CLAAS Boosts Innovation with V6 Solutions from Dassault Systèmes

Standardized IT-PLM Landscape Yields Robust and Transparent Processes

STUTTGART, Germany and VÉLIZY-VILLACOUBLAY, France - March 15, 2011 - Dassault Systèmes, a world market leader in 3D and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions, has today announced that CLAAS, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of agricultural equipment and products, has commited to shaping its entire product creation process worldwide – from design, construction and simulation to system validation and production planning – with CATIA V6, ENOVIA V6, DELMIA V6, and SIMULIA V6.

By harnessing these solutions, CLAAS intends to improve its development and validation processes in order to launch high-quality, complex products more quickly and more efficiently onto the market. CLAAS will gradually replace its existing PDM solution that the company has been using since 1998, which is based on ENOVIA VPM and ENOVIA 3DCOM, with ENOVIA V6. CLAAS will go live at the first site in 2012 and roll the system out gradually to its offices worldwide.

“V6 offers us the advantage that, in future, we’ll be able to operate our entire systems engineering process, including assembly planning, on a single IP platform worldwide,” says Andreas Mähler, head of computer aided applications at CLAAS. “We anticipate that its use will allow us to better manage complex engineering tasks through 3D-based, interdisciplinary collaboration. This is made possible thanks to the global availability of uniform data and the standardization of development, procurement and production workflows within our partner network. The integration of ENOVIA V6 and our ERP system for process and bill-of-material management will also play a key role in this.”

The decision to switch to ENOVIA V6 and CATIA V6 was made as part of the “New PDM system @ CLAAS” benchmark following a long and careful validation of the company’s systems, infrastructure, data migration, functionality and methods.“ENOVIA V6 and CATIA V6 offer us completely new opportunities to put the customer at the center of our product development process,” says Gerd-Dietmar Pokraka, head of R&D at CLAAS. “The scope of functions, the scalability and the openness of the V6 solutions from Dassault Systèmes have impressed us all greatly.”

The V6 platform supports CLAAS in its efforts to offer its systems engineers, designers and mechanical engineers an interdisciplinary product creation environment that is as lifelike as possible, as well as opportunities to make the best possible use of working together in 3D regardless of the location through online Web technologies.This also includes a simulation of operating behavior that is as realistic as possible and validating manufacturing processes with Dassault Systèmes Digital Factory solutions.

“With the introduction of V6, we will be standardizing our PLM IT system landscape, gaining robust and transparent processes that will continue to allow high product quality and cost control while at the same time being able to efficiently manage the high number of variants in production,” says Dr. Hermann Garbers, director of Technology and Quality, CLAAS.

“We regard CLAAS’s decision in favor of V6 as a strong recognition of our ongoing efforts to support the competitiveness of our industrial products clients through innovative open PLM applications and practices, and as an incentive for the future of our strategic partnership of many years’ standing,” says Jörg Schiebel, vice president, Central & Eastern Europe, Dassault Systèmes.