Introduction
Hello everybody, and welcome back to another SPK and Associates vlog.
My name is Michael Roberts. I’m the Vice President of Sales and Marketing here at SPK.
Today we’re talking about how industrial manufacturers are accelerating their time to market up to 15% by using PTC’s approach to digital thread. This topic, we’re seeing come up more and more as companies deal with increasing product complexity, tighter deadlines, and the need to better their visibility across engineering, manufacturing, and quality.
Today I’m joined by one of my colleagues here at SPK, Daniela Alcantar. Daniela, feel free to introduce yourself.
Thanks, Michael. I’m Daniela. I’ve been with SPK for about nine years now, mainly in the realm of PDM and PLM and how to make those two giants work efficiently for you and your company.
Awesome to have you, Daniela.
Key Causes of Product Development Delays
So, this industry is really interesting and has some interesting challenges. Can you share a bit about what you see as the four causes of delay for developing products in that industrial manufacturing space?
Absolutely, Michael. These might ring true for a number of the folks listening here.
When we look at delays in industrial manufacturing, they come down to a few core breakdowns in how information flows through the product lifecycle. These are very interconnected.
One of the biggest challenges is the lack of synchronization between design changes and the broader development process. What this looks like is when changes are made in engineering, they don’t always propagate cleanly to manufacturing or service, which can create misalignment and rework. Teams often end up spending time reconciling differences rather than moving product forward.
Another common issue, and I’ve seen this a lot in my time, is limited design reuse. Without clear visibility into previous designs or similar components, teams often reinvent the wheel. This can lead to redundant part creation, increased complexity, and missed opportunities for standardization.
I love this one because who among us hasn’t seen the same screw listed multiple times with very slight iterations on the file name, right? “02,” “01”—that makes it confusing.
We also see challenges with undetected design issues early in the process. When problems are not identified until prototyping or even production, it can drive inefficiencies, delays, and higher costs. At that point, fixes become much more disruptive and much more expensive.
Finally, supplier-related delays are a major factor. Collaboration with suppliers is often siloed and disconnected from the rest of the product lifecycle. That can make it harder to get an accurate read of requirements and up-to-date product information, which slows things down and introduces risk.
Again, tales from the field, right? Who among us hasn’t heard, “Oh no, I sent our vendor the 02 drawing instead of the 03”? Very common, unfortunately.
When you step back, the common thread across all of these isn’t just complexity, but it’s a lack of connected, reliable information. That’s exactly what trickles down to delays downstream.
Got it. The screw scenario resonates because I feel like we’ve had that happen more than once with clients that we’ve worked with. That was one of the issues that they had. So interesting that those are the four groupings of challenges.
Outcomes of Applying Digital Thread
Now, can you share a bit more about what we’ve seen with regards to outcomes when companies are applying PTC’s approach to digital thread to these industries?
Absolutely. This is where we’ve seen the digital thread make a meaningful difference because it directly addresses those root challenges.
In one example, an OEM connected their product lifecycle using Windchill. The first step was establishing a single source of truth for product data. That alone helped reduce confusion and align global teams across engineering, manufacturing, and service.
From there, they enabled end-to-end traceability and stronger change management, which is one of the key features of Windchill. Instead of changes getting lost or delayed between teams—or tracked via methods like Word or Excel sheets—they were tracked and managed across the full lifecycle, from R&D through manufacturing and into service.
We also connected their engineering and manufacturing BOMs through a defined process, which made a big difference in how quickly and accurately they could move from design to production.
Finally, tying it all together was this connected digital thread that gave teams better visibility and enabled them to make more confident decisions.
The impact directly reflects the challenges we just talked about. They achieved a 66% faster regional product launch, cutting about four months, and an 86% reduction in BOM creation effort for new product introductions.
So, a lot less time chasing data and a lot more time actually spent moving products forward.
Yeah, good outcomes there. Obviously, getting the product to market is one of the things that we try to focus on and help resolve for clients—trying to get that product to market as quickly as possible, obviously with high levels of quality. That is a big outcome there.
Implementation Activities and Expected Results
I know sometimes there are conversations around tools, and we know using a tool doesn’t immediately solve a problem or implementing a tool doesn’t immediately produce outcomes like that. Since we have implemented some of these tools before, can you describe to the audience what activities normally happen and what outcomes people should expect when they’re implementing these solutions?
Absolutely. When we’ve implemented these solutions, the outcomes tend to fall into four key areas.
One of them, as you mentioned, Michael, is speed to market. By reducing redundant design work, improving reuse, and eliminating delays from manual handoffs, we’ve seen about a 15% improvement in speed to market. In some cases, that number may be higher depending on the starting point, but the core driver is the same—much less rework and better alignment across teams.
Second is product cost. With better design optimization, increased component reuse, and stronger supplier collaboration, organizations typically see about a 5% reduction in product cost. A lot of that comes from consolidating volume and driving economies of scale—something that’s very difficult to achieve without good visibility into parts and suppliers.
Again, going back to those numerous screw files—how many are being purchased by how many teams? Is there a way to join forces and get that economy of scale?
Third would be the cost of quality. When you improve traceability and catch issues earlier in the process, you naturally reduce scrap, rework, and downstream risks like recalls or warranty claims. We’ve seen about a 10% reduction in total cost of quality, along with more automated and consistent compliance processes.
This is driven because once things start to improve in terms of rework, that frees up time and effort to make things even better.
Finally, service revenue. This is an area we’ve seen frequently overlooked. When you connect product data into the service lifecycle, you unlock opportunities like predictive maintenance, better service planning, and more efficient inventory management. That drives roughly a 20% increase in service revenue.
One important note: these numbers aren’t meant to be universal benchmarks, but they’re based on customer-validated assessments. The impact can vary based on your organization’s starting points and priorities.
Please take these as vetted examples. What we’ve consistently seen across manufacturers is that pattern—when you address those core challenges like connecting data, improving collaboration, and enabling better reuse, you don’t just improve one area. You see measurable gains across speed, cost, quality, and service.
I love it, Daniela. Those are great numbers—even if they’re not guaranteed for every situation, that’s real value delivered. Thank you for sharing that and thank you for your time here today.
Absolutely. Thank you, Michael.
Closing and Key Takeaways
I think the big takeaway here is improving time to market isn’t just about working harder. It’s about connecting those systems, that data, and ultimately aligning the teams that are making those decisions and products to understand things earlier in the process.
Obviously, the earlier detection of scenarios and issues, the better.
For organizations in the industrial manufacturing area, the digital thread isn’t just a nice-to-have anymore. It’s actually a critical part of what you need to stay competitive.
If you’re looking for help in understanding that, how to apply it to your organization, or if you want to explore where you might have gaps today based on the things that Daniela shared, feel free to reach out to our team here at SPK and Associates. Our contact info will be in the description. We’d be happy to have a conversation and see if we can help further.
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Thanks for watching. We’ll see you next time.
