Feb 10 - Schaeffler Group Selects Windchill as Global Engineering Platform

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Schaeffler Group Selects Windchill as Global Engineering Platform

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NEEDHAM, MA, Feb 10, 2009 - PTC (Nasdaq: PMTC), the Product Development Company, today announced that in summer 2008 the Germany headquartered Schaeffler Group, a leading supplier in the automotive, industrial and aerospace sectors, has selected Windchill as its global engineering platform for content and process management. Windchill was selected to increase efficiency in product development by creating a single system for product data and project data management, global collaboration and product development process management.

The selection of Windchill expands Schaeffler’s use of PTC’s Product Development System (PDS) which has included Pro/ENGINEER, PTC’s parametric CAD/CAE/CAM software and its data management counterpart, PTC Pro/INTRALINK. As part of the development partnership, Schaeffler plans to migrate from Pro/INTRALINK to Windchill PDMLink. ”

In 1999, Schaeffler decided to implement a single vendor strategy for the engineering department using Pro/ENGINEER,” said Markus Rahm, manager IT application development PLM/CAD. “This strategy was very successful and now we look forward to replicating that success by standardizing on Windchill for our company’s global engineering platform.”

Like many large global companies, Schaeffler was facing the challenge of managing increasing product complexity while trying to improve overall product development efficiency. Adding to this challenge, Schaeffler has a highly disaggregated environment for product development with 66,000 employees at 180 locations in 50 countries. By standardizing and consolidating on a single engineering platform at all three of its business units, the company’s goal is to improve product data and project data management, global collaboration and product development process management. As a result of the Windchill implementation, the company hopes to better meet customer demands, improve product development quality and reduce time to market. Additionally, Schaeffler believes that streamlining the company’s product development processes and establishing a standard for global collaboration will better prepare the company for further expansion activities.

Specifically, Windchill will be used to consolidate engineering data that is being developed and used at Schaeffler’s over 60 sites worldwide participating in engineering processes. Additionally, Schaeffler intends to improve global collaboration, engineering change and control management, variant design as well as mechatronic systems development. As a result of the implementation, any authorized member of the development team will be able to modify existing master product data independently at development site around the globe. By using a single, integral system for product development the company expects to significantly advance its data quality initiatives. For the initial period Schaeffler plans to implement Windchill for several thousands of users throughout its globally dispersed development sites.

“We expect Windchill to substantially improve our development efficiency both in simultaneous engineering as well as in global collaboration. We are happy to extend the existing partnership with PTC towards a long-lasting PLM Development Environment strategy,” said Christian Kipf, Manager CAD Methods and Support.

“To be successful and create product differentiation in increasingly competitive global markets, companies need to improve their efficiency around product development,” said James Heppelmann, executive vice president, software products, and chief product officer at PTC. “By standardizing on Windchill as the backbone for its engineering platform, Schaeffler will eliminate many of the challenges around data quality, global collaboration and data and process management faced by companies with less integrated product development environments. We are looking forward to working with Schaeffler to help them achieve their short-term and long-term product development objectives.”

About Schaeffler Group

The Schaeffler Group - with its INA, FAG, and LuK brands - is both a leading global supplier of rolling bearings as well as a renowned supplier to the automobile industry. With 66,000 employees in over 180 locations around the world, Schaeffler manufactures and sells precision components and systems for automotive, industrial, and aerospace applications. In 2007, the Schaeffler Group’s revenues totaled 8.9 billion euros.

For more information, visit www.schaeffler.com.

About PTC

PTC (Nasdaq: PMTC) provides discrete manufacturers with software and services to meet the globalization, time-to-market and operational efficiency objectives of product development. Using the company’s CAD, and content and process management solutions, organizations in the Industrial, High-Tech, Aerospace and Defense, Automotive, Consumer and Medical industries are able to support key business objectives and create innovative products that meet both customer needs and comply with industry regulations.

For more information, visit http://www.ptc.com.

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