PTC Windchill for Arbortext Content Management
Manage Arbortext content with PTC's Windchill.
An integral component of the PTC Dynamic Publishing System, PTC Windchill manages Arbortext content and provides a single source of information, maintains control at every component level, preserves component relationships, and provides configuration management capabilities to enable organizations to optimize their publishing process. Arbortext content management in Windchill contains enhanced integration and increased interoperability with the Arbortext product line.
Arbortext Editor, Arbortext Publishing Engine, and Windchill work together to enable automatic, on-demand delivery of up-to-the-minute information that aligns exactly with the product’s specific configuration and the reader’s specific needs.
Windchill is doctype agnostic, but if you're using DITA, it's got special features to support you.
Windchill supports all types of files. XML, SGML, Video, Graphics, DITA, MIL-SPEC, text, etc. It doesn't specify a preference because it's neutral until you tell it what you need. It's configurable.
However, there are some special features for DITA content. You can build DITA documents inside Windchill which means deliverables can be completely built inside the repository.
You can create templates (stub documents) for topics and structures that match the types of content (and the order of their appearance) that meet the unique content your company delivers.
Windchill is aware of DITA content types, and can be configured to make searching the repository easier for content authors to find that shared content without having to resort to full-text search or encoded filenames to find that Concept about Troubleshooting Product X.
You can set up workflow, approval processes, and automated publishing processes for multiple output types. In fact, you can generate any output type directly from the Windchill interface without ever having to open the map, bookmap, or topic.
This can be super helpful for reviewers who want to see the content — at whatever stage in the greater corporate content delivery process — without being required to generate it themselves. And they don't need access permission to the content just to get a representation of it.
Windchill supports your whole business
Windchill is PTC's production-proven content and process management software. Information stored in Windchill helps you look at the organization as a whole, not just technical publications, so that you get a complete picture of all of the groups that intersect with information creation and delivery. Fast, secure, and requiring only a Web browser to access, this business collaboration software enables companies to streamline product development processes and deliver superior physical goods and information products.
Your company's success relies on having efficient business processes and effective development of complex information assets including product designs, service documentation, and regulatory submissions. Leverage all of the groups that intersect with information creation and delivery to bring a high-definition picture of your business to your fingertips.
What’s the result of this expanded unity between product design and technical information management? The ability to maximize quality, accuracy, and usability of product information output in its entirety. This synergy across software solutions ultimately means that only PTC offers an out-of-the-box integral PDS capability to yield higher product performance and lower publishing costs throughout a product’s lifecycle.
Windchill serves as a single source of product information/content enables development efficiencies, reduces errors and rework. It offers complete product definition and collaboration capabilities expertly drive cross-enterprise understanding of information – regardless of source; Provides repeatable, end-to-end process support and automation speeds time-to-market and reduces development cost; and Can be accessed through a secure, industry-standard Internet architecture to deliver a safe, high-performing technology platform.
Features
- Optimized for managing Arbortext-authored XML documents.
- Web-based data management repository
- Controls and automates product change management processes
- Facilitates reuse of previously designed product configurations
- Supports distributed, cross-enterprise collaboration
- Seamlessly connects to multiple desktop applications and enterprise resource planning systems
- Every Windchill user license includes free access to the Windchill eLearning library
Proven content and process management technology
A single source for information content.
Content management systems offer organizations the ability to impose controls over the processes of content creation and publishing. Users benefit by having a controlled, shared repository that handles multiple versions of both source content and finished publications, and a formal way of assigning tasks for creating new information or updating existing information.
Arbortext content management with Windchill is based on PTC’s proven content and process management technology. It provides a single source of information while providing access control and version control at every component level, preserving component relationships, and providing deep configuration management capabilities.
- Collaboration
- Content control and management
- Configuration management
Features and Benefits
- Optimized for managing Arbortext-authored XML documents.
- A Web-based centralized product data management repository, enabling global access to current, accurate information from myriad sources
- Prevents costly design errors by controlling and automating typically chaotic product change management processes
- Facilitates rapid development of new product configurations through reuse of previously designed product configurations
- Operates seamlessly with Creo (Pro/ENGINEER) and Windchill ProjectLink for distributed, cross-enterprise collaboration on data acquisition and product information
- Seamlessly connects to multiple mechanical/electrical CAD applications, desktop applications and Enterprise Resource Planning systems
Find out whether Arbortext is right for your business
Optimized for managing XML documents authored in Arbortext
Collaborate, control content and processes, and configure rich publications
Windchill contains enhanced integration and increased interoperability with the Arbortext product line. Arbortext Editor, Arbortext Publishing Engine, and Windchill work together to enable automatic, on-demand delivery of up-to-the-minute information that aligns exactly with the product’s specific configuration and the reader’s specific needs.
Windchill provides a complete solution for authoring, managing, and publishing product and service documentation such as owners’ guides, service manuals, parts catalogs, and training material. Windchill supports collaboration of geographically dispersed teams and manages critical processes such as configuration management and release of publications.
There are Windchill modules that support the documentation needs of specific industries and business processes
Windchill is tuned to support Service Information because it is a product-centric information management solution that enables manufacturers and service organizations to organize and manage service information based on how the product is configured.
By associating service content to each system within a product and defining information applicability, this product-centric approach helps organizations to: maximize content reuse across product families, streamline change management processes, and facilitate delivery of contextual, configuration-specific service information.
Modules Supporting Service Information
PTC Service Center
PTC Service Center provides the industry’s first product- centric, Web-based service information delivery system. The industry’s first product-centric service information delivery platform provides companies with a flexible, web-based information repository that leverages product-centric technical and parts information managed by Windchill Service Information Manager and Windchill Service Parts.
Service Information Manager
Windchill Service Information Manager enables the creation of Information Structures to organize all the content required to operate and service those products throughout their lifecycle. Applicability rules define which pieces of content are applicable in which situations for a given product configuration. Publication Structures are built based on Information Structures to identify the optimal way to organize service information so that product configuration-based detail can be delivered.
Service Parts
Windchill Service Parts transforms an engineering or manufacturing Bill of Materials into an associative sBOM; creates Parts Lists; automatically generates 2D/3D technical illustrations and accompanying callouts for the Parts Lists using Creo Illustrate; associates Parts Lists to a product-centric view of the service information; delivers parts information electronically via Service Center; and generates parts catalog publications to print or electronic format using Arbortext Publishing Engine.
Service Lifecycle Management
Windchill Service Lifecycle Management automates end-to-end claims management processes including claims entry and validations using extensive business rules. Streamline pricing, quoting, administration and profitability analysis of extended warranties, maintenance and service contracts. Enable warranty analytics with powerful and flexible warranty and service intelligence. Leverage built-in reporting, analysis and queries to identify the root causes of warranty, service and quality issues. Capture and manage service information in a single source for sharing common warranty and service data across all stakeholders including OEMs, suppliers, service centers and end user customers.
Translation Management
Windchill Translation Management Connector manages your translated content as easily as you manage your source. This module connects Windchill to your Translation Memory or Translation vendor for easy delivery of content to be translated and retrieval of that content after it has been translated. This module is included in Arbortext PDMLink as of version 10.1 and is also part of the Service Information Manager.
Aerospace and Defense
Windchill for Aerospace and Defense is Arbortext S1000D. For more information about Windchill for Aerospace and Defense, see Arbortext for Defense (S1000D).
Modules Supporting Enterprise Content Strategy
Options and Variants
Windchill PDMLink introduces support for managing product options typical of assemble-to-order development. With these new capabilities, customers now have a more streamlined approach to manage discrete lists of options for a product line and navigate the product by these option sets.
Options and Variants allows traditional publishing companies to blur the line between content management and authoring/publishing activities. Options and Variants allows you to create publication configurations of your source content in your content management system making it easier to develop and maintain content as well as publish it effectively. It gets more effective as your content approaches high reusability percentages.
Classification and Reuse
Information duplication, like part duplication and part number proliferation, is inefficient and expensive. By reusing existing designs via an online catalog, you can reduce cost and time to market. Windchill PartsLink Classification and Reuse – an integral option for Windchill PDMLink – allows you to organize internal design libraries and make them available to your engineering team through flexible, easy-to-use Web-based library searching mechanisms.
Benefits include: Design product or part classification schemas and develop content for structured product information systems; Support design reuse and provide decision support tools through parts classification and parametric search; Optimize the creation, use and reuse of designs at all points in the product development process; Increased engineering productivity, through parametric searches, graphical navigation, and built-in 3D visualization tools; and, Parts management drives faster time to market, better sourcing decisions, increased engineering productivity.
LifeSciences
Windchill for Life Sciences (formerly NetRegulus Quality) is a comprehensive Global Quality Management solution that enables you to manage Quality information across the entire enterprise, spanning complete product life cycles, from pre-clinical information to post market activities. NetRegulus software offers a low total cost of ownership and makes it easy to expand as your needs change. In regulated industries, such as life sciences, manufacturers must satisfy extensive reporting and compliance requirements, which are constantly changing and evolving. As a result, collecting, interpreting, and sharing related quality information can reduce your company’s flexibility and slow down your operations.
Benefits include: Data Accessibility – manage Quality data from any location in the world, using just a Web browser; Powerful Reporting – NetRegulus Reporting provides a simple, intuitive user interface, which puts the power of querying data into the hands of those that know your data the best; Flexible Configuration – modular architecture, configurable workflows, control of security zones, formatting to the field level, and user-controllable query tools let you design and adapt the system to your environment; Global Language Support – full language localization allows you to use NetRegulus globally, without the need for system validation every time you add a new language; Cost-Effective Deployment – purchase only the modules you need to reduce initial costs because the use of standard components in the system architecture further reduces validation time.
CAD integration
The ability to leverage data created during the product development process is a strategic advantage for manufacturing companies. The heterogeneous CAD capabilities of Windchill allows enterprises to capture, control, and share complex design information from different ECAD/MCAD packages within a single enterprise environment, and even within a single product structure.
Automatically generate documentation product-friendly graphics and be notified when the underlying CAD drawing changes.
Archiving and Compliance
The optional Windchill Archive Module provides the solution for long term retention of corporate data for compliance with corporate policies as well as industry and government regulations. It allows you to purge unneeded information from your database, to archive that information to long-term storage, and to easily restore the information when you need it. Archives are searchable to quickly locate and retrieve data stored in long-term archives.
Benefits include: Optimized administrator productivity; Single user friendly interface; Selection criteria using a wizard; Capabilities to archive and restore of your interrelated product information. Windchill Archive Module supports documents, parts, and CAD documents; viewables and mark-ups; and, versions, iterations, views and creators. It understands data dependencies and minimizes purge conflicts to help assure data integrity.
Product and Process Control
Windchill PDMLink focuses on Product and Process Control
Windchill PDMLink is a single, trusted central data repository that allows your staff to expertly manage all forms of digital product development data. Web-based for easy enterprise-wide access, this PDM system supports geographically dispersed teams while managing critical processes such as change/configuration management and release to manufacturing.
Windchill PDMLink is a Web-based centralized product data management repository, enabling global access to current, accurate information from myriad sources. It seamlessly connects to multiple mechanical/electrical CAD applications, desktop applications, publishing tools, and Enterprise Resource Planning systems; prevents costly design errors by controlling and automating typically chaotic product change management processes; facilitates rapid development of new product configurations through reuse of previously designed product configurations; and operates seamlessly with all Windchill ProjectLink for distributed, cross-enterprise collaboration on data acquisition and product information.
More modules to support the entirety of your business operations
ProjectLink
Windchill ProjectLink is the web based project collaboration for product development
With Windchill ProjectLink, you can securely harness the talents and energy of the entire team, inside or outside of your firewall. Through a virtual workspace, Windchill ProjectLink provides access to the right product development and project management information at the right time, keeping the team aligned, on-track, and moving forward. Windchill ProjectLink automates key business processes such as New Product Introduction, Six Sigma, and Advanced Product Quality Planning; Integrates with numerous mechanical and electrical CAD solutions, Microsoft Office applications, and the Windows desktop; Accelerates time to market by providing real time visibility to current documents, parts, and plan information; Fosters innovation through real-time group collaboration, both inside and outside your firewall; Operates seamlessly with Windchill PDMLink for incorporation of product information in cross-enterprise activities.
Warranty and Contract Management
Windchill Warranty and Contract Management solution automates warranty chain processes to optimize product and warranty performance. Automate end-to-end claims management processes including claims entry and validations using extensive business rules. Streamline pricing, quoting, administration and profitability analysis of extended warranties, maintenance and service contracts. Leverage built-in reporting, analysis and queries to identify the root causes of warranty, service and quality issues. Capture and manage service information in a single source for sharing common warranty and service data across all stakeholders including OEMs, suppliers, service centers and end user customers.
PTC’s unique approach to warranty and service lifecycle management leverages a product-centric data model to manage warranty and capture service history in the form of an “as-maintained” bill of material (BOM). And brings this important data back into the enterprise enables continuous product and service improvement.
RequirementsLink
Associate requirements management with change management
Windchill RequirementsLink lets you expand the powerful capabilities of Windchill to include the management of product requirements including change control and associating requirements with specific product structures and design content. By establishing bi-directional traceability between customer needs, market requirements and the underlying technical requirements, Windchill RequirementsLink helps ensure that customer and market requirements have been satisfied by designs and have been properly verified during development.
Benefits include the following: Improve productivity by easily understanding the relationships between requirements and product structures as well as leveraging a single, common change process for both requirements and product designs; Facilitate collaboration across groups and departments on the definition and selection of requirements; Improve communication by providing visibility of requirements to all teams throughout the product development process; Accelerate time-to-market with early identification of requirements that are not being met or don't have appropriate verification plans; Improve market success by monitoring how well a product complies with customer expectations.
Business Reporting
Real-time access to the information you need to analyze and optimize your product development processes
Preconfigured for Windchill, and utilizing the proven, industry-leading Cognos Business Intelligence (BI) reporting framework, Windchill Business Reporting modules makes the report development and distribution process faster and easier. The Windchill business reporting solutions lets you rapidly develop and distribute product and process information across the enterprise. Decision-makers can easily visualize trends, patterns and relationships with graphical and drill-down reports of key performance indicators.
Benefits include: Improve decision making and process efficiency through visual and graphical representation of real-time information; Realize superior ROI with out-of-the-box integration between Cognos and Windchill; Improve report development productivity with optional drag and drop report authoring tools; Access, view and generate reports directly from within Windchill through embedded Cognos 8 Business Intelligence Software; Provide state and status of all problems and changes recorded against a specific product with pre-built reports; Use optional drag-and-drop Report Authoring to easily create reports, with integrated charts, images, and text; and Monitor report parameters against specified thresholds with optional Report Monitoring.
Info*Engine
Seamless information access
Windchill Info*Engine provides a flexible, standards-based foundation for seamless data sharing between enterprise applications and user communities. Windchill Info*Engine improves accessibility to your information by extending enterprise information assets to a wide range of users and applications for context-specific usage.
Benefits include: Helps companies take advantage of Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) with support for SOAP and WSDL Web Services Technologies, J2EE support, including standard JSP tag libraries, JMS, and Java Connector with automatic DAO and EJB generation; Application and technology adapters to meet the most popular integration needs; Robust transaction management: synchronous/asynchronous operation modes, transaction units, checkpointing, parallel processing, load balancing and failover; and, Sophisticated integration engine supports Java native and XML/XSL representations and data transformations.
Manufacturing Process Management
MPMLink is the industry's first integral solution for Manufacturing Process Management
MPMLink ensures process plans, manufacturing bill of materials (mBOMs), and work instructions accurately reflect the current engineering design. MPMLink speeds up manufacturing process management (MPM) by providing a platform that is guaranteed to be in synch with engineering because manufacturing engineers can operate on the same design data. MPMLink has a significant positive impact on reducing product cost, improving the accuracy of manufacturing deliverables, and shortening development cycle time. Windchill MPMLink is an integral PLM application designed for manufacturing engineers. It gives them the tools they regularly need to digitally design and manage all of their process plan deliverables concurrently with design.
The benefits of MPMLink include the following: Reduce time-to-market by enabling concurrent product and manufacturing process definition; Enhance efficiency of manufacturing engineers by allowing them to digitally author and manage manufacturing process plans and the associated resources; Lower the cost of changes by streamlining change impact identification and propagation as well as reducing the number of expensive late-stage changes; Improve production ramp-up and productivity by using this MPM software to efficiently optimize manufacturing processes and dynamically generate 2D and 3D work instructions; Improve product quality by reducing scrap and rework; Lower Total Cost of Ownership by eliminating multiple legacy and MS Office-based solutions.
Supplier Management
Manage, analyze and communicate critical supply chain information.
Optimizing supplier and manufacturer selection across multiple product lines, programs, and geographies is a major challenge facing product companies today, with huge implications on product cost and time-to-market. Windchill Supplier Management delivers the key capabilities that you need to meet the demands of complex, global supply chains by optimizing manufacturer part sources and vendor selection with approved manufacturer and vendor lists.
Benefits include: Shorten time-to-market by using only preferred manufacturers and vendors with good track records of delivering products on time and on schedule; Lower product costs by leveraging preferred suppliers; Lower inventory and spend costs by uncovering and eliminating hidden part duplication; Eliminate the use of “hard to get” or obsolete commercial parts in new designs; Prevent errors and re-designs by involving suppliers early in the design process; Improve supply chain communication and collaboration with a secure Web-based project; Improve quality by minimizing design and manufacturing errors with approved suppliers and manufacturers; and, Manage approved manufacturer and vendor lists (AVL / AML).
FlexPLM
Product Lifecycle Management Solutions for the Consumer Products, Retail, Footwear & Apparel Industries
FlexPLM addresses the industry-specific challenges and everyday business pressures for footwear or apparel manufacturers, consumer products companies, and retailers. FlexPLM offers a high-performance, Web-based platform that brings together globally distributed teams through a simple, yet complete user interface. FlexPLM provides line planning, specification management, merchandizing, and many other rich capabilities to accommodate your company’s complete assortment of products. FlexPLM provides a platform to address issues common to all manufacturers today, such as cost, quality, time-to-market, regulatory compliance and the need to coordinate a global workforce.
Benefits include: Reduced cycle time — ensures on-schedule product launches and first-mover market-share advantages; Improved quality — boosts brand value and customer loyalty, and enables premium pricing; Increased efficiency and process optimization — drives team productivity and enhances breadth of portfolio; Improved regulatory compliance for market segments such as consumer products — ensures adherence to mandates such as REACH and the Consumer Products Safety Act; and, Reduced direct material cost — improves margins and profit contribution.
Enterprise Systems Integration
Connect enterprise systems
Windchill Enterprise Systems Integration (ESI) synchronizes processes and information, enabling optimization of product development while minimizing risk and total cost of ownership. Via bi-directional integration, Windchill ESI enables robust connection between PLM and ERP systems.
Benefits include: Provides turnkey SAP and Oracle Manufacturing integration processes; Synchronizes parts, documents, bill of material (BOM) structures, engineering change notification (ECN), product configurations; Improves product data quality and reduces errors through automated exchange of information; Accelerates time to market through improved process coordination between engineering and manufacturing; Bundled EAI technology enables a short time-to-benefit and connectivity to a broad range of off-the-shelf adapters; and, Open and documented SOAP over JMS web services facilitate connection to your choice of EAI technologies from leading vendors like Rational ClearCase, I-deas/TDM, and Insight Environmental.
PLM Connector
Exchange product information across different PLM systems
Windchill RequirementsLink Enables each organization to maintain product data management control over its intellectual property.
Windchill PLM Connector supports: Design collaboration for suppliers designing their sub-components in the context of OEM product design; Companies which need to integrate and manage the entire product which is designed by multiple groups or suppliers; Library sharing for companies that want their standard library components to be used by suppliers; Sharing design information with global manufacturing locations or partners; Usage flexibility for role-based licensing for ad hoc sharing as needed by individual team members or server-based licensing for regularly scheduled, automated information sharing. Windchill RequirementsLink improves efficiency of collaborative product development and design/manufacturing outsourcing processes.
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