UGS, a leading global provider of product lifecycle management (PLM) software and services, today announced Siemens AG has positioned its global manufacturing strength behind JT Open by becoming the latest corporate member of this rapidly growing PLM industry initiative. UGS made the announcement in conjunction with today’s opening of the Daratech Summit 2005 event in Cambridge, Mass., where UGS Chairman, CEO and President Tony Affuso is scheduled to deliver a keynote address. Siemens will leverage its considerable leadership across multiple industries to help guide the direction of the open 3D JT data format – developed by UGS – and proliferate its benefits throughout the global manufacturing industry. At the same time Siemens is on its way to setting up a worldwide JT-based “Common Engineering Collaboration Platform,” available to all of the company’s interested business units, in order to accelerate its own speed of innovation. JT is the manufacturing industry’s most widely used lightweight data format for sharing vital product information – including detailed 3D product geometry – to facilitate effective enterprise-wide collaboration throughout a product’s lifecycle. The ongoing direction, development and promotion of the 3D JT format is supported and influenced through the JT Open Program, a global organization of leading manufacturers, PLM industry leaders and prestigious universities dedicated to improving the product development process through the proliferation of JT enabled applications. “Today’s announcement represents a giant leap forward in the efforts of the global manufacturing community to streamline the product development process by embracing a common 3D data format for collaboration and product visualization,” said Tony Affuso, chairman, CEO and president of UGS. “Siemens is not only one of the worlds most respected and innovative multinational organizations, but also a global leader across multiple industry sectors. By harmonizing its varied business groups on JT and joining JT Open, Siemens intends to establish a highly efficient product development environment based on open technology that can serve as a model for the entire industry while helping to ensure the continued proliferation of that technology as a de facto industry standard.” Pilot project validates JT benefits Employing more than 400,000 people, Siemens competes globally in a wide variety of industries operating through multiple business groups including Information and Communications, Automation and Control, Power, Transportation, Medical, Financing and Real Estate and Lighting. Consistent with its philosophy of maintaining a “global network of innovation,” Siemens provides its highly diverse product development groups with a variety of computer-aided design (CAD) software applications to promote design creativity and flexibility. However, multiple CAD applications produce multiple formats that cannot be easily shared among the various engineering organizations. In an effort to optimize product development efficiency and minimize costs, Siemens initiated a pilot project using JT as the common, lightweight 3D data format to seamlessly tie these diverse CAD formats together. The results of the pilot project demonstrated JT’s ability to improve communication, enhance product quality, shorten product development time and reduce costs. The robust functionality and widespread industry adoption of the JT format enabled Siemens to not only enhance CAD interoperability throughout a product’s lifecycle but its lightweight characteristics also allowed Siemens to share 3D product data with any and all organizations outside of engineering through a flexible and efficient Web-based collaboration environment. The ability for anyone in the company to instantly view a product’s 3D geometry and access vital product data, significantly enhanced the effectiveness of design and manufacturing collaboration, thereby saving time and significantly reducing costs associated with travel and product non-conformance. Spreading benefits across multiple industries Due to the success of its pilot project, Siemens is on its way to offering a worldwide JT-based “Common Engineering Collaboration Platform” to its interested units in order to enable the same benefits not only across its own various business groups but also with its global network of partners and suppliers. By establishing JT as a common platform technology for sharing product information and 3D geometry, Siemens expects to significantly enhance its digital decision making through all phases of the PLM process, resulting in reduced development time, accelerated product innovation speed and improved product quality across its global enterprise. Siemens decided to join the JT Open Program to not only ensure these benefits are realized for its own multinational business groups and partners, but also to help promote similar benefits for all companies. By taking an active role in the JT Open governing bodies, Siemens is lending its considerable strength to the ongoing promotion of JT as a base element for product data sharing across all industries. In addition, Siemens intends to add its leadership to the advancement of PLM XML – UGS’ implementation of the widely used XML schema. Siemens plans to establish its own worldwide product development collaboration implementation as a successful model and leverage its global leadership to promote PLM standards that will benefit all businesses worldwide.