Sweet dreams for Eight Sleep with PTC ‘PLM’ investment

New technology that can detect and stop snoring by sleepers has been made possible thanks to the product lifecycle management (PLM) expertise of Reading-based PTC.

US-based Eight Sleep, the world’s first sleep fitness business, has launched its Pod 4 Ultra in the UK in record time, creating its most powerful product base yet that enables adjustable body position and regulates different temperatures on both sides of the bed.

Already used by F1 driver Lewis Hamilton, Elon Musk and Marc Zuckerberg, the base is only three inches tall and fits into existing bed frames right underneath the mattress, with the unique cooling tank providing complete climate control and its proven biometric tracking detecting snoring for up to two individuals without needing any wearables.

Development of this technology requires the management of hundreds of different suppliers and a 12-strong team of designers across two global locations – a process that received a significant boost in 2022 when the decision was taken to migrate a legacy PLM to PTC’s Arena platform.

This cloud-native solution gives Eight Sleep the opportunity to share the latest product and quality information with global teams and supply chain partners in real time, helping product modifications to be made on one single vision.

“Over 400 engineering change orders (ECOs), part releases and revisions have been made in the product development of Pod 4 Ultra,” explained Harry Xiao, Director of Hardware Programmes.

“And all of this has been completed seamlessly thanks to the power of Arena, meaning our technology has got to market weeks ahead of the original schedule.”

He continued: “We manage over 1500 parts in the cloud and, with all the different countries we supply, the SKUs are huge to cater for different bed sizes, power plugs and other localised nuances.

“Everything is version controlled, which means we have eliminated errors and modifications that were made on previous product launches. It is also extremely intuitive making it possible for both parties to easily learn and configure a solution that will be tailored to our specific requirements.”

Designers and engineers at Eight Sleep were particularly impressed with the way migration from the old system to the new one was completed.

Experts from PTC oversaw the entire process, listening to the issues and then clearly creating a pathway that would take just a few weeks, utilising Arena’s simple interface that basically meant it felt like a ‘plug and play’ solution.

This was important due to the lack of IT infrastructure the client had in place as a relatively new-start up.

“The decision to switch can be business critical and we clearly laid out our workflow and the need for design and product development to be unhindered during the process,” added Harry, who uses the Pod Ultra 4 technology himself to improve his daily sleep routine.

“There wasn’t a moment where I was worried something wouldn’t work. The process and PTC’s approach were so methodical and clear to everyone involved across our two sites.

“It was like flicking a switch and we haven’t looked back since. In fact, one of the big decisions to build Arena into our business was the fact it could scale up in keeping with our own growth and plans for New Product Introductions.”

Jon Hirschtick, EVP at PTC, concluded: “You can have the best technology in the world, but if you don’t have a robust PLM system in place then you will never make the most of the potential.

“This is what we have done so successfully in partnership with Eight Sleep. Arena has all the capabilities and features to make a real difference to product development, quality and fulfilment and this is what Harry and his team are now seeing.

“Costly reworks have been eliminated, supply chain collaboration has increased and, importantly, new products are being brought to market a lot quicker than they used to be. Pod 4 Ultra is a prime example, with the company expecting to increase its foothold in the UK and its market leading position in sleep fitness.”