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When is GPSL S1000D for Windchill not right for Windchill PLM?

Supporting S1000D

Your engineering business has invested in using PTC Windchill PLM to manage enterprise-wide requirements.

Whether you are in design, simulation, or manufacturing, your organization can maintain product data using PTC Windchill. This places your content in a closed-loop environment, ensuring a seamless engineering process. However, you still see disconnects between your engineering content and other parts of the organization, like technical documentation.

Perhaps your Technical Publications team is already operating in S1000D, disconnected from your engineering processes, or maybe the business has just approached a new contract that requires S1000D.

Your business needs to decide how it will implement and manage S1000D content and how it will integrate those processes into the larger project lifecycles.

There are dozens of S1000D solutions available in the marketplace. Many of them will meet the requirements, but they may not help sustain a supportability model over time.

As a Windchill user, when you are looking to update your S1000D solution or implement one for the first time, the question is do you extend your existing Windchill PLM capabilities to support S1000D or not?

How do you know if adding S1000D functionality to Windchill is a good idea?

Why adding S1000D to PTC windchill is a smart move

There are pros and cons to all the S1000D solutions in the market.

Like comparable solutions, S1000D for PTC Windchill supports multiple versions of S1000D, has a modern GUI, uses web-based technology so users can access from anywhere in the world, and provides an interface to logistics support analysis (LSA) tools.

However, some benefits are unique to users of Windchill PLM.


BOM Transformation

When engineering and service content live in the same system, data can be reused for multiple purposes. With access to the Engineering BOM (EBOM) in Windchill PLM, authors can leverage this source to create a Service BOM (SBOM) and automatically generate parts lists. An EBOM represents how a product is designed while an SBOM can represent how a product is serviced; both are supported with related part objects. The engineering part is linked to the service version of the same part. The SBOM derived from the EBOM creates a digital thread between engineering and service and enables full change management.


Change Management

Data on the entire lifecycle from engineering to service content being contained in one system makes it much easier to connect pieces. The biggest benefit of integrating S1000D into Windchill is the ability to link from design data to technical publications. Any update made at the design level notifies downstream that a change has been made so the content can be updated. Technical publications can be started earlier in the engineering process then kept in sync with the design data.


Single Instance Management

Supporting an enterprise often requires an array of software solutions. Multiple point solutions can become overwhelming to support. Since Windchill S1000D is an extension to Windchill PLM, it incorporates into your existing environment without bringing another software instance into the architecture. Windchill S1000D can be run as a standalone S1000D solution, but most customers prefer the reduced effort it takes to support the system by using the existing Windchill PLM instance.


PTC Tool Integration

S1000D for Windchill is one module that can be added to Windchill, but PTC’s portfolio extends beyond PLM and S1000D. Windchill S1000D is built on the same architecture as the PLM tools. Therefore, integration with the other PTC solutions including Augmented Reality, Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), LSA, as well as GPSL’s Interactive Electronic Technical Publication (IETP) technology ViewPoint is readily available.

For all new programs that require S1000D-compliant information, it is hard to think of reasons not to add S1000D to Windchill to deliver your content.

S1000D for PTC Windchill is not the only solution available on the market, but if you are a Windchill PLM user, it makes a very compelling case. It offers unique benefits to your authors but also your wider engineering team.

Why Now?

In the past, Technical Publications were classically viewed as a cost center.

Providing maintenance, repair, and troubleshooting documentation was part of the cost of doing business and a secondary process to the main focus of design engineering and product development.

Authors often had to wait until the very end of the design process to begin producing documentation. If authors did begin early, keeping changes in sync with design engineering could be cumbersome.

Even in an environment using XML and structured authoring best practices, the disconnect between engineering and downstream content added time and cost.

In the current marketplace, technical documentation is getting more attention.

With new methods of interacting with documentation like AR and increased focus on supportability and (of course) safety, the service offering from original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) is now a differentiator.

As the importance of technical documentation has increased, so has the demand to maintain up-to-date and accurate information in the field. This makes a disconnect between your engineering and service information an even greater problem.

The digital thread closes the gap between engineering and service content (in any delivery format). New IETP viewing technology like GPSL ViewPoint extends the digital thread right out to the Field Service Technician by integrating directly with Windchill. Now, more than ever, this enhanced level of connectivity is expected throughout the technical information chain.

S1000D for PTC Windchill allows you to create this digital thread within your existing Windchill PLM environment.

This means that you can meet current and future S1000D service information requirements in a cost-effective and operationally effective way.

Why Not?

If you are a Windchill PLM customer and you need to create and deliver S1000D content, we are confident that S1000D for PTC Windchill is right for you.

Please get in touch asap if you have Windchill PLM, need to deliver S1000D content, and don't think S1000D for Windchill is the solution...we'd love to hear from you!

Working with GPSL

Due to the global nature of our company, all of our customer support services have been designed to be carried out remotely. So, although we'd prefer to come and meet you and scribble together over a whiteboard, we are just as effective when we have to share a whiteboard online.

You can take part in our customer analysis workshops and S1000D training courses online so the current travel restrictions do not need to stop you from fixing issues with current projects or making future plans.

If you want to find out more about adding S1000D to your PTC windchill PLM or just want to chat through your general project requirements, please get in touch with us here.

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