DTAKT Systems, Inc. Releases New Manufacturing Software; First Generation to Replace ERP Manufacturing Software With a Best-of-Breed Flow Manufacturing Solution

    ENGLEWOOD, Colo.--May 8, 2001--DTAKT Systems, Inc.:

    World Market Estimated At $5 Billion Annually

    DTAKT Systems, a new manufacturing software solution that provides competitive advantage to leading-edge manufacturers, has been released by DTAKT Systems, Inc.
    DTAKT Systems is a best-of-breed solution that integrates fully with existing manufacturing and business system software and facilitates the transition to demand-based Flow Manufacturing.
    Today's manufacturing companies must do more than just stockpile goods for sale. They must move swiftly to meet continually shifting customer demands. To compete effectively, successful manufacturers are adopting innovative Flow Manufacturing and demand-driven techniques. After nine years of research and development, DTAKT Systems is now the first software product to enable corporations to manage and formalize the strategic business advantage of Flow Manufacturing. It features support systems to change production volumes and product mix daily, based upon actual customer demand, and without complex ERP scheduling.
    "This is the future of manufacturing," comments industry expert John Costanza. "We are in a demand-driven society. Current manufacturing systems built into Enterprise Requirements Planning (ERP) software won't cut it anymore, and the manufacturers using them will be lapped on the racetrack," says Mr. Costanza, a Demand Flow(R) industry expert and the inventor of Demand Flow Technology.
    "The customer is king in every aspect of the buying decision today," says Tom Van Bockern, COO of DTAKT Systems, Inc. "It's time for manufacturers to throw out forecast- and schedule-driven thinking and go to where the money is...where the customers are...so they can quickly make and sell wanted products while keeping finished goods inventory to a minimum."
    Industry experts estimate that the market for the Flow Manufacturing systems software industry is $5 billion annually. Since the 1960s, manufacturers, including the automakers, have developed highly complex forecasting and scheduling techniques on which production is based, formalized into manufacturing systems known as Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP). These forecasting and production scheduling models and their corresponding MRP/ERP systems are obsolete, according to Mr. Van Bockern, and not responsive to the new economy's demand model. "Long lead times and poor responses might have worked when consumers had only two or three products to choose from, and if availability was limited, but not now," Mr. Van Bockern says.
    MRP/ERP systems and fixed-volume scheduling attempt to look too far into the future, says Mr. Van Bockern, forcing manufacturers to make the wrong products and exposing them to massive finished goods problems whenever a demand pattern shifts.
    "That is exactly the problem encountered by the automobile industry," says Mr. Costanza. "If automakers, for example, had been adjusting production in the direction of actual demand during the last nine months, manufacturing would still be running at a lower volume and plants would not be shutting down," says Mr. Costanza. "Far too many jobs and companies will be lost because of non-responsive manufacturing and MRP/ERP scheduling systems."
    Schedule-based MRP systems are the heart of every manufacturing system, except for one, the DTAKT Systems product. Communication technology and Internet access have given manufacturers the demand data and information required to respond to demand. Now, with DTAKT Systems, they have the design and daily management systems to make "Demand Manufacturing" reality.
    MRP and ERP systems focus on tracking direct labor and product routings for controlling movements around a factory. In Flow Manufacturing, mathematical techniques design a physical flow layout and pull techniques replace scheduling, eliminating costly overhead and complexity.
    Mr. Van Bockern says that focus on tracking direct labor is becoming obsolete because direct labor expense represents a small percentage (typically less than ten percent) of total product cost in today's manufacturing environment.
    "To be competitive today, companies must implement the most responsive and flexible Flow Manufacturing systems. Consumers have a multitude of choices for every product and they have no brand loyalty," Mr. Costanza says. "The winners in manufacturing are those companies that can adjust to demands rapidly and produce high-quality goods fast. Manufacturing Flow technology provides the techniques and DTAKT Systems provides the manufacturing software solution." Mr. Costanza has been hailed as an industry hero in his crusade to keep American jobs home. "Smarter manufacturing with matching support systems is a huge part of the solution," he says.

    Note to Media: For more information on DTAKT Systems, including a product fact sheet, an industry backgrounder, FAQs and more, visit the "Media Center" at www.dtakt.com. To interview Mr. Van Bockern, contact him via tvanbockern@dtakt.com or 303/705-8380; to reach Mr. Costanza, contact him via jcostanza@jcit.com or 303/792-8300; or contact Nancy Wilhelms, nancyw@teamwestgroup.com or 949/263-2227.