Multi-Site Collaboration (Teamcenter)
Teamcenter Engineering in a global or multi site environment
Teamcenter’s mechanism to work in a seperated site situation has changed names almost every version, but the fundamentals remain the same. Before there was Teamcenter Engineering there was iMan (information manager), it was rebranded under the Teamcenter family. The part that allows Teamcenter Engineering to talk to other sites has also changed names. In Teamcenter Engineering v9 it is called “Multi-Site Collaboration” found under the “Tools” menus in the Teamcenter Portal interface. It has been known as: Global iMan, G-iMan, Distributed iMan, D-iMan, Multi-Site, Global, and other easy to say and remember derrived names. Regardless of the name it allows sites that can’t be connected directly a way to work on the same data and all view the data. It can be a one-to-one relationship to a many-to-many. Meaning site “A” may own parts, site “B” own others, and site “C” different pieces. Then each site can have a syncronized copy of the other parts so they can see how the assembly or parts fit together.
This can be usefull for different sites to simultaneously work on parts and all have a way to view the others work in somewhat real time. With this type of configuration there needs to be an ODS (Object Directory Service) created. At least one ODS is needed. The ODS is a service that keeps track of where the data is and who has a replication of it. When site “A” wants to show the other sites their progress or finished part they publish it to the ODS, then the other sites can take a replication of the part. The ODS only tells the sites how to connect to the owning site to get the parts. The ODS does not contain any data except meta data. Sites that don’t own the parts can not publish it to an ODS for other sites to consume. There is another service that will allow you to accomplish a remote distribution system. Once it is replicated Teamcenter has a service run (usually durring off hours) to check if it’s been modified and re-syncs the site. Usually this is a pull from the sites, the originating site don’t usually do a push. When parts are released and a flag is applied to the item the other sites get the update.
The ACL rules apply to multi-site Teamcenter as well. The owning site can decide who can view it, take ownership, etc. There are many combinations of security that can be applied as well as allowing only certain sites to read the ODS. If the site has the correct permissions they can even take ownership of the item. This will change the original owning site to have a replication.
This is a very powerfull application and can be confusing at times. Especialy when there is not a common ACL across sites, and the datasets are mismatched. If you run a organized and controlled multi-site environment with a knowledgeable staff this is very usefull and a great productivity gain. The biggest hinderance is poorly trained support staff and users with not enough training and too much power to replicate data. You will want to keep the replication a priveledge until your workflos is figured out. Then open up the ability to the users as you find the knowledgable group. If not you’ll be chasing your tail around because of user error.
