In today’s highly competitive manufacturing landscape, success depends on more than just having the right software. It requires alignment between people, processes, and technology. This is especially true in product development and engineering organizations where inefficiencies can ripple across the enterprise. A Functional Group Assessment (FGA) is designed to uncover those inefficiencies, identify improvement opportunities, and align departmental workflows to support broader digital transformation goals.
If your company relies on complex tools like PTC Windchill, Creo, or other enterprise systems, an FGA can help ensure your teams are using them effectively, consistently, and collaboratively. Below, we’ll answer some of the most common questions decision-makers have about Functional Group Assessments: what they are, when to conduct one, and how they deliver measurable results.
What is a Functional Group Assessment and why do organizations conduct one?
A Functional Group Assessment (FGA) is a structured evaluation of how specific departments (or “functional groups”) operate within a company’s product development system. It examines the intersection of people, processes, and technology, looking at how each element contributes to or hinders efficiency, quality, and collaboration.
Organizations typically conduct an FGA to gain a clear picture of operational maturity within a specific area like engineering, manufacturing, service, or quality. The goal is to identify gaps between current practices and best-in-class processes, particularly around how teams use digital tools such as Windchill PLM or Creo CAD.
For many organizations, an FGA serves as a reality check: it validates whether their teams are working effectively, if their systems are properly configured, and if there are hidden barriers slowing down product development. The outcome is a set of actionable insights that help drive continuous improvement and maximize the value of existing technology investments.
When should our company consider doing a Functional Group Assessment?
Most companies find an FGA valuable during periods of change or transition: when upgrading systems, onboarding new teams, or expanding digital transformation efforts. If your organization is implementing or reconfiguring Windchill PLM, for example, conducting an FGA beforehand helps ensure that user roles, data workflows, and system configurations align with business objectives.
You should also consider an FGA if your teams are experiencing:
- Frustration with inefficient processes or redundant work
- Difficulty finding or trusting product data
- Bottlenecks in engineering change or document management workflows
- Challenges with system adoption or inconsistent tool usage across departments
In short, a Functional Group Assessment is most effective when your company is ready to evolve, whether that means improving system performance, harmonizing global teams, or optimizing for greater scalability.
Which functional groups should be involved in a Functional Group Assessment?
While every organization structures its product development ecosystem differently, an effective FGA typically includes multiple departments that directly impact product design, production, and lifecycle management. The most common participants are:
- Engineering / Design Teams: Evaluate CAD modeling practices, version control, and collaboration with downstream functions.
- Manufacturing: Review how production teams access design data and manage changes or documentation through PLM.
- Service and Support: Assess how product data, BOMs, and technical publications flow into service workflows.
- Quality Management: Examine traceability, compliance, and issue resolution processes.
- IT / System Administration: Ensure infrastructure, licensing, and performance support ongoing PLM health.
The strength of a Functional Group Assessment lies in connecting these groups. The insights gained from cross-functional collaboration often reveal the biggest opportunities for improvement, especially where departmental silos create friction in the digital thread.
What does an FGA review? What processes, tools, and behaviors are examined?
A Functional Group Assessment takes a comprehensive, holistic view of how your teams operate day to day. It reviews three main dimensions:
- Processes: The assessment looks at workflows, approvals, and data handoffs between teams. Are change requests handled efficiently? Are product structures managed consistently? Are people following standardized procedures, or is every project an exception?
- Tools: Your existing technology stack is reviewed, including: PLM, CAD, ERP, or other systems that support product development. The assessment identifies whether tools like Windchill are configured optimally and whether users are taking advantage of automation or collaboration features.
- Behaviors and Adoption: Even the best systems fail if people aren’t using them effectively. The FGA examines training levels, adoption rates, and user engagement to identify cultural or knowledge barriers that prevent full system utilization.
Together, these findings provide a clear map of where your team stands and where targeted improvements can deliver the biggest ROI.
How long does a Functional Group Assessment typically take and what is the effort required from our team?
The duration of a Functional Group Assessment depends on the scope and number of departments involved, but most assessments are completed within 2 to 4 weeks. The process typically includes interviews, data analysis, and workshops facilitated by EAC’s experts.
From your team, the effort is minimal compared to the long-term benefits. Stakeholders are usually asked to participate in short interviews (30–60 minutes each), provide access to system data or process documentation, and review findings in a final presentation.
The goal is to keep your team focused on their day-to-day work while giving EAC the insights needed to deliver actionable, high-value recommendations. In most cases, companies report that the time spent on the assessment pays for itself through the time and cost savings discovered afterward.
What deliverables come out of the assessment?
At the end of a Functional Group Assessment, your organization receives a comprehensive findings report and a custom roadmap for improvement.
Deliverables typically include:
- Current-State Assessment: A clear, data-driven view of your existing processes, systems, and behaviors.
- Gap Analysis: Identification of where your operations deviate from best practices or where tool underutilization limits efficiency.
- Actionable Recommendations: Prioritized steps to improve performance, whether through process refinement, training, or configuration changes.
- Future-State Roadmap: A visual roadmap outlining achievable goals, timelines, and measurable outcomes for transformation.
This report becomes the foundation for your continuous improvement strategy, helping align leadership, IT, and engineering teams around a shared vision. For organizations using Windchill or other enterprise tools, it also ensures that future investments deliver measurable results.
Why a Functional Group Assessment Matters
A Functional Group Assessment isn’t just a diagnostic exercise. It’s a roadmap for transformation. It helps organizations identify where small changes can create large, measurable gains in speed, collaboration, and innovation.
Companies that invest in FGAs before major system upgrades or process overhauls are often able to reduce rework, accelerate adoption, and achieve higher ROI on their digital investments. By connecting strategy to execution, FGAs turn uncertainty into opportunity. This provides the insights you need to make confident, data-driven decisions about your digital future.
Get Expert Insight into Your Organization’s Performance
If you’re ready to uncover hidden inefficiencies and strengthen your digital foundation, an EAC Functional Group Assessment is the place to start. Our experts will analyze your systems, interview your teams, and deliver a roadmap to align your technology and processes for maximum business impact.
Talk to an Expert today to schedule your Functional Group Assessment and accelerate your journey toward operational excellence.
When companies invest in advanced digital tools like PTC Windchill, Creo, or Codebeamer, they expect measurable improvements: faster collaboration, streamlined workflows, and smarter decision-making. But over time, even the most advanced systems can drift away from their original purpose if processes evolve faster than the technology or if user adoption lags behind.
That’s where a Functional Group Assessment (FGA) comes in. It’s a structured business assessment designed to help organizations evaluate how effectively their teams, processes, and tools align with business goals. Whether you’re looking to improve PLM performance, optimize engineering workflows, or strengthen collaboration across functional groups, committing to an FGA provides the clarity and direction needed to unlock your next level of operational excellence.
Below, we’ll answer key questions decision-makers often have before committing to a Functional Group Assessment, and what you can expect along the way.
What are the business benefits of doing a Functional Group Assessment?
A Functional Group Assessment helps organizations achieve greater efficiency, alignment, and ROI from their technology investments. By evaluating how each department interacts with tools, data, and processes, the assessment identifies opportunities for productivity improvement and waste reduction.
One of the biggest benefits is tool utilization: uncovering where critical systems like PLM or CAD are underused, misconfigured, or disconnected from the broader product development ecosystem. Many companies discover that features they already own could solve daily bottlenecks, saving time and cost without additional software purchases.
Beyond efficiency, FGAs foster cross-departmental alignment. Engineering, manufacturing, and service teams gain a shared understanding of how their workflows connect, creating a stronger digital thread across the organization. In short, the FGA delivers a roadmap that turns insight into measurable improvement. This drives smarter decisions, better collaboration, and stronger performance at every level.
How do we choose between doing an internal review vs. contracting an external assessment like EAC’s FGA?
While internal reviews can provide valuable feedback, they often lack the objectivity and breadth of expertise that an external partner brings. An internal team may know the symptoms of inefficiency (slow approvals, version control issues, or low adoption) but they may not know the root causes or the industry best practices to fix them.
An external assessment like EAC’s Functional Group Assessment combines independent evaluation with deep experience across hundreds of manufacturing environments. EAC consultants benchmark your processes against industry standards, revealing gaps and opportunities that are often invisible from inside the organization.
Additionally, external assessments eliminate internal bias and department-driven assumptions. Because recommendations are data-backed and vendor-neutral, leadership teams can make confident decisions on where to focus resources for maximum impact. For companies seeking transformation, an external FGA provides both clarity and credibility in the path forward.
What metrics should we track to measure the success of the Functional Group Assessment and its follow-up actions?
To measure the success of an FGA, it’s important to define key performance indicators (KPIs) before and after the assessment. These metrics should align with your business goals and reflect both operational efficiency and technology adoption. Common metrics include:
- System utilization and uptime: Are teams using Windchill, Creo, or other digital tools more effectively and consistently?
- Cycle time reduction: How much faster can your organization move through design changes, releases, or approvals?
- User adoption rates: Are more employees actively engaging with the system following process improvements or training?
- Rework or error reduction: Have duplicate efforts or data discrepancies decreased after process alignment?
- Business goal alignment: Are teams meeting project deadlines, quality standards, and cost objectives more consistently?
Tracking these KPIs provides measurable proof of progress, and ensures the assessment leads to tangible business outcomes rather than just documentation. Many EAC clients integrate their findings into continuous improvement plans or quarterly performance reviews, maintaining visibility long after the assessment ends.
How do we prepare our team and functional groups for participation in an assessment?
Preparation is key to getting the most out of a Functional Group Assessment. Before the assessment begins, leadership should communicate the purpose and value clearly to all participants. The goal isn’t to find fault, but to uncover opportunities for improvement and make everyone’s work easier, faster, and more consistent.
A strong preparation plan includes:
- Identifying participants: Include representatives from engineering, manufacturing, quality, IT, and other groups connected to product data.
- Gathering documentation: Collect process maps, workflow charts, or tool usage reports that show how current systems function.
- Scheduling interviews and workshops: Plan sessions for each team so evaluators can observe how work gets done and where pain points exist.
- Setting expectations: Ensure teams know the process will be collaborative and that feedback is confidential and solution-focused.
When employees understand the assessment’s intent and outcomes, they’re more likely to provide honest insights, leading to more meaningful results and a higher return on investment.
How are results from the assessment used to improve alignment, tool utilization, and process efficiency?
Once the Functional Group Assessment is complete, your organization receives a detailed findings report and improvement roadmap. These results serve as both a baseline and a blueprint for ongoing progress.
The findings typically highlight specific areas where processes, data flows, or technology configurations can be improved. For example, the assessment may uncover:
- Manual steps in workflows that can be automated through PLM configuration
- Inefficient change control or document management procedures
- Lack of integration between CAD and manufacturing systems
- Low system adoption rates due to insufficient training or unclear roles
Using these insights, leadership can prioritize the most impactful initiatives. Those might include improving data traceability, refining approval processes, or standardizing tool usage across teams. Over time, this leads to stronger alignment between business goals and day-to-day operations, reduced redundancy, and more predictable project outcomes.
Do we need to purchase additional services after the assessment, or can it stand alone?
A Functional Group Assessment can absolutely stand alone as a complete, actionable engagement. Many organizations use the findings as a strategic guide for internal improvement efforts, identifying what to focus on and how to measure progress without committing to additional services.
However, companies often choose to extend their engagement with partners like EAC to accelerate results. EAC offers complementary services such as:
- Process optimization workshops to implement recommended changes
- Windchill administration or managed services for ongoing system health and uptime
- Training and mentoring to strengthen user adoption and capability development
- Follow-up assessments to track progress and recalibrate strategies
In essence, the FGA provides a roadmap, and partnering further ensures your teams reach their destination efficiently. Whether you manage improvements internally or with continued support, the clarity gained from the assessment remains invaluable.
Turning Insight Into Sustainable Improvement
Committing to a Functional Group Assessment is more than just a one-time exercise. It’s a strategic investment in clarity, efficiency, and alignment. The process delivers a 360-degree view of how your teams, tools, and processes function together, revealing actionable insights that translate directly into measurable business performance.
By partnering with experts like EAC Product Development Solutions, your organization gains access to deep PLM, CAD, and process expertise. This ensures every recommendation is not just theoretical but implementable in real-world manufacturing environments.
Whether you’re navigating a PLM upgrade, struggling with adoption challenges, or simply looking to maximize your technology ROI, an FGA helps you understand where you stand and where to go next.
Ready to uncover opportunities for improvement? Talk to an expert at EAC to learn how a Functional Group Assessment can empower your teams and elevate your product development performance.
THE PEOPLE WHO POWER DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION AT LIVEWORX 2023
Minneapolis, MN, U.S.A – 2023 EAC Product Development Solutions, an award-winning PTC Solutions Partner and Global Services Provider, returns to Boston May 15-18 for LiveWorx 2023 with seven presentations covering today’s most impactful solutions in the manufacturing space.
EAC partners with companies to help them navigate their digital transformation journey by providing extensive capabilities that span the entirety of the manufacturing process, including solutions such as Computer-Aided Design (CAD), Simulation, Additive Manufacturing, Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), Augmented Reality (AR) and more.
“We are excited to be a part of LiveWorx 2023 and to have the opportunity to showcase our latest technology solutions,” said EAC’s Chris Woerther, VP of Business Development. Our team of experts is looking forward to connecting with attendees and sharing how our solutions can help businesses succeed in the digital age.
LiveWorx 2023, the world’s premier digital transformation conference, brings together innovators, forward-thinkers, and experts to explore the latest technologies in digital transformation. EAC provides the essential services, support, and strategic expertise that manufacturing companies need to extract the maximum value from technology investments.
As such, EAC has been selected to present seven sessions at LiveWorx 2023:
[AR1088B] – Creo Illustrate for AR Developers
Monday, May 15 2:15 PM – 2:45 PM EDT | Breakout Session 102 B
Clay Helberg, EAC Solution Architect, will provide insights into Creo Illustrate, a powerful tool for creating engaging augmented reality (AR) content, and the key insights you should know to get the best use for authoring.
[PL1842B] – Minimum Windchill Implementation to Achieve Significant ROI
Monday, May 15 3:10 PM – 3:40 PM EDT | Breakout Session 105
During this session, Chris Woerther, EAC Vice President of Business Development, will present how to achieve strong ROI by expanding Windchill usage to other departments and the shop floor to share product data and create a closed-loop change process with minimum implementation.
[AR18431] – AR and Expert Capture – How Easy it Can Really Be to Get Strong ROI
Tuesday, May 16 8:15 AM – 8:30 AM EDT | IgniteTalX Stage 1
Todd Liebenow, EAC Senior Application Engineer, will discuss the significance of Augmented Reality in capturing, standardizing, and sharing workforce knowledge, including how it improves efficiency and speeds up onboarding and training for new employees.
[CA1179B] – Why Model-Based Definition?
Tuesday, May 16 2:50 PM – 3:20 PM EDT | Breakout Session 205 A
During this presentation, Stephen Pralle, EAC Application Engineer, will explain what model-based definition is, why it is beneficial, and how to implement this strategy into the product development process.
[PL18451] – Assessing Your Business Practices to Find Optimization Opportunities
Wednesday, May 17 8:15AM – 8:30AM EDT | IgniteTalX Stage 2
Scott Dufresne, EAC Business Development Manager, will discuss the significant business benefits assessments achieve and how they identify areas of improvement in design, management, operations, and service sectors.
[CA11801] – Rapids Prototyping Made Simple with Creo Additive Manufacturing
Wednesday, May 17 2:45 PM – 3:00 PM EDT | IgniteTalX Silent Stage
Stephen Pralle, EAC Applications Engineer, will present the power of Creo and Additive Manufacturing together for earlier design success that enables faster time-to-market.
[CA1181I] – Simulation-Driven Design with Creo Simulation Live
Thursday, May 18 10:15 AM – 10:30 AM EDT | IgniteTalX Silent Stage
Stephen Pralle, EAC Application Engineer, will showcase the powerful capabilities of PTC’s Creo Simulation Live (CSL) to easily leverage simulation earlier in the design process with real-time feedback to save time and boost innovation.
Attendees will have the chance to speak with EAC industry experts and leaders to explore the best-fit solutions to drive business growth and achieve their strategic goals.
Check out our Digital Transformation blog featured on the PTC LiveWorx page:
EAC will be available throughout the conference at Booth No. 700.
Liveworx is happening at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center on May 15-18, 2023. To plan your agenda and attend EAC’s live sessions, visit www.liveworx.com.
For more information about EAC Product Development Solutions, visit www.eacpds.com.
Media Contacts
PTC Senior Director, Global Corporate Communications
Greg Payne – gpayne@ptc.com
Often times we can find ourselves knowing where we want to go but not knowing where to start. This is a common theme when it comes to digital transformation. Not surprisingly, we have seen many of our customers use EAC assessments as the first step to open up a world of opportunities for their company to grow and evolve its processes.
JR Automation has been an EAC customer for over a decade, and when we first started working with them, the first action was an EAC assessment. We were able to provide them a customized roadmap for success and prove how JR was going to achieve it. EAC has helped JR Automation find ways to save time, save money and increase efficiency – with savings over $1.4 million every year. JR took the first step with EAC helping them to find that starting point. Today JR continues to find new ways to innovate and evolve with growing customer demands in a highly competitive marketplace.
What to Expect from an EAC Assessment
Assessments can seem daunting at first. You may be asking yourself questions like, “Are they going to come in and tell us all the things we are doing wrong?”
In reality, our goal with assessments is to identify your current state and production and manufacturing processes, assess the maturity of your operational technologies, and work with your team to pinpoint an ideal future state. Making transformational changes to a company can be a sizable cultural shift and we help companies prepare to make that change. There are risks you take when you don’t assess your current situation, and we want to help you minimize those risks.
Functional Group Assessment (FGA)
The EAC Functional Group Assessment provides an objective format for your functional groups to truly understand their creation, consumption, and delivery of product data. These groups could consist of any cross-sectional team members from engineering, design, manufacturing, sales, marketing, or management.
During an FGA, our team of subject-matter experts will work to understand how your key team members work daily to complete the product development process. After the evaluation is complete and our experts have uncovered your current processes and technology usage, we will help you establish a roadmap that will lead your company to higher productivity and savings across the board.
After our findings have been documented and studied, we will lay out new possible methods and functions to improve overall productivity. These recommendations could include ways to improve capability gaps, business policy improvements, procedures that ensure efficiency and alignment, or strategies for training to maintain efficiency.
The benefits of an FGA could span from understanding your Functional Group alignment to business objectives and initiatives and their use of existing toolsets to examining processes and daily tasks that reflect your current state. We also uncover overall awareness of opportunities for improvement and bring alignment to Functional Vision for your desired future state.
Ultimately, we help you create a plan to achieve that desired state so you can spend less time wondering how to grow and more time-saving money through innovation. Companies like ITW Paslode and Nordco have taken advantage of the FGA and have seen the financial value in getting started on the transformational journey.
Digital Transformation Assessment (DTA)
Similar to the FGA, a Digital Transformation Assessment is an EAC-provided service that explores an organization’s product development system functionality. Our experts look at an organization’s operations and provide broad insight into improvement initiatives and establish a strategy for achieving operational improvement of a product development system.
When working through this assessment, our team has candid one-on-one discussions with your team members where we uncover what is working well, any occurred costs, and evaluate optimization opportunities.
The results that stem from an EAC Assessment are unmatched. Companies are discovering data they never knew were siloed, teams that were frustrated with processes, and many other disruptions in production. After uprooting and addressing these issues, companies like JR Automation, HyrdaForce, DRS, Merrick, and Systems Control are able quote more business and respond to customers faster – increasing their profit as well as employee and customer satisfaction.
Streamlined Digital Transformation Assessment (SDTA)
Similar to the functional DTA, the Streamlined Digital Transformation Assessment focuses on the interviews and direct inputs from your team members. However, it does not include an online survey and corresponding metric output. This assessment is offered as one variation of the Digital Transformation Assessment to fit your specific needs.
This assessment is a great fit for companies that have the desire to optimize their product development system, have the approval to move forward with the optimization, but are unsure where to start or what to focus on first.
While there are a few exclusions from the full DTA in this assessment, our team still coordinates select participants to plan and schedule the execution of individual interviews with participants involved in the assessment. This process will be a higher level approach than a full DTA, and may not include as many details or metrics. This assessment is still an excellent tool to explore your current business functions and define a roadmap to success.
Digital Manufacturing Assessment (DMA)
The Digital Manufacturing Assessment evaluates the overall state of your current product development systems regarding IoT initiatives, provides broad organizational visibility to improvement initiatives and identifies an IoT solution roadmap to help you determine the very first steps you should take on your digital transformational journey.
After evaluating your current manufacturing practices and operations, our experts will identify the best opportunities for growth that align with your corporate goals. When Kimray did a DMA with our team, they were able to recognize technology and solutions that would integrate with their current processes and also propel them to the next level in production. Together we developed a strategic roadmap that enhanced their processes.
The opportunities and pathways are endless to how your company can achieve digital transformation in the same way – a DMA is a great place to start.
Value Stream Mapping Assessment (VSMA)
A Value Stream Mapping Assessment consists of documenting the key action steps during production, gathering information from inputs and outputs, examining the systems used to manage that information, and pinpointing key optimization opportunities at each step. After, our experts work with your team to define an ideal future state of your product development process. The future process documentation outlines key improvements needed in business principles, policies, processes, and procedures utilizing the latest systems available to you to facilitate those improvements. Our EAC experts then defines a high-level roadmap and guidance on how to achieve those improvements.
During a VSMA, your team can expect to receive an important strategy that documents your current state including process documentation, pains, and what those pains are costing your business. With this information, together we will curate the vision of your future state – what your development could be – and create a roadmap on how to get there.
The company MEANS had EAC come in for a VSMA and was able to get a roadmap on system integrations that opened up the opportunities for better processes to connect their company. With an EAC roadmap, MEANS was able to realize a future state of streamlined processes to get their product to market faster and with less downtime.
When to Start
Now that we’ve answered the “what” and “why” of EAC assessments, the next question is “when.” Knowing you want to take your business to the next level, but feeling like you don’t how or where to start is the perfect time to invest in an assessment. Our ultimate goal is to understand your unique enterprise, your corporate strategic goals, and its current state, define your ideal future state, and plan an achievable way to get there together. EAC’s Assessment services can be the stepping stones for long-term company success and Digital Transformation.
Want to hear more testimonials or see which assessment would fit your company best and see how we could transform the way you do business? Connect with one of our experts!
