The Claas Group Selects ENOVIA to Facilitate a Fully Integrated Development Environment Worldwide

The Claas Group, IBM and Dassault Systemes (Nasdaq: DASTY) announced today that Claas KGaA has selected ENOVIA as its Enterprise product data management (PDM II) solution worldwide.

Harsewinkel, Germany, Paris, France, 4 November 1999--The agreement includes 70 ENOVIAVPM seats in 1999, and an estimated 140 additional seats by 2001. Claas will use ENOVIAVPM to manage the hundreds of thousands of complex components, part assemblies and designs used in the development of its sophisticated agricultural machinery.

ENOVIAVPM is part of the ENOVIA portfolio of multi-CAD, Digital Enterprise Solutions for modeling, simulating and managing information throughout a product’s entire life cycle.

Claas selected ENOVIAVPM after extensive review ; they evaluated all major PDM II software systems, analyzing each one against strict criteria, including efficient interfacing with Claas’ Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system.

Andreas Maehler, Claas’ manager of computer-aided engineering services explained: "On the basis of our in-house testing, we are confident that ENOVIAvpm will make us more competitive. It will increase our efficiency by improving the quality of our designs, and by reducing both product development time and cost. In addition, ENOVIAVPM will help us create a fully-integrated product development environment that will grow with our needs throughout our 14 facilities worldwide."

Claas’ ENOVIAVPM project complements its existing product development system: CATIA Solutions -the world’s leading software for computer-aided design, manufacturing and engineering (CAD/CAM/CAE)-running on an IBM SP2 server and IBM RS6000 work stations. "Working in a complete IBM environment saves us time and money," said Maehler. "because every component is engineered as part of an integrated system. This helps our CAD/CAM/CAE organization work together smoothly throughout every Claas site. We can concentrate on product design, rather than troubleshoot a new system."

The agricultural machines that Claas fabricates are very sophisticated. Their high degree of automation and flexibility makes them capable of harvesting most any crop. Their instrument panels rival those of airplanes in their electronics, capable of monitoring and regulating their working environment with exact precision. Designing such advanced equipment involves complex sheet metal assemblies, castings, freeform surfaces and finite element analysis. Managing such intricate designs demands a system capable of handling a large database with speed and exactness.

Pat Toole, general manager IBM’ Engineering Solutions, commented: "Claas is among the best agricultural equipment companies in the world. IBM is pleased to have been chosen to help them increase their competitiveness."

Joel Lemke, Chief Executive Officer of ENOVIA Corporation, added: "We are proud that Claas has selected ENOVIAVPM as their worldwide enterprise standard for product data management. A vote of confidence by such a prestigious manufacturer confirms ENOVIA’s leading role in managing product development data effectively."