Teamcenter X

I have been working nearly 12 years in Siemens PLM TeamCenter as a consultant focused on development integration. I am not the end user but rather a consultant and product development owner in my current organization.

The Active Workspace in Siemens PLM TeamCenter is the feature I have found most valuable because it provides a modern web-based interface instead of the old traditional RAC interface. It requires less installation and is more user-friendly, which will be attractive for users and developers who want to work on the latest technology. The Active Workspace is based on the ReactJS framework, allowing developers and admins to work with the latest trending technology while users benefit from a modern web-based UI.

Regarding Siemens PLM TeamCenter's data management features, while Siemens does not have a specific feature or module dedicated solely to data management, every operation I perform is maintained through data management. Siemens PLM TeamCenter provides access-related restrictions that allow only intended users to have read, write, or basic access permissions. The platform offers licenses such as Author and Consumer, which provide options to restrict creation, read, or write access. This allows me to provide proper access restrictions or grant only intended access for specified roles or users.

With respect to 3D visualization in Siemens PLM TeamCenter, there is a dedicated tool called PLM Visualization, and Siemens has also been providing web-based options. For the past four or five years, Siemens has been improving this feature within Active Workspace itself. In the web-based browser, I can view 3D-related contents, and assembly JTs can be viewed with the ability to select and deselect components and files. The orientation and everything can be viewed directly in the browser, which is advantageous because instead of having a separate tool, users can access most 3D contents and render them easily from Active Workspace. While it is not 100% perfect, Siemens continues to improve this feature. The PLM Visualization tool is a dedicated tool with separate licenses—Standard, Pro, and Professional—that offer many more options and features. If users want more features and better performance, they can use PLM Visualization. In our organization, we purchased it with a limited license for intended users, while the remaining users access the Active Workspace web-based solution at no additional license cost, allowing them to render 3D or JT-related contents directly from the Active Workspace browser.

Siemens PLM TeamCenter has many features and options, but from a cost perspective, the features I need do not always come with the default license cost. Siemens has its own costing model where dedicated modules such as Manufacturing Process Planner, Schedule Manager, Easy Plan, and Line Balancing are available, but these do not come with the default licensing model. Additionally, Siemens introduced AI features such as Copilot in Siemens PLM TeamCenter and predictive searching and predictive commands last year, but these do not come with the default licensing model and require separate licensing.

Third-party integration support in Siemens PLM TeamCenter could be made easier. Currently, organizations develop customized logic to integrate third-party tools with Siemens PLM TeamCenter, and if an organization wants to integrate their own tool with Siemens PLM TeamCenter, they need to develop a customized solution. If Siemens could provide a generic integration solution, it would be easier for everyone to adopt and maintain. Additionally, while Siemens has moved to the ReactJS latest web technology for Active Workspace, there is room for improvement in the UI and performance from a user point of view. The UI and other related features can be improved to match the latest web technology platforms. While Siemens has improved over the years, many other web tools and web platforms have more user-friendly UIs and features, so there is still room for improvement.

I receive very good technical support from Siemens PLM TeamCenter. When there is a product-related issue or when consultants, developers, or admins are unable to resolve a problem, I raise incidents or tickets in the GTAC portal. I receive proper responses to these tickets, and on average, I raise five to ten tickets monthly in the GTAC portal. When issues are more critical, I request immediate meetings, and a quick response team joins from the US or UK with specialized members from the Siemens PLM TeamCenter product development team. They provide quick response and quick resolutions, which is very good for our organization. I would rate this service nine out of ten.

Regarding the initial setup of Siemens PLM TeamCenter, I have never faced significant issues in my 12 years of experience, which could be attributed to competency and skills. Siemens PLM TeamCenter provides detailed technical documentation and functional documents that I can refer to if I encounter any issues or need troubleshooting guidance and similar guidelines. The initial setup and configurations have low to moderate complexity, not high.

Siemens PLM TeamCenter offers two options for managing product variants. One option is variant management, and another option available with Active Workspace is something called Product Configurator. This module is a separate licensed module and does not come with the default purchase of Siemens PLM TeamCenter license; it requires an additional license cost. In the Product Configurator, I can create dictionaries and variant rules and apply them to a product structure to view different variants of a particular BOM. This feature is very useful in the real world to maintain different variants of a particular BOM or product.

Regarding real-time collaboration in Siemens PLM TeamCenter, there is a feature called Active Collaboration. When more than one user is working on a part, product, revision, or dataset, Active Collaboration allows me to comment on work and have those comments reviewed by other users who can then provide their own comments. It is an author and co-author kind of feature that enables effectively collaborated work and helps avoid miscommunication when multiple people are working together.

Siemens PLM TeamCenter Reports and Analytics features have two options. The first option comes with the default Siemens license and includes Report Builder, which allows developers and admins to create and maintain reports according to requirements. For example, I can see what data was created by my group or what tasks are waiting in my subordinates' inboxes and how long they have been waiting. I can create reports showing what change objects were released in the last month or how many changes were rejected by senior managers. However, these reports are time-consuming activities for development and are not readily available; they require development effort to prepare and configure. The second option is Siemens PLM TeamCenter Report and Analytics, also called TCRA, which requires an additional license and does not come with the default Siemens PLM TeamCenter license. Using TCRA, I can do more UI-related things and comprehensive reporting and analytics. TCRA has a separate database, whereas the default reporting option takes data directly from Siemens PLM TeamCenter and has drawbacks such as being less user-friendly and requiring significant time to configure and develop reports. TCRA maintains its own dedicated database, so whatever data I query or filter is taken from Siemens PLM TeamCenter database and maintained in the TCRA database. The data is then retrieved and displayed in pictorial representation views that are easy for users to understand. The reporting is similar to tools such as Power BI, but the drawback is that TCRA requires an additional license cost. I would rate this product overall as eight out of ten.