Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1406534
20 SMT007 MAGAZINE I SEPTEMBER 2021 Feature Interview by Nolan Johnson I-CONNECT007 To better understand how bill of materials and business operations soware can interact, we reached out to George Lewis, vice pres- ident of corporate strategy for Arena, a PTC Business. Arena introduced the world's first multi- tenant PLM soware in 2000 as a service solu- tion. Since that time, Arena has helped thou- sands of companies globally to introduce products to market faster. Arena's soware is cloud-based, and manages the entire product record, including the bill of materials (BOM), while connecting key products to im- prove quality management, regulatory compli- ance, training, requirements management, and more. Arena's soware is intended to keep in- ternal product teams and external supply chain partners aligned so that they launch new prod- ucts on time and under budget. Nolan Johnson: Digital twin is a concept appear- ing in nearly every meaningful discussion of factory automation, and bill of materials (BOMs) are a central component to digital twins for design, manufacture, engineering, and tracking products in the field. How does Arena see your products advancing the digital twin as a smart factory schema? George Lewis: e concepts of factory automa- tion and digital twin begin with strong control of the BOM and associated product develop- ment processes. In this regard, product lifecy- cle management (PLM) solutions like Arena create the framework for this communication. A cloud-based solution provides unique advan- tages in those scenarios where supply chains are heavily leveraged, which is commonplace in many industries today through market forc- es like digital transformation. Arena is well- positioned to create connections from internal teams like engineering, quality, and operations to external supply chain partners' manufactur- ing floors. Johnson: In PCB manufacturing, most facilities are pre-existing; there aren't that many green- A Multi-Tenant PLM Software Solution