The Electrolux Group, a producer of powered appliances for kitchen, cleaning and outdoor use, has selected CATIA V5 for the design, analysis and manufacture of its products. IBM will provide the Electrolux Group with 700 licences of CATIA V5, a 3D product development solution developed by Dassault Systemès.

In addition, Electrolux also announced that it recently completed implementation of SMARTEAM at its US manufacturing facilities. SMARTEAM is a product data management solution from IBM's product lifecycle management (PLM) portfolio, also developed by Dassault Systemès. IBM and its business partners will provide training and implementation support for the PLM platform at Electrolux Group's 40 factories around the world.

The Electrolux Group is migrating from CATIA V4 to V5 to take advantage of improved performance and new features. The move comes following a two-year pilot project in which the company compared leading CAD systems at its lawnmower factory in Orangeburg, South Carolina, USA. Not only did the software prove to be more user-friendly and functional, but also the company's designers and engineers found it helped cut product development time and cost. Furthermore, the transition from V4 to V5 was simple and required only one week of training for Electrolux's first users in Romania, Italy, and Germany.

For more information contact Igal Filipovski, CNC Design Consultants, 011 786 3516.