PTC Honored with STAR Award for Overall Operational Excellence in Technology Professional Services

Technology Services Industry Peers Honor PTC's Commitment to Continuous Improvement in Service and Support

NEEDHAM, Mass. - Nov. 15, 2010 - PTC® (NASDAQ: PMTC), The Product Development Company®, today announced it has been named the winner of the Fall 2010 Technology Services Industry Association (TSIA) STAR Award for Overall Operational Excellence in Technology Professional Services. The award was announced October 20 at the Technology Services World conference in Las Vegas. 

The award recognizes PTC for achieving exceptional organizational maturity across all areas of the professional services business. These include developing people, building customer relationships, and delivering high quality services to customers.  

With more than 20 years experience in implementing complex product development systems, PTC Global Services believes that a successful customer program occurs through a strategic partnership that is focused on achieving customer value. PTC's Value Centric Engagement approach enables customers to maximize their product development investments by building a roadmap to value that leverages industry best practices, the appropriate governance, a shared delivery model, and a value scorecard that measures client specific metrics for success. This approach helps customers achieve real, measurable value from their PLM (product lifecycle management) implementations. This concept of realized value underlies PTC's delivery strategy which utilizes its proprietary Realized Value Platform (RVP), a comprehensive set of field-tested intellectual property configured to meet customer specific implementation needs and to deliver an efficient, high-quality PLM implementation. 

"Customer value is the center of everything we deliver," said Marc Diouane, executive vice president global services, PTC.  "Our expertise, capabilities and capacity enable PTC customers to realize value through the full lifecycle of deploying an enterprise PLM solution.  We work to create a partnership with our customers to improve product development performance through technology-enabled process improvements.  The TSIA STAR award is validation that PTC is committed to customer service and support." 

"The here-and-now realities facing today's services organizations present a multitude of challenges and PTC has clearly demonstrated its high-level commitment to delivering world-class results," said J.B. Wood, CEO, TSIA. 

Companies seeking the STAR Award undergo a rigorous evaluation process, with the winners selected by TSIA's service discipline advisory board members. Since 1990, the STAR Awards have become one of the highest honors in the service and support industry, acknowledging the contribution of companies of all sizes to the continual improvement of service and support delivery industry-wide. For information on the STAR Awards, go towww.tsia.com/awards_and_certifications/star_awards.html

Tommy Bahama Selects PTC for Seamless Supply Chain Collaboration

PTC Solution to be Cloud Hosted

NEEDHAM, MA. -  December 6, 2011 - PTC^® (Nasdaq: PMTC), The Product Development Company^®, today announced that Tommy Bahama, the lifestyle clothing company that defines elegant island living, has selected PTCFlexPLM^® Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) software for its ability to improve operational efficiencies by enabling seamless supply chain collaboration. Such collaboration and efficiency will allow Tommy Bahama to achieve reduced product development cycle time and further grow its global business. 

Since it began almost 20 years ago, Tommy Bahama has been helping consumers "make life one long weekend" with its unique approach to fashion. The company's collection of products is intended to transport consumers to an island state of mind. Yet, producing items that range from clothing to home furnishings to food is a highly complex process. Added to the inherent challenges of a diverse product line are market challenges that require retailers to adapt to new ways of doing business. 

"Changes in the global market, consumer behaviors and mobility have had a major impact on the retail industry. At Tommy Bahama, we have recognized that successfully adapting to those trends requires an optimized supply chain," said Doug Wood, President and COO of the Tommy Bahama Group.  "PTC FlexPLM offers the breadth and depth of PLM functionality we need to enhance product visibility throughout the design and merchandising processes - and ultimately increase the efficiency of our supply chain." 

PTC's Windchill-based enterprise PLM solution for the Retail and Consumer industries is designed to address both industry-specific challenges and everyday business pressures. It offers a high-performance, Web-based platform that provides line planning, specification management, merchandizing, and other essential PLM capabilities for managing the complete product lifecycle. 

For Tommy Bahama, PTC has partnered with NetIDEAS to deliver FlexPLM as a cloud hosted solution. A long-time PTC partner, NetIDEAS has been hosting Windchill on demand for over a decade. 

"Today the retail industry is undergoing a major evolution highlighted by the need to improve operational efficiencies across the supply chain," said Beth Borland, Director of Retail and Consumer Market Strategy, PTC.  "Tommy Bahama has recognized this shift and the distinct need for more advanced PLM functionality. We are excited they have chosen to work with PTC as a market leading and forward looking company."

PTC and Hornby Hobbies Continue Education Drive in 2012

Scalextric4Schools competition uses real-life challenges and real-life tools to help build interest in science, engineering and maths

Farnborough, UK -  November 15, 2011 - PTC (Nada: PMTC), The Product Development Company®, today announced continued support of the Scalextric4schools Design / Make / Race Challenge during 2012.  The competition aims to inspire young students to consider design and engineering in higher education and as careers.  Over 500 schools participate annually, many incorporating the competition into curriculums.

PTC sponsors the challenge along with its UK partner, Root Solutions, and and Hornby Hobbies Limited, long-time user of PTC solutions for the design, manufacture and documentation of its world-renowned Scalextric, Hornby, Corgi and Airfix branded products.

“The initial idea of this challenge was to engage with students and help them learn about design and engineering by building and racing their very own Scalextric cars,” said Paul Chandler, marketing manager at Scalextric.  “Each year the students surpass expectations showing genuine talent as well as enthusiasm and innovation in the development of their cars.”

The 2012 challenge will be showcased at The Design & Technology with ICT Education Show at the NEC from 17-19 November 2011 (booth E52).  Teachers will be able to view the F3 circuit and 40 metre Bloodhound SSC track and students are invited to talk to experts and test their designs by “racing what they bring.”

Children educated at home or individuals and schools without their own CNC equipment can have their designs manufactured at one of the four schools who support the challenge.  And, for those schools and individuals who want to take part, the 2012 competition will be held late in June at RAF Museum, Cosford, where teams will compete for the coveted Scalextric4Schools Champion trophy.

“Launched 4 years ago, the Scalextric4schools program has grown in both  the number of schools participating and the breadth of knowledge and enthusiasm that the students bring,” said Tim Brotherhood, curriculum development manager for PTC. “We are pleased to be able to offer the students a great introduction to engineering, using a brand they can relate to.  And the fun factor is a nice enticement to get students to look at engineering or design as a future career,” concluded Brotherhood.

All the resources needed to get started are available on the challenge Website at:
www.scalextric4schools.org

Design Agility: Increasing your Ability to Adapt to Change

By BARB SCHMITZ | Published: DEC 13, 2011

One of the most prominent trends in today’s markets is the reality that the customer is now king. Consumers are demanding ever more innovative products that are tailored specifically to their needs, dictating the types of features and functionality they require, and as a result, are driving the direction of many different types of products.

As the result, the ability to respond quickly to changes is key to surviving in today’s turbulent and competitive markets, whether you’re making cars, cell phones or other consumer products. Bottom line: Product design today must be agile, iterative, and flexible. Manufacturers must strive to offer greater product customization or variety, but continue to keep unit costs low.

Another factor that increases the need for design agility is the prevalence of collaborative design. Product design now requires input from many divergent groups within a company, including sales and marketing, logistics, accounting and finance, manufacturing, engineering, Quality, and possibly even customers and suppliers. These collaborative team members weigh in and offer input throughout all the various stages of design—from concept through to production—so the ability to respond to change requests quickly, nimbly and continuously is essential.

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” –Charles Darwin

Design agility, by definition, is a manufacturer’s ability to react quickly to sudden, unpredicted changes in customer demands or market changes for products. Flexibility is essential to respond to changes that are inevitable during the development cycle as customers change their minds, markets shift, and new technologies arise. Design agility requires that manufacturers design products that can either be quickly evolved or can be customized to meet customers’ specified requirements and changes in the market.

Companies can increase their ability to respond to such changes in product requirements bydeveloping families of products (often referred to as product platforms) that are designed for modularity and reconfigurability. These modular product structures enable manufacturers to adapt a product late in the design cycle or in manufacturing—or even in distribution—to better suit the needs of an individual consumer with as little disruption as possible.

By doing so, they are better able to quickly respond to changing market conditions or customer requests by making slight modifications to base or modular designs to create newly customized products. Manufacturers also need to be able to reconfigure processes or systems to accommodate sudden changes in product designs.

Product development processes can decrease flexibility

Many strategies put in place to foster product innovation may actually thwart manufacturers’ efforts to increase design agility. Phased product development processes that emphasize heavy up-front planning coupled with established project management methodologies promote an organized plan-your-work, work-your-plan approach to product design.

At the beginning, the project has complete flexibility but by the end of the initial planning or concept phase, the project budget, schedule and product requirements (design intent) are established and approved. From here on, the design process has restricted flexibility. While these approaches have their advantages, they can also make it difficult to make changes midstream in development.

While last-minute design changes are inevitable, this staged approach requires designers and engineering to anticipate what those changes might be during the planning phase. While this approach keeps design projects on schedule and within budget, it can also hamper the design team’s ability to deal with design changes as they arise, which can often be later in the design cycle.

Parametric modelers can facilitate design agility by making it easier to deal with last-minute product changes. When designs are created in a history-based parametric CAD system, the user can make a requested change, and then leverage the model’s parametric interdependencies to propagate changes throughout the rest of the model. If, however, the user making the change doesn’t understand the underlying model structure or if the change lies outside the tolerable parametric ranges, issues can arise. Often this requires engineers to start from scratch.

Direct modeling systems can make it much easier to deal with these last-minute design changes. With direct modelers, users can make changes to the model at any time, though design intent can be lost. A hybrid approach that utilizes both parametric and direct modeling tools can help design teams by providing them with flexibility and the design intelligence provided by parametric interdependencies.

Times-Journal: Students to tackle Real World Challenge

By ADMIN | Published: DEC 13, 2011

“Seven Fort Payne High Schools students were given $1 million worth of engineering software to design a lightweight aircraft… The students have been challenged to design an aircraft using Creo Elements and Mathcad and test the aircraft using Fluid Flow EFD. All design will be done on computer, so the students won’t actually have to build a scale model.”

Read the full article here.

Design Engineering: Rapid product development with PTC Creo Direct Modeling Express

By ADMIN | Published: DEC 12, 2011

“CAD expert Ben Eadie demonstrates how to quickly move from product concept to completed 3D model to saleable, 3D printed product using Creo Elements/Direct Modeling Express. Along the way, he walks through how to sketch, extrude, mirror and otherwise model and refine geometry in PTC’s free version of Creo Elements/Direct (formerly CoCreate).”

See the full article and watch the demonstration here

Real World Design Challenge for Future Engineers

By LINDSEY CHRISTENSEN | Published: DEC 9, 2011

There’s nothing quite like real world experience for engaging students.  And engineers, notorious for their passion to work hands-on, know this better than anyone.  That’s the motivation behind the Real World Design Challenge sponsored in part by PTC.  Every year RWDC presents high school students across the US with an actual design challenge being faced by real organizations- then sets them to work.

According to RWDC Director Dr. Ralph K. Coppola, “the Real World Design Challenge is a public-private partnership dedicated to sustainably increasing the STEM workforce – that’s really our goal”.

This year the competing teams must tackle the complex design challenges of the aerospace industry.  In a nutshell, the students must design an efficient, low-carbon-emission and environmentally friendly personal light sport aircraft.

The industry of focus and design project for the contest vary every year but the objective remains the same – encourage and inspire the next generation of problem-solving engineers.  RWDC “keeps it real” in five key areas:

• REAL PROBLEMS – Provides a practical application of classroom curriculum
• REAL TOOLS – Inspires students by showing them what is at their fingertips
• REAL ROLES – Requires teamwork, leadership and problem solving skills
• REAL DESIGNS – Fosters creativity, critical thinking, and innovation
• REAL CONTRIBUTIONS – Students can make a difference

Amongst other solutions provided, participants will design their proposed “green aircrafts” within a complimentary edition of Creo . Using commercial-grade professional tools like Creo is one of the cornerstones of the competition.  These teenagers get to access the same design tools being used at some of the top companies in the world.  To help them along the way PTC also provides connections and access to mentors from its partner organizations across America.

The winning teams from the participating states will receive all expense paid trip to Washington, D.C. to compete at the National Challenge Event in April 2012. For additional information contact Dr. Coppola at rcoppola@ptc.com or check out the Real World Design Challenge website www.realworlddesignchallenge.org.