Ford Buys Into Canadian Software Firm

               Manufacturing Intelligence Gets Huge Endorsement

    LONDON, Ontario, April 25 The Ford Motor Company is making a minority equity investment in
Executive Manufacturing Technologies Inc. of London, Ontario.
    Executive Manufacturing Technologies makes VisualPlant(TM), an
off-the-shelf software solution that allows manufacturers to track plant floor
production in real-time over a web browser.  AMR Research calls this
technology Enterprise Manufacturing Intelligence (EMI) and it can save
manufacturers hundreds of thousands of dollars by accurately identifying
sources of production constraints and downtime.
    Today's investment by Ford follows the purchase of VisualPlant(TM) for
three of its auto plants.  Ford will receive Class A Preferred Shares in
exchange for their equity investment.  The deal closed on April 9, 2001 and it
completes the first round of venture capital financing for Executive
Manufacturing Technologies.  The company has already secured $5.5 million in
venture capital financing from four Canadian firms.
    More than 20 auto plants have purchased VisualPlant(TM).  According to the
AMR Outlook: Enterprise Manufacturing Intelligence (EMI) -- The Next
Generation PIMS, January, 2001, "the EMI market is expected to grow by at
least 25 per cent."
    "We think the investment by Ford is a great endorsement for
VisualPlant(TM)," said Dennis Cocco, CEO, Executive Manufacturing
Technologies.  "Ford recognizes that if they can save money in their
facilities, VisualPlant(TM) will appeal to lots of other manufacturers looking
to save money by increasing production efficiency."
    "We are impressed by the functionality VisualPlant(TM) provides and feel
it integrates well with the Ford production system and our plant floor IT
strategy," said Jim Buczkowski, Director of Manufacturing and Supply Chain IT,
Ford Motor Company.  "We believe this is an industry leading product and I am
excited about the opportunity it will provide Ford."
    Ford is joining an investor group lead by Ventures West Management Inc.
The Canadian Science and Technology Growth Fund, Bank of Montreal Capital
Corporation and GATX/MM Venture Finance Partnership are also part of the
investor consortium.

    More information about VisualPlant(TM) and Executive Manufacturing
Technologies can be obtained by visiting the company's web site at
http://www.visualplant.com or by calling Kevin Putnam at 416-537-1128.

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