PRESS RELEASE

IBM’s Director of Automotive PLM Solutions, Peter Robison, to Keynote at PLM Road Map™ 2008

Stamford, CT, For Immediate Release – Collaborative Product Development Associates (CPDA), a provider of critical analyses for PLM decisions, announces that Peter Robison, Director of Automotive PLM Solutions, Global Automotive Industry, IBM, will join GM’s Terry Kline, Lockheed Martin’s Christopher L. Blake, Siemens PLM Software’s Stephen Bashada, and HP’s Christian Verstraete as a keynote speaker at its annual PLM Road Map conference, to be held at The Inn at St. John's, outside of Detroit, Michigan on September 23 and 24.

With vehicles becoming ever more complex due to both the need for companies to differentiate their brands, and increasing market and customer requirements, it is critical that future PLM solutions mitigate the risk and facilitate the effective collaboration of Product Development. Much of the focus has been on designing the systems that comprise a modern vehicle, but in the future the focus will move towards the important business decisions that must be taken early in the new product introduction process. To facilitate this process there is a move towards Functional Modeling techniques.

In his presentation, Model Driven Systems Engineering: Starting Early in the Development Cycle, Peter Robison will describe an approach that manages the interaction between requirements and functions to determine financial viability and engineering feasibility. Once initial project objectives are understood the traditional discipline-specific authoring tools can be applied with the ability, if defined, to track compliance throughout the subsequent development and engineering change processes. Peter will outline how this approach provides a consistent framework for coordinating efforts across multiple disciplines through the complete product life cycle.

Now in its 15th year, PLM Road Map™ 2008 is a strategic conference focused on the critical tradeoffs that shape product development. PLM Road Map™ 2008 will enable attendees to explore first hand the progress, opportunities, and roadblocks leading-edge end-users are confronting.

More information and updates on PLM Road Map™ 2008 may be found at http://www.cpd-associates.com/index.cfm?content=include_conference08.cfm.

About Peter Robison

Peter Robison’s over 20 years of experience in the automotive industry started with engine design and analysis at Perkins Engines Company. He joined Rover Group in the mid-1980's to provide structural analysis on new vehicle concepts, including working closely with Honda. He then moved to lead the body team on the Metro re-fresh project. Peter later became Body Engineering Chief Engineer for the whole Rover Group (MG, Mini, Rover, and Land Rover) in a period of major re-engineering of the body processes, including benchmarking between BMW and Rover. Peter then took responsibility for leading the Trim and Hardware Engineering department and was instrumental in an end-to-end redefinition of Rover’s engineering processes / organization as related to BMW.

Since joining IBM in 1995, Peter has been involved in projects to help automotive clients improve their NPI performance, and in developing partnerships between IBM and Independent Software Vendors. Work has included automotive suppliers and engagements in emerging markets of central and eastern Europe, and Asia. In 1999, Peter was part of the management team that established IBM’s Product Lifecycle Management direction in response to the impact of e-business on the market definition, and on the design and introduction of new products and their manufacturing and in-service support processes.

Peter established IBM's 'Virtual Product Innovation' Competency addressing competitive innovation processes through organizational, process, and technology issues in an integrated PLM environment. This industry leading capability helps automotive customers determine their current capabilities, define improvement strategies and establish an implementation roadmap for the future, all set against a set of proven PLM Best Practices.

In his current role as Director of Automotive PLM Solutions, Peter is responsible for global strategy and direction of IBM’s Global Automotive Industry as it relates to the Product Lifecycle Management domain, with specific focus on the Embedded Systems aspects. This includes alignment of capabilities across IBM’s Industrial Sector, relationships with partners, and leadership of pursuit teams in complex opportunities.

About CPDA

Collaborative Product Development Associates (CPDA) is a provider of critical analyses for PLM decisions. CPDA offers the latest in-depth, objective information for assessing technology and business goals. Coordinated by a group of experienced analysts, its cohesive suite of collaborative research programs leverages the efforts of top software designers and leading-edge users. CPDA's differentiation is its specific, deep, and pragmatic approach to the market, and a hands-on understanding of the technology required to drive successful implementations. CPDA’s collaborative research programs include Design Creation and Validation, Design/Simulation Council, PLM-Integration/Product Definition, and Product Value Management.

Contact: Cheryl Peck Cheryl.peck@cpd-associates.com 800-573-4756