UGS Corp. has announced Version 2 of Teamcenter Express, adding a
variety of new features it hopes will help extend its collaborative PDM
(cPDM) expertise into the SMB (small- and medium-business) manufacturing
market. Teamcenter Express is part of the UGS Velocity Series portfolio,
first defined by UGS in 2005 as a way to deliver the enterprise-class
features of product lifecycle management (PLM) software to smaller
manufacturers.
UGS is defining Teamcenter Express carefully as a cPDM product, with
the emphasis on the “c.” “The collaborative aspect is very important,”
UGS's Dave Chadwick told CADCAMnet. “Our functionality for design
review—the ability to package up data and send it out to others to view
and mark-up in a controlled environment, is key.”
Teamcenter Express Version 2 introduces “XpresReview Package
Exchange,” a new tool designed to improve design collaboration between
workgroups, suppliers and customers. Suppliers and customers can
download the XpresReview viewer for free to interrogate and mark up the
PCF contents.
In studying the SMB manufacturing market, UGS has found that many
SMB's use non-specific databases or PDM applications that do not manage
manufacturing data. To appeal to firms in this situation, UGS has
created a variety of templates designed to ease installation and
adoption of PDM, creating a safe haven for both design and manufacturing
data management. The system offers extensions for manufacturing process
planning as well as tool, fixture and standard resource libraries,
tailored for mid-size manufacturers.
Teamcenter Express Version 2 interfaces directly with NX CAM Express,
announced in June. The system automatically captures the data created in
NX CAM Express sessions and maintains this under full revision control
under a manufacturing process definition. Then companies can go back to
a job, find the right data and ensure that the correct information is
sent to the machine shop. In addition, Teamcenter Express Version 2
provides preconfigured Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) integration
with leading programs, including SAP and Microsoft Dynamics GP, AX and
NAV.
Teamcenter Express offer two user client interfaces. One is a
Windows-based client with a look and feel similar to Microsoft Outlook.
The second is a simpler web client, suitable for quick access to the
database, to look for a drawing or to sign off on a workflow. Many
typical tasks can be launched as “I want to ...” wizards.
For more information,
www.ugs.com/teamcenterexpress.
The
full article is available for a fee at CADCAMNet.
