PTC (Nasdaq: PMTC), the Product Development Company®, today announced it has strengthened its strategic partnership with Airbus.  Windchill has been successfully deployed for content and process management as a key enabler for Airbus to manage product development data and processes within the complexity of its extended enterprise environment. Additionally, Airbus is likely to use the PTC solution for new aircraft programs in the context of a multi-year partnership in which Airbus and the PTC R&D organization are working closely together on the implementation of the strategic enterprise PLM roadmap.

Airbus' product development strategy is to increasingly utilize out-of-the-box Windchill solutions.  This makes it easier to integrate and deliver new capabilities in the future and maintain new software versions. The overall Windchill implementation program is managed by PTC to ensure processes alignment and to optimize operating performance for the maintenance and support of the PLM environment.

"Global manufacturing companies are trying to balance the pressure to be more efficient and cost-effective with customer demand for increased innovation, more product variants and shorter time-to-market," said Richard Harrison, president and CEO. "Companies are changing the way they develop products as a result, but they must invest in new technologies to support this change.  In a typical aerospace development program for example, the OEM brings together millions of components made by thousands of suppliers around the world, with varying configurations depending on its airline customers.  PTC Windchill has proven to be a successful and reliable solution for managing these highly engineered and enormously complex products."

In order to achieve the specific needs of its customers, PTC is driving joint initiatives with its customers that will benefit not only one customer, but the entire customer base.  This enables PTC to further strengthen its products to support multiple companies who share similar requirements. 

"Like Airbus, companies of all sizes in all industries are increasingly adopting out-of-the-box PLM solutions from PTC to optimize total cost of ownership, upgradeability, and overall project success," said James Heppelmann, executive vice president and chief product officer. "This type of partnership confirms the strength and maturity of the PTC Product Development System. Our customers gain competitive advantage when they can easily capture and integrate mechanical, electrical and embedded software information around a common bill of material, automate common processes, and enable collaboration between different departments and globally distributed teams."