Automation engineers often need access to detailed product engineering and manufacturing planning/process information, as well as assembly/disassembly instructions and animations, and quality information. With Teamcenter Mobility, a new mobile device application from Siemens PLM Software, shop floor workers can digitally review the most current version of information immediately, rather than working with cumbersome paper documents or trying to find a computer or terminal where they can log-in.
Siemens PLM Software (www.siemens.com/plm) is a business unit of the Siemens Industry Automation Division and a provider of product lifecycle management (PLM) software and services. Teamcenter Mobility enables the user to search, display and interact with detailed product information, including 3D product models. The initial implementation is being deployed via iPad with additional platform and functionality support to be announced at a later date.
“Due to their accelerated worldwide adoption and their role as a company’s single source of all product and process knowledge, PLM systems have become a competitive necessity for the global manufacturing community,” said Joe Barkai, practice director, product lifecycle strategies, IDC Manufacturing Insights. “However, in order to effectively leverage this vast pool of information for fast and intelligent decision making, it needs to be made instantly available to all stakeholders in the product lifecycle process at the point of activity that decisions are made. Teamcenter Mobility helps make valuable product knowledge much more accessible to a significantly broader audience of users throughout the extended enterprise.”
WiFi or mobile broadband needed
Teamcenter Mobility allows instant access — from WiFi or mobile broadband-available locations — to comprehensive product and manufacturing process information managed by Siemens Teamcenter® software, a digital lifecycle management solution. Through the use of this new app, companies can improve their ability to find and use product data and workflows when it’s needed, to enhance the speed and accuracy of decisions.
“Teamcenter Mobility is an exciting and significant evolutionary step in delivering the HD-PLM vision we announced last summer,” says Chuck Grindstaff, president, Siemens PLM Software. “By making up-to-the-minute Teamcenter data available at the necessary point of activity, our customers can act immediately on accurate information and further reduce their design and production cycle times. This is entirely consistent with the vision of HD-PLM: to help our customers make smarter decisions that result in better products, thus enabling them to establish the competitive advantage of being the first to deliver innovative solutions the market will embrace.”
Grindstaff says the need to instantly and securely deliver Teamcenter managed data to more – and sometimes unconventional – locations has increased. “Teamcenter is the most widely used PLM system in the automotive and aerospace industries, and is used extensively in other industries such as consumer products, shipbuilding and high tech electronics. Companies in all these industries need to rely not only on the valuable input of typical office-based personnel, but also on critical feedback from individuals who may be working in less conventional locations,” he says.
The mobile manufacturing workforce can include executives who spend a significant amount of time in airports, on airplanes or attending meetings at remote locations. It could also include field personnel working inside a partially assembled airplane fuselage or walking the shop floor of an automotive assembly line. “Teamcenter Mobility enables these individuals to quickly search, view and interact with product and process workflow information on the spot using a convenient mobile device. This enables decision makers to make critical decisions without delay using the most up-to-date information, while allowing contributors to provide their unique perspective in real-time,” says Grindstaff.
For more on moblie manufacturing applications and state-of-the-art HMIs, see "Smart phones and tablets: How to achieve platform independence and industrial-grade reliability."
Renee Robbins Bassett, Managing Editor, Automation World, [email protected]
Siemens PLM Software www.siemens.com/plm
Teamcenter Software www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en_us/products/teamcenter
For more information from Siemens, see:
Teamcenter Mobility YouTube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wH-B_2eKxJQ
Siemens whitepaper http://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en_us/Images/Siemens-PLM-Teamcenter-Mobility-Strategy-PLM-Users-wp_tcm1023-121574.pdf
