New technologies are paving the way for a shift to a new digital revolution. Pundits see this shift as the 4th Industrial revolution, characterized by the fusion of technologies blurring the lines between physical and digital components. This technological revolution will create new business models and completely change the way you do business with both internal and external entities. Already you’re seeing the popularized introduction of blockchain, industrial internet of things (IIOT), additive manufacturing, and others.
Organizations face the struggle of optimizing the product life cycle processes while technology advances and products become more complex. Success is determined by the ability to efficiently manage all the moving parts. Now that ThingWorx is collecting that data, how are you utilizing it in your enterprise? That data requires extending this information back into your Product Development and Manufacturing systems to close the loop and drive innovation.
Recently, PLM integration expert PROSTEP collaborated with PTC about the integration of digital and physical product worlds. PROSTEP has developed solutions for connecting PTC's IoT platform ThingWorx to the PLM systems 3D EXPERIENCE, Teamcenter, and SAP PLM. With PROSTEP’s OpenPDM technology, PROSTEP’s API for the Digital Thread enables digital product information to link with the operating data of a real product, which then converges on the IoT platform.
Through an API for the Digital Thread, OpenPDM helps ThingWorx extend its capabilities with data mapping and workflow definition functions that can be used to manage the entire process involved in synchronizing data between connected systems. OpenPDM not only provides standardized connectors to commercial PLM solutions but also to applications like Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) and requirements management as well as IoT integration. The standard configurations support read access to the PLM data from ThingWorx and visualization of the data in PTC Navigate. Depending on customer requirements, they can also be configured for data export.
To learn more about ThingWorx Integration, PROSTEP’s connecters are on the PTC Marketplace located here and PROSTEP’s API for the Digital Thread here.
Joseph Lopez, PLM Marketing Specialist at PROSTEP INC, a leading vendor-independent PLM consulting company for the discrete manufacturing industry. With 250+ employees throughout and 20+ years of experience, PROSTEP specializes in PLM consultancy services, engineering solutions, and expert implementation in providing leading global manufacturing companies with the support they require for designing and optimizing their internal and cross-enterprise development processes.
