New PLM Industry Solution from IBM and Dassault Systèmes Helps Industrial Product Companies Cut Development Time and Speed Innovation

Generative Mechanical Design solution enables up to 50% reduction in design time and 60% reduction in assembly time

Paris, France - June 28, 2005 - IBM and Dassault Systèmes (Nasdaq: DASTY, Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA) today announced a new PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) industry solution that enables companies to improve design productivity and speed innovation by facilitating reuse of data and knowledge, re-adapted to a new context, from one project to another.

Industrial Products companies often base new product designs on up to 70 to 80 percent of the data and skills used in previous projects. With the Generative Mechanical Design (GMD) solution, companies can cut design time by up to 50 percent and can cut manufacturing and assembly time by up to 60 percent.

GMD is delivered through Collaborative Generative Design (CGD), a key component of the new, integrated IBM PLM Express Portfolio priced as an attractive PLM Solution for medium-sized businesses. It consists of CATIA V5 design and knowledgeware and SMARTEAM collaborative product development and standardized parts repository applications; the accompanying Generative Design Practices (GDP) Companion provides training materials and sample product templates for learning, applying and successfully implementating this new generative design approach.

Companies can use the GMD solution to accelerate the entire product design process and enhance innovation through:

• capture and reuse of design knowledge,

• automation of repetitive or tedious design tasks,

• encapsulation of design rules using standard parts,

• enhanced collaboration among design, simulation and manufacturing.

Sanyo Machine Works, Ltd., a leading global provider of industrial automation systems, is an early adopter of the GMD solution. "Sanyo Machine Digital Innovation, Initiative, Integration," a corporate project launched in 2002, has yielded a significant increase in profitability due to large reductions across the board: 50 percent in overall development time, 25 percent in parts, as much as 40 percent in errors at final assembly stage, and 60 percent in pallet manufacturing time.

"Introducing the GMD solution gave us a technical advantage over our rivals and helped us become more competitive through innovative product development," said Keita Horiba, managing director, Sanyo Machine Works, Ltd. "We have given this project top priority. Regarding design quality, we have achieved remarkable results. Errors found at the final assembly stage have decreased by 30 to 40 percent. In addition, we can respect increasingly severe customer demands to cut lead time."

"By effectively reusing existing designs and components via CATIA V5 and SMARTEAM, we will streamline development, improve customer responsiveness and reduce errors and interferences," said Flemming M. Christensen, sales and marketing manager at Jokan Systems, another GMD solution adopter.

"Industrial products companies are facing tremendous challenges such as globalization, leading to strong pressure for productivity gains to remain competitive. They also need to be reactive to capture market opportunities generated by the recovering and growing economy," said Hervé Rolland, vice president, Product Lifecycle Management Solutions, IBM EMEA. "The GMD solution will help industrial products companies increase competitiveness by securing low cost and price, as well as high quality for innovative products. Thus, they will be able to better anticipate and respond quickly to their customers’ expectations."

"The GMD solution has been designed to deliver PLM business transformation to small and medium-sized businesses in industrial products," said Pierre Moreau, vice president, Industry Solutions, Dassault Systèmes. "The measured benefits achieved by early adopters in the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific are very encouraging for the wide acceptance of this solution."

PLM Industry Solutions from IBM and Dassault Systèmes, including the GMD solution, are field-proven Solutions that help manufacturers increase productivity, profitability, and return-on-investment.