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DaimlerChrysler Corporation's 'FastCar' Program to Virtually Link Product Creation, Volume Production and Customer Connect with B2B and B2C Initiatives

9 August 2000

DaimlerChrysler Corporation's 'FastCar' Program to Virtually Link Product Creation, Volume Production and Customer Connect with B2B and B2C Initiatives

    TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. - DaimlerChrysler Corporation has announced a sweeping 
Internet-based program that links its product creation and volume production 
processes to its procurement and Customer Connect network to gain maximum 
efficiency for the Company.

    The program, called "FastCar," will allow DaimlerChrysler to leverage
Internet technology, interconnecting the company's design, engineering,
manufacturing, quality, finance, procurement & supply, sales and marketing
activities.

    "The 'FastCar' project is as ambitious as any we've ever done," said James
P. Holden, DaimlerChrysler Corporation's President and CEO.  "It will provide
real-time transparency to the product development process, but, more
importantly, it will dramatically increase the speed and precision of
development, reduce waste and increase the quality of our products."

    More than a decade ago, DaimlerChrysler redefined how cars are developed
with its platform team approach, bringing all of the various disciplines
-- product planning, design, engineering, manufacturing, procurement & supply,
the Extended Enterprise(R), finance, sales, etc. -- together at one time in
one place.  The next progression was the new Chrysler Development System
(CDS), which focused on innovation and quality while reducing total costs and
cycle time.  CDS enables DaimlerChrysler to keep the design window open
longer, while selecting the best product and manufacturing process decisions,
aligned with market demands.  Finally, "FastCar" is the e-architecture driving
product creation, linking the CATIA pipeline with the business infrastructure.
It provides dynamic, real-time, precise assessment of all metrics during the
most intense phase of the development process.

    "We've established the culture through platform teams, the process through
CDS and now, we're adding the technology to make it all work at super-speed,"
said Holden.  "We're not simply Web-enabling old systems, we're creating a
completely new way to communicate information and data within our organization
which will eventually replace the old systems.  It's not unlike trying to
re-wire a plane while it's in flight."

    DaimlerChrysler has selected several technology partners to make "FastCar"
a reality.  Dassault Systems currently supplies the CATIA (Computer Aided
Three-Dimensional Interactive Application) system software, with about
4,100 internal users and about 5,000 external users and i2 Technologies will
provide the business integration software.

    "'FastCar' allows us to manage change in a more dynamic way, both
internally and externally," said Gary E. Dilts, Senior Vice President of
DaimlerChrysler's eConnect Platform.  "'FastCar' will allow us to do things
faster and better.  Project managers, at all levels, will be able to retrieve
information about a product program as easily as one checks a stock portfolio
online.  Cost, weight, investment, timing, product planning, supplier and
customer data will be available on a real-time basis from a laptop computer.

    "During the life cycle of a product, there are literally tens of thousands
of changes made.  As a change is made, it may take as much as 90 days to
communicate that change throughout the organization.  'FastCar' will give us
the tools to communicate instantly throughout the company and its Extended
Enterprise."