IFS Applications Business Software Chosen by BMW Automotive Manufacturer

    CHICAGO--April 9, 2001--A leading German automotive manufacturer, BMW, has signed a contract for IFS Applications(TM) business software and services valued at approximately $2.2 million.
    The IFS software will be used in BMW's three sheet metal pressing plants in Regensburg, Munich, and Dingolfing, Germany. Regensburg will be the first site to go live on the software with an anticipated deployment in early 2002.
    BMW expects the new system to significantly increase efficiency in its capital-intensive sheet metal shops. The IFS software will provide machine operators on the shop floor, as well as managers, with greater visibility to the manufacturing processes and more frequent status reports.
    IFS will provide a software solution for dispatching incoming production orders for BMW's press shops, which produce car body parts for all BMW models. The IFS system will monitor the availability of facilities, tools and personnel, and simultaneously determine the optimal sequence to process orders.
    The system will initiate orders while verifying the availability of material. The production process will be monitored through feedback from the press tools, such as counting the number of strokes.
    BMW also plans to use the IFS solution to support quality control and to manage the transport of tools, materials and parts.
    The IFS solution for BMW will include components for constraint-based scheduling, materials requirements planning, demand planning, and equipment monitoring along with other modules for maintenance and manufacturing functions.
    Josef Redl and Richard Storfinger, BMW project managers, said they started looking four years ago for a standard software solution that would address their needs, but were unable to find one.
    They had decided to develop their own system until last year, "When we discovered that the IFS solution met 70 percent of our functionality requirements, and -- thanks to IFS' component-based technology -- we could assemble a solution that is tailored specifically to meet our needs."
    In September 2000, IFS conducted a pre-study for BMW that used IFS Business Modeler(TM) software to analyze all relevant BMW business processes and to define the required interfaces.