Windchill vs Vault PLM

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Our analysts compared Windchill vs Vault PLM based on data from our 400+ point analysis of PLM Software, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

Product Basics

Windchill is a product lifecycle management and supply chain system that utilizes the latest developments in technology to optimize operations. Automation and AR capabilities are some of the modern technologies that can be included in the system. The program increases the visibility of product concepts as they move throughout the lifecycle by collecting real-time CAD data.

Its automation capabilities also allow for changes made downstream to be reflected in other areas, such as in technical documents and promotional materials. These changes can also be reflected in graphical representations of a product to ensure accuracy. Windchill works to reduce duplicate work and communication errors as a product moves throughout the lifecycle.
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Vault PLM offers enterprise-level collaboration and product monitoring. It supervises operations, shares relevant object information across companies and offers swift product designing. It's cloud-based.

Its top modules are bill of material (BOM) management, quality management and supplier collaboration. It can allocate, track and confirm change requests and orders. It can also structure product templates and regulate duties based on a product's line, team or role.
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$1,000/User, Monthly
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$450/User, Monthly
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Product Assistance

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Product Insights

  • Increased Visibility: Look at products as they move from one aspect of the lifecycle to another. Components of this include the ability to look at quality aspects and feature changes. 
  • Boost in Productivity: Boosts productivity among workers. Centralization and a single view of data can reduce the amount of time that employees spend looking for information. 
  • Use the Latest Tech: Can integrate with Vuforia, an AR tool. This allows users to look at their designs in a real-world setting and to use that information to inform aspects of a product. As technology advances and more features become available, it can be helpful to stay up-to-date on the latest and greatest tools. 
  • Reduced Costs: Cost is an essential factor to consider when looking at different software solutions. Reduces costs through the efficient creation of product variants, which is typically time-consuming and costly. 
  • Automation: Leverages automation to help update content and users as features and definitions are altered. This ensures consistency and reliability of information. 
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  • Enhanced Collaboration: Vault PLM facilitates seamless collaboration among cross-functional teams, allowing engineers, designers, and manufacturers to work concurrently on product development projects, streamlining communication and reducing errors.
  • Centralized Data Management: Vault PLM serves as a central repository for all product-related data, ensuring that all stakeholders have access to the most up-to-date information, eliminating data silos and inconsistencies.
  • Improved Product Quality: By providing a structured and controlled environment for product development, Vault PLM helps teams identify and resolve potential issues early in the design process, resulting in higher-quality products.
  • Reduced Time-to-Market: Vault PLM's streamlined processes and automated workflows accelerate product development cycles, enabling companies to bring products to market faster, gaining a competitive edge.
  • Increased Productivity: Vault PLM's intuitive interface and powerful tools enhance productivity by automating repetitive tasks, freeing up engineers to focus on more strategic and value-added activities.
  • Enhanced Traceability: Vault PLM provides comprehensive traceability throughout the product lifecycle, enabling teams to track changes, identify dependencies, and ensure regulatory compliance.
  • Improved Decision-Making: Vault PLM's reporting and analytics capabilities provide valuable insights into product development processes, empowering teams to make data-driven decisions.
  • Scalability and Flexibility: Vault PLM's modular architecture allows companies to customize and scale the solution to meet their specific needs, adapting to changing business requirements.
  • Reduced Costs: Vault PLM's centralized data management, automated workflows, and improved efficiency lead to significant cost savings throughout the product development process.
  • Improved Customer Satisfaction: By enabling teams to deliver high-quality products faster, Vault PLM ultimately contributes to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.
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  • Product Design and Visualization With AR:  Offers integration with Vuforia, an augmented reality (AR) platform. Design 2D and 3D objects not only on a screen, but also in a real-world setting. Collaborate with others across the world on these designs. 
  • Change Management: The change management can make alterations during the product life cycle in a centralized location so that other users can access the most up-to-date information. This tool also provides visibility of how change impacts an organization throughout the product life cycle. 
  • Product Quality Monitoring: Integrates quality measures into product development. This allows employees to see what type of quality issues occur and to work to solve them for future and ongoing iterations of a product. 
  • BOM Management: Digital Bill of Materials (BOM) is provided through this system. A parts-centric approach to BOM is available with a single source of truth for all organizational product data. This program is closed-loop throughout the entire lifecycle from conceptualization to product release. 
  • Product Variation: Developing a product variation can be time-consuming and expensive. This system works to assist in the complete production process of product variants to ensure customer satisfaction and cost-effectiveness. 
  • Unified Data: Windchill centralizes data from multiple aspects of a business into a single view to make access easier and less time-consuming. Real-time CAD and product data are some of the sources included in this feature. 
  • Automatic Content Updates: When changes are made to a product during the development phase, Windchill allows for the automatic update of content in accordance with these changes. This tool can also manage content that is gathered from multiple sources. 
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  • Product Data Management: Consolidate design information and engineering operations in one place. Find and recycle files, document revisions, collaborate and share information to strengthen production. 
  • New Product Development: Make new product concepts a reality with realistic budgets and deadlines. Leverage Gantt chart formats with highlighted status indicators to review a product's progress. Detect potential delays and impede them rapidly. 
  • BOM Management: Supervise every BOM aspect, including part descriptions, item numbers, assemblies and more. Input and include product files and records to specific items or BOMs for detailed product requirements, practices and sketches. Compare multiple edits to know which items were modified and if new versions meet compliances. 
  • Change Management: Record change orders to apply and administer regulation, distribution and file revisions. Catch bugs and failed tests and track root problems. Utilize to-do list formats to outline required actions and send detailed reminders. 
  • Quality Management: Conduct nonconformance incident reports and analyses. Determine if products meet CAPA compliance regulations and perform RMA return requests, verifications and repairs. Utilize one complete data source to ensure it meets auditing and compliance rules. 
  • Supplier Collaboration: Boost product results by aligning internal and external stakeholders' realistic estimations. Allocate drawings and 3D models to suppliers to showcase design details and receive precise cost quotes. Share specified product information, regulatory compliance conditions and files with suppliers via a centralized system of BOM data and in-depth protocols. 
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Product Ranking

#2

among all
PLM Software

#57

among all
PLM Software

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Analyst Rating Summary

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Bill of Materials Management
Change Management
Compliance Management
Design Management
Document Management
Change Management
Compliance Management
Document Management
Part Management
Requirements Management

Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

Windchill
Vault PLM
+ Add Product + Add Product
Bill Of Materials Management Change Management Compliance Management Design Management Document Management Packaging And Label Management Part Management Platform Capabilities Project Management Quality Management Recipe And Formula Management Reporting And Dashboard Requirements Management Supplier Management 100 100 100 100 100 8 100 100 100 100 57 100 92 99 85 100 100 87 100 18 100 83 94 86 14 89 100 100 0 25 50 75 100
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Analyst Ratings for Technical Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

33%
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User Sentiment Summary

Good User Sentiment 112 reviews
Great User Sentiment 54 reviews
78%
of users recommend this product

Windchill has a 'good' User Satisfaction Rating of 78% when considering 112 user reviews from 4 recognized software review sites.

84%
of users recommend this product

Vault PLM has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 84% when considering 54 user reviews from 2 recognized software review sites.

4.8 (8)
5.0 (6)
3.8 (61)
4.1 (48)
4.0 (30)
n/a
3.4 (13)
n/a

Awards

SelectHub research analysts have evaluated Windchill and concluded it earns best-in-class honors for Bill of Materials Management, Design Management and Quality Management.

Bill of Materials Management Award
Design Management Award
Quality Management Award

SelectHub research analysts have evaluated Vault PLM and concluded it earns best-in-class honors for Requirements Management.

Requirements Management Award

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Integrations: All reviewers who mentioned integrations said that the system has robust integration options with a helpful set of integrated tools.
Functionality: Approximately 90% of users who talked about the system’s overall functionality noted that its suite of features and automation tools were stable and capable of handling critical daily processes.
Searching Tools: About 66% of reviewers who referred to search features noted that they were intuitive and helped find specific documents quickly.
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Version Control: Centralized platform for storing, tracking, and managing multiple versions of product data, ensuring easy access and collaboration.
Bill of Materials Management: Comprehensive BOM management capabilities that allow for the creation, editing, and sharing of BOMs, streamlining product structure definition and change management.
Change Management: Robust change management system that tracks and controls changes to product data, ensuring traceability and minimizing the risk of errors.
Document Management: Centralized repository for storing and managing product-related documents, providing easy access and version control for engineering drawings, specifications, and other documentation.
Collaboration and Communication: Facilitates collaboration and communication among team members, enabling seamless sharing of information, ideas, and feedback.
Customization and Flexibility: Customizable platform that allows for tailoring to specific business needs, enabling integration with existing systems and processes.
Scalability and Performance: Scalable solution that can handle large volumes of data and users, ensuring efficient performance even for complex product development environments.
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Ease of Use: Nearly 60% of reviewers who mentioned the system’s usability noted that the system required a steep learning curve with training requirements to master.
Support: Complicated issues took long periods of time to solve, with the overall support process being hit or miss, according to all reviewers who mentioned support.
Customization: All users that talked about customization said that customizing the system wasn’t easy and there wasn’t much room for customization in the first place.
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Licensing Model: Vault PLM's licensing model can be complex and expensive, especially for large organizations with multiple users and locations.
Limited Customization: Vault PLM offers limited customization options, which can make it difficult to tailor the software to specific business processes.
Steep Learning Curve: Vault PLM has a steep learning curve, which can be a challenge for users to master the software quickly and efficiently.
Limited Integration: Vault PLM's integration capabilities with other software systems can be limited, which can hinder data sharing and collaboration.
Slow Performance: Vault PLM can experience performance issues, especially when working with large datasets or complex models.
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Windchill’s PLM and supply chain management features are robust and help optimize and streamline daily operations. Powerful integrations with popular applications like CAD boost efficiency and add value to the product as a whole. Its automation features help users overcome manual tasks and streamline their tasks. While its features are impressive, it required significant time and training investments to familiarize users with the system. Customization options are available, but customizations were hard to implement without help. Support was often described as slow, especially when more complex problems occurred. Some reviewers also mentioned that the monthly maintenance costs were on the high side.

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Vault PLM is a comprehensive PLM software solution that has received positive feedback from users in the last year. One of its strengths is its user-friendly interface, which makes it easy for users to navigate and find the information they need. Another strength is its powerful search functionality, which allows users to quickly and easily find the data they are looking for. Additionally, Vault PLM offers a wide range of features and functionality, making it a versatile solution for businesses of all sizes. Compared to similar products, Vault PLM is said to be more user-friendly and easier to use. It is also said to be more affordable than some of its competitors. However, some users have reported that Vault PLM can be more complex to implement than other PLM solutions. Additionally, some users have reported that Vault PLM can be slower than some of its competitors. Overall, Vault PLM is a solid PLM solution that is well-suited for businesses of all sizes. It is easy to use, affordable, and offers a wide range of features and functionality. However, it is important to note that Vault PLM can be more complex to implement than other PLM solutions and can be slower than some of its competitors.

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