DELMIA Announces General Availability Of DPM Assembly Process Simulation In DELMIA Version 5 Release 4.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

TROY, Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 20, 2000

DELMIA Corp. today announced the general availability of DELMIA Version 5 Release 4 solutions for native Windows NT and IBM, SUN and SGI UNIX Platforms.

With Release 4, DELMIA introduces the third new product under the Version 5 architecture and the first of the family of DPM, Digital Process for Manufacturing solutions, DPM Assembly Process Simulation. "DPM Assembly Process Simulation is a new paradigm for developing and validating the assembly process for complex products", says Philippe Charles, CEO of DELMIA.

"The manufacturing engineers and assembly process planner now have an end-to-end solution. It begins adding value in the pre-planning stages by making it easy to reuse best practices and existing designs for production tooling that have been proven out in production. This same solution supports the detailed planning of the assembly process and provides the shop floor instructions and documentation, making sure that it is always up to date with the latest engineering changes to product and process data. It is an enterprise solution that is easily accessible across the supply chain to speed products to market faster. "

DPM Assembly Process Simulation (DPM Assembly) is a new product offering from DELMIA for the planning and verification of assembly operations. This is a geometry based solution with the ability to link and view the product data from any major CAD system, author and view the assembly sequences and processes and link each process step to the manufacturing resources utilizing a single, unified user interface. The assembly process and links to the product and resource data are stored in The DELMIA Manufacturing Hub, a shared database of Product, Process and Resource (PPR) information. It contains a library of process "best practices" to facilitate reuse and a catalog of the manufacturing resources that can be assigned to each process step with a mouse click. The value of this process library is that it contains constraints, precedence and actual performance data that are based on previous experiences. To speed time to market, the process planner and manufacturing engineers can begin before the product design is complete to develop the sequence of operations, reusing best practices whenever possible, and assign resources such as tooling, fixtures and labor classes to each process step and determine throughput and estimate cost. As the product geometry becomes available, it is linked to each process step so the combination of product, process and resources can be validated. Since it is used from the very beginning of the product realization process, even before the product geometry is available, the process planner can have a significant impact on the product design in a concurrent engineering environment. This ability to evaluate the design for assembly issues including the application of best practices and existing tooling early in the process reduces product cost and helps propel products to market faster.

The next generation solution for Assembly Process Creation and Validation

Process planning experts agree that DPM Assembly provides them the "glue" they have been missing to link each process step to the product geometry, tooling, fixtures, labor and material handling resources. With the DPM Assembly hierarchical process model the process planners can start with a simple, top level outline of the process and as the process definition matures the fidelity of the PPR model increases and eventually results in a complete Bill of Process and Manufacturing Bill of Materials. DPM Assembly is a comprehensive, user friendly solution for capturing best practices and cataloging the current and planned manufacturing resources. With these knowledge bases and the product geometry from the CAD Master Model, the planner can quickly perform multiple iterations of processing alternatives in the 3D digital environment with the confidence that all aspects of the problem are available to him through this process centric view. Using the DELMIA suite of Digital Manufacturing solutions, the planner can quickly validate the feasibility of the process plan; determine cycle time, bottlenecks and throughput and estimate the product and capital costs. DPM Assembly will generate operator work instructions providing a true end-to-end DELMIA solution from preliminary process planning through execution on the shop floor.

DPM Assembly Process Simulation leverages the capabilities of the Dassault Systemes V5 Software Infrastructure DPM Assembly is a V5 application, built on the same infrastructure as CATIA V5 and ENVOVIA V5. This single glass solution for all applications allows the user to move effortlessly between Digital Mockup, Digital Manufacturing and Data Management tasks. All applications use the same Product, Process and Resource models that are configuration managed across the product life cycle. The common Windows user interface for DELMIA, CATIA and ENOVIA increases productivity and significantly reduces the training and learning curve requirements. All users across the enterprise are confident that they are working with the correct version of the product, process and resource data to support their decisions. Version 5 delivers next-generation object technologies and architecture. It is built using leading-edge standards such as STEP, Java, CORBA and OLE. Customers take full advantage of these new technologies to integrate and reuse data across their enterprise and benefit from e-business opportunities. DELMIA Version 5 Release 4 is implemented for both native Windows NT and the three UNIX platforms. This platform independence offers flexibility of choice. It increases collaboration of companies in the supply chain through the sharing of common data, functions and user interface. The combination of scalable architecture and exceptional ease of use makes Version 5 applications unique in their ability to deliver scalable applications in the areas of function, process coverage and modeling technology, that address companies and users with all levels of design complexity. Know-how is captured and reused. A unique built-in knowledge engine guides the user through a task by combining explicit rules of product and process behaviors with interactive capture of design intent. Version 5's new approach to design turns CAD experts and manufacturing engineers back into designers and engineers, allowing them to focus on the real issues.

DELMIA Corp. develops e-business solutions for manufacturing by implementing a process centric solution to define, monitor and control production systems from single device workcell, production line, factory material flow to extended enterprise production flow. DELMIA will serve industry segments where continuous transformation and optimization of the manufacturing processes are critical such as Automotive, Aerospace, Fabrication and Assembly, Electrical and Electronics, Consumer Goods, Plant and Shipbuilding. DELMIA constitutes the core offering for Digital Manufacturing and Production, serving the product life cycle. DELMIA solutions are interoperable with major CAD, PDM and ERP systems. DPM for Assembly is completely integrated with ENOVIA, and provides a unique integrated manufacturing solution with configuration management of the product, process and resource models.

Dassault Systemes (NASDAQ:DASTY) is the premier global software developer of Product Lifecycle Management Solutions (PLM), providing companies with e-business solutions to implement their digital enterprise, thus creating and simulating the entire product lifecycle from initial concept to product in service. CATIA, ENOVIA and DELMIA solutions support industry-specific business processes to help unleash creativity and innovation, reduce development cycle time, improve quality, competitiveness and shareholder value: CATIA supports the digital product definition and simulation, DELMIA provides solutions to define and simulate lean digital manufacturing processes and ENOVIA delivers enterprise solutions that manage a comprehensive, collaborative and distributed model of the digital product, processes and resources. The combined integration creates the Digital Product lifecycle Pipeline, supporting reuse of corporate knowledge. SolidWorks and Smart Solutions, as Dassault Systemes companies, offer respectively 3D design-centric and TeamPDM software solutions based on Windows.

Information about DELMIA is available at http://www.delmia.com

Information about Dassault Systemes is available at http://www.dsweb.com