Karmann Chooses Dassault Systèmes’ DELMIA for Production Line Planning and Simulation

Accelerated Ramp-up Time, Identification of Best Practices

Auburn Hills, MI., USA and Fellbach, Germany, January 15, 2008 – Dassault Systèmes (DS) (Nasdaq: DASTY; Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA), a world leader in 3D and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions, today announced that after a successful pilot, Wilhelm Karmann, an international supplier to the automotive industry, has selected DELMIA Process Engineer and DELMIA Body-in-White to virtually plan, simulate and test its production lines.

“Following comprehensive tests, we selected DELMIA solutions,” states Werner Hennig, Karmann head of engineering processes IT. “We expect this software to reduce costs, shorten ramp-up time, and improve process quality. Additionally, the integration of suppliers will be easier and modifications of production conditions can be implemented more quickly.” Product designers can use the software to develop the best manufacturing alternatives, helping to identify the best practice solutions. The simultaneous engineering capability between planning and manufacturing teams will keep planning errors to a minimum.

DELMIA Process Engineer provides a comprehensive treatment of the relationships between product, process and manufacturing resource data, including plant layout. It allows planners to play out various scenarios to determine, for example, the optimum model mix or number of employees required to accomplish a certain task. This helps to avoid planning mistakes and obtains a precise overview of the required investment costs, production space and manpower.

The scalable DELMIA Body-in-White solution allows for the creation, modification and validation of automotive body-in-white lines and stations prior to production, including the setup of tools, fixtures, stations, and lines, with the associated processes. The user defines the overall process; identifies the fastening points and fixtures; and validates the throughput and capacity to identify potential bottlenecks and modify the line as needed. All processes are verified in a 3D environment.

“We are glad to have such a well-respected company as Karmann join the group of Tier 1 automotive suppliers relying upon our automotive solutions,” says Jorg Scheibel, managing director of DELMIA GMBH and vice president of sales for EMEA North, DELMIA, Dassault Systèmes.  “This further demonstrate the value provided to customers by the award-winning DELMIA Body-in-White solution, which was named one of top 20 technologies recognized at the SAE Congress 2007.”