (BOP), Teamcenter provides a dynamic BOM management system that allows for real-time updates and configuration control. Manufacturers can benefit from features like variant management and can track the impact of changes across the BOM, ensuring products are always in sync with the current design.
Process Execution: Teamcenter goes beyond the scope of workflow management. It integrates these workflows with OEM processes, provides alerts and notifications, and facilitates a collaborative environment where approval times are reduced, and transparency is maximized.
EXTEND: Optional PLM functions
Formalized Change Management: Product and process change management capabilities help you effectively manage the evolution of your products, issues, and improvements, while implementing changes quickly, accurately, and comprehensively to better respond to your customers’ needs. Its CMII-certified, closed-loop change management allows you to leverage flexible processes that you can easily tailor to your own company processes.
Product Requirements Engineering: Requirements Management offers a structured approach to capturing, sharing, and managing requirements. It integrates with multiple applications allowing for import and synchronizing with existing requirements repositories and supports requirement collaboration with suppliers. Requirements are met by linking and tracing requirements across the entire product lifecycle through verification and validation. This ensures everyone is working from the same set of trusted requirements with history, change, etc. You will benefit from reduced risk by understanding the impact of change on the implementation, schedule, cost, and resources.
Manufacturing Process Planning & Work Instructions: Teamcenter helps with defining the manufacturing process while ensuring that correct information is passed to ERP systems that run these operations. The cornerstone of this is the ability to derive Manufacturing BOMs and Bill of Processes from the engineering BOM while maintaining full continuity of the digital thread.
Program, Project, and Process Management: Program management affords better visibility to resources, scope of work, pipeline information, project-related costs, status and more. This insight enables you to effectively coordinate resources across your program and have a clear understanding of impacts across projects and their user-assigned tasks and workflows.
Supplier Collaboration & Integration: This aspect of Teamcenter is about creating a seamless digital thread between suppliers and OEMs. It encompasses supplier portals, secure data exchange protocols, and collaborative tools that help manage joint development projects and synchronize supply chain activities.
TRANSFORM: Fully mature or specialized options
Quality Management: Teamcenter’s quality management is not just about tracking defects; it is a proactive system that integrates with tools for statistical process control, non-conformance tracking, and CAPA (Corrective and Preventative Action) management. It enables suppliers to anticipate quality issues and address them before they impact customers and OEMs.
Integrated Materials Management: Innovative product designs succeed because of the use of revolutionary new materials. Management of material data reduces development costs, and its integration with product design is vital to design validation and optimization. Teamcenter also supports suppliers in managing their environmental footprint by tracking materials, emissions, and waste. It aligns with companies’ sustainability initiatives by providing tools for lifecycle assessment and compliance reporting.
Model-Based Systems Engineering: Model-based systems engineering (MBSE) is a formalized methodology used to support the requirements, design, analysis, verification, and validation associated with the development of complex systems. In contrast to document-centric engineering, MBSE puts models at the center of system design.
Each module within Teamcenter is substantial enough to call for a detailed explanation on its own. We hope this high-level overview provides a preliminary understanding of Teamcenter’s role in facilitating organizational efficiency and adaptability throughout the product lifecycle.