ENOVIAVPM Version 1 Release 1.0

A new multi-CAD PDM II solution from IBM and ENOVIA Corporation provides for innovative product and process development

Charlotte, N.C., July 7, 1998--IBM and and the ENOVIA Corporation today announced the general availability of ENOVIAVPM (Virtual Product Model) Release 1 for Virtual Product Development Management (VPDM). This new multi-CAD software suite promotes innovation and creativity through total digital product and manufacturing simulation, helping companies to develop new markets and increase market share.

ENOVIAVPM provides benefits by graphically organizing and sharing detailed product and process knowledge during the product development life cycle and across the extended enterprise. It integrates directly with CAD/CAM/CAE/PDM tools to capture the engineering knowledge at a very granular level. It also stores and manages a network of technological relationships that describe the dependencies between products, their related manufacturing processes and resources.

As a common source for data that describes products, processes and activities, ENOVIAVPM unites designers, tooling and manufacturing specialists, maintenance or plant engineers and suppliers and will accelerate the implementation of concurrent engineering practices. ENOVIAVPM is a major enabler of the digital enterprise and, in combination with ENOVIAPM which provides enterprise-level PDM functions, offers a total solution for the PDM II(1) domain encompassing both VPDM and PDM.

ENOVIAVPM contains an infrastructure and applications that go beyond today's engineering data and process management solutions. It was designed in partnership with leading industrial enterprises to provide industry best-practices in predefined applications supporting the extensive use of digital modeling and simulation during all phases of product development.

ENOVIAVPM Release 1 includes product structure management and configuration definition applications that offer unmatched levels of flexibility to mix and match design alternatives, giving engineers the freedom necessary to create innovative product solutions. In addition, engineering actions control and trace product changes while allowing the creation of a product knowledge base. Also, maturity management allied with native publish/subscribe mechanisms ensure timely change notification and promote parallel activities. Technical publications can be associated to products at the paragraph level so that documents accurately reflect product changes.

"In our experience, delivering world-class solutions requires a focus on people, processes and technology. ENOVIAVPM enables unprecedented levels of innovation and collaboration throughout the product development life cycle and across the extended enterprise." says Stephen Murdoch, global PDM II business director for IBM. "When combined with IBM's world-wide services, consulting and e-business capabilities we are uniquely positioned to deliver on our customer's vision of a digital enterprise."

Joel Lemke, ENOVIA Corp. chief executive officer, adds: "When it comes to increasing efficiency in the manufacturing industry, the next big step is to integrate design and process definitions. With ENOVIAVPM the rich multi-disciplinary knowledge that determines what a product is, does and how it will be built becomes readily available. Engineers won't have to waste time re-entering data, looking up information, researching a problem that's already resolved or waiting for one department to finish evaluating a design change before making their own assessment and recommendations. They can optimize one product and move on to another new one."

"ENOVIAVPM Release 1 introduces a new leading edge product portfolio based on open standards, business objects and web technologies. A Web-based desktop will enable product navigation and exploration across the extended enterprise throughout the product life cycle. A universal object modeling plug-in technology will allow easy integration of legacy systems," adds Philippe Poelaert, VPM/PDM Division Director - Dassault Systèmes.

ENOVIAVPM Release 1 is packaged as a set of five solutions to satisfy the requirements of user roles in product development teams. New roles can be defined based on specific enterprise requirements. The solutions include an Engineer Solution, with access to all functions required for product design, simulation and modification, a Technical Publications Solution for documentation specialists, a Manager Solution for viewing and project control activities, a Casual User Solution for users needing access to product data, and an Administrator Solution for system installation, tailoring and user role definitions.

The extended enterprise supplier chain is supported by connecting to e-business network software and other applications such as CAD, Product Data Management (PDM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). Major industry standards such as STEP and CORBA are the basis for ENOVIAVPM implementation and allow the exchange of product data.

An optional feature of ENOVIAVPM Release 1 allows the engineer to use CATIA solutions to create, store and manage detailed product data in the ENOVIAVPM common database, sharing product knowledge across the extended enterprise. CATIA's powerful digital mock-up capabilities can enhance product design throughout development.

ENOVIAVPM is a workstation application and will run on IBM RS/6000, Hewlett-Packard, SGI, Sun or other compatible servers. It supports platforms ranging from entry-level personal computers through massively parallel servers. It is Year 2000 ready.