CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive

10 October 2005

Company News

UGS and General Motors to Host Exclusive Executive Perspectives: Best Practices in PLM-enabled Business Process Improvement Symposium on October 11

UGS Corp. announced the second annual Executive Perspectives: Best Practices in PLM-enabled Business Process Improvement Symposium. Executives from automotive and other industries will share best practices around five business process improvement initiatives that are enabled by PLM technology.

The symposium, to be held at the Detroit Marriot Renaissance Center on October 11, will feature UGS Chairman, CEO and President Tony Affuso; speakers from GM: GM Vice President, Global Engineering Jim Queen; Vehicle Chief Engineer Bruce Kosbab; Process Information Officer, Global Product Development and CIO, Asia Pacific Terry Kline; Lear Corporation CIO John Crary; and A.T. Kearney Vice President Joachim Ebert. Legendary football coach Bo Schembechler will keynote the banquet concluding the event and John McElroy, host of "Autoline Detroit" will kick-off the event.

"We're thrilled to have such a strong cast of presenters from the industry and renowned football coach Bo Schembechler as part of this year's highly anticipated Executive Perspectives event," said Eric Sterling, vice president of automotive marketing for UGS. "We'll be providing an atmosphere for interactive discussion on five very important business improvement topics and look forward to hearing how companies are approaching them to bring more innovative products to market faster by leveraging these business process improvement initiatives. We also look forward to learning from Bo's experiences on teambuilding and fostering a winning attitude."

This year's Executive Perspectives Symposium will feature speakers from GM, Lear, A.T. Kearney and UGS as well as round table sessions on five strategic business initiatives that many companies are focusing on to improve response time and accuracy, drive down cost and get innovative products to their customers faster. Subject matter experts from EDS, HP and A.T. Kearney Procurement Solutions with support from GM and UGS will host the roundtables. The 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.

·         IT Strategic Sourcing

IT 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 every program will drive out cost, improve quality and keep your companies knowledge from walking out the door with your employees.

For more information please visit http://www.executiveperspectives2005.com .

If one were to make a list of the greatest coaches in college football history, Bo Schembechler's name would certainly be near the top.   During his 27 years as the head coach of the University of Michigan Wolverines, and earlier with Miami University, Bo won 235 games and never had a losing season. At his retirement, Bo ranked as the 'winningest' active coach in Division 1 football history. Associated with the University of Michigan from 1969 to 1990, Bo Schembechler served as the head football coach of the Wolverines for 21 years and served as Athletic Director from 1988 to 1990. While athletic director, Bo guided the administration of one of the largest college athletic programs in the nation with 21 men's and women's varsity teams and budget that exceeded $20 million. Bo is also a professor emeritus at the University of Michigan, as well as a noted motivational speaker. Bo has authored several books, including Bo, which tells about his coaching philosophy Man in Motion, and his latest, Michigan Memories: Inside Bo Schembechleer's Football Scrapbook. Born April 1, 1929, Bo Schembechler was raised in Barberton, Ohio. He earned his education degree from Miami (OH) University and also lettered in football and baseball in Miami. Bo Schembechler earned his master's degree at Ohio State in 1952 while working as a graduate assistant coach under Woody Hayes.

Become a member of the CIMdata PLM Community to receive your daily PLM news and much more.

Tell us what you think of the CIMdata Newsletter. Send your feedback.

CIMdata is committed to your privacy. Your personal information will never be sold or shared outside of CIMdata without your express permission.

Subscribe