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Boothroyd Dewhurst Sells Corporate License for DFMA Software to Plug Power Inc.
Expanded use of Design for Manufacture and Assembly software
will help standardize the company’s practices in product cost analysis
WAKEFIELD, R.I., USA, February 6, 2006 – Boothroyd Dewhurst, Inc., developers of Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DFMA®) software, today announced that Plug Power Inc., headquartered in Latham, N.Y. (NASDAQ: PLUG), has purchased a corporate license for DFMA software.
DFMA software helps engineering supply chains identify the major cost drivers associated with manufacturing and assembling parts and supports the development of innovative designs that are economical to produce. Plug Power, a leader in providing clean, reliable on-site energy, will use the software to improve the manufacturability of its fuel cell products and to obtain estimates of product costs early in the design cycle.
“We evaluated a number of cost-estimating packages over an 18-month period and decided to expand our use of Boothroyd Dewhurst DFMA software,” says Joe Mueller, Advanced Manufacturing Engineering Manager for Plug Power. “We expect that implementing a standardized DFMA process across the company will help our engineering team reduce product part counts and manufacturing assembly time and provide us with a cost-estimating reference tool during negotiations with our suppliers.”
Plug Power presently uses DFMA software for its GenCore® and GenSys® product lines. Companywide rollout of the software is expected to be complete mid-2006.
About Plug Power
Plug Power Inc. is an established leader in the deployment of clean, reliable, on-site energy products. More than 600 Plug Power fuel cell systems have been delivered to customers worldwide in commercial, public sector, telecommunications, utility and uninterruptible power supply markets. For more information about Plug Power, please visit www.plugpower.com.
About DFMA® Software
DFMA consists of complementary Design for Assembly (DFA) and Design for Manufacture (DFM) software. Engineers use DFA software to reduce the cost of a product by consolidating parts into elegant and multifunctional designs. DFM Concurrent Costing software then helps engineers quickly judge the cost of producing the individual components of the new design. Used together, DFM and DFA software give engineers an early cost profile of product designs, providing a basis for planning and decision making. When performed in the earliest stages of concept design, DFMA analysis has the potential to dramatically reduce manufacturing and other product life-cycle costs before they are locked in. DFMA software operates in Microsoft® Windows 98, Windows 2000, and Windows XP.
About Boothroyd Dewhurst, Inc.
Boothroyd Dewhurst, Inc., was the first company to commercialize Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DFMA) methodologies and software tools, which make it possible to evaluate, estimate, and reduce the manufacturing cost of a product in the design phase through product simplification and cost estimation. Hundreds of Fortune 1000 companies, including Dell, John Deere, Harley-Davidson, and Maytag, use DFMA to cut the costs of their manufactured products and achieve design innovation in their markets. The company was founded in 1983 and received the National Medal of Technology Award in 1991. For more information about DFMA software, workshops, consulting services, and international conferences, contact Boothroyd Dewhurst, Inc., 138 Main Street, Wakefield, R.I. 02879, USA. Tel. (401) 783-5840. Fax (401) 783-6872. Web site: www.dfma.com. E-mail: info@dfma.com.
Windows is a copyright of Microsoft Corp. DFMA is a registered trademark of Boothroyd Dewhurst, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.
Joe Mueller, Advanced Manufacturing Engineer for Plug Power Inc., views costing data while designing a component for one of the company's fuel cell products. Plug Power will use DFMA® software from Boothroyd Dewhurst to improve the manufacturability of its products and to obtain estimates of product costs early in the design cycle.
