UTC Selects Proficiency for Product Data Delivery

Design re-mastering times cut from days to hours; full design delivery, not just geometry, and IP protection capability key selection criteria

Design re-mastering times cut from days to hours; full design delivery, not just geometry, and IP protection capability key selection criteria

Waltham, MA — March 17, 2006 — United Technologies Corporation is set to use a product data management solution from Proficiency to meet contractual product data delivery requirements on several key industry programs, in addition to corporate objectives targeted at reducing the use of multiple computer-aided design (CAD) platforms.

Government programs increasingly require delivery of feature-based native CAD models, not just geometry. UTC will use the Proficiency Gateway solution to allow its business units and program partners to automatically exchange feature-based models despite differing design systems, while providing IP protection and control.

"One of the hidden costs in any program is the cost of re-mastering designs to adhere to program delivery requirements and support design exchanges," said Arturo Wanderlingh, chief of advanced structural analysis and engineering for software at Hamilton Sundstrand and chair of the UTC Technical Software Council. "During our evaluation of the Proficiency Gateway we saw part re-mastering times reduced from days to hours."

Ensuring Data Security

Wanderlingh said that UTC was looking for a solution that not only would automate the exchange of design intelligence between differing CAD systems but also meet the company's data security concerns and enable it to migrate to a single CAD platform. "The Proficiency Gateway gives us the granular-levels of IP protection we need as well as enables us to convert design models in-house, which is important since using an outside service is not always a viable option," he said.

Proficiency said that the Gateway solution enables sharing of product design intelligence between disparate systems while providing IP protection and controls. The technology includes the universal product representation (UPR), an extensible format that contains a superset of design intelligence for product data exchanges or viewing. Reports of automated design exchanges provide translation details. Gateway works with all major CAD and product lifecycle management (PLM) systems, according to Proficiency.

"The challenges UTC faces are no different than what our other customers experience," said Marque Teegardin, Proficiency's vice president of sales. "Common among manufacturers is the increasing pressure to meet customer requirements, while controlling costs and making efficient use of designers and resources. The ability to more readily share complete designs while protecting IP, even across groups with an organization, has a huge effect on a project's time-to-market and costs."


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