Intelligent Manufacturing € June € 1996 € Vol. 2 € No. 6

New in Brief

Berclain Signs Agreement with IBM
Berclain Group Inc. (Sainte-Foy, Quebec, Canada), provider of the MOOPI scheduling and manufacturing synchronization solution, has entered into an agreement with computer giant IBM Corp. (Armonk, N.Y.). IBM will offer MOOPI to complement its Factory Operations Executive manufacturing execution system (MES) software.

MOOPI produces feasible detailed schedules by assigning all plant resources to the most profitable production tasks at any moment. Factory Operations Executive provides the plantwide visibility, tracking and status information that prioritizes plant floor activities. These two products will provide IBM customers with a view of plant activities.

IBM and Berclain have also made a major commitment to next-generation integration between their products. As part of the $23 million CIIMPLEX (Consortium for Integrated Intellligent Manufacturing Planning and Execution) project funded by an industry consortium and the U.S. Government, IBM and Berclain are researching ways to provide common integration services with a plug-and-play solution for manufacturing execution, scheduling and planning systems (see cover story).

DataWorks Inks Pact with TN Technologies
DataWorks Corp. (San Diego, Calif.), a supplier of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software solutions for discrete and repetitive midrange manufacturers, has signed a contract with TN Technologies (Austin, Tex.), a supplier of industrial instrumentation. TN Technologies is one of 65 manufacturing companies owned by parent Thermo-Electron Corp. (Waltham, Mass.). TN Technologies is the fifth Thermo-Electron site to implement a DataWorks business information system.

EMS Teams Up with DLOG
Effective Management Systems Inc. (EMS) (Milwaukee, Wis.), a provider of pre-integrated manufacturing software, through its Intercim Corp. division (Minneapolis, Minn.), has established a marketing agreement with DLOG USA (Rolling Meadows, Ill.), a developer of factory-floor systems. The agreement includes product-technology licensing that allows EMS to incorporate DLOG's production-monitoring technology into EMS software for worldwide sales.

Intercim will integrate the DLOG Production and Machine Tool Monitoring System and DLOG Shop Floor Touch Technologies into both its FACTORYnet I/S Manufacturing Execution System (MES) and EMS's Time Critical Manufacturing (TCM) MES. The additional capabilities will enable EMS customers to monitor production activities and equipment utilization and provide piece counts back to manufacturing planning and finite scheduling systems.

Under terms of the agreement, DLOG USA will represent Intercim's product line.

i2 Signs Deal with GECC
i2 Technologies (Irving, Tex.), a provider of intelligent planning and scheduling software for global supply chain management, has entered into an agreement with GE Capital Corp. (GECC) (Stamford, Conn.) to support its outsourced logistics business. GECC will become a joint development partner for outsourced logistics software based on i2's Rhythm global supply chain management product.

In addition, GECC will utilize Rhythm to provide a competitive advantage to its own internal supply chain management organizations. As part of this agreement, GECC purchased i2 software licenses and committed to joint development agreements valued at $6 million.

Sherpa Signs OEM Deal with Rosetta Technologies
Sherpa Corp. (San Jose, Calif.), a vendor of product data management (PDM) solutions for manufacturers, and Rosetta Technologies Inc. (Beaverton, Ore.), a supplier of interactive product data viewers, have signed a strategic OEM agreement to tightly integrate Sherpa's PDM applications and Rosetta's family of tools for accessing, analyzing and annotating engineering graphics and text documents. Rosetta will build the integration, with Sherpa providing application programming interfaces (APIs) and technical support. The two companies will jointly market the integrated applications to customers in the aerospace and defense industry.

Forthcoming Sherpa and Rosetta products optimized for the Internet will also be integrated, allowing users to employ Rosetta tools with Sherpa applications which involve documents at sites on the World Wide Web.

Avalon Teams Up with Documentum and ConsenSys
Avalon Software Inc. (Tucson, Ariz.), a supplier of open enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, has signed agreements with Documentum Inc. (Pleasonton, Calif.), a provider of enterprise document management systems, and ConsenSys Software (San Jose, Calif.), a developer of client/server product development management software. These agreements support Avalon's goal of providing an integrated business process and compliance solution for the medical device manufacturing industry.

Avalon is integrating with Documentum to create specific modules to address the needs of the medical device market. Meanwhile, the ConsenSys system will form the basis of a design control module that will be available with Avalon's software.

Parametric Signs $1.3M Deal with De La Rue
Parametric Technology Corp. (Waltham, Mass.), a provider of mechanical design automation software, has received a $1.3 million order for software and services from Thomas De La Rue International (London, England), a manufacturer of systems and machinery involved in electronic banking, cash handling, and security paper and bank note design and production. The newly purchased Pro/Engineer software will be installed in the Cash Handling Product Group, which produces sorting and dispensing machinery for bank notes and coins. All software involved in the order was shipped to product development sites in England and Sweden.

Baan Launches Heavy Equipment Solution Program
The Baan Company (Menlo Park, Calif.), a supplier of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, has launched a program to provide a comprehensive solution for heavy equipment and project services supply chains. This program includes optimization of the Baan software, new Enterprise Reference Models based on best-in-class practices, industry-focused Solution Centers, and strategic partnerships.

Baan IV is a client/server-based, enterprise-wide solution optimized to meet the requirements of the heavy equipment and project services market. Baan offers integrated applications for the supply chain to link design, engineering, manufacturing, procurement sales management, billing, cost accounting, and progress reporting. Baan IV's hybrid manufacturing capabilities support engineer-to-order, make-to-order, assemble-to-order, and make-to-stock operations within one system.
Available now is the heavy equipment industry reference model (Engineer-to-Order), co-developed with Ernst & Young. The project services industry reference model, co-developed with CAP Gemini, will be available later this year, as will the model for the engineer-procure-construct (EPC) market segment.

Baan has also developed an interface for Manta, a product data management (PDM) application from B.A. Intelligence Networks. This interface enables customers to manage the entire project lifecycle of engineering data.

SSA Signs Deal with Canon Europe
System Software Associates Inc. (SSA) (Chicago, Ill.), a vendor of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, has signed an agreement with Canon Europe NV, the Netherlands-based logistics center for the Japanese manufacturer of cameras and business machines. Canon Europe will use SSA's BPCS Client/Server supply chain management products to provide a Europe-wide view of parts availability; and the implementations will also include configurable enterprise financial products. The integrated suite of BPCS Client/Server products will be a key element of a major reengineering project at Canon Europe.

Made2Manage Joins Forces with CDI
Made2Manage Systems Inc. (Indianapolis, Ind.), a supplier of enterprise management systems for small and midsize manufacturers, has signed Computer Decisions International Inc. (CDI) (Northville, Mich.) as a value-added reseller of its Made2Manage for Windows product (see Intelligent Manufacturing, February 1996). CDI is the vendor of Microshop, a job shop software solution that competed in the manufacturing software market with the DOS version of Made2Manage. After the release of the Made2Manage for Windows product, the two companies agreed to cooperate rather than compete.
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