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Automotive Components Supplier Hella Enhances Collaboration throughout Value Chain with UGS’ Teamcenter


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Hella to Leverage Broad Industry Adoption of JT Data Standard to Significantly Improve Dissemination of 3D Product Engineering Data; Collaborate with Suppliers and Customers

Monday, September 18, 2006 - PLANO, Texas and COLOGNE, Germany – UGS Corp., a leading global provider of product lifecycle management (PLM) software and services, today announced Hella KGaA Hueck & Co, a leading automotive supplier of components and systems for lighting technology and electronics, has significantly expanded its implementation of Teamcenter™ visualization software throughout its enterprise, enabling all members of the Hella value chain – including customers and suppliers – to easily and rapidly view and analyze 3D product geometry.

Teamcenter, the world’s most widely used PLM software portfolio, bases its visualization technology on JT™ format, the industry’s common 3D language for PLM collaboration, visualization and data sharing. As a result, it is fully compatible with other JT-enabled applications such as leading enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, nearly all computer-aided design (CAD) solutions and all of UGS’ own products including the Tecnomatix digital manufacturing portfolio. JT is supported by the JT Open Program, a rapidly growing community of influential companies advocating the proliferation of JT for collaborative business practices.

According to Hella, this instant compatibility with applications used throughout the automotive industry – including many used by Hella – was a significant factor in Hella’s decision to expand its implementation of Teamcenter’s visualization solution from UGS. In fact, among tier one automotive suppliers, Hella is already one of the largest users of UGS’ Tecnomatix software, which it uses for production planning and simulation.

“The visualization solution in Teamcenter significantly improves the dissemination of our 3D product data beyond department borders and enhances the working relationship with our customers and suppliers,” says Norbert Stijohann, Information Management BD Automotive Lighting at Hella. “Since all authorized users in our value chain will now be able to view any aspect of our latest product design – without the need for an expensive and complicated CAD system – we are anticipating greater visibility to our product data and, as such, better decisions made earlier – such as before expensive tooling errors can occur.”

Open standards extend customer value
Manufacturing companies need to share product design information throughout the development process with a wide variety of groups outside of engineering. Analysts estimate that for every CAD author there are 10 to 100 times as many consumers of 3D data from groups such as procurement, marketing and manufacturing as well as outside suppliers and even customers. By developing and promoting open standards, such as JT, UGS makes this data sharing possible. Using the visualization technology in Teamcenter, companies can instantly share accurate, lightweight 3D product data more efficiently across a network than with the heavyweight CAD files that are otherwise required.

Due to UGS’ open business strategy, the 3D JT data format is compatible with applications from most PLM suppliers, enabling Hella to more easily share 3D product data among its various software applications throughout the extended enterprise and with trusted outside partners. Work is already underway to exploit further advantages offered by the UGS technology in digital mock-up, as well as utilizing JT data in digital production planning.

“Hella’s outstanding implementation of Teamcenter’s visualization solution is an excellent example of how UGS’ PLM solutions can help enable greater collaboration throughout the product development process,” said Steve Bashada, vice president of Teamcenter Applications, UGS. “Users of commercial enterprise applications, design engineers, even entire project teams through to the digital production planning organization can benefit from UGS’ open end-to-end strategy and the associated transparency enabled by Teamcenter and JT.”

For more information on Teamcenter please visit www.ugs.com/teamcenter; for more information on JT and the JT Open industry organization that supports it, please visit www.jtopen.com.

About Hella KGaA Hueck & Co., Lippstadt, Germany
The global supplier develops and manufactures components and systems for lighting and electronics for the automotive industry. In addition, joint venture companies produce complete vehicle modules, air conditioning systems and vehicle electric systems. Hella is one of the world’s largest companies selling automotive parts and accessories, with its own sales companies and partners in more than 100 countries. The consolidated turnover of the Hella Group is 3.1 billion euros. Hella is one of the 100 largest industrial companies in Germany. A total of 24,000 people are employed in 65 production facilities, production subsidiaries and joint venture companies. More than 2,900 engineers and technicians work in research and development across the group. Customers include all leading automakers and system manufacturers as well as the automotive aftermarket.

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.

Note: UGS, JT, Teamcenter and Transforming the process of innovation are trademarks or registered trademark 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.

The statements in this news release that are not historical statements, including statements regarding the expected benefits of the customer relationship, the successfulness of the implementation and other statements identified by forward looking terms such as “may,” “will,” “expect,” “plan,” “anticipate” or “project,” are forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from such statements, including, among others, risks relating to loss or downsizing of customers, competition, international operations and exchange rate fluctuations, changes in pricing models, partnering strategy, and intellectual property. UGS has included a discussion of these and other pertinent risk factors in its quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the period ended June 30, 2006 filed with the SEC. UGS disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise.



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