NEEDHAM, MA. - March 16, 2005 -
PTC (Nasdaq: PMTC), the Product Development
Company™, today announced that Webasto AG,
headquartered in Stockdorf, Germany, has expanded
its deployment of Windchill to more than 1,000 users
worldwide. Webasto initially selected Windchill in
2001 as its product data management and workflow
platform, and has since adopted Windchill
ProjectLink™ for project collaboration and program
management and execution.
With almost 6,500 employees worldwide and revenue
of $1.85 billion USD, Webasto is the leading Tier-1
supplier of roof and heating systems to the
international automotive industry. Like many
manufacturing companies, Webasto faces challenges in
optimizing its product development processes as it
has globally distributed development and
manufacturing sites that use different CAD and CAD
workgroup management tools. Windchill manages the
overall change management process for all sites and
has become the leading backbone system for the
generation of new articles and bill of materials,
closely integrated with Webasto’s local ERP systems.
Additionally, Webasto uses Windchill to support its
Advanced Product Quality Process (APQP) initiative –
a standard quality process prescribed from QS 9000.
“Webasto has ambitious goals for growth. In order
to continue setting the standard for suppliers to
the international automotive industry, we need to
employ processes and technologies that enable us to
be innovative and efficient at the same time,”
explained Bernd Göllnitz, CIO of Webasto AG.
“Collaboration has become crucial for us, as our
customers increasingly work on cross-brand or
cross-platform projects. Windchill enables product
development teams from different sites to
collaborate more efficiently on global projects.
Additionally, Windchill has improved our ability to
adopt industry standards for quality that are
required by our customers. This is critical for
growth in the highly competitive automotive
industry.”
“PTC’s strength in managing complex data in a
distributed environment with heterogeneous IT
infrastructures is key for automotive customers like
Webasto. Windchill also provides an integral and
flexible architecture that makes it easy for
customers to adopt new functionality such as project
collaboration,” said Dhiren Verma, director,
automotive vertical market development at PTC. “We
are proud to support Webasto’s product development
needs as it continues executing its strategy of
growth through innovation.”
About Webasto
Webasto AG is one of the world’s largest suppliers
for the automotive industry. The company specializes
in open roof/sunroof systems and thermo systems.
Additionally, the company develops and manufactures
heating, cooling and ventilation systems for the
automotive, heavy duty and commercial vehicle
markets as well as door and hatch systems for busses
and cargo loading aids. Headquartered in Stockdorf,
Germany, the company and its subsidiaries have about
6,500 employees and 27 production facilities in 15
countries. For additional information, please visit
www.webasto.com
About PTC Solutions for the Automotive
Industryy
PTC solutions for automotive are designed to meet
the product design and product life cycle management
needs of both OEMs and suppliers in the automotive
industry. PTC provides 3D design, product data
management and collaboration solutions to over 1400
automotive manufacturers including 8 of the top ten
suppliers and 3 of the top 5 OEMs.
About PTC
PTC (Nasdaq: PMTC) provides leading Product
Lifecycle Management (PLM) software solutions to
more than 35,000 companies worldwide. PTC customers
include many of the world's most innovative
manufacturing companies in the aerospace & defense,
automotive, consumer, electronics & high technology,
industrial equipment and medical products
industries. PTC is included in the S&P 500 and
Russell 2000 indices. For more information on PTC,
please visit
http://www.ptc.com
