Hella to Leverage Broad Industry Adoption of JT Data Standard to Significantly Improve Dissemination of 3D Product Engineering Data; Collaborate With Suppliers and Customers: 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 its Web site ; for more information on JT and the JT Open industry organization that supports it, please visit its Web site .