Engineering development moving centre stage across manufacturing mid-market

Product lifecycle management (PLM) software and services are seeing considerable growth among mid-range manufacturing companies, well below the Boeing’s and GM’s that pioneered development. That’s the glaringly obvious conclusion from a fleeting glance at PLM developer UGS’ success with its Velocity Series portfolio, aimed squarely at what it calls SMEs. Not only has UGS seen significant success with this range, which is preconfigured for SMEs covering digital product design, analysis, manufacturing and data management software, but its distributors recorded 30% licence revenue growth in the second quarter alone. And UGS signed up more than 50 new partners in the first half of this year – a sure sign of rapidly growing interest. The distributors believe that some of this is down to UGS specifically targeting the mid market. Chris Smith, managing director, Aurora Design & Consultancy, for example, says: “UGS is the only company that offers products for smaller engineering companies … with proven interoperability and totally scaleable as companies’ requirements grow.” says Chris Smith, managing director, Aurora Design & Consultancy. And some manufacturers think so too. Luigi Buccitelli, CAD administrator at specialist axles builder US Manufacturing: “UGS has cornered the market with Teamcenter Express, providing a high-quality PDM system that is packaged and priced to fit mid-sized companies.” But it’s the sheer numbers and variety that paint a picture of changing minds across more of industry. Recent UGS Velocity Series PLM successes include aerospace firms like Adam Aircraft, MD Helicopters, Piper Aircraft, Aenton Corporation, Heath Tecna, McClenahan Engineering and Columbia Helicopter. But others include: heating and cooling firm Modine Manufacturing; die manufacturer Radkersburger; machine tools maker Maschinenfabrik; and technology firm Agave Technologies. Says Kerry Grimes, vice president for Mid Market at UGS: “Strong growth with Velocity Series wins and our indirect channel business, combined with our new and expanded partners, validate our mid-market business model. With the addition of NX CAM Express for manufacturing, our partners are even better equipped to serve the needs of small to medium-sized customers.”