Siemens and Tecnomatix to Provide Seamless Path From Process Design to the Shop Floor.

HANNOVER, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 19, 1999--

World Leaders Join Forces To Optimize Engineering Processes

Siemens Automation and Drives Group (A&D), the world leader in programmable logic controllers (PLC) and Tecnomatix Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ-NM: TCNOF), a world leader and pioneer of the computer-aided production engineering (CAPE) market, announced today at the Hannover Show a cooperation agreement whereby the two companies will jointly provide an integrated 3D virtual environment to streamline the engineering process and to enable a seamless path from process design to shop floor automation.

The combined Siemens and Tecnomatix product family will allow engineers from both mechanical-design and control departments to work in parallel and share manufacturing information. The software will enable off-line programming (OLP) of PLCs directly from the virtual manufacturing cell as well as virtual commissioning - two key elements for fast production ramp up. The first product in the family, ROBCAD/PLC, is intended to be released in mid 1999.

ROBCAD/PLC is part of the ROBCAD line of CAPE products. ROBCAD enables production and process engineers to design manufacturing processes, create programs to run PLCs, robots and machines, validate and optimize the processes and programs by means of simulation, and to download them directly to the machines on the shop floor, all within the single CAPE environment.

"Today, the main requirements of the production industry, especially the automotive industry, are high product quality at moderate production costs," said Alfons Kiermeier, Program Manager PLC Code Generator at BMW. "Moreover, a fast product launch and steep ramp up of production are decisive factors for the success of a product. That's why we have to know exactly the functionality and behavior of the production lines early in the production engineering phase. These critical factors can be achieved by generating automatically the PLC programs concurrently with the design process, and then using these programs to simulate the production lines in a virtual environment."

"BMW initiated this joint project with Siemens and Tecnomatix - which are both companies that we have been working with for many years now - because of their high level of know-how in automation, simulation, and production of the automobile, required for such an ambitious project," added Markus Erras, Coordinator Mechanical/Electrical Standards at BMW.

"Automating the path between product design and production will offer manufacturers unique benefits unequaled on the market today. It helps to optimize the engineering process and allows manufacturers to bring products faster to market and at less cost," said Mr. Thomas Schott, Director of Automotive System Business at Siemens Automation and Drives Group. "This breakthrough became possible through the cooperation of our companies and the seamless integration of ROBCAD/PLC and Simatic PLCs using the capabilities of Totally Integrated Automation and our Simatic Industrial Software."

"As market leaders, both Siemens and Tecnomatix are dedicated to providing a competitive edge for their customers," said Harel Beit-On President and CEO of Tecnomatix. "This agreement fits perfectly into Tecnomatix' strategy to provide manufacturers with tools to streamline their manufacturing processes, by continuously developing new products and by partnering with best-in-class vendors. The Siemens-Tecnomatix solution will expand the capabilities of our Digital Factory offering to include not only product/process/resource definitions but also shop-floor controllers.

"After our customers have met the challenge of robotic off-line programming with Robcad - which is already standard practice at leading manufacturers - programming of PLCs on the shop floor is the next hurdle to quick ramp up," continued Beit-On. "From our experience, programming in the virtual environment can save 5-10 weeks lead time of a new product launch. This translates into significant incremental profits to our customers."

Siemens AG belongs to the wold's top ten electrical and electronics companies and has sales and manufacturing facilities in over 190 countries. The Siemens Automation and Drives Group (A&D), Nuremberg/Erlangen, Germany, is an essential part of the Siemens Industrial Division. A&D closed the last fiscal year (1997/98) successfully with sales of 6.8 billion Euro (13.7 billion marks), orders of seven billion Euro (13.8 billion marks), and a profit (before taxes) of 0.6 billion Euro (1.2 billion marks). Worldwide, A&D employs around 53,000, of which somewhat more than half are outside Germany. A&D is a competent supplier of automation and drive solutions for the manufacturing and process industry as well as of electrical installation technology. A&D's full line includes everything from standard products for industrial applications and installation engineering, through solutions required, for example, for machine tools or high-capacity packaging machines to the automation of entire automobile factories or refineries. The optimised interplay of A&D products provides numerous advantages to the customer: switches, sensors, actuators and drives at the field level, systems for the corporate management level on the automation pyramid, such as host computers, programmable logic controllers, and hardware and software for HMI, as well as industrial PCs for the process management level, are fully compatible with the system characteristics of the "Totally Integrated Automation" (TIA) platform."

TECNOMATIX TECHNOLOGIES LTD. is a pioneer and world leader of the computer-aided production engineering (CAPE) market. The Company develops, markets and supports industrial companies with software tools to fully computerize the industrial process and achieve a seamless transition from design to production. CAPE products enable production engineers to create an on-screen virtual manufacturing environment that graphically displays and simulates actual manufacturing operations. The Company's CAPE products include the ROBCAD line of products for manufacturing processes; the VALISYS line of quality engineering products; DYNAMO for the study of assembly and disassembly of newly designed products; SIMPLE++ for design, planning, and optimization of a complete factory; EXALINE for printed circuit board (PCB) assembly machines; and PART for generative machining and process planning.

Certain statements made herein that use the words "estimate", "project", "intend", "expect", "believe" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties which could cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those which may be expressed or implied by such statements, including, among others, changes in general economic and business conditions and specifically, changes in the level of activity in the automotive industry, decline in demand to the Company's products, inability to timely develop and introduce new technologies, products and applications and loss of market share and pressure on prices resulting from competition. For additional information regarding these and other risks and uncertainties associated with the Company's business, reference is made to the Company's reports filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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