| Taipei, Taiwan, and Paris,
France
– May 18, 2004 – IBM and
Dassault Systèmes (Nasdaq: NASTY;
Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA)
today announced that Unipoint
Electric Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
(Unipoint) has shortened its product
development process by more than 60
% since implementing their Product
Lifecycle Management solutions in
2002. Unipoint and its suppliers
have increased use of standard parts
and reduced design errors, thus
improving overall production
efficiency. A leading player in
the automotive aftermarket for new
starter motors, alternators,
air-conditioning parts and wiper
blades, Unipoint has customers in
over 75 countries. To increase sales
while respecting customer demand for
quality and fast delivery, Unipoint
implemented IBM PLM Solutions with
CATIA V5 for virtual product
development and SMARTEAM for
collaborative product data and
lifecycle management, developed by
Dassault Systèmes, to match the
company’s goals for a long-term
development strategy while
preserving its core research and
development activities.
“Providing high quality products
to our customers, reducing product
costs by 20%, and taking up to 20%
market share in the global
automotive aftermarket before 2010
are the key goals at Unipoint,” said
Mr. Hsu Kwang-Yang, general manager,
Unipoint Electric Manufacturing.
“PLM technology from IBM and
Dassault Systèmes is helping us to
achieve these objectives. With the
power of CATIA and SMARTEAM, we
exchange information with our
suppliers immediately, and this is
the most effective way to streamline
our product development. Since the
implementation of IBM PLM Solutions,
we have reduced product development
time of auto parts by two-thirds and
strengthened our market position.”
CATIA V5’s knowledgeware has
enabled Unipoint to create standard
parts, contributing to the
substantial improvement in
productivity. For example, a gear
and spring is different for every
car model. With knowledgeware,
Unipoint engineers need only change
a parameter and CATIA automatically
creates the part. Additionally, the
part created with CATIA will be
correct, needing no rework or
modification.
Seamlessly integrated with CATIA
V5, SMARTEAM has also boosted
Unipoint’s productivity. The
web-based product data and lifecycle
management application enables
Unipoint to collaborate between the
different company sites and with
suppliers to share, view, and manage
all product data, making retrieval
of information relating to the
thousands of parts references easily
accessible and always up to date.
“In less than two years, Unipoint
has achieved a significant return on
investment that helps them win new
business,” said Raoul Van
Engelshoven, vice president, IBM
PLM, Asia Pacific. “Taiwanese
manufacturers, including Unipoint,
face many issues including global
competition, required cost
reduction, increasingly diversified
customer demands, and shortened
product development time. IBM PLM
Solutions backed by IBM
industry-specific consulting
services allow customers to address
these challenges as well as develop
innovative, competitive products.
We look forward to serving more
customers in Taiwan with scaleable
PLM solutions that will help them
realize the benefits of PLM.”
”The auto parts aftermarket is a
highly competitive sector and
manufacturers such as Unipoint have
to focus on innovation in the design
and manufacture of new products,”
said Christian Nardin, Managing
Director, Dassault Systèmes Asia.
“Dassault Systèmes PLM technology
and DS PLM Best Practices for the
automotive industry help companies
of all sizes to cut costs and
development time in order to focus
on innovation. In addition, our PLM
solutions share the common V5 open
architecture, which ensures full
integration throughout product
lifecycle and facilitates the
development of applications
specifically adapted to a broad
variety of business environments.”
Unipoint’s product development
platform runs on running on IBM
Intellistation M-Pro hardware.
About Unipoint Electric Manufacturing
Co., Ltd.
Unipoint Electric
Manufacturing Co., Ltd. is a publicly traded
company with a capital of NTD 550 million and
annual revenue of NTD 3.2 billion. Unipoint
specializes in the auto parts aftermarket such
as electrical car parts, motors, alternators,
starter motors, voltage regulators,
rectifiers, electronic ignites, wiper blades,
relays, for the global auto parts aftermarket
with main customers such as AC Delco etc. In
addition to the R&D and production base in
Ping Chen, Taoyuam County, Taiwan, Unipoint
has also a production base in Guangdong
Province, China. Unipoint employs about 1500
people. For more information, visit Unipoint
Electric Manufacturing Co., Ltd web-site at
http://www.unipoint.com.tw/
About Dassault Systèmes
As world leader in PLM (Product Lifecycle Management)
solutions, the Dassault Systèmes group brings value
to more than 70,000 customers in 80 countries. A pioneer
in the 3D software market since 1981, Dassault Systèmes
develops and markets PLM application software and
services that support industrial processes and provide
a 3D vision of the entire life cycle of products from
conception to retirement. Its offering includes integrated
PLM solutions for product development (CATIA®, DELMIA®,
ENOVIA®, SMARTEAM®), mainstream product design tools
(SolidWorks), and 3D components (ACIS®) from Spatial
Corp. Dassault Systèmes is listed on the Nasdaq (DASTY)
and Euronext Paris (#13065, DSY.PA) stock exchanges.
For more information, visit
http://www.3ds.com
About IBM
IBM is the world's largest information technology
company, with 80 years of leadership in helping businesses
innovate. IBM Sales & Distribution, which supports
more than a dozen key industries worldwide, works
with companies of all sizes around the world to deploy
the full range of IBM technologies. The fastest
way to get more information about IBM is through the
IBM home page at
http://www.ibm.com
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