CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
2 May 2007
Implementation Investments
KTM Drives Innovation And Growth Strategy With PTC Product Development System
PTC announced that KTM Sportmotorcycle AG, headquartered in Mattighofen (Austria), has selected the PTC® Product Development System (PDS) to support its growth strategy which is being driven by innovative products. The championship winning manufacturer of off-road motorcycles is expanding its use of PTC solutions to encompass Windchill, the PTC content and process management solution. The move to an integral PDS will enable KTM to optimize their product development process and thereby accelerate the pace of innovation, reduce time-to-market and allow additional focus on new market segments.
Since the 1970s KTM has successfully specialized in leading-edge sports motorbikes, winning numerous world championships in motor cross and enduro competitions as well as in grueling desert rallies such as the Rally Dakar. The company has a long pedigree of innovation: leading the market in the introduction of disc brakes, upside-down forks and progressive link rear suspension in off-road chassis design. With its revolutionary LC4 family of four-stroke engines KTM helped break the dominance of two-stroke engines in off-road competitions that had lasted more than two decades.
KTM has used PTC Pro/ENGINEER as its standard 3D CAD/CAM/CAE software for the entire product design since 1999, enabling the rapid transfer of innovative ideas into successful products. This speed of innovation has been key to KTM's growth rates, which have often exceeded 15% annually - e.g. culminating in 84,000 units sold in 2006. The expansion of KTM's product portfolio into road-going sports bikes and new markets including Quad vehicles and the revolutionary concept sports car "X-Bow" (poised for introduction in 2008), are further planned milestones in KTM's growth path.
To ensure innovation and product quality for the extended product portfolio, KTM partners with companies such as the Italian race car manufacturer Dallara for carbon chassis manufacturing or Audi for engine and power trains. To better manage its product development processes, KTM required a Web-based single architecture that could enable product collaboration and project management in a secure environment. Building on its long and successful partnership with PTC and following an exhaustive evaluation process, KTM decided to complement its engineering infrastructure with PTC Windchill. The project is being implemented by PTC Global Services, who is responsible for all aspects of the deployment including business process consulting, solution architecture design, project management, implementation, training and rollout.
"KTM is committed to delivering sports motorcycles that offer our customers competitive advantage on the racetrack," said Harald Plöckinger, Member of the Management Board KTM Sportmotorcycle AG. "Our 'Ready to Race' philosophy requires leading-edge technology with rapid response to change and precise execution. The PTC Product Development System addresses our need to complement innovation with structured processes in an integral IT environment."
"The pace of innovation in automotive markets requires a PLM solution that is easy to deploy and easy to use, but doesn't sacrifice on power when it comes to content and process management capabilities," said Martin Walters, director, automotive market strategy, PTC. "Because our integral PDS provides the right mix of power and ease, it is increasingly being adopted by leading manufacturing companies as their PLM backbone to help realize an efficient management of product development processes, information, timelines and costs."
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