Saab Automobile AB Selects DELMIAs Software ERGOFab to Improve Manufacturing, Engineering and Production Management.

Business/Technology Editors

GOTHENBURG & TROLLHATTAN, Sweden--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 6, 2001

Saab Automobile AB, a General Motors company, will deploy DELMIAs software ERGOFab for Operation management and Line balancing in Body in White, Paint Shop and Assembly Shop in Trollhattan, Sweden.

ERGOFab will improve the efficiency in the process to design new cars and the process to handle change management in production. ERGOFab will handle operation management, including work instructions and line balancing. One of the key objectives is that ERGOFab will be the master of the process structure. The software also gives the possibility to balance in a more efficient way for the average car that improves the usage in production.

"The capability of ERGOFab will allow us to save time and give us a more efficient method to handle all process information and documentation both in early stages of a new car projects as well as after start of production," said Anders Gadd, Project leader at Saab Automobile. "ERGOFab will also give us an up-to-date user interface and a concept that supports simultaneous engineering."

Since September 1999, Saab Automobile has been using ERGOPlan and the module ERGOMas for Process Design in the Assembly Shop. The decision to deploy ERGOFab is a step in the overall strategy to work with digital manufacturing and shorten the lead-time in product and process development.

Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget, SAAB, (lit. the Swedish Aircraft Company Ltd.) was founded in 1937 with the express purpose of building aircraft for the Swedish air force. The first Saab-designed aircraft, the B17 single-engined bomber, had its maiden flight in 1940 and in 1947, the prototype of the first passenger car, Saab 92, was revealed. Saab Automobile AB was formed on January 1, 1990, when Saab-Scania transferred its entire passenger car operations to this new company, following a joint venture agreement reached with General Motors in December 1989. Today, Saab is the distinctive European premium brand within the GM vehicle portfolio, developing dynamic vehicles with distinctive design, characterized by a combination of high performance, outstanding safety and superior driver control.

DELMIA Corp. develops e-business solutions for manufacturing by implementing a process centric solution to define, plan, validate, monitor and control production systems from single device work cell, production line, factory material flow to extended enterprise production flow. DELMIA serves 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.

Dassault Systemes (Nasdaq: DASTY; Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA) 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, ENOVIA delivers enterprise solutions that manage a comprehensive, collaborative and distributed model of the digital product, processes and resources and DELMIA provides solutions to define and simulate lean digital manufacturing processes. 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

CATIA(R) is registered in the US Patent and Trade Mark Office by Dassault Systemes. ENOVIA(TM) is owned by Dassault Systemes and used under license. DELMIA(TM) is owned by Dassault Systemes. All other company product or service names mentioned may be trademarks or service marks of others.