11:11 – 11 New Windchill Features You’ve Wished For
You probably know of the superstition that if, when looking at the clock, the time is exactly 11:11, you are suppose to make a wish. The origins of this don’t seem to be clear but many people believe that the number 11 and in turn, the time 11:11, is very lucky. Last November, PTC launched Windchill 11 -- the latest version of its PLM solution and the industry’s first IoT-enabled PLM solution. With this update, we really listened to what our customers were telling us they wanted: what features they wish Windchill had and what they wished the user experience would be like. We put ourselves into our customers’ shoes to determine what features they aren’t wishing for now but – once we’ve implemented them – they would wish we had added sooner. While Windchill 11 boasts many new features, there are 11 in particular that we think you’ll be interested in. They are exactly what our customers have been wishing for. PTC recently hosted a webcast explaining these 11 features of Windchill 11, or as we call them: “The Top 11 for 11”. These 11 new features include:
1. Search
Windchill 11 boasts new search capabilities that make finding and reusing information faster and more efficient. With the addition of Windchill Partslink Search capabilities into classic Search in Windchill, it is easier to search by parts classification and attributes simultaneously. Additionally, it is easier to filter results as well as see searched keywords in the context of a document. New, highly graphical updates to the User Experience make Searching as easy as moving a few sliders to narrow down a wide list of possibilities: much like the familiar experience of an ecommerce website.
2. Query Builder
The user interface of Windchill has also been completely overhauled with a graphical HTML interface that is more user-friendly. This new interface makes it easier for users to understand and create relationships between objects. Furthermore, this query builder allows users to filter and display only object types and available relationships that are being used by the organization’s deployment of Windchill.
3. Change Management
Windchill 11 introduces flexible change associations and allows customers to configure their own change management processes to match their business needs. Windchill 11 also gives users the ability to configure links between a variety of change objects.
4. BOM Management Improvements
Managing a complete, multi-dimensional Bill of Materials centrally in Windchill advances product development organizations from a drawing-centric approach to a part-centric approach, driving better quality and productivity, faster time to market, and decreased costs. Windchill 11 introduces a number of new capabilities to improve BoM management, including new visualization actions on structure pages as well as new graphical status updates that allow users to see the progress of deliverables inside the structure view. By managing the full BOM, users will be able to make better decisions in the product engineering and manufacturing processes.
5. BOM Transformation and Manufacturing Planning
Manufacturing process planning capabilities in Windchill make it easy to transform an engineering BOM into a manufacturing BOM, and enhancements to the user experience in Windchill 11 make this process even more seamless thanks to upgrades to its. simpler, HTML-based user interface. The single, unified product definition accessible to both engineering and manufacturing through the BoM transformation capabilities of Windchill drives faster time to manufacturing as well as reduced errors and lower first pass yields for customers in a wide range of industries.
6. Role Based Apps
With Windchill 11, we’ve introduced ThingWorx Navigate: a role and task-specific application that makes PLM information available to all stakeholders in the product lifecycle. This capability is enabled by Thingworx technology through easy to use apps including: View Part, View Drawing, View Parts List, View Part Structure, and View & Measure 3D Geometry. ThingWorx Navigate has a pared-down, highly intuitive user interface that does not require any training – introducing a brand-new paradigm in PLM technology that makes PLM data more accessible throughout the whole company.
7. Document Manager
In the past, has your organization used Windchill to manage documents while using Windchill Desktop Integration to download documents? With Windchill 11, you no longer have to take this extra step: Windchill 11 boasts a common document directory where documents can be downloaded regardless of where they originated.
8. Automatic Project Updates
Not only does Windchill 11 offer automatic updates like its predecessors, it also is capable of allowing the schedule to update on a project-by-project basis. This allows updates to coincide with the needs of each individual project.
9. Project Data Manager
There have been many enhancements to Product Data Management in Windchill 11. For example: users who are checking-in new or modified data now have the option to create a new promotion request – rather than separately launching and collecting objects to be promoted. Users are now also able to select objects to view that are important to them while filtering out the clutter of those that aren’t.
10. Connected Quality
Traditionally, PLM solutions only cover the product lifecycle up to when a product actually enters the field. But this leaves a huge gap in the data on how the product is actually being used, as well as its performance, quality, and service needs. The Windchill Quality Extension for ThingWorx, newly available in Windchill 11, makes it possible for this data to be collected, analyzed, and leveraged. . Not only does this extension make it possible for the root cause of an issue to be identified more quickly and accurately, it also allows corrective and preventive action to be taken before a problem becomes a costly warranty or recall. Connected Quality will affect a company’s bottom line by speeding the resolution and prevention of quality issues and reducing the cost of poor quality.
11. Windchill Performance Advisor
Finally, Windchill Performance Advisor makes Windchill 11 itself a smart, connected product. Customers are able to connect Windchill 11 with PTC Technical Support to receive updates and information that help maintain and optimize system performance. Later this spring, PTC will add capabilities for tuning recommendations along with feature usage and adoption reports. This will reduce the burden on customers’ IT departments by allowing PTC Technical Support to analyze system performance and proactively offer tools and tips to improve Windchill.
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