Aerospace

Launch vehicle company: A journey to a more efficient product lifecycle management system

Discover how this launch vehicle company partnered with Applied CAx to enhance its PLM system.

Overview

Our customer is a global launch vehicle company that came to Applied CAx for help replacing its legacy systems with Siemens Teamcenter.

Company
  • Launch vehicle company
software
  • Teamcenter PLM
  • Siemens NX CAM
  • Siemens NX CAD
industry
  • Aerospace

Applied CAx helped 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.

01
The challenge

Legacy PLM limited ITAR compliance, scalability, and complex data management.

02
The solution

Applied CAx implemented and provided expertise for Teamcenter, NX CAM, and NX CAD.

03
The impact

Enabled scalable PLM, improved governance, and accelerated research and development.

Project objectives

As a trusted partner to this leading launch vehicle company, Applied CAx implemented Siemens Teamcenter to replace the company’s 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 it manage diverse engineering sites with greater consistency and oversight. Additionally, we helped the company 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.

Project activity highlights

Deploying Teamcenter with integrated CAD

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.

Results

Accelerating development with advanced compliance and automation

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 company’s rapidly growing operational footprint.

Purple square - Applied CAx Siemens software
Accelerated development timelines

Parallel workflows enabled simultaneous R&D and production, improving agility and reducing risk across engineering processes.

Yellow square - Applied CAx Siemens software
Advanced compliance framework

Native FAA and ITAR compliance improved audit readiness while reducing overhead across engineering and regulatory processes.

Yellow square - Applied CAx Siemens software
Global PLM scalability

Scaled from single-site deployment to global PLM backbone supporting over 800 users across distributed teams.

Purple square - Applied CAx Siemens software
Enhanced traceability governance

Established full traceability and governance, ensuring alignment and accountability across globally distributed product lifecycle operations.

It’s time to unleash your potential

Reach out to the team at Applied CAx to learn how our solutions can make your company’s goals achievable.