PTC announced that Robert Bosch GmbH, headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany, plans to deployWindchill PDMLink at numerous business units to improve their product development processes.

In a joint project, Bosch Corporate Information Technology (CI) and PTC global services are going toimplement Windchill PDMLink to better manage Pro/ENGINEER? data, which is the standardCAD/CAM/CAE solution at many Bosch business divisions.

The new platform reduces the number of system configurations and harmonizes data management at the different business units. The singleplatform enables the reuse of data within the business units and improves collaboration as more andmore product information with increasing complexity has to be managed globally. The decision toimplement the PTC? Product Development System (PDS) was also driven by Bosch’s strategicrequirement for a global Web-based IT architecture.

Bosch Group is a leading global supplier to the automotive industry but also offers a broad portfolio of industrial technology, power tools, security solutions and household appliances in more than 140 countries. Every day, thousands of Bosch scientists, engineers and technicians around the world are involved in the development of new products and systems, as well as innovative manufacturing processes. They are also devoted to the continuous improvement of existing products. In addition, the number of approximately 3,000 applications for patents in 2006 demonstrates what a vital role research and development has within the company.

“Our corporate strategy calls for Bosch to be at the forefront of the adoption of leading technology to improve our overall business efficiency and effectiveness. Within product development, this meant finding a solution that could deliver product information and process management, automated workflow management and other important processes like change and configuration management,” said Lutz C.Napiwotzky, vice president Engineering Applications Corporate Sector Information and System Services at Bosch.

“After several successful pilot projects we decided that extending our use of the PTC solutions Pro/ENGINEER and Pro/INTRALINK? by implementing a more complete Product Development System, including Windchill PDMLink, would be the best strategic move for us.”

Adopting Windchill PDMLink offers Bosch Group expanded capabilities that are better suited to a global environment: heterogeneous CAD data management, change management, configuration management, and significantly improved performance across a Wide Area Network. Realizing a single data management platform for the Pro/ENGINEER CAD authoring tool will also reduce the number of additional applications necessary. All this leads to time and cost savings and greater flexibility in support and systems administration.

“Our divisions are relatively autonomous when selecting their preferred CAD and product development tools but will benefit from a flexible solution as a division-wide standard,” explained Mr. Napiwotzky.

“Based on the standardized platform every division using Pro/ENGINEER will run its own roll-out project to implement their specific configuration in accordance with their business needs.” Bosch and PTC Global Services expect that Windchill PDMLink will be deployed in all divisions using Pro/ENGINEER by 2010.

“Bosch Group, as a global leader in automotive and industrial technology providing high quality products, needs efficient processes driven by an integrated Product Development System (PDS) to maintain the high level of quality while at the same time reducing costs and increasing productivity,” said Jim Heppelmann, executive vice president and chief product officer, PTC. “A growing number of our customers are realizing the benefits of adopting a faster and more efficient product development system. PDS provides access to a whole new set of capabilities with solutions such as Windchill ProjectLink? and Arbortext?, allowing the global engineering community to focus on their core expertise.”