Learn about the integration offerings for product data management (PDM) to Autodesk PLM 360 using Jitterbit. There are different ways to integrate these products depending on how your organization currently uses or plans to use PDM tools. PDM tools like Autodesk Vault, SolidWorks PDM Professional, PTC Windchill and others along with Autodesk PLM 360 are robust tools for data and product lifecycle management.
Presented Tuesday, March 29, 2016
Axa Assurance Maroc - Insurer Innovation Award 2024
Autdoesk PLM 360 to PDM Integration with Jitterbit
1. Copyright 2015 Razorleaf Corporation
Autodesk PLM 360 to PDM
Razorleaf Integration Services
Bridging the Gap Between PLM Technologies and Business Problems
2. Copyright 2015 Razorleaf Corporation
Introductions
Rodney Coffey
Manager – PLM, Razorleaf Corporation
• Responsible for the Autodesk Business Unit at Razorleaf Corporation
• 10+ Years Supporting Autodesk customers (CAD, PDM, PLM)
• Extensive Experience with Autodesk PLM 360 Services including Enterprise Implementation & Integration
3. Copyright 2015 Razorleaf Corporation
What is PLM and how does it differ from PDM
PLM
Product Lifecycle Management
is the process of managing the entire
lifecycle of a product from concept, through
the engineering design cycle, through
manufacturing, and to service and disposal
of a product
PDM
Product Data Management
is the use of software or other tools to track
and control data related to a particular
product SolidWorks
PDM Professional
4. Copyright 2015 Razorleaf Corporation
What is PLM and how does it differ from PDM
Product
Management
QualityService
Customers
Supplier
Engineering / Design
SolidWorks
PDM Professional
Sales
BOM
Concept Design Sample RTM
Sales
Product
Vendor
Procurement Customer
Design
Engineering
Service
5. Copyright 2015 Razorleaf Corporation
What is Business Process Integration
• End-to-End business process workflows
• Move data and files to where they are needed, when they are needed
• On-premise, cloud and hybrid cloud product offerings
• Process planning, software, integration and support services bundled
as part of a complete solution
• Multi-vendor solutions allow customers to leverage their
investment in the systems that best match their requirements without
forcing them into a single vendor or single system solution
• Razorleaf is vendor-neutral with the technical capability to connect
almost any system to another
• Utilize on-line PLM, project management and other engineering services
• Share data with remote sites and manufacturers as part of your
PDM/PLM workflows
• Publish to your web site for public, customer or vendor file and data access
• Connect to hosted services like Salesforce.com, Dynamics, and other third party sites
• Standard, well-established internet security methods are much more secure than email and
other sharing methods
• Leverages Out-of-the-box endpoints, Razorleaf web service products and/or custom
interfaces
• Flexible rules processing architecture with rules implementation and job management
through Jitterbit services or Razorleaf’s Integration Framework
• Share either native files, PDF renditions or both along with related meta data like
custom properties, BOMs and other product data
Razorleaf Cloud Services
Razorleaf Integration Services
Features
Web / Other ERP
CRM
SharePoint
PLM
PDM
Integration
Services
Cloud Services
Web Sites
Customers
Suppliers
In PDM, Part or BOM data is Engineering centric and obviously closely related to the CAD data. For example a single part is represented by a file that likely has some attributes / properties that are being managed by the PDM tool. In PLM, a Part and BOM are represented by an item that likely also has a series of attributes, many different file associations, and important relationships to other items. Where the PDM file and associated files are a good representation of the design, it is not near the representation that we are given in PLM. The PLM item is a representation of how a Part or BOM is managed across the entire business process. It is not uncommon that PDM tools have some basic PLM functionality built into them. It is also not uncommon that when a PDM system is stretched to meet the needs of PLM, it falls short. As we see on this slide this is often times because PDM does not have flexible workflow, true BOM management, or the ability to make the relationships to other items that are so important.
That brings us to our topic for today. PLM 360 has been created and enabled to easily integrate with other products on the market for things like ERP, MRP, CRM, and many other business system acronyms like PDM. We call this Business Process Integration. Business Process Integration allows us to take tools purpose built to solve a particular problem and connect them. Connecting these tools allows each tool to solve its specific business need, while passing along the pertinent information (Metadata, files, etc) to the next system in the process. No business tool is built to do it all, although some try awfully hard. Connecting these tools allows them to do what they are good at.
We define and integration with a few important pieces of information. One of these is the EndPoint. This slide is what most of our customers like to see in the beginning of the sales process. Today we have connected to over a dozen different endpoints, some more mainstream than others. There are things like SalesForce, NetSuite which are common. Then there are some more legacy systems like BPCS, and of course the powerhouses like SAP and Oracle. We have also connected to a series of home made SQL Server applications.
Today we will talk about and see a demonstration of the Autodesk PLM 360, and PDM Endpoints. Specifically Autodesk PLM 360 and Autodesk Vault. I have listed some of the CAD products here also. It is not uncommon for companies without PDM to still have the desire to pass along BOM information to PLM. This is something we have done in the past. I will say I think it best to access your PDM needs if your in this boat, but this is again about providing the right options to each business case and there are a number of folks out there who operate without PDM today.
The second part of defining a BPI for us is the Use Case. Different Endpoints tend to have different Use Cases so I have listed some of those here. For example If we have an integration to CRM, we are likely passing and managing Customer, Vendor Data. If we have an ERP integration, similar to PDM integration to PLM we are likely integrating around and the Items & BOMs use case. This is a fairly common integration for us. A great example is where Vault falls short on effectively managing customer Change Orders, PLM 360 can do that quite well. We use integration to pass the BOM data to PLM for just that reason. There are some other use cases I list here. They are not necessarily Business use cases, but functional use cases. Things like File Transfer………….
PLM 360 to PDM integration makes so much sense for many reasons. Lets take the most basic. Data Redundancy. Engineering has all sorts of valuable information that gets captured in their PDM system, and they are often times the only ones with access to that. Integration allows us to take that information and pass it along to the rest of the organization. Another example is File Access. Engineering puts a lot of work into their design data, and doesn’t always share effectively. Particular in organizations lacking good document control, or quality practices. Business Process Integration allows us to release the right information, to the right people at the right time. Getting this information into PLM streamlines the product lifecycle management process and allows the design data to participate in the overarching process as needed. Security is another good reason for integration. Keeping the native design data in PDM, isolated and safe from the rest of the organization, while sharing important metadata and viewables is often times a driving factor for Integration for many of our customers.
Lets tech talk some. How do we do this behind the scenes. Our BPI solutions built around PLM 360 use a middleware product called Jitterbit. Jitterbit is a Cloud or On-Premise middleware that takes advantage of a “No Coding approach to integration. It allows us to easily connect to a number of End Points using native connectors, and for those products that do not have a connectors we are able to connect easily using and y JDBC / ODBC like connections. There are also some other things to note. When connecting with Autodesk Vault for Integration we leverage the Autodesk Vault web services provided by Autodesk. We also take advantage of the Autodesk Job Processor in order to kickoff Integration actions from Vault. For PDM Professional we also use Jitterbit, but where there is a lack of Vendor supplied Web Services we here at Razorleaf have created our own. These are part of our Clover based offering. We use these PDM Professional Web Services to connect PDM Pro to many different business systems.
So on to the demo. Lets have some fun. For todays demonstration we will be showing Autodesk PLM 360 to Vault. Before we take a live look, let me review a few of the Use Cases we will see.