Harman Becker Automotive goes for global product management

Karlsbad, Germany-based automotive communication systems developer Harman Becker Automotive has increased its investment in PTC PLM (product lifecycle management) software to 1,000 seats. It says its new Windchill ProjectLink and PDMLink bundles will become the backbone for all data management, workflow and collaboration not just for its own development centres around the world, but for partners and suppliers too. Harman Becker has been using Pro/Engineer CAD since 1994, but with Windchill, reckons it will improve product information control while also implementing global development standards. To achieve that, PTC’s Pro/Intralink for Pro/Engineer data management will be migrated to PDMLink over the next six months. Windchill will then manage Pro/Engineeer models as well as all project and engineering data – including of other mechanical design content such as Catia V5, and electrical design content under Mentor Graphics. “Moving to Windchill PDMLink gives us faster access to product information,” says Dr Michael Ruf, Harman Becker’s vice president of engineering for Europe. “It allows us to generate product structure variants, for example country-specific product structures, faster and with more flexibility. And it will help us reduce cost by re-using existing product structures which are now much more easily available to other teams.” Windchill ProjectLink will, for example, allow all members of a product development team to manage projects, share information and conduct design reviews in real time over the web. “PTC’s technology guarantees more efficient execution and management of our engineering projects, offering capabilities for real-time monitoring and effective change and program management for our global organisation. PTC is also the best choice to integrate the new Windchill-based PLM environment with our ERP system from SAP,” says Marek Neumann, director program management Europe. The company also expects to increase product reliability from standardised and automated release processes. “Automating the workflows will help to optimise cross-department processes and shorten cycle times,” says Dr Karl-Heinz Augenstein, vice president quality management. “We can now easily control each product throughout the whole lifecycle.”