PTC
to collaborate with partner ecosystems to solve the problem .”
However , in James Zhang ’ s personal life , his biggest achievements are his sons , aged seven and 11 .
“ They ’ re smart , hardworking and they continue to prove themselves . I ’ m already very , very proud of them .”
Like all families , James Zhang ’ s parenting was challenged through the pandemic .
“ During COVID-19 , we didn ’ t want the children to go out . The result is that my eldest son started playing soccer late , but he has been practising really hard and he ’ s been selected for one of the premium soccer clubs ! I ’ m really proud of all the progress he has been making there .”
In the same philosophy , James Zhang is proud of PTC .
“ We have been continuously evolving our IIoT strategy to meet the market . Several years ago , when people spoke about IIoT and analytics , people said ‘ Well this is a cool thing , let ’ s try it ’. But in the past several years , manufacturers have been moving from piloting IIoT technology to scaling the proven , high-impact IIoT-enabled use cases . I ’ m very proud that PTC has been the leader in this area and we are one of the first companies to quickly realise that IIoT is not only about a general IIoT platform , this is also about the IIoT solution on a purpose built platform . I could not be more fulfilled to work along with our customers to unlock the financial and operational impacts of our IIoT technologies with speed and at scale ”.
PTC ’ s IIoT has seen a tonne of success in recent years , reflected in its financials and stock price . PTC has been on a super up curve and Zhang knows that IIoT has been a major contributor to that .
70 % of a product ’ s cost is decided in the engineering stage
Smart manufacturing and transformative technologies PTC uses various smart manufacturing and transformative technologies . On the smart factory side , PTC has two focus areas , factory performance and workforce efficiency .
“ Beyond the factory , there ’ s model-based , closed loop engineering to manufacturing digital thread ,” says Zhang .
With PTC ’ s IIoT technology , the company can bring the right information to the workers at the right time where there is impact when they do the job so that they
98 February 2024