Intelligent Manufacturing € January € 1996 € Vol. 2 € No. 1

News in Brief

SDRC Acquires CAMAX

Structural Dynamics Research Corp. (SDRC) (Milford, Ohio), a supplier of mechanical design automation software, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire CAMAX Manufacturing Technologies Inc. (Minneapolis, Minn.) for $30 million. CAMAX provides computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) software for computerized numerical control machining operations, with products and services designed to simplify, automate and optimize the machining process to streamline production and accelerate time to market.

SDRC plans to integrate CAMAX's CAM technology into its I-DEAS Master Series product family and become a key component of SDRC's concurrent engineering solution.

Concentra Signs Deals with Boeing and Morton

Concentra Corp. (Burlington, Mass.), a supplier of knowledge-based engineering systems, has signed a deal with airplane manufacturer Boeing Co. (Seattle, Wash.). Boeing has selected Concentra's design process automation solution, the ICAD System, to design wire harness routing for its commercial airplanes.

Concentra's object-oriented technology can be used to route electrical wiring for a range of aircraft without the need to create aircraft-specific applications. Thanks to expert system technology, the wire harness routing application can be used to codify the best practices of electrical routing designers from a range of Boeing groups and uniformly distribute the collective expertise to all groups. Boeing hopes to reduce cycle time, increase accuracy and lower the overall cost of electrical routing for each aircraft.

Morton International's Automotive Safety Products division (Chicago, Ill.), a manufacturer of automotive airbags, has selected Concentra's Selling Point, a laptop-based sales configuration and proposal generation system, to decrease sales cycle time and increase accuracy of prototype configurations and proposals for airbags. The order, valued at $625,000, provides for software and consulting services.
Morton's Automotive Safety Products division produces over 1.5 million airbags per month, each customized for the individual car or truck platform. Morton's business development managers will use Selling Point to present their product line to automakers, configure airbag modules from OEM specifications and produce new customized three-dimensional designs from the OEM's requirements.

FACT Launches Enterprise Solutions Program

FACT Inc. (Norcross, Ga.), a vendor of manufacturing management solutions, has announced an Enterprise Solutions Program (ESP) That builds alliances among software, hardware and service companies to leverage core competencies and services in delivering manufacturing applications to customers. The program creates new market opportunities for FACT partners by making it easier to develop and implement integrated solutions that shorten cycle time, reduce inventory and improve quality and productivity.

Through the program, FACT will bring together complementary products and services that include data collection and radio frequency systems, product data management software, maintenance and management software, business process reengineering services, and consulting and implementation services. FACT will work with its ESP partners to deliver integrated solutions based on EnSync, a manufacturing management system that dynamically synchronizes planning, scheduling and execution across the enterprise (see "Products"). The six charter ESP members are: Crowe Chizek, The George Group, Grant-Thornton, Intermec, PAR Microsystems, and TSW International.

Sun Chemical Inks Pact with Marcam

Sun Chemical Corp. (Fort Lee, N.J.), a manufacturer of printing inks, organic pigments, and graphics arts plates and films, has signed a $10.5 million agreement with Marcam Corp. (Newton, Mass.), a supplier of process and discrete manufacturing applications and services. Sun has chosen Marcam's Protean manufacturing software as part of a global initiative to establish information technology systems that would allow users to anticipate, rather than react to, business changes.

Numetrix Joins Forces with SAP

Numetrix Ltd. (Toronto, Ont., Canada), a provider of intelligent supply chain management software, has joined forces with Germany-based SAP to provide a logistics optimization interface to customers. This interface is designed to provide seamless integration between finite capacity scheduling and planning applications and SAP's R/3 product. Numetrix's Supply Chain Integrator module will provide the required connection to the SAP R/3 interface.

R/3 users will be able to use Numetrix modules directly from R/3 to perform a number of key functions, including resource allocation, capacity planning, production sequencing and changeover scheduling, based on constraint-based algorithms. Results obtained from Numetrix modules will then be sent to the SAP system.

Simulation Vendors Form Group

Eight major developers of simulation software have formed SIM.TECH, the Simulation Software Vendors Association, to provide "Solutions for Understanding and Managing Change." Charter Members are AT&T Istel, AutoSimulations, Deneb Robotics, F&H Simulations, Imagine That, Pritsker, Micro Analysis & Design, and Systems Modeling. All are Regular Members and their representatives will participate on the SIM.TECH Board of Directors. SIM.TECH will operate as a not-for-profit trade association based in Pittsburgh, Pa.

The mission of the association is to expand awareness and use of simulation technology through programs including conference presentations, educational materials, an Internet web site, and work with trade and business publications to communicate to a variety of industries and fields. Simulation models provide statistical estimates of actual system performance. In addition, they provide graphical animations that create greater understanding of system dynamics. Simulation technology allows the design team to actually duplicate and operate the plant or business design within the computer, thereby facilitating exact renditions on how the new or changed system will operate before major investments are made.

SIM.TECH will sponsor business-to-business educational programs that communicate the benefits of member products and services to companies that can benefit from them. Some of the premier users of simulation technology include Alcoa Aluminum, Bethlehem Steel, Boeing Aerospace, Caterpillar, Gates Rubber, Kraft Foods, Microsoft, Proctor & Gamble, and US West.

i2 Technologies Expands Semiconductor Program

i2 Technologies Inc. (Dallas, Tex.), a developer of intelligent supply chain management software, is teaming up with database software vendor Oracle (Redwood City, Calif.) to enhance the existing interface between Oracle's enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and i2's Rhythm planning system to better meet the needs of the semiconductor industry. As part of Oracle's cooperative applications initiative, Rhythm will take Master Production Schedule (MPS) data from Oracle and do constraint-based planning around capacity, resources and material to develop a feasible, optimized plan that will then be uploaded back to Oracle MPS.

Rhythm will enable Oracle semiconductor customers to perform simulations of short, medium and long-term capacity requirements, so they can better plan to satisfy customer demand.

Parametric Partners with ICAM

Parametric Technology Corp. (Waltham, Mass.), supplier of the Pro/Engineer family of design automation software, has formed a partnership with ICAM Technologies Corp. (Redwood City, Calif.), a vendor of NC post-processing solutions. Parametric will license, market and support ICAM's CAM-POST post-processing software as part of its Pro/Engineer products. The CAM-POST technology will be incorporated into Parametric's suite of manufacturing-related software applications. The NC post-processor completes the link from Parametric's NC programming software to the actual machine tool.

Intellution Signs OEM Agreement with Mitsubishi

Intellution Inc. (Norwood, Mass.), a manufacturer of industrial automation software, has signed an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) agreement with Japan-based Mitsubishi Electric to produce the MX Series of process control software. MX is a supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system that combines Intellution's FIX software and Mitsubishi hardware. The MX Server can be a standalone or distributed SCADA system connected directly to the process controllers. Each node of the MX system contains its own database and can monitor and change all control parameters. All systems in the MX Series are based on open architecture.

Four Join MESA

The Manufacturing Execution Systems Association (MESA International) (Pittsburgh, Pa.), a trade association for suppliers of manufacturing execution systems (MES), has added four member companies: Square D (Palatine, Ill.), a supplier of electrical distribution and industrial control products; Price Waterhouse (New York, N.Y.), a professional services firm; Thru-Put Technologies (San Jose, Calif.), a provider of constraints-based scheduling software; and Grant Thornton (Atlanta, Ga.), an accounting and management consulting firm.

Wonderware Acquires PTM

Wonderware Corp. (Irvine, Calif.), a supplier of industrial automation software, has acquired the assets of Professional Technology Management (Johannesburg, South Africa), developer of the Prealism plant data server. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Prealism is an object-oriented historian software product designed for maintaining large volumes of real-time production data from manufacturing or process operations for accessibility by all network users. In addition to acquiring the intellectual property rights to the product, Wonderware has hired the six-person staff of the company to continue product development within Wonderware's R&D group.

CIMLINC Signs Deal with Boeing

CIMLINC Inc. (Itasca, Ill.), a supplier of business process improvement solutions, has signed an agreement with airplane manufacturer Boeing Co. (Seattle, Wash.), which has acquired CIMLINC software and services worth $7.0 million. CIMLINC is a team member in Boeing's world class engineering and production processes effort.

Boeing plans to add CIMLINC's Linkage Shop Floor Workflow, Linkage Engineering Change Management, and Linkage Nonconformance Management Solutions to its process improvement project called DCAC/MRM. The DCAC/MRM project is being rolled out across the entire Boeing Commercial Airplane Group (BCAG). The software will ultimately be installed in over 70 sites. CIMLINC Linkage Solutions will reside on HP UNIX servers. End users will access the solutions through a variety of workstations, terminals and PCs located throughout the company.

DataWorks Acquires Arrowkey

DataWorks Corp. (San Diego, Calif.), a supplier of enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions, has acquired the software assets of Arrowkey Systems, a provider of specialized software and consulting services. For the past several years. Arrowkey has helped DataWorks customers facilitate the installation of highly integrated shop floor data collection systems. As a result of this acquisition, DataWorks has formed a new Integration Products Division.

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