PLM in the 'cloud'

Siemens PLM Software has announced a joint project with Microsoft Corporation to create the PLM industry’s first cloud computing-based quality management solution. The solution will utilise Microsoft Windows Azure platform cloud computing services to run Siemens PLM Software’s Dimensional Planning and Validation (DPV) application, showing how cloud computing can enable a quality management application to be cost-effectively accessed and leveraged on an as-needed basis.

The announcement was made at the Microsoft World Partner Conference in Washington, DC, and represents one of several projects being jointly pursued by Siemens PLM Software and Microsoft to test and validate how cloud computing can be successfully used with PLM to create value for the global manufacturing industry. On 28 June, Microsoft conducted a separate PLM-based cloud computing demonstration involving software solutions from Siemens PLM Software in front of more than 1400 attendees at the Siemens PLM Connection User Conference in Dallas.

DPV - an integral part of the Tecnomatix software suite of digital manufacturing solutions - is a PLM-based closed loop quality system enabling the collection, management, analysis and reporting of quality measurement information tied directly to real-time production results. Tecnomatix DPV leverages Teamcenter from Siemens PLM Software, enabling the user to incorporate as-built production information, coupled with real-time production quality data, in the same environment used to manage the enterprise’s product, process and manufacturing data.

Some organisations - such as remote manufacturing locations or outside suppliers - may not require a full PLM resource infrastructure but can still benefit from this type of quality management technology. Through their strong partnership, Siemens PLM Software and Microsoft have joined forces to create an environment in which Tecnomatix DPV and Teamcenter will run in the cloud with the Windows Azure cloud services operating system and utilise the SQL Azure relational database. This will allow them to test and demonstrate scenarios in which the power, flexibility and value of this PLM-based quality management solution could be delivered without the need for a full in-house enterprise IT system. Once validated, the result will dramatically expand the availability of PLM quality solutions and enhance deployment options through an on-demand environment.

In addition to the DPV-Azure project, the company is jointly engaged with Microsoft on several other ways to effectively leverage cloud computing. For example, the 28 June demonstration conducted at the Siemens PLM Connection User Conference depicted product development collaboration in the cloud utilising the Windows Azure platform to securely and automatically share 3D product information using the standard JT data format and PLM XML data format, between an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and its suppliers.