What is Supply Chain Collaboration?
Supply chain collaboration is sharing up-to-date product data accurately, securely, and in real time with supply chain partners while speeding up your purchasing processes.
Buyers can access data on qualified and preferred suppliers as well as parts status to confirm supplier readiness. Buyers are notified when the BOM reaches quote, prototype, or production states, to release it to suppliers. This joint collaboration enables manufacturers to improve agility and enhance time to market.
Why is It Important?
Supply chain collaboration is important because in a fast changing-at times unpredictable-technology environment, strategic sourcing teams must procure the right materials and parts for product manufacturing in order to release these products to market quickly. By enabling seamless sharing of up-to-date product data accurately, securely, and in real time between engineering, manufacturing, sourcing, and supply chain partners, your organization can drive agility and boost time to market.
Benefits of Supply Chain Collaboration
Strategic sourcing teams can work concurrently with their supply chain partners to securely share up to date, accurate product information. By better understanding component attributes such as approved suppliers, data sheets, where a component is consumed, and when there has been a change request or a problem report, they are able to speed time to market and improve agility. With the associated CAD drawings in 2D, 3D, or augmented reality being provided in context, buyers can then further collaborate with suppliers using project management capabilities. For example, they can send data, drawings, and revisions to required stakeholders in a manner that’s aligned with their function and system.
Key Features of Supply Chain Collaboration
Enable seamless data communication for supplier collaboration with the advanced capabilities of PLM.
-
End-to-end visibility: Suppliers, internal users, partners, and contract manufacturers collaborate on contract-driven programs with automated notifications sent upon part, specification release, and end of life.
-
Change control: Supplier engineers review and approve supplier changes regardless of who initiates the change request with change assessment/action completion/closure.
-
IP protection: Support different levels of security (read, write, delete, meta data, etc.) and access controls defined by user groups and applicable to a specific object.
-
Real-time data sharing: Sourcing teams can collaborate both internally and externally with supply chain partners by sharing important product information in real time. This helps improve agility and time to market.
-
Supplier strategy: Qualified suppliers and parts status are visible to R&D to confirm supplier readiness. Approved manufacturer parts lists (AML) and approved vendor lists (AVL) are created with support for multiple component suppliers with preferred status.
-
Problem reporting: Associate problem reports with impacted items, assemblies, and parts. Reports are created internally or by suppliers based on audits (supplier corrective action).
-
Single system for supplier data: Create transparency with an automatic flow of full supplier reference data and history, including both quality and non-quality actions (informal and formal) linked to part or product.
-
Configurable workflows: Create customizable easy to use processes and templates that deliver tasks automatically to users. Supplier engineers can seamlessly conduct their reviews, approvals, and authorizations down to the component level.
-
Automated integrations and orchestration: Standards-based data exchange between enterprise systems, linking and tracing to ERP, CRM, requirements connector based on OSLC, and more.
-
MCAD/ECAD integration: Provide automatic neutral file creation and integration for use by suppliers.
-
EBOM and specifications alignment: Align suppliers when sourced with part qualification (quality control plan, material compliance, DFM analysis) and notify suppliers of change.
Supply Chain Collaboration With PLM
Manage components, leverage, and risk: With PTC’s supplier management capabilities, buyers can easily review preferred suppliers and can rely on both the workflow and authorized access control for change management and new part introduction processes. Supplier engineers can seamlessly conduct their reviews, approvals, and authorizations down to the component level, leveraging its traceable and auditable history.
Buyers can access the PLM system via a URL (no data transfer or duplication) through easy-to-use apps for researching component attributes (e.g. approved suppliers, data sheets, where a component is used). They are notified when the BOM reaches the quote, prototype, or production state and can send the BOM to suppliers. Buyers can then send suppliers data, drawings, and revisions using project management capabilities.
Learn More About PTC’s PLM Platform, Windchill
Explore PTC’s Windchill enterprise PLM solution with supply chain collaboration at its core. Experience true closed-loop lifecycle management from early concept through all iterations, design cycles, and stages until your product is fully released.
