Rick Yahn, engineering manager for printing-industry manufacturer QTI, is one who has found the full suite a bit unwieldy. “This Windchill thing is just too horizontally complex. We went into it for about a year, and then had to scale back.” The learning process, he says, has been time-consuming and costly. “We’ve learned enough to implement what was of value [to us].” Yahn’s been using ProjectLink on his own desktop for about nine months—”and that’s been great,” he says. He’s enthusiastic about how ProjectLink will roll out to the rest of QTI. “It’s a vertical slice of the Windchill package without trying to do too much.”
Two years ago, when aerospace-industry software provider Exostar was looking to integrate document and project management into its ForumPass offering, PTC’s ProjectLink was the best choice available, says Vice President of Marketing Ludo Van Vooren. Now, even though Exostar doesn’t use a customized version of the software, some of the newer features in ProjectLink were a direct result of Exostar’s pilot program. When changes had to be integrated, “PTC needed a bit of prodding,” Van Vooren says, “but [eventually] got their top two development guys [involved].”
John Burdett, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics’ project manager for the Joint Strike Fighter program, says Lockheed turned to Windchill to help control costs and provide management metrics from the factory floor. But out of the box, he says, Windchill “may not have reached its potential yet as a program management tool.”
Feeling stuck in self-doubt?
Stop trying to fix yourself and start embracing who you are. Join the free 7-day self-discovery challenge and learn how to transform negative emotions into personal growth.
