In short
Semiconductor NPI software is judged on one thing: whether each phase gate is reached on the date the program committed to, with the evidence that gate requires already in hand. That means the software has to hold every commitment behind a gate, from the IP delivery to the characterisation lot to the reliability data, see one start to move, and act before the gate is at risk. PLM holds the product; Tymeline holds the gates to their dates.
What each gate depends on
A gate is a claim with evidence: the design is frozen, the silicon is characterised, the qualification data is in, the customer has signed. Behind every claim are commitments from engineers, suppliers, the fab and the test floor, and the gate date is only as safe as the latest of those. Most NPI slips are not discovered at the gate; they are the arrival of a slip that was visible weeks earlier in a supplier's email.
What the software holds
Tymeline holds each gate as a set of commitments with evidence, read from the tools and the mail rather than typed in. When the characterisation lot moves, the dependent gates are re-planned the same hour and the owners are already working the fix, with a named approver deciding anything consequential. The gate review becomes short, because the gate is already true or the recovery is already underway.
Where PLM and NPI tools sit
Teamcenter, Windchill, Arena and the ERP are where the product and its changes are defined; they stay the source for that. Tymeline reads them, as it reads Jira, source control, EDA results and the test floor, and runs the program above them. Nothing is replaced.