Release of Visiprise Manufacturing 5.0 Marks Another Industry First

Visiprise enables multi-mode manufacturers to operate a single manufacturing platform with new release of flagship MES

ATLANTA, Oct. 18 -- Visiprise, Inc., a leader in integrated manufacturing execution solutions, announced the general availability of Visiprise Manufacturing 5.0. By expanding the Visiprise Manufacturing platform to now address complex assembly manufacturing, this release marks the first time a single manufacturing execution system (MES) environment is able to support multi-mode manufacturing operations for discrete manufacturers.

"Manufacturers around the world deal with multiple manufacturing environments and complex supply chain operations," said Mike Lackey, vice president of industry business units with Visiprise. "The ability to leverage one solution to handle both high-volume/low-mix make-to-stock operations and low-volume/high-mix build-to-order assembly manufacturing is a huge advancement for manufacturers operating in both worlds. Today's announcement makes Visiprise the first company to provide a single, unified system for multi-mode manufacturing processing and execution across industries."

Traceability, efficiency and quality are critical components for all manufacturers. Having a single MES that reduces the total cost of ownership while supporting a company's manufacturing process and extending supply chain - regardless of the manufacturing environment - is an industry first. Visiprise customers will now be able to capture complete component traceability, end-item-configuration management and regulatory compliance from one, single application for multi-mode manufacturing.

Manufacturing 2.0 - a new framework launched by AMR Research in July 2007 - permits high-level collaboration among vital components of the manufacturing process. Visiprise Manufacturing 5.0 leverages this new model to coordinate internal resources such as design, manufacturing, and supply chain functions. External suppliers, customers, design partners, and contract manufacturers can also work collaboratively to meet growing manufacturing demands.

"It's time to break the shackles of ERP and MES application models and let users address the manufacturing systems backlog," said Colin Masson, research director at AMR Research. "They need to capitalize on broad vendor adoption of manufacturing SOA architectures and apply emerging Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 patterns to today's demand-driven manufacturing."

  New functionality offered by Visiprise Manufacturing 5.0 includes:
  -- New Production Operation Dashboard (POD) - The interface, tailored
     specifically to support Complex Assembly manufacturing environments,
     embraces Web 2.0 platform characteristics and includes a new java-based
     user interface that is configured to display additional manufacturing
     data for analysis.
  -- Advanced Product and Process Certification - Extra validation control
     allows manufacturers to better enforce actions on the shop floor.
     Managers can supervise and validate the completion of manufacturing
     tasks performed on a product at an operation within a work center,
     ensuring verification of tasks at the point of manufacture to meet
     industry-specific compliance standards.
  -- Data Collection Enhancements for Record Management - Ensures that
     complete manufacturing and quality records can be moved or copied -
     serialization intact - to a new record, at any time during the
     manufacturing process.
  -- Technical Enhancements for Implementation and Support - Implementation
     and performance tuning enhancements that result in more efficient
     processing and information exchange.

Visiprise first launched Visiprise Manufacturing in 2003 and since that time more than 200 global enterprises have embraced this integrated manufacturing execution solution.

In January of this year, Visiprise Manufacturing was named an SAP-endorsed business solution, and in March, Visiprise released Visiprise Manufacturing 4.3, which built on the company's SAP integration utilizing xMII and further enhanced the user experience with improved performance and new production XML messages.

The release of Visiprise Manufacturing 5.0 is the first step in consolidating Visiprise's legacy HMS platform into a single, Java-based environment.

About Visiprise

Visiprise is a leading provider of manufacturing execution for integrated manufacturing operations. Visiprise helps manufacturers gain visibility into manufacturing operations, achieve shop floor control and manage product and process traceability. Focused on aerospace and defense, high tech, automotive, and medical device industries, more than 200 customers around the globe turn to Visiprise. Customers include Actia, BAE Systems, Celestica, ConMed, E-Z-GO Textron, Lockheed Martin, Philips Lighting, Solectron and Thales Avionics. For more information, visit www.visiprise.com.