Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) vendor PTC has acquired the business assets of Synapsis Technology, a provider of environmental regulatory compliance services. PTC hopes the deal will broaden its support for green product design and enable customers to comply with environmental regulations.
Synapsis Technology is based in Spring House, Pennsylvania and currently employs 25 workers. It provides services to customers including Motorola, Microsoft, Sony Ericsson and IBM. Financial details have not been disclosed.
The green issue has been rising up the agenda over the last few years and manufacturers have an increasing set of standards and environmental compliance regulations on product development to adhere to.
One such regulation is the EU’s REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals), which targets hazardous substances in products. According to the company, Synapsis’ offering supports product compliance tracking at the substance, material, part and product levels.
This means that the process of data collection, analysis and reporting is more straightforward from the beginning of product design to final disposal and recycling. It enables manufacturers to comply with REACH, as well as other EU environmental regulations, including RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances), WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment), ELV (End of Life Vehicles), and China RoHS.
PTC hopes to be able to integrate Synapsis’ offering into its Product Development System (PDS) to enable companies to build environmental compliance into the product development process.
PTC says that building compliance into the manufacturing process will mean companies avoid costly redesigns as well as improving time-to-market.
James Heppelmann, executive vice president and chief product officer, PTC, said: “Environmental regulatory compliance is an escalating business challenge for customers across all industries. The constantly increasing number and scope of new regulations adds further complexity to the product development process and must be addressed in a holistic way.”
“Synapsis best-of-breed solutions fully complement the PTC PDS. This acquisition benefits PTC customers by enabling them to fulfil global compliance requirements and achieve success with environmentally-aware design and other “green” product development initiatives.”
PTC said that Synapsis offerings are already available through the company and it will release further information about integration with PTC’s flagship and process management offering Windchill at a later date.
