NEWS BRIEFS

Seattle, WASH. — IBM and Dassault Systemes, in conjunction with Boeing Corporation, announced today they are deploying an e-business product development solution that gives the aircraft manufacturer a first-strike advantage in its efforts to win the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) contract.

The initial project began twelve months ago, and includes the implementation of new IBM servers, workstations and DB2 Universal Database, along with CATIA computer-aided design solutions and ENOVIA product lifecycle management solutions from Dassault Systemes. The consulting and implementation portion of the project was conducted simultaneously, and included training for Boeing designers, engineers and manufacturing personnel.

CATIA and ENOVIAVPM running on IBM RS/6000 servers and workstations produced the infrastructure Boeing required to deploy a more efficient e-business environment for the JSF program. This enabled the company to simultaneously develop the different JSF design variants required for the United States Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy, and the United Kingdom Royal Navy.

“The integration processes between CATIA and ENOVIAVPM allowed us to rapidly mature our JSF designs,” said Jim O’Neill, air vehicle director, Boeing JSF. “These capabilities, along with our integrated One Team approach, result in a highly mature aircraft that meets all of our customers’ requirements.”

In the past twelve months Boeing has demonstrated to the United States Government the highly effective product data management capabilities of ENOVIAVPM that drive commonality across the multi-mission fighter, which is essential to the success of the JSF program. Within the next few months, Boeing intends to upgrade the JSF product development solution to squeeze out even more costs and time savings. The solution upgrade will make the JSF program more efficient by integrating the design, build and support processes on the Dassault Systemes V5 architecture, which is based on state-of-the-art technologies and standards, including STEP, Java, CORBA and OLE.

“We have always preferred to optimize our solutions around the requirements of innovative, visionary companies like Boeing,” commented Joel Lemke, CEO, ENOVIA Corp. “Boeing’s engineers and our application and process consultants are working together to develop the best solutions for Boeing, answering their needs for today and for the future.”

Along with the design technology, Boeing turned to consultants at IBM and Dassault Systemes. IBM’s Global Security and Privacy Consulting Practice is helping to develop the security policies, architecture and assessment methods for the supporting information systems of the JSF program. IBM’s security consultants are assisting the JSF team to help ensure that information systems that process critical JSF mission data provide appropriate protection of the data and meet the rigorous security certification requirements of the United States Government.

IBM and Dassault Systemes consultants are also working with Boeing to re-engineer development processes and end-user methodologies in preparation for the next phase of the JSF program, called Engineering and Manufacturing Development.

“By laying the foundation of product lifecycle management now, Boeing is building a strong competitive advantage in its bid to secure the JSF contract. IBM will support Boeing every step of the way with our experience and expertise in consulting and solutions for the aerospace industry,” said Martin Jetter, Jr., general manager, Global Product Lifecycle Management, IBM.

The Boeing Company, after its merger in 1997 with McDonnell Douglas and acquisition in 1996 of the defense and space units of Rockwell International, became the largest aerospace company in the world. Boeing is the world’s largest manufacturer of commercial jetliners, military aircraft and the nation’s largest NASA contractor. The company has customers in 145 countries, employees in more than 60 countries and operations in 27 states. Worldwide, Boeing and its subsidiaries employ about 189,000 people, with major operations in the Seattle-Puget Sound area of Washington state; Southern California; Wichita, Kan.; and St. Louis, Mo. Boeing is organized into five major business segments: Boeing Commercial Airplanes; Space and Communications; Military Aircraft and Missiles; Phantom; and Shared Services. Boeing, the world’s largest producer of fighter aircraft, is competing to build the JSF under a four-year U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps concept demonstration phase contract, while also defining the design for the operational JSF. A winner will be selected in 2001.

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.

Dassault Systemes is the premier global software developer of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions, providing companies with e-business solutions to implement their digital enterprise, thus creating and simulating the entire product lifecycle from initial concept to product in service. CATIA, DELMIA and ENOVIA solutions support industry-specific business processes to help unleash creativity and innovation, reduce development cycle time, improve quality, competitiveness and shareholder value: CATIA supports the digital product definition and simulation, DELMIA provides solutions to define and simulate lean digital manufacturing processes and ENOVIA delivers enterprise solutions that manage a comprehensive, collaborative and distributed model of the digital product, processes and resources. The combined integration creates the Digital Product lifecycle Pipeline, supporting reuse of corporate knowledge. SolidWorks and Smart Solutions, as Dassault Systemes companies, offer respectively 3D design-centric and TeamPDM software solutions based on Windows. Information about Boeing is available at at http://www.boeing.com .

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