How CoLab works with PLM
We know that PLM implementations are big investments in digital transformation. And we have good news – CoLab is not here to replace your PLM. In fact, CoLab works with your PLM and helps manufacturing organizations maximize their investment in PLM.
GET A DEMOHow it works
What CoLab is for?
CoLab is a cloud based platform purpose built for fast, effective design review. Using CoLab, multiple engineers, designers, and other stakeholders can review designs together and build off one another's feedback. The result is a more effective stage gate process for new product development, along with improved value analysis workshops and design for manufacturability exercises.
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How does data flow between CoLab and PLM?
CoLab integrates with Windchill and Teamcenter, so you can share files to CoLab directly from within your PLM. This preserves associations between data, such as associations between a top level assembly and part files. Once the files are in CoLab, reviewers can exchange feedback by pinning comments to 3D models or drawings. After the review is done, you can attach an issue list or review summary as an artifact back in PLM.
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How CoLab helps you maximize your investment in PLM
Keep track of decision making that happens outside PLM
CoLab lets you bring valuable collaboration data – previously lost in email and docs – back into PLM. Collaborative processes can be integrated into PLM processes. For example, you can review open cost optimization ideas in CoLab, then initiate a lifecycle state change in Windchill.
Secure file sharing and feedback for non PLM users
Suppliers, customers, and even some internal teammates often lack the access or the knowhow to retrieve files from PLM for review. CoLab makes it easy for these stakeholders to review files, and navigate freely within models. Unlike email sharing, permissions are fully under your control, and you will always know how and where data is being transferred.
Augment markup in PLM with complex reviews in CoLab
You can use CoLab for complex reviews while continuing to use tools like CreoView for markup. Markup tools are ideal for adding context to formal lifecycle changes in PLM. CoLab was built for complex reviews, where multiple people are exchanging ideas–often before a formal decision has been made. CoLab’s real-time review capabilities make these discussions more effective, while reducing clutter in your PLM system.
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Integrations
You don’t need yet another disconnected software solution. That's why CoLab does two things:
- It integrates with your CAD and PLM software to create a connected tech ecosystem.
- It replaces the 5-10 apps you use to complete a single process workflow with 1-2 apps (CoLab + PLM, for example)
CoLab supports more than 70 file types, including native and neutral CAD and integrates with many PLM/PDM systems.
Aside from engineering system integrations, CoLab also integrates with Jira and supports security protocols, like SSO, user permissions and more.
“The way we were doing our work is the same way that everyone else has traditionally been doing their work. Take screenshots [of a design], put that into a slide deck, and send that slide deck around for comments. Then you’re getting 10 people in a conference room for an hour. That's how we were doing things, but we knew there had to be a better way.”
Ready for smoother collaboration?
If you’re ready to see how CoLab can transform the way you work with suppliers, here’s how the process works.
- Simple external sharing with comprehensive access control
- Enterprise-grade IP security
- Automatically capture a more complete digital thread