Leading Knitting Machine Manufacturer Selects PLM Solutions from IBM and Dassault Systèmes

Mayer & Cie. to use CATIA V5 and SMARTEAM solutions to create virtual machine that will drastically reduce time-to-market

Paris, France, March 9, 2006 — IBM and Dassault Systèmes (DS) (Nasdaq: DASTY; Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA), a world leader in 3D and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions, today announced that Mayer & Cie., a leading manufacturer of circular knitting machines and a long-time customer, has selected CATIA V5 and SMARTEAM solutions for the virtual creation of a circular knitting machine that will enable the company to visualize the whole process chain, from design to manufacturing, in 3D.

Circular knitting machinery is a highly technical sector of the textile industry, supplying the huge T-shirt, underwear, hosiery and knitwear markets. After intensive comparisons, Mayer & Cie. will implement more than 40 CATIA V5 and SMARTEAM seats in its main factory and at its subsidiary Merz Maschinenfabrik, to manage the engineering data and make it easily accessible to all departments.

By using PLM, Mayer & Cie. aims to reduce product development time and, as a result, cut time-to-market dramatically. The new PLM solution will also transform the manufacturing process chain, where the company will make use of virtual data for all Numerical Control (NC) programming.

“We are convinced these PLM Solutions will bring improvements in our engineering of variants and in NC-programming,” said Marcus Mayer, Technical Director of Mayer & Cie. “This project will enable us to react more quickly and be flexible to our customers’ requirements, including making our offerings more customer-specific. With leading-edge technologies like the V5 PLM platform from DS, we can optimize the advantages of Germany as a future-oriented development and production location.”

Mayer & Cie. will implement IBM and Dassault Systèmes’ generative mechanical design solution (GMD) in its design process, improving design productivity and facilitating innovation with predefined computer models of toolsets, for product development as well as manufacturing resources. The GMD solution will integrate and define knowledge rules, reflecting design practices and past experiences, in the intelligent features of parts and assembly templates. The models automatically adapt to the requirements of a new product or its corresponding manufacturing processes, and dynamically evolve as those requirements change.

“Implementing the world-class PLM platform from DS will allow Mayer & Cie. to defend its leading position in its industry, where cost-cutting innovations are key to staying ahead of the competition,” said Martin Grunau, Director PLM Channel Development, Dassault Systèmes AG. “Mayer’s decision shows that PLM solutions bring an important competitive advantage to small- and medium-sized businesses, helping them face the challenges of constantly changing markets.”

Mayer & Cie. is supported by Transcat - PLM, IBM/DS’ business partner in Germany.