Siemens Teamcenter for Manufacturing

Siemens Teamcenter Manufacturing Foundation

In today’s highly competitive global marketplace, industry-leading companies need to develop and deliver world-class products. Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) makes that happen. An enterprise PLM system drives product and process innovation by enabling your company to build the right product. Siemens Teamcenter software is the world’s most widely used PLM system.

Teamcenter powers innovation and improves productivity by connecting people with the product and process knowledge they need to function effectively in a globally-oriented product lifecycle. Teamcenter’s proven digital lifecycle management solutions are built on an open PLM foundation. Teamcenter’s manufacturing planning and management solutions help manufacturers manage product and process knowledge in a single environment. The offering provides several collaboration and analytical tools to help companies perform manufacturing planning digitally and thereby avoid production stoppages because of design flaws.

With Teamcenter Manufacturing, companies are able to:

• Shorten product launch time by performing product design and manufacturing engineering concurrently
• Ensure accurate communication of manufacturing information to the shop floor
• Plan and optimize the layout of your manufacturing facilities digitally, well before you start production
• Avoid product quality issues by integrating quality parameters as part of the manufacturing planning process

Our Teamcenter Manufacturing offering covers all the modules below.

1. Manufacturing Process Planner (MPP)

Manufacturing companies often struggle to identify the relevance of engineering change orders for their manufacturing processes. Additionally, manufacturing engineers have only limited influence on the product design. Siemens Manufacturing Process Planner (MPP) enables you to manage your manufacturing data, process, resource, and plant information in an integrated product and production lifecycle environment. This provides a seamless alignment between your engineering bill of materials (BOM), manufacturing BOM and the manufacturing bill of process (BOP). You can be confident that your designed parts and assemblies are properly consumed by your manufacturing processes. You also have advanced time management features that can help you analyze value added and non-value added activities and support your lean initiatives. You can also generate 2D/3D work instructions to clearly communicate assembly steps to the shop floor.

The Manufacturing Process Planner user interface has a “dashboard” look and feel that greatly enhances your productivity by displaying the most relevant information in a single window. You also leverage Teamcenter’s powerful capabilities in managing variants and effectivity, workflows, access control, reporting and classification. Process Simulate can be accessed directly from Manufacturing Process Planner, so that you can perform detailed assembly simulation, ergonomic analysis and workplace optimizations.

Features of Manufacturing Process Planner (MPP):

• Intuitive, dashboard-style user interface
• Process authoring via best-in-class templates
• Powerful search and accountability checks for process validation prior to implementation
• Integrated environment for product, process, plant and resource data
• Global access to manufacturing process information
• Ensure production lines are balanced and optimized
• Plant specific bill-of-process to accelerate reuse of assembly processes across plants
• Time management and analysis of value added and non-value added activities
• 2D/3D work instructions for greater clarity to the shop floor
• Seamlessly integrated with Process Simulate for advanced process optimization analysis

Benefits of Manufacturing Process Planner (MPP):

• Increase your manufacturing planning productivity by up to 40 percent
• Increase collaboration between product design, manufacturing and shop floor execution
• Enable re-use of proven processes and resources
• Reduce cost of change with early detection and communication of product design issues

2. Manufacturing Resource Library (MRL)

Siemens Manufacturing Resource Library (MRL) is a Teamcenter application that provides classification and data management for manufacturing engineering resources. A typical use is as an advanced tool library where tool component and assembly data can be managed. The Manufacturing Resource Library provides powerful search, view and retrieval capabilities across a full classification system. NX CAM users have direct access to the library for tools, fixtures, templates and more.

Resources such as cutting tools in the library are categorized using Teamcenter classification technology. This arranges the data into a hierarchy with classes and sub-classes. For example, one class might cover all milling tools. Within each class, the system manages key characteristics such as tool length, cutting diameter, vendor and material, and you can search on these parameters. MRL uses integrated 2D/3D viewers so that you can visualize the tools as well.

MRL is designed to display tooling vendor catalogs, such as Sandvik or Kennametal, within the classification structure. MRL has standard mapping for the vendor-neutral Generic Tool Classification (GTC) standard, based on ISO 13399. This allows the tooling attributes and models from the vendor catalogs to be imported to the company’s components library.

The data stored within the Manufacturing Resource Library can be accessed directly from multiple systems, such as NX CAD, NX CAM, Line Designer and Shop Floor Integrate. Within NX CAM, the NC programmer can search for and retrieve fixtures, standard machining templates, machine models, and tool assemblies using menus in NX that connect directly to the MRL. The Manufacturing Resource Library can also be integrated with a tool management system, Shop Floor Integrate, to utilize the virtual tool data stored in Teamcenter to create the physical tools on the shop floor. For more information on this, please see the Shop Floor Integrate page.

Features of Manufacturing Resource Library (MRL):

The Manufacturing Resource Library ensures consistency by connecting planning and production. With MRL, you can:

• Library resources are marked to match shop floor preferences.
• Ensure planning adheres to production standards.
• Import vendor catalog data into Teamcenter
• Create new entries to match procurement decisions.
• Implement the use of approved production processes.
• Generate standardized tool setup instructions
• Search based on resource parameters

Benefits of Manufacturing Resource Library (MRL):

Using Manufacturing Resource Library in conjunction with Teamcenter to store machining data would provide a fully integrated manufacturing environment. This would help:

• Avoid duplication of tooling data
• Increase tool visibility throughout planning and production
• Quickly create tool and resource documentation
• Manage manufacturing resources within a shared library
• Increase product quality
• Reduce cycle time, by saving time recreating and searching for resource data
• Increase automation in engineering, NC programming and machining

3. Electronic Work Instructions (EWI)

Electronic Work Instructions (EWI) refers to computerized visual tools to instruct shop floor workers to perform their jobs. Unlike paper-based work instructions, electronic work instructions may also include 3D models of the parts to be assembled, information about the tools as well as product and manufacturing information (PMIs). In addition, EWI may be interactive, allowing the reader to manipulate the 3D view, play animated assembly sequences as well as browse through a sequential list of steps to be performed per job order. Detailed, highly visual and up-to-date work instructions can improve product quality, reduce rework and save time. The ability to manage work instruction documents per product configuration provides significant benefit not only for the initial generation of work instructions, but also for the flexibility to manage changes quickly is expected from a good work instruction solution. While authoring of the initial work instruction may require some effort, being able to manage the engineering changes and to reconcile them into the manufacturing structure is the most time-consuming task in manufacturing planning.

Features of Electronic Work Instructions (EWI):

• Clean and simple, mobile friendly user experience
• Web-based platform
• Configurable user interface themes
• Dynamic, configurable gateway
• View change information
• Full-text search on files and file contents
• View step by step bill of process
• View Work Instructions
• View Cortona 3D Animation
• Parts and Tool list per operation
• Submit issues, problem reports and change requests
• Visualize large and complex 3D product data without any installation

Benefits of Electronic Work Instructions (EWI):

• Ensure latest information is provided to shop floor, enhancing product quality, lessening rework and saving time
• Support collaboration between engineering and manufacturing
• Facilitate change management
• Streamline communication to the plant floor
• Promote paperless manufacturing
• Improve plant-level workforce performance and increase throughput
• Improve quality of production and end product

4. Manufacturing Work Instructions (Textual Work Instructions)

Creating an informative manufacturing routing is a critical component when constructing a product. Providing as much detail to your manufacturing process and operations enable a simpler direction for the users on the shop floor, promoting efficiency and overall quality of the product. Oftentimes, work instructions do not exist and products are solely built on tribal knowledge. If work instructions do exist, they are typically not revision controlled or up-to-date, or perhaps not even utilized on the shop floor. Teamcenter Manufacturing Process Planner (MPP) enables creating textual work instructions using standard text as building blocks. These textual work instructions can be tied to processes or operations within the routing.

Features of Manufacturing Work Instructions:

• Author and edit textual work instructions directly on process or operation
• Add images or symbols (ex. Note all safety requirements for the operation)
• Add data collection properties (ex. Require shop floor users to note torque value)
• Preview work instructions in several file formats (ex. PDF, DOCX)
• Easily query Teamcenter for standard text or dataset name

Benefits of Manufacturing Work Instructions:

• Consistent and standard method for providing textual work instructions throughout the entire company
• Enable change management and revision control, keeping work instructions up-to-date with current processes
• Simple navigation of textual work instructions tied directly to the manufacturing process plan
• Integrated into downstream products such as Electronic Work Instructions (EWI)

5. Active Workspace (AWS)

Throughout the complex product lifecycle, you are expected to make good decisions in the context of a large amount of input and data, often from a variety of sources. The Active Workspace client for Teamcenter software from Siemens PLM Software is an innovative web-based client platform that simplifies product lifecycle management (PLM) for all users involved in your product lifecycle. Active Workspace makes Teamcenter accessible by providing a streamlined and intuitive PLM user experience anytime, anywhere, on any device.

Features of Active Workspace (AWS):

• Clean and simple, mobile friendly user experience
• Web-based platform accessible on any device without a client or plug-in installation
• Context-aware summary views
• Dynamic, configurable gateway
• View assignments and participate in workflows
• View change information
• Create and revise items, upload files and edit object properties
• Submit issues, problem reports and change requests
• Full-text search on files and file contents
• Context-based filters on search results
• Search and filter data based on classification attributes
• Find and aggregate relevant PLM data stored in external systems
• Launch information into the appropriate authoring tool in context

Benefits of Active Workspace (AWS):

• Increase productivity by finding the right information, in the context of the task, faster and easier than ever before
• Avoid costly mistakes and make smarter decisions by seeing the big picture in greater clarity
• Reach your extended enterprise users and harness their knowledge by providing simple and intuitive access to PLM anytime, anywhere, on any device

6. Bill of Materials (BOM) Management

Teamcenter software delivers bill-of-materials (BOM) management capabilities that enable you to know your product; whether it consists of 10 parts in a single configuration managed with basic processes and tools, or it is a highly-complex product with millions of parts in thousands of configurations, requiring more advanced tools, flexibility and scalability.

BOM Management Features:

• Provide a definitive source of BOM information and the tools needed to analyze them
• Support rigorous management of product content and variability
• Work-in-context capabilities provide tailored visibility to the BOM
• Extend BOM support to include the entire lifecycle
• Integrate mission-critical enterprise applications to facilitate synchronization and collaboration

BOM Management Benefits:

• Ensure accuracy with a complete BOM definition
• Provide clarity with BOM analysis capabilities
• Improve success with product configuration capabilities
• Reduce risk with digital validation of product configurations in context
• Reduce errors with automated data synchronization across product views
• Improve productivity and collaboration with work-in-context capabilities
• Eliminate rework and reduce costs by sharing your BOM downstream

7. Siemens Product Configurator

You use the Product Configurator to define variant data for your company, and then associate it with product items and product models. Using the Product Configurator allows you to create comprehensive variant data for various Teamcenter applications in a single location. These definitions are used by other applications, for example, 4G Designer, in which you apply the defined variability to the CAD designs. You can also create items to represent variant option libraries and products in other applications (typically, in My Teamcenter) and send them to the Product Configurator.

Product Configurator Features:

• Logical features
  
• Requirements
• Product line breakdown
• Program targets
• Market-facing product models
• Market-facing (sales) features
• Marketing constraints
• Engineering and technical features
• Map sales to technical features
• Technical constraints
• Features mapped to user manual content
• Documentation features
• Manufacturing and process features
• Mapping of engineering to manufacturing feature
• Manufacturing constraints

Product Configurator Benefits:

• Ensure system variability and requirements compliance accountability
  
• Ensure program decisions and targets are tracked and accounted for through product development process
• Provide product planning input to engineering and design
• Design, clearance for a range of configurations, at once
• Identify if any parts are missing or incomplete for any variant
• Directly consume and react to marketing inputs
• Automate inclusion of only relevant product documentation
• Directly leverage engineering variability and configurations to ensure process plan consistency without duplication
• Configure a product with the features customers want
• Visualize customer orders as they make decisions
• Ensure customers do not see choices that are not relevant to their orders
• Consistently managing all variability in one central repository
• Managing one or many corporate dictionaries of all features offered across all product lines
• For each product line or product model, specifying exactly the subset of features that are relevant and allowed
• Enabling intuitive and efficient grid-based and table-based user interaction
• Enabling management of configurator data separate from product data
• Allowing marketing users, engineers, and even dealers and sales engineers to define, react to, and leverage variability through the product definition process

8. Teamcenter Change Management

One of the largest challenges in the manufacturing industry is managing changes. The most important component to effective change management is to completely understand the impact of a presented change. Teamcenter Change Management offers several tools to enable the users to continuously and systematically improve the product. Through advanced workflow capability, changes in design intent can be traced to all related dependencies and decisions across the lifecycle of a product. Users can directly assess the impact of the change and compare revisions of the product. Within Teamcenter, users can initiate, administer, review, sign-off and execute product changes within a single, pre-configured workflow. The change history will remain associated to the product throughout its lifecycle, supporting full traceability.

Features of Teamcenter Change Management:

• Integrated with both Schedule Manager and Workflow Teamcenter applications
• Users can see graphical representation of the change history as well as change related documents
• Users can easily understand the entire scope of impacted people, data and business processes
• Workflows are automated to distribute change documents to the required reviewers
• Workflows immediately notify users of a change
• Workflows support linear, parallel and conditional paths so users have the ability to resolve a change flexibly
• Simple to participate in change management processes with little to no training

Benefits of Teamcenter Change Management:

• Minimized change related rework
• Reduce risk with a full understanding of the impact of a change
• Continuous improvement across multiple disciplines
• Rapid product improvement
• Manage the issues and improvements throughout the progression of a product
• Execute changes quickly, meticulously and comprehensively to meet customer needs
• Optimize change processes and support audits

Engineering’s Advantage

Siemens Teamcenter software offering is the world’s most widely used PLM system. While most companies see Teamcenter as a tool to manage engineering data alone, we focus on Teamcenter to bridge the gap between engineering and production as it relates to manufacturing. With a true concurrent engineering solution that allows parallel execution of product engineering and process planning activities, you can drastically improve profitability, time-to-market and quality.

Interested in speaking to one of our experts? Contact us at info@indx.com.