PTC and global automotive and industrial supplier Schaeffler have announced a new alliance that will see Schaeffler standardize on PTC solutions to deploy an integrated, end-to-end IT landscape. Schaeffler also will inform PTC’s efforts to further develop and evolve market-specific standard solutions to better meet the needs of automotive and industrial companies.

The new alliance will build on the successful 20-year relationship based on Schaeffler’s use of PTC’s CAD and PLM solutions. These tools are essential for the introduction and further development of Schaeffler’s initiatives for digital twins and for visualization of 3-D models, for example those used for augmented reality projects.

Schaeffler plans to leverage PTC’s experience and robust end-to-end solutions to move from a customized engineering IT environment to using standard applications across the enterprise. This will enable prompt responses to rapidly changing requirements in a dynamic, competitive environment. 

The alliance will focus on the optimization of the existing environment, as well as its expansion with projects such as Schaeffler’s Enterprise Traceability or Model-Based Enterprise and the deeper integration of software development tools. The goal is company-wide integration of the software and system development solutions (Application Lifecycle Management and Model-Based Systems Engineering). This also enables improvement in the mapping of critical systems engineering requirements, such as the fulfillment of varying country-specific safety regulations. 

“The alliance with PTC is yet another milestone in our digitization strategy within Roadmap 2025,” says Uwe Wagner, chief technology officer at Schaeffler AG. “End-to-end data models, 3D data, and digital twins are already elementary components of the research and development process for Schaeffler today. The increasing complexity requires consistent IT solutions in all development areas for more innovation, agility, and efficiency. To achieve these, it is crucial for Schaeffler to work with strong partners like PTC.”

“Through our work with Schaeffler, we aim to advance and further develop market-specific digital transformation solutions,” said Jim Heppelmann, president and CEO, PTC. “Both companies will benefit from more robust collaboration.”