Collaborate on Product Changes with Thingworx Navigate Contribute

Consider this: Your lead engineer makes a product design change which isn’t received downstream in time. What if millions of dollars of materials are on a truck, en route to you, but are suddenly no longer necessary for production? Introducing product changes, especially when key stakeholders aren’t informed, can result in increased costs and impact felt across the enterprise.

That’s why collaboration is a necessity across people and processes from product ideation through product changes. Collaboration ensures connectivity across the enterprise from manufacturing to field service departments. There is a need to not just access product and enterprise data easily, but to participate in strategic product lifecycle processes in order to avoid unintended consequences.

Recently released from the family of ThingWorx Navigate apps, Contribute for Change Management will allow those stakeholders - who typically are infrequent users - to be directly involved in the design process by enabling them to voice their opinions. The first in the series of Contribute apps focuses on Change Management to stitch all these voices together within the digital thread.

Available with Windchill 11.2 and Windchill 11.1 M020 CPS08, this app provides a list of open approval tasks and enables access to full details of the Change Request, along with attachments and affected items. This process in Windchill now supports delivering tasks online via an email link. Contribute for Change Management will:

• Improve visibility and communication of the change process
• Allow more Stakeholders to review and comment on Change Requests
• Reduce cycle time for Change Approvals
• Ensure better supply-chain participation in the Change Process

This Navigate app enables a broad set of stakeholders, inside and outside of engineering, to fully participate in a digital change management workflow. Cross-functional users who review their task list, via “My Tasks”, are best able to complete changes online. These users can then assess impacts at time of review, resulting in improved quality.

Role-based tailoring for non-expert users facilitates faster, clearer decision making. Better participation in the change management process adds the value of faster time to market. This Navigate Contribute app is the first ThingWorx app built using the PTC Design System, ensuring a new consistent look and feel. It’s also the first Navigate app to be built from reusable components, thus lowering costs and improving efficiency.

Other exciting Navigate 8.5 functionality, which is available for download includes:

Improvements to the View Apps

• Updated ThingView 3D Viewing Component - which is now documented & supported for use in custom mashups
• Support for distributed vaults
• Display of security labels and values

BETA Release of the First Reusable Components for Rapid Application Development

The Thingworx Navigate Contribute app for Change Management enables a wider spread of input, thus realizing the best possible design and breaking down product development silos.

Learn more about ThingWorx Navigate Contribute.