Which PLM systems are leading the market in terms of discrete manufacturing?
As aways, this question is as topical as it is controversial—but that doesn’t stop industry analysts from trying to position these developers against each other.
One of the more prominent and ambitious analyses is the Forrester's Wave report, which has now published its 2023 Q1 report examining the current PLM players in the context of their capabilities in discrete manufacturing; that is, the production of distinctive objects such as cars, furniture, smartphones, airplanes and other products. This contrasts with process-industrial manufacturing, which is about combining supplies, ingredients or raw materials using a formula or recipe.
One of the main aspects of the Forrester’s Wave report is a graphic representation illustrating how the analyst positions the PLM companies in different layers, and how they compare in relation to each other. This goes from the "Leader wave" and the one closest below it called "Strong performers," to the third wave with the players characterized as only "Contenders" followed by the lowest wave called “Challengers.”
The report is based on a 22-point evaluation of the most prominent PLM players. Clear leaders in the positioning illustration are two players: Siemens Digital Industries Software with the Teamcenter/Xcelerator portfolio, and PTC with the Windchill PLM platform. Their evaluation results have ended up so close to each other that, based on their position at the top right of the "Leader Wave," it is hard to tell them apart—though Siemens does slightly edge out PTC.
The third PLM developer in the lineup, Dassault Systèmes and its 3DEXPERIENCE platform, is positioned a bit behind Siemens and PTC in terms of both axes in the graphic. The vertical axis depicts strength in terms of strategy, and the horizontal axis illustrates strength in terms of the current, existing offering capabilities.
Another interesting aspect of Forrester's Wave 2023 Q1 analysis is that Aras PLM has stepped back into the Leader wave after being just outside it in 2021, where it was positioned in the "Strong Performer” wave.
Out of the other solutions, it can be noted that Autodesk Vault and Fusion 360, and Propel PLM ended up high in this second wave while Oracle Fusion Cloud PLM and Arena Solutions (owned by PTC) ended up a bit further down.
We'll start by taking a closer look at how Forrester evaluated the two leading PLM solutions.
Siemens Teamcenter Leads the PLM Pack According to Forrester
Forrester states that Siemens holds one of the strongest positions in terms of the market, with more than 170,000 Siemens PLM customers.
Above all, Forrester points out the company's vision as superior, in combination with a series of strategically heavy acquisitions that are crucial for the capabilities of the system. The purchase of the low-code platform Mendix is one of those pieces, but the importance of the Mentor Graphics purchase in 2017 is equally noteworthy.
"The Mentor Graphics acquisition underpins Siemens' smart product strategy," Forrester states in the report. At the same time, the company's acquisition of Supplyframe is pointed out as an important factor when it comes to support for digital logistics that strengthens "design for availability." This speaks to the importance of integrating PLM with sourcing.
The purchase of Mendix, Forrester further states, "anticipated the importance of low-code extensibility to user adoption and engagement."
Among the strengths on the strategy side for Siemens Teamcenter, they received top points in planned enhancements, their innovation road map and partner eco-system, among other areas of evaluation.
That said, the scores for current offerings panned out with Siemens getting full points (5.0) for existing solutions in several disciplines: PDM, manufacturing use cases, supply chain use cases, PLM support for sustainability, service use cases and platform characteristics.
There was a somewhat lower rating for existing solutions in terms of ideation (3.4) and design, test, risk management and certification (3.8). There was also a slightly lower rating on the strategy side with respect to performance (3.0).
In summary, Forrester states that, “Siemens demonstrates superior management of stage gates, digital thread, product development control, sourcing, software bill, embedded software, variants, engineering change, bill of process, digital twin of manufacturing process, product line engineering, extended bills of material, service and supply chain use cases, compliance sustainability and green PLM support, and platform characteristics.”
The report also notes that reference customers specifically singled out the quality of the implementation experience, support for overcoming supply disruptions and support for multi-domain design data. In these pieces, reference customers rated the user interface and usability positively, "but noted that support for sustainability needs improvement."
Industrially, Siemens Teamcenter is a PLM platform that mostly appeals to industrial, aerospace and defense, transportation and high-tech manufacturers.
“Forrester identified embedded software lifecycle, digital twin and simulation as key drivers. We believe our ability to deliver the most comprehensive digital twin including mechanical, electrical, electronic, software and simulation data—and the world's leading visualization—is why Forrester named us a leader in the report. We are honored by this recognition,” says Bill Lewis, Siemens' Marketing Director for Lifecycle Software, commenting on the report.
PTC's Windchill in a Very Close Second Place with Its Solutions for the Digital Thread
PTC and its PLM platform Windchill landed at the top just slightly under Siemens Teamcenter.
Speaking to engineering.com, Greg Payne, VP of corporate Communication at PTC says that “Forrester credited PTC with a ‘superior’ vision for PLM as the foundation of the digital thread. This is consistent with why PLM has seen such steady growth over the last few years—it is a critical backbone of our customers’ digital transformation strategies.”
In the area of current offerings, PTC earned a top rating (5.0) for its design capabilities regarding long-term product life cycle management, as well as for use cases on the manufacturing side, sustainability support, service use cases and platform characteristics.
“PTC also received top scores for product vision, execution roadmap, and market approach,” says Payne. “We attribute these top scores to our vision for closed-loop PLM and our thoughtful pursuit of it through acquisitions like Codebeamer and ServiceMax.”
As for lower ratings on the current offering side, PTC received a lower score (3.0) for use cases on the supply side. In the area of strategy, there was a slightly lower rating (3.0) for performance and planned enhancements.
As engineering.com has pointed out in several analyses, PTC Windchill combines the IIoT aspects of the ThingWorx platform and Vuforia for XR (such as VR and AR) with design (Creo), PDM and ALM (Application Lifecycle Management)—to name a few features—resulting in a wide array of capabilities.
Notably, PTC's Windchill has more than 12,000 manufacturing customers and a nine-figure annual revenue. The client list includes organizations and companies such as J&J, the U.S. Navy, Volvo Group and Raytheon.
PTC’s vision of PLM includes digital twins and digital threads as significant foundational components. Forrester writes in its analysis that for customer’s digital threads, PTC "is superior because of its strategic investment in the ThingWorx IoT platform."
Incidentally, this aspect made a noteworthy impression in the Forrester Wave Industrial Internet-Of-Things Software Platforms Q3 2021 report. But the analyst also highlights the importance of the cloud CAD software Onshape and the Intland purchase with its application lifecycle management (ALM) solution, Codebeamer.
These purchases, Forrester says, "underpins [PTCs] strategy to deliver a platform supporting the most demanding digital thread for asset-intensive manufacturers of capital goods with long product lifecycles.”
In summary, the report says, PTC's Windchill offering shows strengths in "managing data sources, stage gates, product development control, design and sourcing for quality, integration with certification processes and libraries, support for reuse of designs and parts, digital thread, extended bills of material, embedded software, variants, engineering change management, digital twin of manufacturing processes, product line engineering, compliance sustainability and green PLM, and service use cases.”
“From here,” Payne adds, “we’ll continue executing on our closed-loop PLM and digital thread strategies, and we’ll continue extending our SaaS leadership. We’re also at the forefront of the agile product development concept—developing hardware the same way you develop software. Our Onshape, Arena and Codebeamer products are the ideal tools for this type of development, and we’re already seeing customers embrace this approach. We see this as a notable shift in the product development market as cloud continues to take off.”
Dassault's 3DEXPERIENCE in Third Position with an Exciting Roadmap
Regarding the third-place position of Dassault Systèmes and its 3DEXPERIENCE, Forrester points out that the platform has more than 300,000 customers in 11 industries.
Dassault’s discrete manufacturing customers include disruptive companies such as Tesla and electric adventure vehicle manufacturer Rivian, and established organizations like Honda, Renault and GE.
Forrester’s report further states that Dassault’s roadmap looks very good, "thanks to its investments in an embedded proprietary collaboration platform, IFWE Loop, together with its OUTSCALE elaborative universes combining data science, virtual twin and process modeling to simulate innovation.”
This, in turn, is of great importance to the realization of Dassault's long-term strategy to support its customers' transition from a product economy to an experience economy.
The report continues that “Dassault’s partner ecosystem also stands out, with more than 1,000 service and reseller partners responsible for more than two-thirds of its revenue and with 400 software development partners building complementary applications.”
Dassault's delivery model is also praised, offering on-premise, private and public cloud deployments.
In an upcoming article, we will look more at Aras’ PLM platform Innovator, and the reasons why this solution has once again entered Forrester's Leadership Wave.