ProductFactory Introduces Application Suite of Product Development Program and Portfolio Management Solutions
MAYNARD, Mass.--May 28, 2002--Suite Takes a Collaborative and Deliverables-Based Approach to Product Development, Hastening Time-to-Market and Shortening Time to
Visible ROI for Global 1000 Companies
ProductFactory, Inc. today announced a suite of collaborative product development program and portfolio management solutions for supply chain driven companies. The ProductFactory suite, consisting of pfDeliver, pfPortfolio and pfConnect, is the first program and portfolio management for new product development suite to bring together all the information required to run a development program for distributed teams and allow for real-time access to program information across the supply chain through the Internet.
Confronted by the inherent complexity of making strategic product development decisions, increasing time-to-market demands and shortening product lifecycles, companies are demanding solutions that offer real-time insight into their product design and development operations. ProductFactory coordinates and aligns each member of the product development team, including senior executives, sales, marketing, engineering, finance and manufacturing personnel to maximize a company's product development effectiveness. As a result, companies use ProductFactory to compress development cycles, increase return-on-investment and strengthen competitive advantage.
"Now more than ever, companies need to have a constant finger on the pulse of their product development programs," said David Yockelson, senior vice president and director, Meta Group. "To continually deliver products that will fare well competitively they need a solution that provides metrics that allow for quick, consistent and thorough evaluation of programs against one another. With products like ProductFactory, companies can achieve a rapid return-on-investment and increased throughput via the product development pipeline."
ProductFactory's suite of applications are ready right out of the box so customers don't have to deal with long system setup or configuration issues. Users are up and running within weeks, not months and realizing benefits within a very short time thereafter.
"Plug Power has successfully utilized ProductFactory's pfDeliver to manage the implementation of our PTC Windchill PDM system. This success has given us the confidence to deploy pfDeliver across the entire enterprise to reduce the time-to-market of our stationary fuel cell systems," said Paul Burton, vice president of Manufacturing for Plug Power, Inc.
ProductFactory's deliverables-based approach ensures clarity among all parties on the schedules, tasks and interdependencies involved in the product development cycle. All team members know their assignments, due dates, current action items and issues. As tasks are delegated, team members either accept the task or provide a reason for declining it. Additionally, management can access the most current program information at any time.
The ProductFactory family includes:
pfDeliver -- a deliverables-based program management application that uses the Internet to operationalize "best-practice" product development phases, gates and deliverables for all members of a product development program, particularly the supply chain. Using pfDeliver, program scheduling, resource allocation and issues management all take place on the web with email communication of program changes, updates and status automatically triggered as specified by management and users.
pfPortfolio -- a product development portfolio management tool that delivers decision support to senior management for optimizing product development investments to financial, strategic, resource, technology and operational objectives. Incorporating industry-specific templates for describing products in a consistent and structured way, pfPortfolio converts employees and managers into investors and stakeholders in the product development process.
pfConnect -- a template-driven approach for integration of the ProductFactory suite of applications via XML to existing enterprise IT infrastructure, including ERP and PDM systems. Available or scheduled integrations include SAP , JD Edwards , PTC's Windchill and MatrixOne .
The product development cycle consists of hundreds of iterations and engineering changes along the way. "Each change can affect every member of the development team, whether they be in engineering, sales, accounting, marketing, etc.," said Edward Fields, CEO and Founder of ProductFactory. "Using traditional project or product management tools, each change can add weeks and unplanned costs and mean lost revenue to the program. The ProductFactory suite's deliverables-based, real-time approach gives each member of the program team access to all the information they need and eliminates the need for time sinks like status meetings, engineering changes resulting from poor communication and unexpected firefighting efforts. There are no delays between when a deliverable is completed and when the individuals waiting on it can begin their tasks. Ultimately, this means companies can get to market with quality products faster."
For additional information about the pricing and availability of the ProductFactory suite of applications, please contact ProductFactory, Inc. at 978-461-1155 or visit ProductFactory's website at www.productfactory.com.
About Product Factory:
ProductFactory, Inc. is headquartered in Maynard, MA with offices in Detroit and Los Angeles. Formed in 1999, ProductFactory is an industry leader in product development program and portfolio management. The Company is run by a management team with decades of experience in PDM, systems engineering and related technologies. ProductFactory sells to companies with complex supply chain, design and development environments including those in the aerospace, automotive and high tech industries.
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