Luis is focused on delivering value to businesses through innovation and the use of technology. Luis has worked on projects in Germany, South Korea and Australia and focused on PLM, DPC, XR and Machine Learning. He has delivered projects across all the industrial high tech, life sciences and retail, footwear and apparel industries.
In the age of the digital thread, it is imperative that companies have a system that can manage the end-to-end manufacturing processes they use to design and assemble parts and perform inspections. PTC Windchill’s Manufacturing Process Management (MPM) Link gives users this capability by serving as a bridge between their digital designs and physical products.
Manufacturing Process Management Capabilities: What Can Windchill MPMLink Do?
Windchill MPMLink collects and leverages manufacturing data, including manufacturing bills of materials (mBOMs), tools, workstations, and manufacturing processes. By enabling Manufacturing Process Management, companies can enhance the visibility and traceability of their product and its manufacturing data, and then leverage it to optimize their manufacturing process plans. Users of Windchill MPMLink can derive an mBOM from an eBOM, with full traceability between design and manufacturing views. With this data under tight change control, powerful impact assessments can be applied upstream to product design, and downstream to production and manufacturing equipment.
With MPM, manufacturing parts, production processes, skills, and tooling can all be connected in the system to derive site-specific process plans and printable work instructions that consider local process specificities, available equipment, and operators. Windchill MPMLink serves as a single source of truth for these work instructions, enabling closed loop updates – updates that occur automatically without human interaction – and direct feedback from the shop floor. Windchill MPMLink also supports traceability between products, tools, and workstations, as well as audit and validation history and information. This data can be made available downstream via integration to additional systems, such as ERP and MES. Finally, by tracking metrics across the enterprise, organizations have access to valuable data to further optimize process plans and set the foundation for advanced analytics.
Life With Manufacturing Process Management
Let’s examine the ways MPM adds value to your organization at various stages of your end-to-end processes. Suppose a product design engineer adds a handle or another new component to a product (eBOM). Consider how that change is executed in your organization today. With an MPM system, the engineer can quickly update the site- or line-specific manufacturing view (mBOM) of this product to reflect the design change in the manufacturing process plan. Using the MPM system, the engineer can also update or digitally add required workstations and tools to the production line for this new product update.
At this point, a production planner, having full visibility to the product changes that have been made, can begin to update the production plan within the MPM system. This may include ordering new parts, adjusting shifts, or training operators on updated processes. Further, using Kalypso’s Manufacturing Portal, a tool built to consume Windchill MPMLink data to enable additional use cases, operators on the shop floor who are currently involved in making this product will quickly be alerted of the changes to the product and the process plan, and can easily pull up the latest version. Finally, production supervisors will be able to track progress based on the input of operators and assess any changes in productivity.
Problems Solved and Value Delivered: What's the Point?
While organizations may vary greatly, especially across industries, many of them face similar problems and can get comparable value added from implementing a MPM system. By connecting manufacturing and engineering business processes in a single system, manufacturers can be sure that their most up to date product specifications and work instructions are being followed on the shop floor. In addition to bridging this common communication gap, we can further empower stakeholders to fully assess the impact of a design or manufacturing change on a process or product, respectively.
Similarly, increased visibility into relevant data can shorten lead times for testing a product’s manufacturability. With the right tools, MPM users will even be able to simulate/emulate how a design process change will affect different lines and resources. By connecting and centrally managing all engineering and manufacturing data, organizations can enable traceability from global design to the manufacturing line to optimize production and operations. Finally, by leveraging MPM, organizations can manage and plan manufacturing resources with enhanced visibility, ensuring the latest data is available.
Watch Kalypso’s session from Episode 2 of our PLM Event Series to learn why Manufacturing Process Management is a critical component in the digital thread.
