Connecting PLM to ERP and other Enterprise

Systems with Windchill ESI

P T C . c o m
Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems control critical product
information that must be shared with other enterprise systems such as
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management
(CRM), and Supply Chain Management (SCM). Likewise, PLM systems
need to leverage information that is managed in other enterprise systems.
This bi-directional connection between PLM and other systems is critical
to enabling a seamless flow of information among the different functional
groups involved in product development, particularly engineering and
manufacturing.
P T C . c o m
Whi t e Paper Windchill ESI Page 2 of 7
Executive Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
The Role of PLM versus
Other Enterprise Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
The PTC

Product Development System . . . . . . . . 3

Enterprise System Integration Challenges . . . . . . 4
Introducing Windchill

ESI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Process Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Capabilities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Business Benefits. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
PTC: The PLM Industry Leader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
For More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Executive Summary
There are many different approaches to integrating enterprise systems.
One of the most common is through Enterprise Application Integration
(EAI) vendors that specialize in the integration of enterprise systems.
Many companies that have attempted this integration approach have
been bogged down by the high initial investment in building custom
integrations for their unique mix of software solutions, the continuing
high maintenance and upgrade costs, and the significant risk that their
efforts will not result in a robust enterprise system that can support their
critical business processes end-to-end in a seamless manner.
In order to support the release of product information from our PLM
solutions to ERP and other enterprise systems, PTC has developed a
breakthrough integration product, Windchill Enterprise Systems
Integration (ESI), which includes pre-built business logic to support
critical Windchill business processes out-of-the-box. Windchill ESI is
built using industry standard EAI technology but goes far beyond an
integration enabler by defining what, how, and when information is
released to other systems. As an optional module of Windchill
PDMLink, Windchill ESI is a natural extension of PTCs Product
Development System (PDS) and is pre-tested to meet the same high
quality standards as all other PTC solutions to greatly reduce the
deployment and maintenance costs and risk in system integration for
our customers.
The Role of PLM versus Other Enterprise Systems
To consistently produce great products, companies need a product
development process that becomes, in itself, a competitive differentiator.
While some see product development as synonymous with engineering,
a truly effective product development process engages a variety of
cross-functional participants from marketing, engineering, procurement,
manufacturing, sales, and service departments. Ever-increasing levels
of outsourcing have driven suppliers and manufacturing partners into
direct roles in the product development process. At the same time, a
strong customer focus has necessitated the customers direct involve-
ment. As a result, attempts to optimize product development naturally
evolve from a departmental focus within engineering, to an enterprise
focus, and ultimately to a distributed value chain focus.
Developing digital products in a value chain environmentand under
intense time and cost pressure is certainly not easy. While many man-
ufacturers have made great strides improving operational effectiveness
across their enterprise and supply chain as it relates to manufacturing
and logistics, most companies will admit that their product development
processes are rife with problems. They are now beginning to realize that
an even greater level of opportunity for improvement is available by
better managing the digital product definition at every stage in a
products life. The digital content that describes products during the
development process typically gets fragmented across organizational
boundaries, with each group having different forms of product defini-
tion stored in different systems, and many with incompatible formats.
No easy-to-use capability exists to share information among these
enterprise systems in a controlled manner.
P T C . c o m
Whi t e Paper Windchill ESI Page 3 of 7
Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) describes a comprehensive
framework of technology and services that permit manufacturing
companies and their partners and customers to collaboratively
conceptualize, design, build, and manage products throughout their
entire lifecycle. PLM solutions must enable companies to create
detailed, intuitive, and realistic digital product information; collaborate
by incorporating early input from the various participants in order to
identify and resolve critical issues; and control and automate critical
processes such as release to manufacturing, change, and
configuration management throughout the products lifecycle.
PLM has emerged as the primary means by which manufacturing
companies can achieve step-change improvements in their product
development process.
PLM is unique from other enterprise applications because it manages dig-
ital product information and optimizes the digital product value chain.
The PTC

Product Development System

Many modern business systems are driven by product information that
originates in the engineering department, creating a need for connecting
the source of product information to other enterprise systems like ERP
and CRM. When dealing with complex product information and engi-
neering data, the integration difficulties and the need for tightly
managed and executed data publication escalates.
Any discussion regarding integration would not be complete without an
examination of the integration capabilities within the context of the over-
all solution offering. PLM has proven difficult for many companies to
achieve due to an abundance of point solutions and limited availability of
true system solutions. Many offerings have attempted to evolve from
client-server architectures, but are limited by an inability to take full
advantage of standards and Web architectures optimized for the distrib-
uted nature of todays product development environment. When PLM is
approached as a combination of point solutions (acquired and integrated
by either a PLM vendor or a manufacturer) and/or legacy architectures, the
lack of data interoperability and high ongoing integration maintenance
costs make PLM an unnecessarily complicated and risky proposition. This
approach overwhelms the system integrator, the system administrator, and
the manufacturer with costs and complexity. At a technical level, these
architectures suffer in terms of usability, performance, scalability, security,
and availability. The result is an inability to deploy the PLM solution quick-
ly and maintain an appropriate total cost-of-ownership.
P T C . c o m
Whi t e Paper Windchill ESI Page 4 of 7
The measure of a good product development system combines the
breadth of capabilities it delivers, the architecture of the underlying
software that deliver them, and the processes it supports and optimizes.
To ensure successful deployment and enterprise wide adoption of the
product development system, the appropriate range and balance of
services must be available. PTC is pursuing an aggressive Product
Development System (PDS) strategy to deliver the most comprehensive
and cost-effective PLM solution in the market place that spans the two
leading product development engines, Windchill, a suite of collaboration
and control solutions to support todays distributed product development
processes and Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire, an unparalleled 3D product
design solution. By ensuring the products within the PDS are integral,
or designed and tested to work together seamlessly out-of-the-box,
PTC has minimized the processes for customers to integrate products
within the system. This includes built-in connections to other common
business systems. An interoperable architecture enables seamless
sharing of the digital product information and processes with user
systems such as desktop productivity applications and heterogeneous
CAD systems as well as back office systems like ERP, SCM, and CRM and
other PDM and databases.
For more information on these concepts, please refer to the white papers
on PTCs Product Development SystemProduct Lifecycle Management
for Manufacturing Companies and Why Architecture Matters For PLM
available on PTC.com.
Enterprise System Integration Challenges
Business leaders from engineering, manufacturing, and other organi-
zations are demanding better communication in the product development
cycle to reduce the risk to product quality and to decrease communica-
tion time and manual, non-value-add activities. However, manufacturing
companies today have many IT applications, each dedicated for a
particular purpose. IT departments are challenged with managing not
only each individual application but also with finding a way to make all
of their IT investments work together as a synchronized, enterprise
system. Why? Although each application may have a unique purpose,
they often require much of the same information to successfully execute
business processes. Critical problems with a closed architecture include
the ability to maintain single systems-of-record for enterprise informa-
tion without duplication of data. For example, approved vendor lists and
manufacturing cost data should be managed in an ERP system and cus-
tomer identifiers in a CRM system. An engineering designer should be able
to access the cost information from within the PLM solution without
replicating the data, which could cause future synchronization issues.
PLM and manufacturing execution systems have typically been con-
nected in one of three ways: either manually with information entered
separately in each system, loosely coupled in a flat file transfer or
import/export routine, or by a custom integration, whether point-to-
point or hub-and-spoke. Historically these integrations have been slow
and unreliable, leading to product quality issues such as manufacturing
operations producing products that have been replaced or modified in
engineering. This disconnect can lead to significant cost and customer
satisfaction issues for a manufacturer. In addition, the use of non-standard
interfaces substantially increases the time and cost to upgrade the inte-
gration and inhibits a manufacturers ability to independently upgrade
one system without having to rewire and perform extensive customiza-
tions between each of the other enterprise systems.
Custom integrations are common and sometimes can fulfill the needs of
a given business process, however, they are typically characterized by
simplistic and brittle designs that require high levels of ongoing admin-
istrative attention and manual exception handling. In most cases, com-
panies dont recognize or understand the high cost of resources, human
or otherwise, consumed by the ongoing administration of their interfaces.
Since these custom integrations contain significant one-off code, they
suffer from significant maintainability issues. The more custom code a
company develops, the more code it will need to maintain with its own IT
department or outsourced development services. Developing code in-
house also means that it has to be tested and implemented in-house;
these are difficult and time-consuming tasks for a traditional IT department
that prefers to leverage commercial applications whenever possible.
Perhaps the worst aspect of these custom integrations is that every time
a new release of the source or target system is available, the entire
process can start over at the beginning. Maintenance is extremely
expensive and there is no end to the cycle. Scalability is also an issue with
custom integrations; as business processes expand to support a growing
enterprise, they often fall short of evolving business requirements and are
too inflexible to accommodate additional systems. Inevitably, the short-
comings of these integrations are fixed with manual processes that are
resource intensive and prone to error. The result is pockets of efficiency
with significant process and information gaps in the overall enterprise
system.
Commercial EAI applications are helpful but dont offer any business logic
to support manufacturing business processes, leaving a significant portion
of the integration efforts to in-house or outsourced 3rd party integration
teams. The fact is that a large portion of integration benefits is left on the
table with these traditional approaches to integration.
Figure 1: PLM Working Collaboratively With Other Enterprise Systems
Release to ManufacturingThe digital product is ready for release
to manufacturing when the digital product definition is complete
and approved by all stakeholders. At this point, one or more pro-
duction and supply chain management systems typically need
access to product definition information to begin the work. As
product configurations are approved for release, Windchill ESI
automatically feeds product and BOM information to downstream
production systems.
DesignThose who design the product in the engineering
department make important decisions that largely determine the
cost of the product, how it will be serviced, and how long it takes
to manufacture the product. To make the best decisions for the
company, they need access to relevant information that may not
typically be available in a PLM system. Windchill ESI provides
Windchill users with real-time access to product information
stored in other enterprise systems, such as standard cost and
lead-time, through the user interfaces with which they are
accustomed to working.
Prototype/TestWhen a product is ready to be prototyped and
tested, the product design needs to be shared with manufacturing
and quality assurance so the prototype can be built and tested.
Windchill ESI automates the process of sending product information
to manufacturing execution systems so that it can be built. In
addition, engineering is better able to plan for the prototype/test
phase of product development when they have product information
from the ERP system such as product lead-time and cost.
Change ManagementProduct development is a dynamic
environment where changes are made to parts and products
continuously. Each time a change is released, that information
needs to be shared from the PLM system where the change was
made to other enterprise systems like ERP. Engineering also needs
to be able to assess the potential impact of the change; having
access to real-time product and part cost and lead-time is an
important part of that analysis.
Architecture
Unlike competitors integration offerings based on toolkits, PTC has
embarked on a path to provide a series, standards-based integrations
to common business systems with end-to-end process support
(including out-of-the-box pre-built business logic) starting with SAP.
End-to-end out-of-the-box process support means that Windchill ESI
provides the necessary middleware, support for common business
objects and processes, and pre-configured standard integrations to
the other system. These integrations provide robust functionality,
sophisticated transaction management, a large number of configurable
features, and an easy-to-use GUI customization environment.
P T C . c o m
Whi t e Paper Windchill ESI Page 5 of 7
Introducing Windchill

ESI
PTC recognized the challenges faced by manufacturers in their quest to
bi-directionally share product information with other enterprise systems
and responded with Windchill Enterprise Systems Integration (ESI). As
part of PTCs industry-leading PDS, Windchill ESI, an optional module
of Windchill PDMLink, provides unprecedented control of data
throughout the products lifecycle. Windchill ESI helps manufacturers
better coordinate the exchange of product and complementary
manufacturing and supply chain-related information between their
Windchill and ERP, CRM, and SCM systems. This connectivity ensures
that members of the digital product value chain have accurate,
real-time information when they need it.
With Windchill ESI, manufacturers can be confident that all the people in
the enterprise are operating with the most current information in the
right context to make the best decisions. Companies can publish
designs to manufacturing and convert those designs into physical
products in less time with far less opportunity for error resulting in cost
reduction, and improved quality throughout the enterprise. By providing
not only the technology but also the mapping and process coordination,
Windchill ESI goes beyond other offerings and delivers a turnkey
module for immediate business value.
Through a set of core services based on industry standards, Windchill
ESI makes it easy for companies to share engineering data such as
parts, bills of material (BOMs), engineering change notices (ECN), and
documents throughout the enterprise. Windchill ESI also makes it
possible for other enterprise systems to pass relevant information
upstream, including supplier information, part cost information, and
inventory information.
Process Support
The ultimate purpose of a product development system is to optimize
the business processes that companies need to execute in order to
develop competitive products and achieve their business initiatives. A
system that merely delivers a hodgepodge of features and functions is
not optimized to facilitate the execution of specific business processes.
Recognizing the fact that business processes are what drive product
development, PTC is working with our customers to document a set of
end-to-end PLM processes that outline the best way to accomplish
specific product development tasks. Many of those critical PLM process
extend beyond PLM into ERP and other enterprise systems.
Windchill ESI automates and optimizes business processes and stream-
lines operational efficiencies by facilitating two-way communication
between engineering and manufacturing. This closed loop integration
allows a company to send an engineering bill of material, with all its
rich product data, into the manufacturing environment for execution.
At the same time, manufacturing and cost information can be exposed
to engineering to make better product design decisions which reduce
cost and result in faster time-to-market. The following is a description of
some critical PLM processes supported by Windchill ESI in combination
with PTCs complete Product Development System.
The middleware business logic extensions are important for this complex
integration in two ways. First, their existence eliminates the need for
each customer to reinvent the wheel; PTC has already completed the
design and development process for supported business scenarios.
Second, the business logic extensions offload the responsibility of
understanding specific target system nuances to the middleware. This
simplifies the integration design and makes it more scalable and
maintainable. If it werent for these extensions, each integrated system
would have to understand specific details about how the other systems
work. For example, Windchill would need to understand that in SAP,
one needs to create the change object before creating the material, and
the material must be created before the bill of material that references
it. These are the types of rules that neither a Web service nor a PLM
system should have to know or understand.
Capabilities
Windchill ESI provides robust functionality, sophisticated transaction
management, a large number of configurable features, and an easy-
to-use GUI customization environment. Windchill ESIs pre-built SAP
integration provides the following capabilities out-of-the-box:
Generate the PLM publication information package from PTCs
PDS using pre-built business services (without additional
programming)
Transform the PLM publication package for publication to ERP
(without additional programming
Interface with ERP system standard application programming
interfaces (API's)
Publish the PLM publication information package to the target
system using pre-built business logic
Interact with the publication processes via simple graphical user
interfaces
Full completion of the publication transaction
Quickly implement and easily administer enterprise system
integrations
Request that information be transferred to the PLM system from
other enterprise applications
Where such out-of-the-box integrations are not available, PTC offers
standards-based integration mechanisms, as well as partnerships with
recognized EAI industry leaders, and top-tier consultancies. The tools
and techniques PTC and its partners can offer will ensure that special
integration needs are met while maximizing the use of standard methods
and APIs.
P T C . c o m
Whi t e Paper Windchill ESI Page 6 of 7
As shown in Figure 2, Windchill ESI is built on a modular architecture
to support a number of integration requirements. This integration
solution provides a powerful layer of business logic, data translation,
and robust communication control between Windchill and the target
system. Although PTC is bundling industry leading Enterprise
Application Integration (EAI) software provided by TIBCO, Windchill
ESI begins with an open API layer of integration services on top of
Windchill that is designed to be EAI neutral, allowing other commercial
middleware products to be used as necessary. This neutrality is possible
through a modular architecture and the use of industry standards for
the interface, specifically a number of Web services that are enabled via
SOAP over JMS (Java Message Service) for transactional integrity.
By using TIBCOs products (such as TIBCO Business Works) as a base
for the standard Windchill ESI offering, customers have access to a
large suite of pre-built application and technology adapters, as well as
TIBCOs first rate GUI business logic development and administration
environment. Windchill ESI goes beyond other offerings and
pre-builds the necessary business logic to support the publishing of
many different types of product information to SAP. Windchill ESI
makes full use of the TIBCO adapters to handle the lower level
communications, such as the execution of specific APIs within the
target system. The combination of these components supports the
process of publishing information outward from Windchill to ensure
that the target systems get accurate, up-to-date, approved product
information at the right points in the product lifecycle, and that it is
always consistent with the corresponding information in Windchill.
This integration solution also supports a wide variety of other business
scenarios with its default settings and many configurable parameters.
Windchill
Integration
Services
Business
Logic
TIBCO
Business
Works
TIBCO
SAP
Adapter
SAP
Other
TIBCO
Adapters
Other
Adapters
Other
EAI
Vendors
Other
Enterprise
Systems
Other
Enterprise
Systems
Winchill Enterprise System Integration
Figure 2: Windchill ESI Architecture
PTC: The PLM Industry Leader
There is no single best way to develop products, and product leadership
can be fleeting. Where great products once provided advantage for years,
today the advantage may last only months as customers demand yet more
up-to-date technology and the latest product capabilities. With the speed
of business itself much quicker, companies must strive for sustained
competitive advantage by refining their product development processes
to consistently yield superior products faster. A solid integration strategy
is critical to the overall process of delivering products to customers.
Many PLM vendors have integration strategies predicated on marketing
relationships or homegrown technologies, and require much time and
expense to deliver the PLM interoperability required for success.
Manufacturers should watch out for key warning signs:
Integrations that require significant investment to custom build
business logic and processes
Limited options in the type and depth of integrations offered
Lack of experience managing the complex relationships associated
with CAD and product-related information in a distributed
environment
Only PTC delivers a Product Development System with a robust foot-
print and optimized architecture that fully supports end-to-end PLM
processes. These processes include integrations to complementary
desktop productivity applications; heterogeneous CAD systems;
enterprise systems like ERP, SCM, and CRM; and other PDM and
databases. This technology is further complemented by PTCs range of
service offerings that increases return-on-investment by lowering risk
of deployment and ensuring successful wide-spread adoption of the
PDS. Manufacturers benefit with the ability to quickly deploy solutions,
preserve investments in existing IT infrastructure, and minimize custom
building of integrations.
For More Information
For more information about Windchill ESI or PTCs Product Development
System, please visit PTC on the Web at www.ptc.com.
Copyright 2004, Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC) -- All rights reserved. Information described
herein is furnished for informational use only, is subject to change without notice, and should not be con-
strued as a guarantee, commitment, condition or offer by PTC. PTC, the PTC Logo, Product First, The Product
Development Company, Product Development Means Business, Create Collaborate Control, Windchill,
Pro/ENGINEER, Wildfire, PTC Precision and all PTC product names and logos are trademarks or registered
trademarks of PTC and/or its subsidiaries in the United States and in other countries. Microsoft is a regis-
tered trademark of Microsoft Corp. TIBCO, TIBCO Software, TIBCO ActiveEnterprise, TIBCO Designer,
TIBCO Enterprise for JMS, TIBCO Rendezvous, TIBCO Turbo XML, TIBCO BusinessWorks are the trademarks
or registered trademarks of TIBCO Software Inc. in the United States and other countries. SAP is a regis-
tered trademark of SAP AG Germany.
P T C . c o m
Whi t e Paper Windchill ESI Page 7 of 7
Business Benefits
Customers demand that key processes and product information flow
seamlessly between functional groups and their respective enterprise
systems. Significant corporate knowledge developed and captured
during the engineering process is typically only loosely connected to
downstream order and fulfillment groups and systems. Further, key
manufacturing and supply chain information, if readily available to the
engineering groups early in their design cycle, could lead to significantly
better and less costly products. By integrating Windchill to ERP, cus-
tomers can improve their operational efficiencies while also enabling
value-creating opportunities not possible with isolated systems.
Windchill ESI brings value to the enterprise in three key benefit cate-
gories. First and foremost, PTCs complete PDS, which includes
Windchill ESI, provides infrastructure savings by mitigating the risk in
enterprise software deployment with a qualified system that supports
critical end-to-end processes and proven implementation and training
services. Windchill ESI replaces custom integrations that are costly to
maintain and upgrade. Additionally, Windchill ESIs EAI technology-
based architecture is fast and cost effective to deploy. Once imple-
mented, Windchill ESIs EAI technology base can become an integration
hub connecting all other enterprise systems once again with minimal
risk and investment. This preserves investment in existing technology
and reduces cost of upgrades with industry standard interfaces. Lastly,
Windchill ESI provides infrastructure savings by enabling all users in
the product development process to access the latest product infor-
mation without manual data re-entry.
Windchill ESI also enables improvements in operating metrics by
reducing the time required to transfer product designs from engineering
to manufacturing resulting in reduced time to prototype, time to
production, and time-to-market. Furthermore, Windchill ESI can
significantly reduce the wasted time and money spent when the wrong
product information is used in manufacturing. These benefits center
on the fact that with Windchill ESI, management gains control over
their critical business processes that span multiple functional groups
and enterprise systems enabling them to optimize those processes and
execute against them in a repeatable, low risk manner.
The greatest value potential for any investment is in the opportunity
to improve ones strategic position relative to the competition. At PTC,
we believe that a focus on improving and optimizing the execution of
critical PLM process is the key to gaining a competitive advantage
where it matters most in the product. Windchill ESI makes it possible
to integrate those critical PLM processes with other business processes
and business systems enabling a seamless connection between critical
product development functions like engineering and manufacturing.
566-ESI-WP-0504