UGS Presents Automotive Supplier Seminar Series to Drive Innovation and Highlight Benefits of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM)

Program highlights strategic PLM initiatives for automotive suppliers; Global series comes to Detroit following a strong event in China that attracted more than 250 suppliers

DETROIT, Sept. 21 -- UGS Corp., a leading global provider of product lifecycle management (PLM) software and services, will host the second global automotive supplier seminar in Detroit at the Townsend Hotel on Sept. 22. The Supplier Seminar Series showcases best practices in the automotive industry to help automotive suppliers improve product innovation and response time in working with Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) around the globe. Attendees will see first hand how PLM can be implemented as a foundation to launch strategic corporate business initiatives.

"UGS works with many of today's leading automotive suppliers and can point specifically to PLM as a foundation in helping them achieve many of their strategic initiatives related to product innovation and responsiveness to OEMs," said Eric Sterling, vice president of Automotive Industry Marketing at UGS. "We are excited to present the Automotive Supplier Seminar Series across the globe as a way for companies to leverage UGS' collective knowledge as a leader in PLM for the automotive industry."

UGS is a leader in providing PLM solutions to the global automotive industry. Nine of the top 10 automotive OEMs with a collaborative development partner have standardized on UGS. To date, more than 155,000 seats of UGS(R) software are in use at the world's top 25 automotive OEMs.

The automotive industry has high expectations and demanding requirements for its suppliers. To be successful, a supplier in today's global automotive marketplace must:

  -- Manage an increasing number of programs while ensuring each one
     launches flawlessly.

  -- Manage change to ensure profitability on each program.

  -- Rapidly and accurately respond to changes.

  -- Integrate suppliers into the change process.

  -- Capture, protect and retain intellectual property for re-use in future
     programs.

The Automotive Supplier Seminar Series, which began in China on Aug. 11 and will be presented in the UK on Oct. 4-5 and in Germany in November, showcases five core business initiatives that many of today's top automotive suppliers focus on to improve product innovation and response time to the automotive OEM's. These five strategic initiatives include the following:

  -- Information Exchange & Synchronization
     To effectively launch a vehicle program, automotive OEM's and Suppliers
     must be able to share information and keep it synchronized across the
     entire supply chain.  Doing this in a way that suppliers meet their
     customers' compliance requirements and still maintain business process
     autonomy can give suppliers the ability to optimize their own product
     lifecycle process.

  -- Commonization & Re-use
     Every time a part is reused, everything that was created that defines
     the part also gets reused - from design geometry to manufacturing
     process and production validation.  Companies are also creating common
     products for the purpose of re-use, spreading the cost of development
     and tooling across a much broader number of programs.

  -- Strategic Sourcing
     Strategic Sourcing brings product development and the supply base
     closer together so that procurement professionals can spend more time
     improving products and lowering costs through supply chain improvement.

  -- Change Management
     Suppliers typically have very short timeframes in which to respond to
     their customers change-driven RFQ's.  Being able to respond quickly and
     accurately preserves program profitability.  Being able to manage the
     change process ensures traceability during final negotiation of piece
     price cost.

  -- Knowledge-driven Engineering and Manufacturing
     Harvesting knowledge, turning it into best practices and applying these
     best practices throughout the organization on potentially every program
     will drive out cost, improve quality and keep your companies knowledge
     from walking out the door with your employees.

For more information about UGS in the automotive market and the initiatives visit http://www.ugs.com/products/industry_solutions/?autos

For more information about the Global Automotive Supplier Seminar Series or to register visit https://www.ugs.com/forms/seminar_auto_supplier.shtml or call 800-498-5351.

About UGS

UGS is a leading global provider of product lifecycle management (PLM) software and services with nearly 4 million licensed seats and 46,000 customers worldwide. Headquartered in Plano, Texas, UGS' vision is to enable a world where organizations and their partners collaborate through global innovation networks to deliver world-class products and services while leveraging UGS' open enterprise solutions, fulfilling the mission of enabling them to transform their process of innovation. For more information on UGS products and services, visit http://www.ugs.com/.

Note: UGS and Transforming the process of innovation are trademarks or registered trademarks of UGS Corp. or its subsidiaries in the United States and in other countries. All other trademarks, registered trademarks or service marks belong to their respective holders.

   CONTACTS:
   Salim Rahimi - UGS Corporate PR
   972-987-3206
   salim.rahimi@ugs.com