Dassault Systemes and IBM announce Version 5 release 15 of lifecycle MGMT portfolio.

Dassault Systemes and IBM have announced the release of Version 5 Release 15 (V5R15) of their product lifecycle management (PLM) portfolio, comprised of CATIA for collaborative product development, and ENOVIA and SMARTEAM for product data and life cycle management, collaboration, and decision support. Concurrently, Dassault Systemes announced V5R15 of DELMIA for digital development of factory and production processes.

The new release builds on the strengths of V5R14 by providing unified working environments, or desktops, targeting the specific needs of key user communities such as engineering, manufacturing, and enterprise users. It strengthens its leadership position in coverage of business processes, delivering breakthrough technologies that improve productivity and innovation in all industries.

"Providing a 3D digital view really improves communication with customers," said Kenji Kozaki, general manager for the Information Technologies Department of Sanyo Machine Works, a provider of industrial automation systems. "When we discuss the design of an assembly line, we are able to get a clear understanding of what the customer wants. This improves collaboration and accelerates design validation."

Mech-Tool Engineering, a UK supplier to the Offshore Oil Production industry and a recent convert to the V5 toolset, leverages Generative Mechanical Design capabilities and breakthrough Knowledgeware practices. "Although we are still in the early stages, the progress we've made is very promising," said Ron Davison, technical director. "We have already experienced 25:1 productivity gains, and we believe those benefits are sustainable."

The V5R15 product portfolio brings business value to manufacturers in the following areas:

Accelerated Collaboration with Suppliers--V5R15 accelerates supply chain collaborative processes by facilitating the exchange of engineering package data between OEMs and suppliers of all sizes. This enables faster and more frequent design iterations, while preserving engineering relationships--resulting in "right-first-time" products.

Enhanced Communication with 3DXML--V5R15 leverages the open and extremely lightweight 3DXML format. Using 3DXML, customers can communicate in 3D by easily and rapidly sharing high-quality 3D representations of the virtual product throughout the extended enterprise. V5R15 also introduces a new 3D XML viewer.

Increased PLM ROI for Companies of All Sizes--To facilitate rapid deployment in companies of all sizes, V5R15 strengthens entry-level solutions based on CATIA--SMARTEAM and extends the VPM Navigator, which provides a unified environment for 3D authoring and virtual product management. It also introduces a unique approach for conceptual design within the 3D environment with the new CATIA--2D Layout for 3D Design application. Furthermore, it enhances the V5 manufacturing desktop, introducing new change management capabilities between engineering and manufacturing, pre-defined databases for manufacturing process planning, and new and enhanced V5 manufacturing applications, such as the DELMIA--Arc Welding solution.

Enabled PLM Business Processes Across the Enterprise--V5R15 increases business process visibility and agility by orchestrating cross-functional processes across multiple enterprise application domains. The ENOVIA--LCA Enterprise Process Management product, using WebSphere, improves process definition through ready to use templates, monitors process execution through extensive reporting and statistics capabilities, enables informed decision making based on filtered views of enterprise processes and PLM product information, and tracks decisions, enabling re-use of experience in future projects. Among other benefits, enterprise process management significantly reduces cycle times and optimizes resource utilization.

Extended PLM Value with the OPEN V5 Platform--V5R15 continues to deliver on its proven openness framework and to support industry standards by delivering major improvements in quality, performance and scalability, as well as extending AIX 64-bit support. V5R15 also continues the expansion of the V5 software community with more than 50 partners providing more than 320 V5 applications.

"With V5R15, 3D collaboration has no more limits," Bernard Charles, president and CEO, Dassault Systemes. "3DXML extends 3D outside the engineering department and across the extended enterprise, so that anyone in a company can now benefit from the power of 3D. This release leverages the open V5 PLM platform to provide all of the companies in the supply chain with critical competitive advantages in terms of collaboration and process coverage."

"With V5R15, we are reinforcing our commitment to helping our customers enter a new world of enterprise collaboration and value chain integration," said Scott Hopkins, general manager, Product Lifecycle Management, IBM. "This open V5R15 platform can help them tackle their time-to-market and innovation challenges and start their journey as On Demand businesses."