Like many large global companies, Schaeffler was facing the challenge of managing increasing product complexity while trying to improve overall product development efficiency. Adding to this challenge, Schaeffler has a highly disaggregated environment for product development with 66,000 employees at 180 locations in 50 countries. By standardizing and consolidating on a single engineering platform at all three of its business units, the company’s goal is to improve product data and project data management, global collaboration and product development process management. As a result of the Windchill implementation, the company hopes to better meet customer demands, improve product development quality and reduce time to market. Additionally, Schaeffler believes that streamlining the company’s product development processes and establishing a standard for global collaboration will better prepare the company for further expansion activities.
Specifically, Windchill will be used to consolidate engineering data that is being developed and used at Schaeffler’s over 60 sites worldwide participating in engineering processes. Additionally, Schaeffler intends to improve global collaboration, engineering change and control management, variant design as well as mechatronic systems development. As a result of the implementation, any authorized member of the development team will be able to modify existing master product data independently at development sites around the globe. By using a single, integral system for product development the company expects to significantly advance its data quality initiatives. For the initial period Schaeffler plans to implement Windchill for several thousands of users throughout its globally dispersed development sites.
“We expect Windchill to substantially improve our development efficiency both in simultaneous engineering as well as in global collaboration. We are happy to extend the existing partnership with PTC towards a long-lasting PLM Development Environment strategy,” said Christian Kipf, manager CAD methods and support, at Schaeffler Group.
“To be successful and create product differentiation in increasingly competitive global markets, companies need to improve their efficiency around product development,” said James Heppelmann, executive vice president, software products, and chief product officer at PTC. “By standardizing on Windchill as the backbone for its engineering platform, Schaeffler will eliminate many of the challenges around data quality, global collaboration and data and process management faced by companies with less integrated product development environments. We are looking forward to working with Schaeffler to help them achieve their short-term and long-term product development objectives.”
About Schaeffler Group
The Schaeffler Group - with its INA, FAG, and LuK brands - is both a leading global supplier of rolling bearings as well as a renowned supplier to the automobile industry. With 66,000 employees in over 180 locations around the world, Schaeffler manufactures and sells precision components and systems for automotive, industrial, and aerospace applications. In 2007, the Schaeffler Group’s revenues totaled 8.9 billion euros. For more information please visit http://www.schaeffler.com.
About PTC
PTC (Nasdaq: PMTC) provides discrete manufacturers with software and services to meet the globalization, time-to-market and operational efficiency objectives of product development. Using the company’s CAD, and content and process management solutions, organizations in the Industrial, High-Tech, Aerospace and Defense, Automotive, Consumer and Medical industries are able to support key business objectives and create innovative products that meet both customer needs and comply with industry regulations. For more information on PTC, please visit http://www.ptc.com.
Except for the historical information contained herein, matters
discussed in this news release may constitute forward-looking statements
that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to
differ materially from those projected. These risks and uncertainties
include: PTC's successful development and integration of the
technologies necessary to offer integrated PLM solutions that address
evolving product lifecycle management functions and that are deployable
across extended supply and customer chains, the ability of PTC to
successfully partner and effectively coordinate and manage joint
activities (including sales, marketing, implementation and support) with
third parties in order to efficiently and cost effectively deliver
products and services that meet customer requirements, the success of
PTC’s customer satisfaction initiatives in providing the foundation for
long-term relationships and repeat business; and our ability to
effectively utilize our resources to undertake one or more strategic
corporate development initiatives while maintaining recurring operations
at satisfactory levels, together with such other risks and uncertainties
as are detailed from time to time in reports filed by PTC with the
Securities and Exchange Commission, including PTC's most recent reports
on Form 10-K and 10-Q. The announcement of any particular selection of
PTC products is not necessarily indicative of the timing of recognition
of revenue therefrom or the level of revenue for any particular period.
