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

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.

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.

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.