SofTech, Inc. News
Italy’s ACMA GD Liquids Division Chooses SofTech’s ProductCenter PLM
Leading European Packaging Machine Manufacturer Selects ProductCenter for Enterprise-Wide PLMTEWKSBURY, Mass. — Mar 2, 2004 — SofTech, Inc. (OTCBB: SOFT), a leading provider of design-through-manufacturing productivity solutions, announced that the Liquids Division of ACMA GD, a prominent Italian manufacturer of packaging automation machines for the consumer goods and supplies industry, has purchased SofTech’s ProductCenter™ PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) solution. ProductCenter will deliver an enterprise-wide PLM solution that will unify the division’s Pro/Engineer and CADRA design applications, and BAAN enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. In addition, the solution will provide centralized part number control, document management, revision control, change management, bills of material (BOM) management, and other additional PLM functionality.
“After a thorough analysis of competitive PLM solutions, we chose ProductCenter for several key reasons: its ability to enable an end-to-end PLM solution, the company’s leading integrations to both Pro/Engineer and CADRA, and of course, its quick implementation record,” states Stefano Grassi, ACMA GD chief of engineering. “Ours is a competitive business. We foresee significant reductions of time in our engineering change process, BOM creation and management, and enterprise integration with ProductCenter. These efficiencies will enable us to protect and likely increase product margins for our company.”
Mr. Grassi also points out that centralized access to all forms of product data in ProductCenter will increase their reuse of this data to accelerate product design efforts. This will result in fewer parts, lower inventories, and more predictable manufacturing for the business. ProductCenter will also enable the creation of application-independent BOMs that will be entered just once and shared among other enterprise systems. This will save time and eliminate re-keying errors that can contribute to costly scrap and rework. Part numbers will also be created in ProductCenter and then automatically transitioned to the BAAN ERP system, saving additional steps and ensuring part number integrity between systems.
“ACMA GD Liquids Division is forward thinking in how they are attacking their PLM implementation,” states Dante Cislaghi, manager of SofTech’s Italian operations. “They are looking beyond just engineering automation to a truly integrated enterprise-wide product lifecycle management solution with ProductCenter.”
“We are pleased to have ACMA GD join our family of successful companies gaining benefit from ProductCenter PLM solutions in Europe,” states Jean Croteau, SofTech’s vice president of operations. “ProductCenter PLM will provide ACMA GD Liquids Division a single, unified view of their products, along with best practice process automation. It will help reduce cost, accelerate product releases, and subsequently help advance their competitive lead in global markets.”
ACMA GD Liquid Division’s purchase included ProductCenter™ Pro/Engineer and CADRA Integrators; ProductCenter™ Workflow for automating engineering change order (ECO) approvals; ProductCenter™ BOM Editor for managing and changing BOMs; and ProductCenter™ GenView to generate common viewable file formats to share for wider access to product data.
About ACMA GD
ACMA GD (www.acmagd.com) is a prominent Italian industrial group that manufactures automation machines for the packaging of consumer goods and supplies to companies that deal with foodstuff, confectionary, detergent, cosmetic, and liquid products. Its history is the sum of 80 years of experience in packaging, and is the result of the merger of four different enterprises (ACMA, Corniani, Ocea and Maco), which combined have created a significant industrial enterprise that is a leader in its market.
About SofTech, Inc.
SofTech, Inc. (OTCBB: SOFT) provides design-through-manufacturing productivity solutions with its computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) and product lifecycle management (PLM) products including CADRA®, DesignGateway™, Prospector™, and ProductCenter™ (through SofTech’s Workgroup Technology Division). SofTech’s solutions optimize product lifecycle processes at the lowest cost by fostering innovation, extended enterprise collaboration, product quality improvements, and compressed time-to-market cycles.
SofTech has more than 100,000 users benefiting from its solutions, including Boeing, FlightSafety International, General Electric Company, Goodrich Turbine Fuel Technologies, Honeywell, Millipore Corporation, Siemens, Sikorsky Aircraft, U.S. Army, and Whirlpool Corporation.
Headquartered in Tewksbury, Massachusetts, SofTech (www.softech.com) has locations and distribution partners throughout North America, Europe, and Asia.
SofTech, CADRA, DesignGateway, ProductCenter and Prospector are trademarks or registered trademarks of SofTech, Inc., in the U.S. and/or other countries. SofTech is a trademark of SofTech, Inc. All other brands, logos, products or company names are the copyrights and/or trademarks of their respective holders.
