Baan Automotive Supports Manufacturing and Supply Chain Program
12 August 1998
Baan Automotive to Support Innovative Oakland University Manufacturing and Supply Chain Program
TROY, Mich., Aug. 12 - Baan Automotive, a business unit of
Baan Company N.V. (Amsterdam: BAAN; Nasdaq: BAANF), today announced its
participation in an innovative corporate-university partnership to study the
impact of new technology on manufacturing supply chains and educate the next
generation of manufacturing engineers and executives.
Working with Oakland University's Product Development and Manufacturing
Center and other major corporate partners, including the Chrysler Corporation,
TRW Inc., Meritor Automotive, Inc., and Deloitte & Touche, Baan Company will
provide its state-of-the-art enterprise applications software to manage a
simulated assembly line and manufacturing operation at the Center on Oakland
University's Rochester, Mich. Campus.
Dr. Patrick Dessert, director of the Oakland University Product
Development and Manufacturing Center said Baan Company's participation adds an
important element to the success of the program. "Our goal is to be a catalyst
for the next generation of the automotive industry and to help chart the
industry's course for the future. Baan Company's participation with us is
meaningful because it will give our researchers and students hands-on contact
with the most sophisticated manufacturing software on the market today."
According to Jeff Gross, director of marketing for Baan Automotive, the
new relationship with the Product Development and Manufacturing Center will
also provide important benefits for Baan Company's business. "By participating
with Oakland University and other top-tier manufacturing, hardware and
implementation providers, we have a unique opportunity to showcase the
capability, flexibility and simplicity of Baan Company's software. The program
will also allow us to bullet-proof some of our next-generation solutions in a
sophisticated real-world environment."
Baan Company Software for the Automotive Supply Chain
Baan Company offers a family of integrated, open systems-based
applications and tools optimized for the automotive industry. The current
generation of Baan Company software, known as BaanERP, is designed for a
client/server architecture to support the entire spectrum of an organization's
processes, including sales forecasting, inventory control, procurement,
distribution, finance, service and maintenance and project management.
BaanERP is unique in its extension of the traditional Enterprise Resource
Planning (ERP) model by providing the framework that allows companies
dynamically model software to their enterprise business practices. This
framework from Baan Company, known as Dynamic Enterprise Modeling (DEM),
delivers the flexibility required for automotive companies to compete in the
21st century. BaanERP offers the following key functionality tailored to the
automotive industry:
* BaanERP provides support for Just-In-Time (JIT) practices, including:
planning and shipping schedules releases, electronic KANBAN/JIT, container
identification, cumulative reconciliation, concurrent model year support, and
ASN notification loop.
* Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) increases the speed of communications
up and down the supply chain, thereby improving supply chain management, both
across multiple operations and between suppliers. BaanERP supports EDI
standards used in the United States, Europe, and Germany, including X12,
Odette and VDA.
* Concurrent Engineering, used to ensure that new product development
deliverables are met, is supported by Baan Company's software via a dynamic
link to Product Data Management (PDM) systems.
About Baan Company
Founded in 1978, Baan Company is a global software product company
defining the market for high volume, packaged enterprise applications by
delivering the most comprehensive portfolio of integrated, Year 2000
compliant, software components to address the core business processes common
to companies of all sizes and industries. Baan Company uniquely supports
continuous business improvement with its Dynamic Enterprise Modeling
capabilities and with products that are faster to implement and use, and more
flexible in adapting to business changes. Its evergreen products help clients
respond more quickly to changing customer needs by optimising the management
of real-time information throughout the entire value chain.
Baan Company has dual headquarters in Barneveld, The Netherlands and
Reston, Virginia, USA. The Company's Common Stock is registered on the Nasdaq
Stock Market under the symbol BAANF and on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange under
the symbol BAAN.
To the extent there are any forward-looking statements in this release,
they are necessarily subject to uncertainties based on various factors,
including business conditions in the Company's markets, product release
cycles, and competitive conditions. Further information on potential factors
which could affect the Company's financial results are included in the
Company's Report on Form 6-K for its fiscal quarter ended March 31, 1998 and
the Company's Report on Form 20-F for the 1997 fiscal year, each of which are
on file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
"Baan" is a registered trademark of Baan Company, and any trade, product,
or service name referenced in this release using the name "Baan" is a
trademark and/or property of Baan Company. All other trade, product, or
service names referenced in this release may be trademarks or registered
trademarks of their respective holders.