AISIN AW Saves Time & Reduces Process Steps with Dassault Systèmes

Kanagawa, Japan and Auburn Hills MI., USA, November 29, 2006 - Dassault Systèmes (Nasdaq: DASTY: Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA), a world leader in 3D and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions, announced today that AISIN AW Co., Ltd., a global auto parts manufacturer of automatic transmissions and car navigation systems, has applied DELMIA V5 DPM Powertrain. The company is setting its sights on maintaining product quality and reducing the number of processing steps in aluminum machining process design. AISIN AW has been advocating an internal initiative known as Process System Engineering (PSE), which aims to systematically enhance operations.

"It was not uncommon for process tune-ups to still be incomplete when production prototyping begins, often forcing the two tasks to run in parallel,” explains Mr. Yoshihiro Nakagawa, chief senior specialist (IT engineer), Manufacturing Engineering Management Department, Manufacturing Engineering Division at AISIN AW Co., Ltd. "Because problems kept cropping up late in the production cycle, we spent a lot of time fixing the problems instead of properly thinking the processes through at the planning and design stages. Since the deployment of this solution, we are receiving many reports indicating significant improvements, therefore demonstrating significant potential. We plan to expand the PSE approach to the design of processes in addition to aluminum parts machining, further driving process innovation in the area of production engineering,” says Mr. Nakagawa.

“We are very pleased with the way AISIN AW has implemented our solution to simulate and validate their tooling and production engineering processes," comments Bertrand Saint-Martin, president, DELMIA Japan, Ltd. “Automotive manufacturing is more and more competitive and OEM requirements very severe. Deploying PLM solutions and simulating production processes before starting production enable our customers to continue to innovate while keeping costs controlled and productivity enhanced. The case of AISIN AW substantiates the effectiveness of DELMIA V5 DPM Powertrain.”

AISIN AW deployed V5 DPM Powertrain in April 2005. Since then, the new operating process with this solution has produced good results. Currently, AISIN AW is using DELMIA V5 DPM Powertrain to digitally design and verify the machining process for aluminum transmission housings. This radically transformed operations, enabling AISIN AW to improve process design while reducing the steps required for manpower of preliminary planning. Shop floor activities used to account for around 80% of the production engineering staff’s work, leaving insufficient time for planning and design. To fix this problem and improve the work processes, AISIN AW decided to adopt DELMIA V5 DPM Powertrain, with the goal to reverse the ratio of conceptual work to manual work from 20:80 to 80:20.