What’s New in Teamcenter for the New Year

It is with great pleasure that I introduce the latest release of Teamcenter 12.1 and 11.6, and Active Workspace 4.1. New and enhanced solutions extend the technical depth and business-solution breadth of the Teamcenter PLM portfolio … most notably in the areas of BOM management, systems engineering, and virtual reality with this release. As always, there are lot more enhancements than I can cover in a blog, so please visit our website or links to get more information.

As you review the portfolio updates, you will see more widespread functionality is available through the Active Workspace user interface for an improved user experience, along with our commitment to continuous innovation and development for the future. From an IT perspective, we continue to focus on how to deliver complete solutions that you can manage and maintain at a reduced cost of ownership, whether you choose an on-premises or cloud deployment.

Before we take a closer look at this release, I want to add a personal note. This release is especially significant to me as it is the last one under my watch leading Teamcenter business development, product management, and marketing over the past seven years. I am transitioning to a new role in Siemens PLM Software in the transformation team working with the newly acquired Mendix low-code system, which is of strategic importance to Siemens PLM Software on many fronts.

As we close out the year, and I end my tenure with Teamcenter, I want to say what a privilege it has been working with all our customers and how much I appreciate your trust in our team and Siemens PLM Software. I wish you all the best for the future, and a wonderful 2019!

Reach more users, beyond functional silos, with intuitive web usability

Richer user experience with Active Workspace

To deliver an even richer user experience, this release unveils a new look for Active Workspace. To see it for yourself, watch the Active Workspace 4.1 guided tour. Active Workspace is the preferred user interface for Teamcenter because it combines web accessibility with ease-of-use. You will see our R&D investment in Active Workspace reflected across the portfolio, with new and enhanced solutions optimized for easy, intuitive user experience.

Active Workspace 4.1 makes it even easier for you to tailor the Active Workspace user interface to specific business needs or processes. From any web browser on a smart device, or using MCAD or Microsoft Office as the user interface, people across the business, anywhere in the world can access the product information and processes they need to make the right decisions.

Greater bill of materials (BOM) clarity and ease of use

By leveraging the intuitive usability of Active Workspace, it’s easier to use BOM management in Teamcenter 12.1 and 11.6. You will see improvements in advanced compare, mass update, and product structure enhancements. Take a closer look at product structure management with Active Workspace 4.1 to see what I mean.

Whether you develop standard, configure-to-order, engineer-to-order, or truly custom products, Teamcenter supports the continuum of product variation. In early 2019, Teamcenter will introduce a new Variants Matrix capability to manage the variability of highly similar products. The grid style matrix is a streamlined user interface for the rapid creation and management of product variants.

For more advanced product configuration management that supports the development and delivery of configure-to-order products, learn more about our Teamcenter Product Configurator, and for engineer-to-order products, take a look at Rulestream.

Improved classification leveraging artificial intelligence (AI)

 

As I described in my recent blog, The Opportunity for Business-critical Enterprise AI Applications, we have a tremendous opportunity to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) in Teamcenter in a responsible manner. The new Teamcenter Classification AI module improves the overall classification experience to help you more effectively work through large amounts of unclassified data with AI supervised learning. This module helps with new object classifications; prunes inventory by suggesting duplicates; assists with browsing and searching for classified objects; and better automates the classifying effort for users.

Active change management tracks the change for you

When we took a fresh look at change management using Active Workspace, we wanted to make it as easy as Microsoft Word to simply turn on “track changes” and let Teamcenter do the work. See for yourself our new approach to “active” change management tools in Teamcenter automatically keep track of changes for you!

Immersive, multi-user virtual reality conferencing

 

With Teamcenter Visualization, we put virtual reality (VR) at the fingertips of design engineers using “Go VR.” This release introduces new multi-user VR capabilities so you can meet in a “virtual room” for an immersive VR design review and visualize, analyze, and markup the product. Similar to a multi-player video gaming experience, you can participate in VR conferences from your desktops without the expense of a VR “dome” or high-end hardware. Teamcenter Visualization VR works with mainstream VR devices like Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, but even users without VR hardware can participate in the conferences and see the avatars of the immersed participants.

Reach across business processes with unmatched solution breadth

Integrated model-based systems engineering

Siemens PLM Software’s approach integrates model-based systems engineering (MBSE) with the product lifecycle by bringing together multiple design domains – mechanical, electrical, and software — along with considerations like cost, reliability, and manufacturability in the context of cross-domain product architecture.That architecture is created with the new System Modeling Workbench for Teamcenter that is delivered with this release.Based on SysML, System Modeling Workbench integrates a rich MBSE system modeling environment with Teamcenter Active Workspace—creating a multi-domain digital twin that drives the entire downstream development process.

Not only did we deliver a new System Modeling Workbench solution, but we also delivered improvements to requirements management including trace linking between occurrences and a new Microsoft Excel-based trace matrix user interface for better traceability visualization and rapid link creation/editing.Excel is also used with Attribute and Parameter Management to create and edit new array-based values.

Embedded Active Workspace within electronic CAD (ECAD)

Whether you design electronics with Mentor, Altium, Cadence, or Zuken, now your designers can access Teamcenter from Active Workspace embedded in your ECAD system. The convenience of PLM within ECAD delivers a more intuitive user experience without the hassle of opening a new application or browser window. ECAD designers can use Active Workspace to access Teamcenter applications such as the inbox, design and component PLM information, workflow, change management, requirements management, etc. Teamcenter bridges the gap across mechanical and electronic design tools so you can see the work-in-process design process to make better product decisions.

Reach greater levels of IT efficiency and reduced cost of ownership

Deployment Center to manage and maintain multiple environments

Teamcenter can help you manage and maintain Teamcenter more efficiently with the Deployment Center, a web-based installer that helps you more easily manage Teamcenter across an unlimited number of environments – across departments and locations. Deployment Center provides total PLM administrative system automation, visibility, and control. Now Deployment Center provides full platform support — including the Active Workspace user interface, foundation applications, and customizations — to make it easier to set up a Teamcenter environment.

Teamcenter on the cloud with your choice of providers

Teamcenter gives customers more options to manage the cost of PLM ownership by partnering with a diverse cloud partner base, including Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services, and leveraging the cloud expertise of the Siemens global managed services organization and channel partners.

Providing you with more delivery options for cloud PDM to PLM can help you reduce your overall cost to manage and maintain Teamcenter, especially when you can choose the cloud partner to align with your IT strategy and direction. You can get started quickly and cost-effectively with Teamcenter or transition your on-premise deployment to the cloud. (Read about customer deployments of PLM on AWS cloud.)

Improved security, scalability, and multi-site collaboration

We understand the value of your product information, and protecting it from internal and external threats is fundamental to PLM security. With this release, we have improved access control with new consent management capabilities that comply with standards such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). We have also improved global PLM scalability and multi-site collaboration by introducing a generic framework for import/export and new capabilities to exchange product information across multiple sites.

As you grow your PLM deployment, Teamcenter 12.1, 11.6, and Active Workspace 4.1 deliver PLM agility and enhanced applications throughout the portfolio to help you improve your products … and your business. To catch up on highlights of earlier releases, read my blogs on Teamcenter 12, 11.3, 11.2.3, 11.2.2, 10.1.7, 10.1.6, and 10.1.5!

Rohit Tangri is the Vice President of Teamcenter Product Management, Marketing, and Business Development for Siemens PLM Software.