During Episode Two of LiveWorx: The Limited Series, The New Frontier of Product Development, live viewers submitted questions to featured guests including Jon Hirschtick, Executive Vice President & GM of Onshape & Atlas, Linda Lokay, Product Management VP, Advanced Development, and Kevin Wrenn, Executive Vice President, Products of PTC as well as LiveWorx Host, Katie Linendoll and Kelly Bryant, Deputy Section Manager, Mechanical Design/Drafting & Manufacturing, Jacobs Engineering.
Topics covered include product development, organizational and engineering agility, as well as cutting-edge technical concepts and tools like SaaS, generative design, simulation-based design, and digital thread to name a few. If you haven't yet watched Episode Two, sign up to watch it on-demand now!
We answered some questions in part one of this post and are excited to provide the answers to the remaining questions below!
Question: I just had a look into the possibility to extend and manage the Design platform of Windchill with the manufacturing view on a recent PTC demo which will make the management of changes more flexible and quicker. I have the specific question regarding change management. How are the changes coming from the integration and V&V activities taken into account during both design & manufacturing phases?
Answer: If I understand your question below, you are interested to know how you can leverage Windchill to ensure complete change management traceability. With Windchill and ThingWorx Navigate (for casual PLM users) no matter where a problem report or change request originates—whether within engineering, supply chain, or manufacturing —product changes ripple across cross-discipline deliverables. If you have any more detailed product questions, we'd love to answer them! Reach out here for additional follow-up.
Question: So whilst integrating the virtual world into the real world is a good idea & undeniably good for large businesses, when you think about SME’s typically they don’t have as wide a skill set within their staff members or possibly the same amount of money to invest in these solutions. What key areas would you say are important for product development that PTC can offer?
Answer: At PTC, we find that smaller organizations often have just as much complexity in their product innovation as the very largest companies. That's where technology can really add value - by enabling those organizations with perhaps limited staff and skills to innovate at the same speed and scale as their larger competitors. Simultaneously, smaller companies are often more agile in the collaboration they have with supply chain partners and can be more nimble in bringing necessary talent on board in a "gig" style format. SaaS-based product development tools from PTC, such as Onshape and Arena, and purpose-built to enable this kind of business agility.
Question: How will modern Agile tools pave their way into traditional regulated development processes in Aerospace or Automotive Industries (like DO178/ISO26262)?
Answer: The introduction of agile product development processes can be a challenge for many organizations, but the benefits are many - including speed of innovation, reduction of risk, and an increase in flexibility. For those safety-critical industries, the benefits can sometimes seem out of reach. However, modern product development tools can fully support agile development teams who need to meet regulatory requirements with features such as traceability, quality compliance, and process non-conformance.
Question: Mr. Bryant, I did really appreciate your reference to the change from the classic “geometric” way of thinking to an “organic shape” of things. Too often we are bound to simple shapes because we grew up learning that it’s more cost-effective. As a mechanical engineer too, I’m thinking about all the processes next to the design when the objects have to be manufactured somehow. Do you think that a classic CNC based machine could keep up with this change or do they need to be upgraded too? If yes, how would you imagine this change?
Answer: This response is from PTC, not Mr. Bryant. It is quite right to point out that engineers are trained to approach problem-solving with certain constraints, such as cost or time. As a contrast, however, Mother Nature faces no such constraints. As a result, "organic" shapes and structures found in nature can often be unlike any human engineers may conceive of. The creation of those shapes and structures is also likely to push the limits of existing subtractive manufacturing processes and, thus, may well require the introduction of more additive manufacturing processes, such as 3D printing.
Question: Thank you for the opportunity to join the episode. With modern technology and future works, why is it that Cancer still has no cure nor treatment as per SARS?
Answer: At PTC, our mission is to enable manufacturers with the power to create a better world. We are pleased to support many organizations in the medical device and life sciences industries that are battling many of the world's most intractable challenges. We are excited by the rapid progress such organizations have made in so many areas and are hopeful that even Cancer will meet its match in the future.
Be sure to sign up to watch Episode Two: The New Frontier of Product Development on-demand and register for the series finale on June 24th where you'll have the opportunity to ask PTC experts your own questions!
