Moldflow Announces the Release of EZ-Track 1.0; Next Generation Shop Floor System for Plant-Wide Tracking of Production, Machines, Labor and Materials in Real-Time.

Business Editors

WAYLAND, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 26, 2001

Moldflow Corporation (Nasdaq:MFLO), the world leader in process-wide solutions for optimizing the design and manufacture of plastic products, today announced the release of EZ-Track(TM) version 1.0.

Designed for monitoring all machines and equipment on the injection molding shop floor, EZ-Track tightly integrates powerful data acquisition hardware and state-of-the-art software analysis tools. The system provides the tools required to capture, store, view, and understand what is taking place throughout an entire plant, in real-time. EZ-Track continuously monitors production and collects detailed information on machine performance, materials, labor, scrap, efficiencies and many other vital performance measurements.

"The release of EZ-Track ushers in the next generation of injection molding shop floor production monitoring," said Ken Welch, vice president of marketing for Moldflow Corporation, "Moldflow has recognized that shop floor professionals need access to information in a consistent format, and in real-time, in order to help them run their operations at peak efficiency. EZ-Track allows these professionals to take a snapshot of their production process, identify inefficiencies and correct those problems. In today's competitive environment, tools like EZ-Track are a necessity."

Built upon an entirely new Input/Output Unit (I/OU) that integrates a touch-screen display with advanced data acquisition hardware, EZ-Track has the ability to count parts, rejects, packed cases, start-up shots, and up to four additional user-defined counts. It detects downtime automatically and allows classification into an unlimited number of causes. Scrap and rejects can also be counted and classified by cause. Cycle time of every shot, on every machine, is measured and is plotted using real-time SPC charts. In addition, seven additional time measurements can be made each cycle and compared to pre-defined limits. The system is configurable and tracks from one machine to hundreds of machines. It can be linked to other CIM systems, including ERP and MRP systems so that production data can efficiently be interchanged.

All automatic inputs enter the system via the I/OU while manual entry and information display can be done at either I/OU or workstations. Some of the key I/OU features include:

-- Sixteen high-speed digital input channels for automatic timing, counting,
and production rate determination

-- Eight digital output channels for activating alarms, diverting parts, and
exerting control

-- Over a dozen major screens displaying hundreds of statistics on shift and
job performance

-- Entry screens for labor, downtime, scrap, and material movement

-- User-defined parameters for recording time-based measurements

While an I/OU is dedicated to one machine, a global view of the entire operation is also available using any standard PC. Users can view all machines within a department or the department as a whole. PC-based software includes the following modules:

-- Floor Module - for entering data and viewing status of

machines, production, labor, and material.

-- Log Viewer Module - provides a real-time record of every

transaction made. Four separate transaction logs are

maintained: machine, labor, material and jobs.

-- Scheduling Module - allows jobs to be scheduled on machines

and provides automatic updating of completion times.

-- Resource and Set-up Modules - allows EZ-Track to be configured

to specific customer requirements including tools for easy

entry of part information, employee information, downtime

reasons, scrap causes, production standards, shift start and

finish times, allowable combinations of tools, molds, and

machines, plus many other settings and definitions.

EZ-Track labor tracking software provides a convenient mechanism for tracking and reporting labor hours and labor activity. The software collects and summarizes labor hours for shop floor employees and maintains a real-time Labor Log of all labor transactions. Material tracking software records all material moves, including origin and destination locations and amount of material moved. The system permits definition and monitoring of an unlimited number of materials and maintains a real-time Material Log and computes material use and losses.

The intuitive EZ-Track Job Scheduler Module pre-defines jobs that will run on various machines and supports visual "drag and drop" job scheduling of hundreds of jobs using a Gantt chart display. The Job Scheduler checks for mold conflicts and machine feasibility, and flags problems. The schedule is continuously updated with job completion times based on actual cycle time, downtime, rejects, and cavitation. Forecasted delays are highlighted.

EZ-Track's Report Module is browser-based which enables reports to be retrieved, without special software, from the office, corporate headquarters, or anywhere where a suitable web connection is available. Major report categories include job summaries, machine performance, plant status, scrap, downtime, labor, material, and tool use. Report styles include pie charts, Pareto charts, trend charts, and tabular reports.

Pricing & Availability

EZ-Track is available now. Contact your local Moldflow representative for pricing.

About Moldflow Corporation

Moldflow (Nasdaq:MFLO) is the world leader in process-wide solutions for optimizing the design and manufacture of plastic products. Moldflow's complete suite of software products provide the tools that allow companies to address plastic part design and manufacturing issues at the earliest possible stage to eliminate problems and costly downtime on the manufacturing floor. As the plastics product design and manufacturing industry becomes increasingly competitive, Moldflow continues to provide solutions that help our customers maximize productivity and profitability. Moldflow has employees worldwide and maintains its corporate headquarters in Wayland, MA. The Company has research and development facilities in Australia, the United Kingdom, Wilsonville, OR and Ithaca, NY, material testing laboratories in Australia and Ithaca, NY and direct sales and marketing offices throughout the US, Europe and the Pacific Rim. For more information about Moldflow call 508-358-5848; fax: [phone].

Note to editors: Moldflow and EZ-Track are trademarks or registered trademarks of Moldflow Corporation or its subsidiaries worldwide. All other trademarks are properties of their respective holders.