According to a recent Aberdeen report, 29 percent of executives identified the need to capitalize on new market opportunities as their top priority to improve product development. Since that’s the case, PLM is a more critical tool than ever before, so it makes sense to be sure you make the right selection.

29% of executives recognize the need to capitalize on new market opportunities, and utilizing a PLM solution can help them make that a reality.

With that imperative in mind, 3HTi has undertaken another PLM comparison: PTC Windchill and Siemens Teamcenter to help you choose the best solution for your needs. While both systems cover basic PLM functionality well, here’s a look at some of the key differences between the two. Keep in mind that we do have a slight bias towards PTC Windchill, but we work with a wide range of customers in a variety of heterogeneous environments and don’t always push our clients towards PTC products.

Platform for Collaboration: Advantage PTC Windchill

collaborationWith today’s distributed workforce, teams need a secure location to share information and plans. This becomes even more critical if you have external stakeholders such as customers or suppliers participating in the design process.

Siemens Teamcenter has an included supplier portal and design data exchange, but the capabilities are not as extensive as the Windchill offering.

PTC supports security at check-in, for displays at the components level and at product copy points so your designs are secure even when you promote open collaboration.

Design and Simulation: Advantage Siemens Teamcenter

Siemens Teamcenter integrates with MCAD, ECAD, and software development tools to provide a complete data management and simulation environment across engineering disciplines. This enables the team to work with disconnected tools and processes in a single environment, helping to ensure that everything works together flawlessly and cost effectively.

PTC Windchill is no slouch in this area though. Windchill offers a complete multidimensional bill of materials (BOM) visualization and incorporates manufacturing process planning directly into the design phase to improve design for manufacturability.

IoT Support: Advantage PTC Windchill

windchill vs. teamcenter - plm comparison - IoTPTC Windchill uses its IoT connection capabilities to log its own support calls to PTC Technical Support. As of this writing, Teamcenter doesn’t.

Windchill also uses Windchill FRACAS to analyze IoT data for root cause analysis and to understand performance in real time.

 

Integrated Analytics and Search: Advantage PTC Windchill

Both applications include data analytics. As noted above, PTC Windchill uses FRACAS to support quality and to drive corrective actions, improving the speed of engineering changes and service activities. FRACAS has a web-based user interface with easy-to-read graphics. In addition to basic analysis, it provides a company-wide tool for corrective actions.

For search, Windchill offers a multifaceted search that combines its PartsLink classification system with a familiar web-like filter that makes searching intuitive, even for inexperienced users.

Windchill includes an intuitive search function that utilizes a PartsLink classification system and a familiar web-like filter.

In contrast, Siemens Teamcenter has a more traditional analytics ability that looks at performance metrics. While the UI is simple and the graphics are easy to understand, in this day of machine integration and big data, it misses the boat.

Extensibility: Tie Game

Siemens Teamcenter has prebuilt integrations to major ERP systems, including SAP and Oracle E-Business Suite, and it includes process and data mapping templates for other business applications, including MES and CRM.

In our Windchill vs. Teamcenter faceoff, both provide strong integrations into other CAD, ERP, and other important systems.

PTC Windchill offers integration of multiple CAD solutions, including some that compete with PTC offerings. It also has Windchill Info*Engine to integrate to ERP systems and other business applications.

Integrated Quality Management: Advantage PTC Windchill

Both systems have extended into areas traditionally considered part of a QMS (Quality Management System) solutions functional footprint, including CAPA (Corrective Action Preventive Action). Teamcenter’s solution captures complaints, defects, and nonconformance issues, tracking them until resolution.

PTC Windchill includes CAPA functionality but extends even further into the QMS realm by adding document management, nonconformance, and customer complaints. It goes beyond simply acting as a repository by performing root cause analysis and providing a quality report “roll up” that shows quality issues at every level of the product.

PTC Windchill includes comprehensive and integrated quality management that extends into document management, nonconformance, and customer complaints.

Environmental Compliance and Sustainability: (Slight) Advantage PTC Windchill

Siemens Teamcenter offers a sustainability framework that monitors the phase-out of nonsustainable components and practices and design in greener options. It monitors compliance with regulatory acts such as REACH, RoHS, and Conflict Minerals bans. With customers focused on environmental concerns in everything they buy, showing that environmental concerns are a core part of your product design process can build deep customer loyalty.
windchill vs. seimens - plm comparison - sustainable

PTC Windchill also offers compliance tracking, with specific solutions for Conflict Minerals, substances of concern, country of origin for materials, and a variety of other regulations and concerns. Teamcenter’s solution is more rudimentary than Windchill’s comprehensive approach to compliance.

The Winner: PTC Windchill

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While admittedly we have a bias toward PTC Windchill, we still give the edge to Windchill over Teamwork in our Windchill vs. Teamcenter PLM systems comparison. PTC has been around long enough that its design team just “gets” PLM and the needs of the customer’s engineering team. They haven’t let themselves get stuck in the past — they are completely on top of current trends such as the need for remote collaboration, IoT, and risk and compliance management. The platform is flexible and extensible, and customers can deploy on-premise or in the cloud.

In our Windchill vs. Teamcenter showdown, PTC Windchill comes out on top with extensive quality management capabilities, collaboration tools, and consistent innovation.

The extensive quality management capabilities built into the system show that they understand the advantages of designing for quality up front. While they stop short of offering APQP capabilities, they cover a lot of the traditional QMS areas and do a terrific job of supporting design for sustainability and compliance. By any measure, PTC Windchill is a strong leader in the PLM space.

Why Choose 3HTi and PTC Windchill

3HTi was founded in 2002 with a focus on customer service. We have expertise in PLM, CAD, 3D printing and contract manufacturing. We are authorized resellers of PTC solutions.

PTC Windchill has been available for nearly 20 years. It was a pioneer in the PLM space, but it hasn’t been sitting still waiting for others to catch up. The product continues to evolve and address innovative technology and modern design concerns. That’s why PTC Windchill consistently ranks among the top contenders in such prestigious reports as the Gartner Magic Quadrant and the Forrester Wave, among others.

PLM Windchill is the robust PLM solution your organization needs to consistently design and produce competitive products.

You can read about the success our customers have had working with the 3HTi team by reading our customer success stories. Or to learn more about how 3HTi can help you choose and implement the right PLM solution for your company, contact us today.