How Simon connected engineering and manufacturing across four continents with ISFsoft Viewer
Simon designs and manufactures electrical switches, sockets, lighting, and connectivity solutions for markets across the globe. With over 200 engineers based in Barcelona and China, and manufacturing plants operating in Brazil, Mexico, India, and Poland, the company runs a genuinely international product development operation. A decision made in Barcelona has direct consequences on a factory floor thousands of kilometres away.
Keeping engineering and manufacturing aligned at that scale is not a given. It requires more than a good PLM system. It requires that the people who need engineering data can actually get to it, reliably, and without depending on someone else to retrieve it for them.
That was the problem Simon needed to solve.
The situation before Viewer
Simon's engineering team works in PTC Windchill. Their product data, assemblies, components, drawings and specifications, is structured, versioned, and controlled inside the PLM environment. But Windchill access was limited to the engineering team. Manufacturing teams at international sites had no direct, reliable way to consult that data.
The result was a gap between what engineering knew and what manufacturing could act on. Errors were surfacing too late, at the manufacturing phase, when the cost of fixing them is significantly higher than catching them upstream. An initial attempt to bridge this with PTC Navigate View licenses proved difficult to scale across a geographically distributed organization with multiple sites, each with its own operational reality.
Something more flexible was needed.
The solution: ISFsoft Viewer as the access layer
ISFsoft Viewer was implemented in combination with PTC Navigate View, providing a dedicated visualization server that makes Windchill data accessible to non-engineering teams, without requiring PLM licenses or expertise.
A Windchill workflow was configured to publish data automatically to the Viewer server, distributing up-to-date engineering information from Barcelona to manufacturing plants in Brazil, Mexico, India, and Poland. The moment engineering updates something in Windchill, that change becomes available to every site through Viewer.
The rollout was gradual and site-driven. Rather than imposing a uniform change across four countries at once, each manufacturing plant defined its own adoption timeline and product strategy. This meant the implementation could flex around operational realities, reducing friction and accelerating actual adoption on the ground.
The results across 150 users
With ISFsoft Viewer in place, manufacturing teams at every site now have direct access to current engineering data. The impact has been visible across several dimensions.
Error discovery moved upstream. Manufacturing teams can now identify issues before they reach the production floor, reducing the cost and disruption of rework. The engineering team, no longer fielding data access requests from across four time zones, recovered significant capacity.
And for the first time, every site, Barcelona, Brazil, Mexico, India, Poland, is working from the same version of the truth.
But the most significant outcome may be structural. With Viewer providing a reliable, shared view of engineering data across the organization, Simon had the foundation it needed to go further: moving from folder-based project management to a structured, Windchill-based PLM approach. Viewer was not just a fix for the access problem. It was the trigger for a broader shift in how Simon manages its product data at a global level.
A bridge that scales
What the Simon implementation illustrates is a pattern that applies across manufacturing organizations of similar complexity: the value of a PLM system is not just in the data it holds, but in how accessible that data is to the people who need to act on it.
ISFsoft Viewer connects to Windchill and exposes the relevant data, assemblies, components, drawings and attributes, through an interface that manufacturing, quality, procurement, and other teams can use without training, without licenses, and without creating risk to the PLM environment. For multi-site organizations, it also solves the synchronization problem by design: one source, one published view, always current.
Does your manufacturing team have direct access to Windchill data?
If your engineering team is the gatekeeper of data that manufacturing, quality, or procurement need to do their work, ISFsoft Viewer is designed to change that, without disrupting your existing PLM environment.
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More real-world examples
Simon is one of several manufacturing companies that have transformed the way they connect engineering and production with ISFsoft. Explore more case studies to see how other teams are getting more out of their Windchill investment.
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Why is access to information the biggest bottleneck in engineering?
The hidden costs of isolated engineering information
When engineering data is not accessible to the entire organization, the negative effects become immediately evident. Engineering teams turn into bottlenecks, constantly interrupted by information requests from other departments. This not only diverts their attention from essential innovation and development tasks but also creates a fragmented and inefficient workflow. The time lost responding to emails, attending calls, or generating specific content for other teams directly impacts the company’s productivity and agility.
The weaknesses of inaccessible engineering information
- Data duplication: Lack of access to updated information leads to the unnecessary creation of documents and files, resulting in redundancies and wasted resources.
- Proliferation of parts: Without a centralized view, different departments may generate similar or duplicate parts, hindering standardization and increasing operational complexity.
- Rework costs: Lack of access to reliable information leads to avoidable errors, requiring tasks to be redone, draining time and budget.
- Slowed innovation: Limited information flow between teams reduces the speed at which products can be developed and improved.
- Poor collaboration: Without a shared database, teams work with outdated or partial information, leading to poor decisions and missed opportunities.
- Longer development time: Fragmented information causes delays in design and manufacturing cycles, affecting the company’s competitiveness.
- Delayed time-to-market: Difficulty in accessing and sharing data affects responsiveness to market changes and opportunities, potentially leading to a loss of competitive advantage.
Inefficiency, overhead costs, and delays: The Price of Isolated Information
The lack of accessibility to engineering data has tangible consequences that directly impact operational efficiency and profitability:
- Lower productivity: Time spent searching for or requesting information translates to fewer hours dedicated to innovation and product development.
- Additional costs: Duplicated efforts and rework increase operating expenses.
- Innovation delays: Inefficient information flows extend development cycles.
- Higher error margin: The absence of a single, reliable source of information increases the risk of inconsistencies and product failures.
Data democratization: The key to optimizing processes and enhancing collaboration
To overcome these challenges, companies must invest in controlled and secure access to engineering information. This transformation of internal processes helps correct the previously mentioned weaknesses:
- Optimized resources and efficiency: Eliminating data duplication and facilitating access to accurate information allows teams to work more efficiently, reducing administrative time and maximizing productivity.
- Faster innovation and development: A smooth and transparent data flow enables better collaboration between departments, driving creativity and continuous improvement in design and production processes.
- Improved decision-making: Access to key information ensures that different departments work in alignment with up-to-date and reliable data, reducing errors and response times.
The solution: ISFsoft Viewer – Simplified Access and visualization of engineering data
To address the inefficiencies caused by limited access to engineering data, we have developed ISFsoft Viewer, an innovative solution that provides seamless access and visualization of critical Windchill information on a single, intuitive platform.
With ISFsoft Viewer, teams can:
- Quickly search for and access the information they need, without barriers or dependencies on other departments.
- Reduce time spent on administrative tasks, allowing engineers to focus on innovation and development.
- Enhance collaboration and decision-making by providing real-time, precise, and easily accessible data.
Eliminating barriers to engineering information access not only optimizes internal processes but also drives efficiency and innovation. With ISFsoft Viewer, companies can transform their data management approach, enabling each team to focus on what truly matters: developing high-quality products and achieving operational excellence.