ThingWorx Dashboards on Windchill for Part Failures, NPI Project Status and Incubation
By PSPTechHub ·
Summary
Windchill holds a manufacturer's part failure records, product projects and design documents, but it doesn't show them as easy charts. PSPTechHub built three ThingWorx dashboards for a home appliance manufacturer that read this data straight from Windchill: a Parts Failure Dashboard (failures by failure mode, product category, model, state and city, with export to Excel), an NPI Dashboard for new product projects (total, active, on-hold and suspended projects, phases, delays, deliverables on a week-by-week timeline and bottleneck activities), and an Incubation Dashboard (document approvals and turnaround time in hours). Click any slice of a chart to see the records behind it. All 31 functional test scenarios across the three dashboards passed in user validation.
The Problem: Only Windchill Users Could Raise a Change
Failure reports from the field, new product projects and approval documents were all recorded in Windchill. Getting a clear picture meant exporting lists and building charts by hand.
No view of where parts fail
Teams couldn't quickly see which failure types, products or regions had the most problems.
Project status scattered
Projects and plans sat in Windchill project areas that the standard Windchill REST services don't open up.
Delays spotted late
There was no single screen showing which projects were on track and which were delayed.
Approval time unknown
No one could easily see how long incubation documents took to be approved or rejected.
Manual reports
Every review meant exporting data and rebuilding the same charts.
The Solution: Simple Apps Anyone Can Use
Three ThingWorx dashboards read the data from Windchill automatically and turn it into charts you can click into, so each team sees its own numbers in seconds.
Failure counts by status
Cards show total failed parts and how many are open, in work, locked or approved.
Failures by failure mode
A pie chart of failure types, such as spare part failures or performance issues; click a slice to list those records.
Failures by product
Click a product category to see failures by model, then click a model to see its records.
Failures by region
Click a state to see failures by city, then a city to see its records.
Filters and export
Filter by date, product, failure mode, state and city, then export a clean Excel/CSV file; a reset button returns to the full list.
NPI project summary
Cards show total, active, on-hold and suspended new product projects; pie charts split them by type (such as NPI-A or NPD-B) and phase (such as kickoff or development).
On track or delayed
A chart splits projects into on-track and delayed; click to see the project details and schedule.
Deliverables timeline
Development and validation phase deliverables shown as bars on a timeline, by week, month or month-year.
Bottlenecks and progress
For each project: current phase, plan state, percent of work completed, estimated start and finish, cost, and the activities holding it up.
Document approvals
Counts of approved, rejected and locked incubation documents by product category and project type.
Turnaround time
A bar chart shows how many hours each document took between two steps of its approval.
How It Works: From Problem to Decision
- 1
Records stay in Windchill
Failure reports, projects and documents are created in Windchill as usual.
- 2
Data is fetched
ThingWorx reads the latest records from Windchill through its REST services and a custom link for project data.
- 3
Data is organised
Records are turned into tidy tables and stored in ThingWorx.
- 4
Open a dashboard
The user opens Parts Failure, NPI or Incubation and sees all records with charts.
- 5
Click to drill down
Click a chart slice to narrow down, such as product to model, or state to city.
- 6
Export or act
Export the filtered list for a review, or follow up on the delayed project or slow approval.
For IT Teams: How It Is Built
ThingWorx Navigate gives users simple screens, and Windchill stays the official record for every workflow, permission and decision.
- DashboardsParts Failure, NPI and Incubation screens with charts, filters and grids
- Dashboard servicesCount records per slice and filter the grid when a slice is clicked
- Data tablesStore parsed Windchill records for fast charts
- Windchill integrationOData REST services, plus a custom project link with basic authentication
- PTC WindchillPart failure documents, projects, plans and incubation documents
ThingWorx services built
| Service | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Failure mode chart | Counts failures per failure type and lists the records of a clicked type |
| Product and region charts | Count failures by category, model, state and city, with click-through |
| Export service | Removes internal fields and downloads the filtered list |
| Project status services | Count projects by type, phase, category and on-track/delayed |
| Plan and schedule services | Fetch plans, schedules and on-hold projects for a chosen project |
| Turnaround calculation | Works out approval time in hours for each incubation document |
Design decisions
- Windchill stays the single source of record; dashboards only read from it
- Project data is reached through a custom link because standard Windchill REST services don't expose project areas
- Every chart drills down by click, so users never have to build a filter by hand
- Exports drop technical IDs so the file is ready for a meeting
- Each dashboard has its own ThingWorx item, so they can be updated separately
- 31 functional test scenarios covered loading, chart accuracy, filters, exports, date formats and summary counts — all passed
Outcomes
See where parts fail
Failure types, products and regions with the most problems are visible at a glance.
Project health in one place
Every project's type, phase and on-track status on one screen.
Delays caught early
Delayed projects stand out and open straight into their schedule.
Approval time measured
Document turnaround in hours shows where approvals slow down.
No more manual charts
Reviews use live Windchill data instead of exported spreadsheets.
Validated before go-live
All 31 test scenarios passed: 13 for parts failure and project execution, 10 for NPI status, 8 for incubation.
This solution fits if you need to…
- Build a part failure analysis dashboard from Windchill data
- Build an NPI project status dashboard on Windchill data
- Drill down field failures by product and region
- Measure document approval turnaround time in Windchill
- Connect ThingWorx to Windchill with OData REST services
Frequently Asked Questions
Can ThingWorx show Windchill data on a dashboard?
Yes. These dashboards read part failure records, projects and documents from Windchill through its REST services and show them as charts and tables in ThingWorx.
What is a parts failure dashboard?
A screen that shows where product parts fail, by failure type, product category, model, state and city, so quality and service teams can see the biggest problems first.
Can I drill down from a chart to the records?
Yes. Clicking a slice narrows the view, for example from a product category to its models, or from a state to its cities, and the table shows the matching records.
Can Windchill project status be shown in ThingWorx?
Yes. Project areas aren't exposed by the standard Windchill REST services, so a custom link reads projects, plans and schedules, showing type, phase and whether each project is on track or delayed.
How is document turnaround time calculated?
For each incubation document, the dashboard works out the hours between two points in its approval history and shows them in a bar chart.
Can the data be exported?
Yes. The filtered part failure list can be exported to Excel or CSV, with internal IDs removed.
What is an NPI dashboard?
A new product introduction (NPI) dashboard shows every new product project in one place: how many are active, on hold or suspended, which phase each is in, whether it is on track, its deliverables timeline and the activities causing delays.