Customer background and project summary
Our customer is a global launch vehicle company that came to Applied CAx for help replacing its legacy systems with Siemens Teamcenter. Applied CAx was able to help this company modernize and standardize its PLM systems. This allowed for easier compliance with ITAR, easier scalability within its system, and a more compliant data management system.
Summary
Challenge:
- Legacy PLM system makes complying with ITAR challenging
- Scaling to add new users is cumbersome under current system
- Current system makes managing complex data cumbersome
Solution:
- Teamcenter
- NX CAM
- Expert services from Applied CAx
Impact:
- Established new Teamcenter instance with modern, custom and advanced configurations built for scale and ITAR compliance to mitigate risk and enhance growth
- Increased efficiency and enabled rapid R&D
- Improved traceability and governance frameworks to unify operations across a globally distributed team
Project objectives
As a trusted partner to this leading launch vehicle company, Applied CAx implemented Siemens Teamcenter to replace its legacy systems and streamline product lifecycle management across the organization.
This solution enabled the client to support rapid R&D iteration while maintaining the stringent controls necessary for flight-qualified production releases. By centralizing configuration and governance, this change helped the company manage diverse engineering sites with greater consistency and oversight.
Additionally, we helped it establish robust frameworks for FAA-critical documentation and enabled structured collaboration across international teams and ITAR-compliant environments, ensuring both agility and compliance throughout its operations.
Highlights:
- Replace legacy systems with Siemens Teamcenter
- Support rapid R&D iteration alongside flight-qualified production release processes
- Establish tight control over FAA-critical documentation
- Enable structured collaboration across international and ITAR-compliant environments
- Manage diverse engineering sites with centralized configuration and governance
Project activity highlights
As the implementation partner, we conducted targeted department-level workshops to identify specific needs and shape an effective rollout strategy for Siemens Teamcenter. We deployed Teamcenter with integrated support for both SolidWorks and NX, ensuring seamless CAD interoperability.
On day one, we configured support for over eight document relationship types, including CAD files, tooling, GSE, and COTS components. To enforce consistency and compliance, we implemented global document control and validation across all design assets and documentation.
We also led a comprehensive data migration and site consolidation effort, successfully relocating all Teamcenter infrastructure to the U.S. Finally, we enabled secure third-party collaboration through Partner Connect, allowing suppliers and contract design teams to access limited-access Teamcenter workspaces tailored to their roles.
Highlights
- Conducted department-level workshops to identify needs and rollout strategy
- Stood up Teamcenter to support SolidWorks and NX integration
- Configured day-one support for 8+ document relationship types (CAD, tooling, GSE, COTS, etc.)
- Implemented global document control and validation across design assets and document types
- Led data migration and site consolidation project to move all Teamcenter infrastructure to the U.S.
- Enabled secure third-party collaboration via Partner Connect, providing limited-access Teamcenter workspaces for suppliers and contract design teams
- Configured multiple engineering workflows and change management
- Out-of-the-box Teamcenter to ERP export (Infor LN), no custom middleware
- Implemented custom BOM control
- Set up custom and advanced capabilities, including sophisticated MCN (Manufacturing Change Notice) workflows, custom logic for partial BOM release, and fully embedded license & FAA compliance workflows
Impact
Our client’s development timelines were accelerated by implementing parallel workflows in Teamcenter to support both R&D and production activities simultaneously.
We established full traceability and governance across the company’s globally distributed teams, ensuring alignment and accountability throughout the product lifecycle. FAA and ITAR compliance were seamlessly managed within Teamcenter’s native capabilities, reducing overhead and improving audit readiness.
Our team delivered one of the most advanced Teamcenter configurations in the aerospace sector, incorporating automation across document management, BOM control, and compliance workflows to reduce risk and boost engineering agility. What began as a single-site deployment successfully scaled into a globally coordinated PLM backbone, now supporting over 800 users across the client’s rapidly growing operational footprint.
Highlights
- Accelerated development timelines with parallel workflows for R&D and production
- Established traceability and governance across a globally distributed team
- FAA and ITAR compliance managed natively in Teamcenter
- Enabled one of the most advanced Teamcenter configurations in the aerospace sector
- Reduced risk and improved engineering agility with automation across document, BOM, and compliance workflows
- Scaled from a single-site implementation to a globally coordinated PLM backbone supporting 800+ users across the company’s rapidly expanding footprint
Ready to see how Applied CAx can help your company achieve its goals? Let’s talk!