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PTC Targets Environmental Compliance with Synapsis Acquisition
Technology bolsters Windchill's ability to handle REACH, RoHS WEEE and other regulatory directives
Beth Stackpole, Contributing Editor -- Design News, December 16, 2008
In anticipation of a growing set of regulatory requirements, PTC has acquired technology from Synapsis Technology Inc. that will bolster the environmental compliance capabilities of its Windchill PLM platform.
The deal, in which PTC acquired the business assets of the privately-held, 25-person company, gives the PLM provider a patented solution that supports product compliance tracking at the substance, material and part level, in addition to the product level. Moreover, the compliance solution also delivers support for the European Union's Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH), the latest in a fast-increasing list of environmental regulations. REACH, which targets hazardous substances in products termed very high concern (SVHC), may ban up to 3,000 chemicals used in a wide variety of products, from electronics to automobiles and children's toys. Failure to comply with REACH or any of the other environmental compliance initiatives can have severe consequences for manufacturers, including losing the ability to ship products to the EU along with the resulting revenue loss.
While PTC currently offers an environmental compliance solution for Windchill – the Windchill Environmental Regulatory Compliance template – the solution was specifically tuned to handle Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) and Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) and wasn't up to date on the emerging set of regulatory requirements, according to Chad Hawkinson, PTC's vice president of product strategy for the electronics industry.
"PTC had a good, basic solution for environmental compliance ... but over the last nine months, the level of requirements and number of people asking for robust support for long-term compliance needs has really skyrocketed," Hawkinson says. "Compliance is no longer strictly at a product level like RoHS – it's now a requirement at a substance level, and there are potential changes to RoHS moving forward. Regulations are expanding in their purview."
Jim Brown, president of consulting firm Tech-Clarity Inc., believes manufacturers must do more than implement a one-off solution to address the compliance issue, which he calls significant and growing steadily. "Many companies took a 'brute force' approach complying with RoHS for the EU, and now they are facing additional regulations such as REACH and new RoHS regulations from around the globe," he says. "Those companies that took a brute force challenge have the same big job in front of them each time a new regulation comes out, whereas those that have put a compliance framework in place that consists of strong configuration management (PDM) and regulatory analysis will be ready to respond more effectively, more rapidly and at a significantly reduced cost."
Rather than build its own solution, PTC determined the Synapsis Technology was the "best-in-class" technology on the market, already in use at such marquee companies as Microsoft, Sony Ericsson, IBM, and Cisco, among others, for handling their RoHS, WEEE, ELV and REACH compliance needs. The software, called eMARS, is currently the compliance solution offered as part of Siemens PLM Software's Teamcenter PLM platform, and Hawkinson says PTC will continue to honor that commitment.
The software is available immediately from PTC, and the company will announce its long-term integration plan for Windchill in the near future, Hawkinson says.
