Connecting PLM to ERP and other EnterpriseSystems with Windchill ESI

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Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems control critical product information that must be shared with other enterprise systems such asEnterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management(CRM), and Supply Chain Management (SCM). Likewise, PLM systems need to leverage information that is managed in other enterprise systems.This bi-directional connection between PLM and other systems is criticalto enabling a seamless flow of information among the different functionalgroups involved in product development, particularly engineering andmanufacturing.

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Executive Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

The Role of PLM versus Other Enterprise Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

The PTC Product Development System . . . . . . . . 3

Enterprise System Integration Challenges . . . . . . 4

Introducing Windchill ESI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Process Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Capabilities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Business Benefits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

PTC: The PLM Industry Leader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

For More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Executive Summary

There are many different approaches to integrating enterprise systems.One of the most common is through Enterprise Application Integration(EAI) vendors that specialize in the integration of enterprise systems.Many companies that have attempted this integration approach havebeen bogged down by the high initial investment in building customintegrations for their unique mix of software solutions, the continuinghigh maintenance and upgrade costs, and the significant risk that theirefforts will not result in a robust enterprise system that can support theircritical business processes end-to-end in a seamless manner.

In order to support the release of product information from our PLMsolutions to ERP and other enterprise systems, PTC has developed abreakthrough integration product, Windchill Enterprise SystemsIntegration (ESI), which includes pre-built business logic to supportcritical Windchill business processes out-of-the-box. Windchill ESI isbuilt using industry standard EAI technology but goes far beyond anintegration enabler by defining what, how, and when information isreleased to other systems. As an optional module of WindchillPDMLink, Windchill ESI is a natural extension of PTCs ProductDevelopment System (PDS) and is pre-tested to meet the same highquality standards as all other PTC solutions to greatly reduce thedeployment and maintenance costs and risk in system integration forour customers.

The Role of PLM versus Other Enterprise Systems

To consistently produce great products, companies need a productdevelopment process that becomes, in itself, a competitive differentiator.While some see product development as synonymous with engineering,a truly effective product development process engages a variety ofcross-functional participants from marketing, engineering, procurement,manufacturing, sales, and service departments. Ever-increasing levelsof outsourcing have driven suppliers and manufacturing partners intodirect roles in the product development process. At the same time, astrong customer focus has necessitated the customers direct involve-ment. As a result, attempts to optimize product development naturallyevolve from a departmental focus within engineering, to an enterprisefocus, and ultimately to a distributed value chain focus.

Developing digital products in a value chain environmentand underintense time and cost pressure is certainly not easy. While many man-ufacturers have made great strides improving operational effectivenessacross their enterprise and supply chain as it relates to manufacturingand logistics, most companies will admit that their product developmentprocesses are rife with problems. They are now beginning to realize thatan even greater level of opportunity for improvement is available bybetter managing the digital product definition at every stage in aproducts life. The digital content that describes products during thedevelopment process typically gets fragmented across organizationalboundaries, with each group having different forms of product defini-tion stored in different systems, and many with incompatible formats.No easy-to-use capability exists to share information among theseenterprise systems in a controlled manner.

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Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) describes a comprehensiveframework of technology and services that permit manufacturing companies and their partners and customers to collaboratively conceptualize, design, build, and manage products throughout theirentire lifecycle. PLM solutions must enable companies to createdetailed, intuitive, and realistic digital product information; collaborateby incorporating early input from the various participants in order toidentify and resolve critical issues; and control and automate criticalprocesses such as release to manufacturing, change, and configuration management throughout the products lifecycle. PLM has emerged as the primary means by which manufacturing companies can achieve step-change improvements in their productdevelopment process.

PLM is unique from other enterprise applications because it manages dig-ital product information and optimizes the digital product value chain.

The PTC Product Development System

Many modern business systems are driven by product information thatoriginates in the engineering department, creating a need for connectingthe source of product information to other enterprise systems like ERPand CRM. When dealing with complex product information and engi-neering data, the integration difficulties and the need for tightlymanaged and executed data publication escalates.

Any discussion regarding integration would not be complete without anexamination of the integration capabilities within the context of the over-all solution offering. PLM has proven difficult for many companies toachieve due to an abundance of point solutions and limited availability oftrue system solutions. Many offerings have attempted to evolve fromclient-server architectures, but are limited by an inability to take fulladvantage of standards and Web architectures optimized for the distrib-uted nature of todays product development environment. When PLM isapproached as a combination of point solutions (acquired and integratedby either a PLM vendor or a manufacturer) and/or legacy architectures, thelack of data interoperability and high ongoing integration maintenancecosts make PLM an unnecessarily complicated and risky proposition. Thisapproach overwhelms the system integrator, the system administrator, andthe manufacturer with costs and complexity. At a technical level, thesearchitectures suffer in terms of usability, performance, scalability, security,and availability. The result is an inability to deploy the PLM solution quick-ly and maintain an appropriate total cost-of-ownership.

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The measure of a good product development system combines thebreadth of capabilities it delivers, the architecture of the underlyingsoftware that deliver them, and the processes it supports and optimizes.To ensure successful deployment and enterprise wide adoption of theproduct development system, the appropriate range and balance ofservices must be available. PTC is pursuing an aggressive ProductDevelopment System (PDS) strategy to deliver the most comprehensiveand cost-effective PLM solution in the market place that spans the twoleading product development engines, Windchill, a suite of collaborationand control solutions to support todays distributed product developmentprocesses and Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire, an unparalleled 3D productdesign solution. By ensuring the products within the PDS are integral,or designed and tested to work together seamlessly out-of-the-box,PTC has minimized the processes for customers to integrate productswithin the system. This includes built-in connections to other commonbusiness systems. An interoperable architecture enables seamless sharing of the digital product information and processes with user systems such as desktop productivity applications and heterogeneousCAD systems as well as back office systems like ERP, SCM, and CRM andother PDM and databases.

For more information on these concepts, please refer to the white paperson PTCs Product Development SystemProduct Lifecycle Managementfor Manufacturing Companies and Why Architecture Matters For PLMavailable on PTC.com.

Enterprise System Integration Challenges

Business leaders from engineering, manufacturing, and other organi-zations are demanding better communication in the product developmentcycle to reduce the risk to product quality and to decrease communica-tion time and manual, non-value-add activities. However, manufacturingcompanies today have many IT applications, each dedicated for aparticular purpose. IT departments are challenged with managing notonly each individual application but also with finding a way to make allof their IT investments work together as a synchronized, enterprisesystem. Why? Although each application may have a unique purpose,they often require much of the same information to successfully executebusiness processes. Critical problems with a closed architecture includethe ability to maintain single systems-of-record for enterprise informa-tion without duplication of data. For example, approved vendor lists andmanufacturing cost data should be managed in an ERP system and cus-tomer identifiers in a CRM system. An engineering designer should be ableto access the cost information from within the PLM solution withoutreplicating the data, which could cause future synchronization issues.

PLM and manufacturing execution systems have typically been con-nected in one of three ways: either manually with information enteredseparately in each system, loosely coupled in a flat file transfer orimport/export routine, or by a custom integration, whether point-to-point or hub-and-spoke. Historically these integrations have been slowand unreliable, leading to product quality issues such as manufacturingoperations producing products that have been replaced or modified in

engineering. This disconnect can lead to significant cost and customersatisfaction issues for a manufacturer. In addition, the use of non-standardinterfaces substantially increases the time and cost to upgrade the inte-gration and inhibits a manufacturers ability to independently upgradeone system without having to rewire and perform extensive customiza-tions between each of the other enterprise systems.

Custom integrations are common and sometimes can fulfill the needs ofa given business process, however, they are typically characterized bysimplistic and brittle designs that require high levels of ongoing admin-istrative attention and manual exception handling. In most cases, com-panies dont recognize or understand the high cost of resources, humanor otherwise, consumed by the ongoing administration of their interfaces.Since these custom integrations contain significant one-off code, theysuffer from significant maintainability issues. The more custom code acompany develops, the more code it will need to maintain with its own ITdepartment or outsourced development services. Developing code in-house also means that it has to be tested and implemented in-house;these are difficult and time-consuming tasks for a traditional IT departmentthat prefers to leverage commercial applications whenever possible.

Perhaps the worst aspect of these custom integrations is that every timea new release of the source or target system is available, the entireprocess can start over at the beginning. Maintenance is extremelyexpensive and there is no end to the cycle. Scalability is also an issue withcustom integrations; as business processes expand to support a growingenterprise, they often fall short of evolving business requirements and aretoo inflexible to accommodate additional systems. Inevitably, the short-comings of these integrations are fixed with manual processes that areresource intensive and prone to error. The result is pockets of efficiencywith significant process and information gaps in the overall enterprisesystem.

Commercial EAI applications are helpful but dont offer any business logicto support manufacturing business processes, leaving a significant portionof the integration efforts to in-house or outsourced 3rd party integrationteams. The fact is that a large portion of integration benefits is left on thetable with these traditional approaches to integration.

Figure 1: PLM Working Collaboratively With Other Enterprise Systems

Release to ManufacturingThe digital product is ready for releaseto manufacturing when the digital product definition is completeand approved by all stakeholders. At this point, one or more pro-duction and supply chain management systems typically needaccess to product definition information to begin the work. Asproduct configurations are approved for release, Windchill ESIautomatically feeds product and BOM information to downstreamproduction systems.

DesignThose who design the product in the engineering department make important decisions that largely determine thecost of the product, how it will be serviced, and how long it takesto manufacture the product. To make the best decisions for thecompany, they need access to relevant information that may nottypically be available in a PLM system. Windchill ESI providesWindchill users with real-time access to product information stored in other enterprise systems, such as standard cost and lead-time, through the user interfaces with which they are accustomed to working.

Prototype/TestWhen a product is ready to be prototyped andtested, the product design needs to be shared with manufacturingand quality assurance so the prototype can be built and tested.Windchill ESI automates the process of sending product informationto manufacturing execution systems so that it can be built. Inaddition, engineering is better able to plan for the prototype/testphase of product development when they have product informationfrom the ERP system such as product lead-time and cost.

Change ManagementProduct development is a dynamic environment where changes are made to parts and products continuously. Each time a change is released, that informationneeds to be shared from the PLM system where the change wasmade to other enterprise systems like ERP. Engineering also needsto be able to assess the potential impact of the change; havingaccess to real-time product and part cost and lead-time is animportant part of that analysis.

ArchitectureUnlike competitors integration offerings based on toolkits, PTC hasembarked on a path to provide a series, standards-based integrationsto common business systems with end-to-end process support(including out-of-the-box pre-built business logic) starting with SAP.End-to-end out-of-the-box process support means that Windchill ESIprovides the necessary middleware, support for common businessobjects and processes, and pre-configured standard integrations to the other system. These integrations provide robust functionality,sophisticated transaction management, a large number of configurable features, and an easy-to-use GUI customization environment.

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Introducing Windchill ESI

PTC recognized the challenges faced by manufacturers in their quest tobi-directionally share product information with other enterprise systemsand responded with Windchill Enterprise Systems Integration (ESI). Aspart of PTCs industry-leading PDS, Windchill ESI, an optional moduleof Windchill PDMLink, provides unprecedented control of datathroughout the products lifecycle. Windchill ESI helps manufacturersbetter coordinate the exchange of product and complementary manufacturing and supply chain-related information between theirWindchill and ERP, CRM, and SCM systems. This connectivity ensuresthat members of the digital product value chain have accurate, real-time information when they need it.

With Windchill ESI, manufacturers can be confident that all the people inthe enterprise are operating with the most current information in theright context to make the best decisions. Companies can publishdesigns to manufacturing and convert those designs into physicalproducts in less time with far less opportunity for error resulting in costreduction, and improved quality throughout the enterprise. By providingnot only the technology but also the mapping and process coordination,Windchill ESI goes beyond other offerings and delivers a turnkey module for immediate business value.

Through a set of core services based on industry standards, WindchillESI makes it easy for companies to share engineering data such asparts, bills of material (BOMs), engineering change notices (ECN), anddocuments throughout the enterprise. Windchill ESI also makes it possible for other enterprise systems to pass relevant informationupstream, including supplier information, part cost information, andinventory information.

Process SupportThe ultimate purpose of a product development system is to optimizethe business processes that companies need to execute in order todevelop competitive products and achieve their business initiatives. Asystem that merely delivers a hodgepodge of features and functions isnot optimized to facilitate the execution of specific business processes.Recognizing the fact that business processes are what drive productdevelopment, PTC is working with our customers to document a set ofend-to-end PLM processes that outline the best way to accomplishspecific product development tasks. Many of those critical PLM processextend beyond PLM into ERP and other enterprise systems.

Windchill ESI automates and optimizes business processes and stream-lines operational efficiencies by facilitating two-way communicationbetween engineering and manufacturing. This closed loop integrationallows a company to send an engineering bill of material, with all itsrich product data, into the manufacturing environment for execution.At the same time, manufacturing and cost information can be exposedto engineering to make better product design decisions which reducecost and result in faster time-to-market. The following is a description ofsome critical PLM processes supported by Windchill ESI in combinationwith PTCs complete Product Development System.

The middleware business logic extensions are important for this complexintegration in two ways. First, their existence eliminates the need foreach customer to reinvent the wheel; PTC has already completed thedesign and development process for supported business scenarios.Second, the business logic extensions offload the responsibility ofunderstanding specific target system nuances to the middleware. Thissimplifies the integration design and makes it more scalable andmaintainable. If it werent for these extensions, each integrated systemwould have to understand specific details about how the other systemswork. For example, Windchill would need to understand that in SAP,one needs to create the change object before creating the material, andthe material must be created before the bill of material that referencesit. These are the types of rules that neither a Web service nor a PLMsystem should have to know or understand.

CapabilitiesWindchill ESI provides robust functionality, sophisticated transactionmanagement, a large number of configurable features, and an easy-to-use GUI customization environment. Windchill ESIs pre-built SAPintegration provides the following capabilities out-of-the-box:

Generate the PLM publication information package from PTCsPDS using pre-built business services (without additional programming)

Transform the PLM publication package for publication to ERP(without additional programming

Interface with ERP system standard application programminginterfaces (API's)

Publish the PLM publication information package to the targetsystem using pre-built business logic

Interact with the publication processes via simple graphical userinterfaces

Full completion of the publication transaction

Quickly implement and easily administer enterprise system integrations

Request that information be transferred to the PLM system fromother enterprise applications

Where such out-of-the-box integrations are not available, PTC offersstandards-based integration mechanisms, as well as partnerships withrecognized EAI industry leaders, and top-tier consultancies. The toolsand techniques PTC and its partners can offer will ensure that specialintegration needs are met while maximizing the use of standard methodsand APIs.

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As shown in Figure 2, Windchill ESI is built on a modular architectureto support a number of integration requirements. This integrationsolution provides a powerful layer of business logic, data translation,and robust communication control between Windchill and the targetsystem. Although PTC is bundling industry leading EnterpriseApplication Integration (EAI) software provided by TIBCO, WindchillESI begins with an open API layer of integration services on top ofWindchill that is designed to be EAI neutral, allowing other commercialmiddleware products to be used as necessary. This neutrality is possiblethrough a modular architecture and the use of industry standards forthe interface, specifically a number of Web services that are enabled viaSOAP over JMS (Java Message Service) for transactional integrity.

By using TIBCOs products (such as TIBCO Business Works) as a basefor the standard Windchill ESI offering, customers have access to alarge suite of pre-built application and technology adapters, as well asTIBCOs first rate GUI business logic development and administrationenvironment. Windchill ESI goes beyond other offerings and pre-builds the necessary business logic to support the publishing ofmany different types of product information to SAP. Windchill ESImakes full use of the TIBCO adapters to handle the lower level communications, such as the execution of specific APIs within the target system. The combination of these components supports theprocess of publishing information outward from Windchill to ensurethat the target systems get accurate, up-to-date, approved productinformation at the right points in the product lifecycle, and that it isalways consistent with the corresponding information in Windchill.This integration solution also supports a wide variety of other businessscenarios with its default settings and many configurable parameters.

WindchillIntegration

Services

BusinessLogic

TIBCOBusinessWorks

TIBCOSAP

AdapterSAP

OtherTIBCO

Adapters

OtherAdapters

OtherEAI

Vendors

OtherEnterpriseSystems

OtherEnterpriseSystems

Winchill Enterprise System Integration

Figure 2: Windchill ESI Architecture

PTC: The PLM Industry Leader

There is no single best way to develop products, and product leadershipcan be fleeting. Where great products once provided advantage for years,today the advantage may last only months as customers demand yet moreup-to-date technology and the latest product capabilities. With the speedof business itself much quicker, companies must strive for sustainedcompetitive advantage by refining their product development processesto consistently yield superior products faster. A solid integration strategyis critical to the overall process of delivering products to customers.

Many PLM vendors have integration strategies predicated on marketingrelationships or homegrown technologies, and require much time andexpense to deliver the PLM interoperability required for success.Manufacturers should watch out for key warning signs:

Integrations that require significant investment to custom buildbusiness logic and processes

Limited options in the type and depth of integrations offered

Lack of experience managing the complex relationships associatedwith CAD and product-related information in a distributed environment

Only PTC delivers a Product Development System with a robust foot-print and optimized architecture that fully supports end-to-end PLMprocesses. These processes include integrations to complementarydesktop productivity applications; heterogeneous CAD systems; enterprise systems like ERP, SCM, and CRM; and other PDM and databases. This technology is further complemented by PTCs range ofservice offerings that increases return-on-investment by lowering riskof deployment and ensuring successful wide-spread adoption of thePDS. Manufacturers benefit with the ability to quickly deploy solutions, preserve investments in existing IT infrastructure, and minimize custombuilding of integrations.

For More InformationFor more information about Windchill ESI or PTCs Product DevelopmentSystem, please visit PTC on the Web at www.ptc.com.

Copyright 2004, Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC) -- All rights reserved. Information describedherein is furnished for informational use only, is subject to change without notice, and should not be con-strued as a guarantee, commitment, condition or offer by PTC. PTC, the PTC Logo, Product First, The ProductDevelopment Company, Product Development Means Business, Create Collaborate Control, Windchill,Pro/ENGINEER, Wildfire, PTC Precision and all PTC product names and logos are trademarks or registeredtrademarks of PTC and/or its subsidiaries in the United States and in other countries. Microsoft is a regis-tered trademark of Microsoft Corp. TIBCO, TIBCO Software, TIBCO ActiveEnterprise, TIBCO Designer,TIBCO Enterprise for JMS, TIBCO Rendezvous, TIBCO Turbo XML, TIBCO BusinessWorks are the trademarksor registered trademarks of TIBCO Software Inc. in the United States and other countries. SAP is a regis-tered trademark of SAP AG Germany.

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Business BenefitsCustomers demand that key processes and product information flowseamlessly between functional groups and their respective enterprisesystems. Significant corporate knowledge developed and capturedduring the engineering process is typically only loosely connected todownstream order and fulfillment groups and systems. Further, keymanufacturing and supply chain information, if readily available to theengineering groups early in their design cycle, could lead to significantlybetter and less costly products. By integrating Windchill to ERP, cus-tomers can improve their operational efficiencies while also enablingvalue-creating opportunities not possible with isolated systems.

Windchill ESI brings value to the enterprise in three key benefit cate-gories. First and foremost, PTCs complete PDS, which includesWindchill ESI, provides infrastructure savings by mitigating the risk inenterprise software deployment with a qualified system that supportscritical end-to-end processes and proven implementation and trainingservices. Windchill ESI replaces custom integrations that are costly tomaintain and upgrade. Additionally, Windchill ESIs EAI technology-based architecture is fast and cost effective to deploy. Once imple-mented, Windchill ESIs EAI technology base can become an integrationhub connecting all other enterprise systems once again with minimalrisk and investment. This preserves investment in existing technologyand reduces cost of upgrades with industry standard interfaces. Lastly,Windchill ESI provides infrastructure savings by enabling all users inthe product development process to access the latest product infor-mation without manual data re-entry.

Windchill ESI also enables improvements in operating metrics byreducing the time required to transfer product designs from engineeringto manufacturing resulting in reduced time to prototype, time to production, and time-to-market. Furthermore, Windchill ESI can significantly reduce the wasted time and money spent when the wrongproduct information is used in manufacturing. These benefits centeron the fact that with Windchill ESI, management gains control overtheir critical business processes that span multiple functional groupsand enterprise systems enabling them to optimize those processes andexecute against them in a repeatable, low risk manner.

The greatest value potential for any investment is in the opportunityto improve ones strategic position relative to the competition. At PTC,we believe that a focus on improving and optimizing the execution ofcritical PLM process is the key to gaining a competitive advantagewhere it matters most in the product. Windchill ESI makes it possibleto integrate those critical PLM processes with other business processesand business systems enabling a seamless connection between criticalproduct development functions like engineering and manufacturing.

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