City University of Hong Kong, Dassault Systemes and MTECH signs a co-operation agreement

09/17/2001

 

Hong Kong, (China) September 17, 2001 - The Department of Manufacturing Engineering and Engineering Management (MEEM) of City University of Hong Kong has signed a co-operation agreement with Dassault Systemes (Nasdaq: DASTY; Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA) and MTECH Engineering Co. Ltd. (MTECH) with a view to raising knowledge levels and the timely adoption of the PLM (Product Lifecycle management) technology in SMEs in the Pearl River Delta region in order to enhance their innovation, productivity and competitiveness. <br/>

 

 

Under this co-operation agreement, tens of millions worth of software system including CATIA, DELMIA, ENOVIA and SMARTEAM will be installed in MEEM for teaching, research and consulting work. With the support from Dassault Systemes and MTECH and the installation of the system, MEEM commits to strengthen its efforts to educate and train quality engineers to master the technology for the needs of industry through its regular undergraduate degree programmes, to contribute to the advancement of PLM technology by designing and supervising postgraduate research projects related to PLM, to promote and prepare the ready adoption of the technology by developing life case studies with local manufacturers, and to develop tools and solutions for local industry and SMEs to improve their competitiveness. <br/>

 

 

To kick-start the program, the inauguration of the Product Lifecycle Management Competency Unit  (PLMCU) will be held concurrently. PLMCU operates under the Enterprise Knowledge Integration and Transfer (e-KIT) Laboratory of MEEM. The mission of e-KIT is to design, develop and implement appropriate methodologies, techniques and solutions for the manufacturing industry, particularly the SME's, in order to help them and their business partners operate more competitively through effective acquisition, generation, integration, upgrade and transfer of skill sets and knowledge. <br/>

 

 

 

"There is no better and more timely decision than to locate PLMCU under the umbrella of the e-KIT Laboratory. It demonstrates our Department’s firm belief that “sustained innovation in product design, in process improvement and in management” remains the single weapon for enterprises to win over their competitors. Therefore the transfer of PLM knowledge and skills to local enterprises via this new Unit is one of our many tasks to serve the community ", says Prof. Yiu-Wing Mai, Head of MEEM and designated representative of Executive Council of PLMCU.<br/>

 

 

“To demonstrate our enthusiasm and commitment to the co-operation program, a series of five e-manufacturing short courses have recently been launched for local engineers to upgrade their skills and prepare themselves in this challenging area. In addition, more than 10 undergraduate final year projects were planned and launched to develop real life case studies with local manufacturing companies”, says Dr. Edmund Cheung, Associate Head of MEEM and designated managing coordinator of PLMCU. <br/>

“Hong Kong is going to be a Knowledge Society. And knowledge is created from the mixture of information, theory and practical experience. One of the functions of PLMCU is to form a Manufacturing Community of Practice including government, academy, technology vendors and industrial enterprises so that we can collaborate together to develop knowledge engineering skills and infrastructure (multi-knowledge capturing, sharing and leveraging) for product and process innovation. This definitely can speed up the transformation of Hong Kong manufacturing industries from low cost, labor intensive work to high value added, knowledge base work. Also this experience can help our country, China to develop more rapidly”, says Stephen AU, Managing Director of MTech Engineering Co., Ltd.<br/>

“ The collaboration we create today will be able to enhance the competitiveness of local industry thanks to our worldclass technology. Moreover, this commitment, based on the Product  Lyfecycle Management Competency Unit, will bring a new collaborative dimension  and give the opportunity to develop a special relationship with the worldwide industry”, explained Francis Bernard, executive committee advisor and member of board of Dassault Systemes.

About About MEEM

Established in late 1987, the Department has grown to a size of over 33 academic staff, currently supervising a total of 58 PhD and MPhil students. The total amount of funding secured by the academic staff for applied research projects, which are being carried out and not yet completed, is approximately HK$65million. About 90 research papers are published every year in international journals. The Department is currently offering 4 Bachelor degree programmes, 2 taught Master degree programmes, and an Engineering Doctorate degree programme which is the first of its kind launched in the City University of Hong Kong. The Department also pioneers the teaching of Engineering Management, Mechatronics Engineering, and computer-assisted Manufacturing and Industrial Engineering. Expertise of the Department's academic staff include quality and reliability management, project management, logistics and supply chain management, ergonomics, surface engineering and tribology, CAD/CAM and rapid prototyping, manufacturing technology, intelligent manufacturing systems, robotics, machine vision and control, condition monitoring and fault diagnosis, advanced engineering materials, etc. Several new research centres and laboratories have been established with substantial amount of funding from the University, local industry and the Innovation and Technology Fund of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Examples of these are, the Centre for Intelligent Design, Automation and Manufacture (CIDAM), the Smart Asset Management Research Laboratory (SAMRL), the Advanced Coatings Applied Research Laboratory (ACARL) and the Enterprise Knowledge Integration and Transfer (e-KIT) Laboratory. The Department has an excellent track record of industrial consultancy and research collaboration. One of the missions of the Department is to help local industry and those in the Pearl River Delta of mainland China to increase their competitiveness. Dept. MEEM and e-KIT

 

Information are available at - http://www.cityu.edu.hk/meem/e-kit

About About MTECH

MTECH is a knowledge engineering orientated company to provide and apply information technology solutions to the manufacturing industry in Hong Kong and China. Being the IBM / Dassault business partner specific on CATIA, DELMIA, SMARTEAM and ENOVIA PLM & e-Business solutions, MTECH offer expertise in the form of a Methodology specifically developed for manufacturing automation. Our people have more than 10 years experience on information technology, automation, product development and tooling design. MTECH’s strategy is comprised of architecture; know-how; services; technology; support and education, enabling our client to take advantage of a one-stop shop, one-stop support opportunity and migrate their technology to a higher level without interrupting their production efficiency. MTech Engineering Co., Ltd.

 

Information is available at - http://www.mtech.com.hk

About About Dassault Systèmes

Dassault Systemes (Nasdaq: DASTY; Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA) is the premier global software developer for the CAD/CAM/CAE/PLM market, providing companies with e-business solutions to implement their digital enterprise, thus creating and simulating the entire product life cycle 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 life cycle Pipeline, supporting reuse of corporate knowledge. SolidWorks and SmarTeam, as Dassault Systemes companies, offer respectively 3D design-centric and collaborative PDM software solutions based on Windows and the internet. Spatial, also part of Dassault Systemes family, is a market-leading provider of world-class 3D software components and services (for 3D modeling, visualization, and interoperability) to meet the requirements of 3D in Internet-based e-commerce and B2B applications.

 

Dassault Systemes information is available at - http://www.3ds.com