Windchill« PDM provides support for managing and communicating information about product structures and related changes. Multiple, related bill of materials (BOM) representations can be created and maintained within Windchill PDM to represent the product consistently throughout its evolution process. Change activities can be defined and seamlessly controlled across multiple disciplines and systems to streamline product enhancements and updates. Based on the fully webcentric, standards-based open architecture of the Windchill Collaboration Factor!, Windchill PDM overcomes the difficulties associated with traditional PDM implementations by providing powerful, out-of-the box functionality that utilizes familiar Web mechanisms.
Windchill product structure management enables users to create and manipulate various representations of BOMs. Additionally, it allows parts to be managed, structured to reflect product configurations, and cross-referenced to appropriate documentation (e.g., files or file sets of any type and their attributes). The Windchill product structure management capability uses a dynamic, fully descriptive product structure to indicate a full range of configuration possibilities. With the Product Information Explorer, users can easily navigate various views of a product structure, expanding assemblies to see their subassemblies and component parts.
In Windchill PDM, the BOM is an associative product structure that uses configuration criteria to drive the appropriate assembly representation. Acting as a filter, the configuration criteria determines which version of a part is displayed (based on its view, lifecycle state, effectivity, or baseline) and on its checked-out status. For example, a manufacturing engineer may want to see the manufacturing view of an assembly released as of a specific date.
This feature creates two kinds of essential HTML reports: a hierarchical report and a summarized parts list report. The hierarchical report presents a fully exploded product structure in an easy-to-read, indented format. The summarized parts list report performs the calculations necessary to summarize the quantities for all the parts in an assembly. It collapses subassemblies to create a truly flat parts list. Both reports are extremely useful to various members in the organization for production planning purposes.
Participants need to view BOM information in different formats, based on their role in the organization. For example, an engineer may want to work with the as-designed view while an assembly planner will want to work with an as-planned view. Windchill BOM view management allows an organization to create and maintain multiple product structure views to support these different perspectives.
Windchill effectivity provides the ability to indicate when a part is active and is designed to facilitate the progressive definition of a product. During a change process, an organization identifies and evaluates when changes to an existing product are necessary-and uses effectivity to indicate which revision of a particular part should be produced. Windchill provides three types of effectivity to meet a variety of needs: date, serial number, and lot number. Effectivity may also be assigned in multiple discontinuous ranges and have different values based on the various products the part is used in.
The structure baselining feature allows users in an organization to take a snapshot of significant parts and documents within product structures at arbitrary milestones throughout the product and process lifecycle. Because numerous configurations of a product structure will be created over time, these baselines aid in identifying and establishing the product structure configurations of significant interest to the organization.
Document referencing provides the ability to associate documents to parts within a product structure, allowing authors to attach supporting information. Users can navigate through the attachments by selecting an attached document or a hyperlinked URL. Examples of document attachments include specifications, technical documentation, CAD files, multimedia files, and even Web sites on the Internet. Using document references provides the flexibility to capture even more knowledge about a part, resulting in a complete, highly valued product structure.
Change referencing provides the ability to associate and view the change activities that affect a version of the product structure. With this capability, users can be aware of pending changes to a part and consider this information as part of their decision process.
The Product Information Explorer lets users easily search for parts, navigate complex product structures, and perform operations on selected parts. This familiar user interface provides a hierarchical view that lets users dynamically drill down into the assembly. When an assembly part in the hierarchical view is selected, Windchill PDM dynamically generates the related list view, and provides detailed information, including part number, revision, last modified date, and quantities.
Net change allows a user to select two product structures for comparison and understand how they differ from each other. An HTML page presents the differences in a clear format that can easily be sent to a printer or e-mailed to a development team. For example, differences highlighted between two revisions of the same product structure might include a decreased or increased quantity of a component part, the addition of a referenced document and a CAD file to the referenced document. The net change feature can be used to rapidly assess the effects of a change order for a complex product structure. Its interactive, dynamic nature makes it an invaluable resource for managing versioned items in multiple functional views.
Change Management
Change management is essential in controlling and monitoring product changes and their impact on deliverables throughout the entire product and process lifecycle. In most organizations, change management is a well-defined and controlled process. This makes it an ideal candidate for automation. Windchill provides a single, flexible solution based on best practices by controlling information about a proposed change and automating the change process with Windchill Foundation's workflow capability, further increasing productivity.
Windchill change management captures all change information and processes from the time an issue is raised until it is fully resolved. Change processing is divided into separate phases, including change request, investigation of the root cause, proposal of alternative solutions, and implementation through change orders and activities. In each phase, relevant information is captured and organized for future reference.
Not all product changes require the same amount of detail or utilize the same process steps. Windchill change management can be tailored to capture the appropriate amount of detail necessary to fully document the scope of a change. Using HMTL-based forms, interfaces can be customized to reflect the paper-based change forms that users are familiar with. The content and presentation of the forms can be tailored to include any unique requirements of the company.
Windchill change management works in conjunction with Windchill workflow management to automate the change process. Each step within the change process can be represented as a workflow task and automatically routed to the appropriate user or system. Upon completion of a task, Windchill workflow management automatically continues the change process until all steps are completed and the associated product information achieves released status. Standard workflow and state descriptions are supplied out of the box with Windchill and can be used as a template for company specific customization.
Windchill PDM is a member of the Windchill Product Management Factor!, which offers complete configuration management and change management throughout the product lifecycle. Windchill Product Management Factor! is part of the Windchill Factor! e-SeriesÖ, a comprehensive suite of e-business solutions for CPC. From product planning through production and everything in between, the Windchill Factor! e-Series exploits the Internet for product collaboration, and in so doing, raises the value of product information to an enterprise asset.