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PLM
REVIEW

Teamcenter 2007
> Siemens PLM Software unifies
Teamcenter’s architecture once and for all.
BY AL DEAN

f you are unfamiliar with Teamcenter,

I we’ll forgive you for thinking that

Siemens Product Lifecycle Management
(PLM) Software’s flagship PLM system
is one big product. It’s not.
Implementation of this system effec-
tively involves setting up discrete prod-
ucts — separate databases and such — al-
beit products that can communicate with
each other efficiently. So, taking this into ac-
count, Siemens PLM has gone back to the
drawing board and redrawn the architec-
ture of the system to run on a single plat-
form and database. It will now use that
“unified architecture” as the basis for up-
coming development.
This also gave the development team a
chance to redevelop key aspects of the sys-
tem using a service-oriented architecture
(SOA), meaning Teamcenter is now con-
figured to allow greater communication
between other applications, irrespective
of vendor or operating environment. For
the end user it means you should be able
to hook together discrete SOA-based ap-
plications (here I’m thinking, PLM with
ERP and such) without the traditional
pain.
O.K. So, there’s a united architecture.
While the system is too vast and all-en-
compassing to do justice to the entire re-
lease, we can take a look at what else
The new Teamcenter user interface adopts the industry-standard Outlook look and feel but adapts it
to the special tasks and requirements of the design and manufacturing specialist.
Teamcenter 2007 brings to the table. A
good place to start is the user experience
and its overhauled interface.
Gone are the disparate UIs for each area
of functionality — the whole thing has
been redeveloped using a style guide that
will be familiar to many readers. While
the tasks and workflow might be differ-
ent from Outlook, the user interaction ba-
sics are much the same. The UI is divided
up into subsections with many of your
frequently used operations and tasks avail-
able pervasively, and you can dig in as
deep as you want.
REQUIREMENTS PLANNING
I saw many impressive things at the Team-
center 2007 launch, but what jumped out
at me were the Requirements Planning
tools. Siemens PLM Software (formerly
UGS) has made great strides in the task
of linking data management and product
development together with knowledge
and rules-based design. The work done
in NX reflects the ability to create intelli-
gence in your 3D model from the very be-
ginning and to maximize reuse. What has
been missing (both in the Siemens offering
and the industry at large) is the ability to
create links between the requirements doc-
uments that are generated in the very for-
mative stages of design and the digital
data — created later on in the process —
that defines the product.
Teamcenter 2007 begins to address this.
You start with a specification document
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The new Management tools within Teamcenter allow you to use requirements as the basis for a
development process and maintain full traceability back to the very root document. It also lets you
track the impact of any changes to that root source as you move forward.
(in Word, for example). Teamcenter then
parses that document and finds the re-
quirements defined within it (using a text
filter/search) and creates a structure of
discrete, manageable entities within the
Teamcenter database that contain infor-
mation about each.
What’s intriguing is that not only do
you have a link back to the very source of
a development project, but those require-
ments are managed, change controlled,
and secure as you move onward. Each can
be linked to further documents and enti-
ties (such as CAD parts if you need to as-
sign a requirement to a specific part or
subsystem). These can then be used as the
driving factor for further development
work.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
The new Portfolio, Program, and Project
Management tools (given the nifty name
of PPPM) follow on nicely from the re-
quirement capture tools. They allow you
to take a product development project and
combine it with the one factor that’s al-
ways in short supply in such endeavours
— time. Let’s split them into their con-
stituent parts beginning with Portfolio.
The new tools allow you to investigate
your current projects at a very high level,
see where resources are used or not used,
and whether new projects are feasible with
1:02 PM Page 3
existing resources (in terms of staff, re-
source, materials, and such). They also al-
low you to use company standard met-
rics to see how your portfolio of work is
measuring against corporate requirements,
whether they be things like improving
sustainability and increasing innovation,
or more concrete measures such as reduc-
ing material usage and waste, gaining
market share, etc.
The new Portfolio planning tools allow you to extract as much financial and costing information
about your projects as you need — these reports are fully customizable and can give management a
very quick way to see how costs are spread across an organization and its activities.
PLM
REVIEW
The next is Program and Project man-
agement. Teamcenter now has a vast array
of scheduling and calendaring and a fully
featured project management tool that al-
low you to create timeline-based tasks
with constraints and dependencies to en-
sure that your team is aware of the re-
quirements, and when and where things
need to be completed. This is all integrat-
ed into Microsoft Project, if that’s your
tool of choice, but I would imagine with
the improved control and greater depth
of knowledge available in Teamcenter that
might fall by the wayside.
These project plans are of course linked
to workflows that are used for change
processes as well as more general ap-
provals and such. For the manager, the
ability to dive in and assign resources to
specific tasks, then follow up with live re-
porting on the current state of a project
means that a closer eye can be kept with-
out distracting from day-to-day work.
ENGINEERING PROCESS MANAGEMENT
Once you have a project plan ready to ex-
ecute, the next stage is the definition, de-
sign, and engineering stage; and that, for
many of our readers, will be the sweet
spot. So what does the 2007 release bring
to our core group? The answer is that
while Teamcenter has always supported
widespread integration with systems out-
side of the Siemens domain (i.e., NX and
Solid Edge), it has been expanded upon
for this release.
Support has not only been added for
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REVIEW

turing, and suppli- decisions on the direction of product de-

ers, etc. velopment, to have that data outside of
Teamcenter 2007 your control and unmanaged seems coun-
introduces a num- terproductive.
ber of core tools The Simulation Data Management tools
that allow you to address this problem. There’s now a sim-
do that in a more ulation-specific product structure avail-
intelligent manner. able in any product model enabling you to
These range from generate BOMs, manage configurations
new methods of and variants, and run simulations. Of
editing complete course, one of the critical benefits is the
structures using a ability to ensure that when part or assem-
Tabular method to bly geometry updates, if it’s required, the
Part Attributes that associated simulation studies are also up-
enable you to in- dated. As a result, Teamcenter 2007 allows
clude metadata greater revision and version control for
such as Make/Buy, analysis datasets. Finally, for simulation,
reference designa- the already impressive visualization tools
tors, units of mea- that are now a core part of every Team-
The new BOM edit and control tools are going to make life much easier for sure, etc. For those center installation have the ability to han-
those used to work arounds, exports to Excel, and reimport shenanigans. dealing with revi- dle simulation datasets, whether that’s
The system allows you to make the changes and modifications you need sion issues, the FEA, CFD, or motion-based analysis.
but does so in a controlled, managed, and traceable environment. new ability to
evolve (up rev) BULLETPROOF PLM
the gamut of 3D modeling and design sys- both the part and CAD independently is Siemens had a challenge on its hands. In
tems, but also for ECAD tools, CAM and going to save a lot of time and effort usu- the PLM world, Teamcenter is the clear
NC, CAE and simulation, and many more ally spent trying to work around such is- leader in terms of active users out there
applications and systems used in the de- sues. (three million users or more). But while it
velopment of many products. It’s now Finally, for those working with BOM has a position of leadership, the existing
possible to store, manage, and control al- data in a collaborative manner, the new product wasn’t a single offering at all,
most every dataset that is used to define a BOM redlining tools allow you to track rather several key products bolted togeth-
product from core fundamentals such as changes to part substitutions and re- er: not ideal. Rationalizing and rearchitect-
CAD data and simulation datasets to re- movals, changes, and attribute values ed- ing into a common platform was inevitable.
sults information and more. It is also clear its in a visual manner. Finally for BOMs, What I didn’t expect was the extent to
that this rich source of data is going to be support for alternate and substitute parts which this has been accomplished for the
needed by a growing number of users, be- has been made consistent with the current new company’s first major release. There
yond the traditional authoring and man- STEP standard requirements. are enhancements all across the board and
aging users of old. With this in mind, now
there are tools to allow the user to work SIMULATION DATA
with, visualize, and inspect the data on MANAGEMENT
his own terms. Tools for configuration and I’m rapidly run-
context management and lifecycle repre- ning out of space
sentation all assist in making data avail- for this review but
able and easily understood so it can be there is one area I
acted upon or reused without requiring really want to fit in
any additional interpretation. and that’s the inte-
gration of simula-
BOM WRANGLING tion and its associ-
It never fails to surprise me, on reflection, ated data within
how critical the bill of materials (BOM) is Teamcenter. Simu-
to a product. Without this list of compo- lation use is grow-
nents, resources, etc., in many cases the ing at a huge rate,
whole project is doomed to failure. The but more often
more complex the product or the produc- than not, its use is
tion process, the truer this becomes — and outside of the data
anyone who works with complex prod- management sys-
ucts and processes knows that wrangling tem. When you Visualization is pervasive in Teamcenter and has been extended to allow
these buggers is a nightmare if you’re try- consider that this is users to interact with, inspect, and collaborate on the basis of simulation
ing to reconcile the differences in needs critical information datasets from FEA, CFD, and motion studies.
between design, engineering, manufac- in terms of making
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PLM
REVIEW Siemens PLM Software
there is some real innovation on display
here. Data management doesn’t get all the
glory of 3D design, but it is essential, and
new introductions like requirement plan-
ning, greater simulation support, and even The best way to
editing and working with multiple BOM
representations are real tools for people do- innovation has never
been so clear.
ing a real job. I love the concept behind Re-
quirement integration. Consider require-
ments as the very fundamentals of your
product: When changing something as sim-
ple as a word document that is critical to the
success of the product can be controlled During the next six years, as 70%
and traced, the concept is incredibly pow-
of today’s products grow obsolete,
erful. This allows you to create a link be-
tween the actual requirements document leading innovators will be racing to
and the geometry that defines that com- get to market faster, optimize
ponent or subassembly. This can be done to resources and achieve globalization.
a granular level, so a requirement such as a
dimension or a functional requirement They’ll rely on a product lifecycle
(such as BHP, power output, etc.) can be management (PLM) solution from
linked directly to the geometry and inte- Siemens PLM Software to guide them
grated into a parametric equation or de-
to greater innovation and accelerated
sign rule that defines its form. Of course, if
the requirement document changes, the growth. Do you see the signs of
system is aware of the link and can update innovation in your company? Let us
the geometry to accommodate the new re- point you down the right path.
quirement.
There is a great deal more to this re-
lease, from compliance to supplier man-
agement — and all across the board. If
your interest has been piqued, I would
suggest you explore further, whether
you’re an existing Teamcenter user,
whether you have an interest in such
things, or are looking to adopt a bullet-
proof data and lifecycle management sys-
tem. Teamcenter 2007 impresses at a fun-
damental level. ■

Al Dean is technology editor at MCAD Maga-

zine, a UK product development and manufacturing
technology journal (mcadonline.com) and is editor of
Prototype magazine (prototypemagazine.com). You
can send comments about this article to DE-Edi-
tors@deskeng.com.
INFO

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www.siemens.com/plm/greaterpowers
Reprinted from Desktop Engineering,
with adaptations, February 2008
www.deskeng.com
Copyright © by Level 5 Communications, Inc. 1283
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© 2008 Siemens Product Lifecycle Management Software Inc. All rights reserved. Siemens and the Siemens logo are registered
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