PLM 7 min10 April 2026
Modern PLM: what Windchill and Teamcenter still get right (and what they don't)
Cherry-picking the strongest ideas from incumbent PLM suites — and quietly fixing what's broken.
PTC Windchill and Siemens Teamcenter remain the gold standard for serious PLM. They also remain hard to onboard, hard to customise, and hard to love.
When we designed our PLM, we cherry-picked the parts that work and rebuilt the parts that don't.
What we kept
Robust EBOM/MBOM separation. Effectivity. ECO/ECN workflows. Where-used queries. Granular RBAC. These are non-negotiable.
What we replaced
Heavy desktop installs replaced with a fast web UI. Customisation via JavaScript-based workflow scripts instead of multi-week professional services engagements. Native web 3D viewer instead of a third-party plugin.