During Episode Two of LiveWorx: The Limited Series, The New Frontier of Product Development, live viewers were able to submit their questions to PTC featured guests during the Impact of Technology Segment. Jon Hirschtick, Executive Vice President & GM of Onshape & Atlas, Linda Lokay, Product Management VP, Advanced Development, and Kevin Wrenn, Executive Vice President, Products had a lively discussion with Host, Katie Linendoll where they explored all things product development: agility, SaaS, generative design, disruption, digital thread, and how the engineering function can be a key pillar to digital transformation. If you haven't yet watched Episode Two, sign up to watch it on-demand now!
While the featured guests weren't able to answer all questions live, we have taken the opportunity to answer them through this post. Here are some of the outstanding answers to viewers' burning questions!
Question: How does the product development team of an organization have a role in a company's success and what is their common objective taking every type of organization into consideration?
Answer: Product development is one of the most important functions of any organization. After all, companies exist to create value for their customers and the main way companies do that is with the delivery of innovative products. A company with a strong product development organization and strategy can create new products or improve the performance, cost, or quality of existing products in ways that delight the customer. The strategy helps a company achieve business goals, such as entering new markets, selling more to existing customers, or winning business from competitors.
Question: How does product development have a major role in a company's success? How collaborative can a product development team be with other teams to complete the project and to release on time?
Answer: Product development is a team sport. In fact, industry analyst firm CIMdata has coined the term "collaborative product definition management" which is sometimes referred to as collaborative product development management. Either way, the concept is that engineering, marketing, sales, procurement, manufacturing, service, and nearly every function across an enterprise can, and should, be a "player" in the "sport" of product development. As a result, companies must deploy collaboration tools to enable that teamwork to take place and be well managed. Product development technology tools like PTC's Windchill, Arena, Creo, and Onshape are great examples of such tools.
Question: How does the digital thread concept match with the product development and manufacturing of products in an organization?
Answer: A digital thread strategy provides a path to effectively managing data, circumventing productivity bottlenecks, and fostering enterprise-wide collaboration, while increasing market agility, and driving business value in the digital age. When data resides in multiple operational domains, concerns arise about multiple sources of truth, duplicated efforts, access control and security, interoperability, and inaccessibility. The digital thread knocks down these barriers and equips industrial enterprises with the flexibility and agility required to drive business outcomes across the value chain. Enterprises connecting technologies, domain systems, and data with a digital thread can react quickly to shifting market conditions and impact key financial and operational metrics.
Question: What are the capabilities and enhancements launched with Creo 8, which the competition does not offer?
Answer: Creo 8.0 empowers increases in user productivity through expansions to Creo's Model-Based Definition (MBD), Generative Design, and Ansys-powered simulation capabilities. Enhancements to the product include improvements related to model-based design (MBD), simulation, generative design, and additive manufacturing. PTC announced the details of Creo 8.0 in a press release on April 28, which can be found here.
Let us know if you have additional detailed questions about PTC Products and want to learn more. This is just part one of Episode Two: Your Questions Answered. Stay tuned for part two to be published later this week! If you missed the live airing of Episode Two: The New Frontier of Product Development, sign up to watch it on-demand now and register for the series finale on June 24th where you'll have the opportunity to ask PTC experts your own questions!
