Innovator Spotlight: ZF
Leveraging a PLM enabled digital thread and digital twin, ZF is developing new products in an innovative way
Creating a world with zero emissions, zero accidents, and zero downtime
ZF’s vision is to build the next generation of mobility that is clean, safe, comfortable, and affordable for everyone, everywhere. Central to this strategy is the digitization of its core platforms to enable cross-divisional and cross-functional collaboration. With PLM as the foundation of the digital thread, ZF is integrating its systems and platforms across the entire value chain to revolutionize business models, processes, products, and services. By doing this ZF has been able to make the right decisions on the right data at the right time, reducing lead times, lowering costs, and improving quality.
Challenges: Breaking down data silos
With over 270 manufacturing locations across 42 countries, and 150,000 employees worldwide, teams were working in silos without an automated way of sharing the latest product information between divisions, suppliers, and customers. Its IT environments were not harmonized from a tools nor process perspective leaving users to rely on information that was out of date, not incorporating the latest product changes and variations. Working from data that was often weeks old, there was low confidence in the decisions being made.
Three challenges addressed by ZF’s digital transformation initiative
Engineering collaboration:
ZF needed to quickly unify its product development environment. With software being a key differentiator in the majority of ZF’s new products, it was imperative that software, mechanical, and electrical components come together in a useful flow for engineers.
Enterprise collaboration:
In order to meet time to market and quality targets, ZF’s electronics divisions needed to securely provide real-time data to the “extended” and largely remote enterprise inclusive of both end users and other ZF divisions. As a Tier 1 supplier, it also needed to store and communicate data from various CAD, ECAD, and MCAD sources via a single and secure tool.
Democratization of IT:
IT never has enough resources. For ZF, rather than trying to constantly meet the demand for technology by increasing IT resources, it required a significantly more effective and efficient way to “democratize” IT. ZF had to find a way of making data available to the business community, on managed platforms, enabling the business to create IT solutions for themselves.
Collaboration: The strategy behind ZF’s philosophy of ‘See, Think, Act’
Collaboration is key to staying relevant and competitive in a marketspace that is ever changing due to trends such as e-mobility, autonomous driving, digitalization, and sustainability. Globally dispersed, cross-functional teams need real-time access to product data in order to collaborate and make decisions they can be confident in.
That’s why ZF adopted a ‘See, Think, Act’ philosophy. It wants its business users to be able to see the data that is relevant to them in a format that is easily consumable. It wants them to be able to think on the data because they know it's from a trusted, single source of truth. And it wants them to be able to act on the data by providing easy access to product development processes.
Perspective: The ZF benchmark for teamwork
Global CIO
Dr. Jürgen Sturm, based in Friedrichshafen Germany, is the Chief Information Officer of the ZF Group. Together with his global team, Dr. Sturm is supporting innovation in both new processes and business models including the required technology governance, architecture, and cyber security. His team is building digital thread and IoT solutions to enable greater agility and speed across the organization.
VP of IT Value Center
Mr. Frederik Verster, based in Koblenz, Germany, is the Vice President of the IT Value Center responsible for all applications in product development, production, and quality. In his role, Mr. Verster focuses on ensuring that the IT strategy supports ZF’s business strategy to ensure the application roadmap is built to align with current and future organizational requirements.
Head of IT Software Engineering
Mr. Mukul Jain, based in Hyderabad, India, is the head of IT Software Engineering and co-founder of the ZFworx CoE (which is ThingWorx Navigate). Mr. Jain has empowered the business to become more agile by speeding up digital initiatives with a platform that enables self-service IT.
Electronic Division – Engineering Manager
Mr. Wolfgang Ruedell, based in Koblenz, Germany, is the manager of engineering tools in the electronics division of ZF. He works with his engineering partners to understand their needs for tools, how to use tools, how to optimize them, and what is needed from a data perspective. He works very closely with the IT department, acting as the translator between the engineering terminology and the IT language.
Electronic Division – Application End-User
Ms. Natalia Czaja, based in Czestochowa, Poland, is a Manufacturing Configuration Management Analyst. Ms. Czaja’s team supports processes in ZF’s electronics division, from the initiation to the execution phases of projects. Diligent preparation of change requests is their main issue.
Solution overview: Establishing PLM as the single authoritative source of truth
Critical to achieving ZF’s vision was implementing cross-divisional and cross-functional core software platforms that enable the collaboration required for developing innovative products. The focus was to provide solutions that make data available to its various divisions which it can then use for analytical purposes and artificial intelligence (AI) applications.
It starts with ZF’s mechanical designers where they use Creo. Windchill is then used as the single authoritative source of truth for all product-related data. The Windchill platform allows for standardized processes where possible and variation where needed. ZF also uses Kepware for machine connectivity which is considered critical to the digital transformation of its factories. ThingWorx Navigate is utilized as an integration platform to integrate data not only from Windchill but also from other legacy PLM systems, program management systems, and ERP systems, for example. Vuforia is one of the key technologies used to support the quality processes within its factories. The augmented reality capabilities are used to guide workers on the shop floor through quality checks. This data revolution enables a radical re-design of almost all ZF’s business models, business processes, products, and services. Software and technology are becoming core to its business, and this is of critical importance for the competitive edge of the company. The results have been significant. ZF has been able to make decisions faster, speeding time to mark, while increasing productivity and improving overall product quality.
Implementation Spotlight: ThingWorx Navigate for collaboration
ZF turned to ThingWorx Navigate to support its ‘See, Think, Act’ philosophy. ThingWorx Navigate allows users to ‘see’ product information in the easy-to-use apps, ‘think’ by combining different data sources via an app or report, and ‘act’ by helping users make and take action on data-driven decisions. By leveraging real-time data, analytics, and AI, ZF has transformed the way teams dynamically collaborate.
With ThingWorx Navigate’s low-code platform approach and reusable UI components, ZF can provide self-service IT functionality to its global employees. Developers have been able to create apps within hours vs. weeks without impacting the source systems or connectors, and with minimal involvement from IT. Below are three core apps that ZF developed:
Where-used app
Helps ZF business users to know where a part is being used (i.e., assembly, plan, end product). With one click users can access and visualize information, saving many hours per task.
Part information report app
ZF Windchill insight app
Explore the PTC products that are helping ZF achieve their digital innovation initiatives.
PTC’s Windchill helps enable enterprise-wide collaboration. Windchill's groundbreaking capabilities bring dispersed teams together, ensuring a single source of truth for product and process data.
Through ThingWorx Navigate’s role and task-based applications, you can provide downstream stakeholders direct access to up-to-date product data. Casual users can easily access the rich data stored within the organization’s enterprise system—no training required.
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