WHO: 

Ove Schuett, Vice President of CATIA – North America, Dassault Systèmes

WHAT:           

“Vendor Tooling: The Not So Missing Link”

WHEN:

Wednesday, March 11, 2009, 8:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time

WHERE:

“The Smart Approach to Tooling” Breakfast Networking Event/Webinar

Michigan State University Management Center

811 W. Square Road, Troy, Michigan

Registration will take place at 7:30 a.m. at the MSU Management Center. The event will also be accessible via live webinar. To register, please go to: http://members.mema.org/OESA/Core/Events/eventdetails.aspx?iKey=EBB031109

WHY:

The Original Equipment Suppliers Association (OESA) and the Harbour-Felax Group will share the results of their latest study entitled “Vendor Tooling: The Not So Missing Link,” at the MSU Management Center on March 11. The study examines current vendor tooling practices and analyzes never-before-seen data from six major automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) based on four key areas: product development, foreign build process, purchasing and tool location.

Ove Schuett, vice president of CATIA, Dassault Systèmes, will begin the event by sharing his perspective on the critical need for improved collaboration between suppliers and OEMs. Schuett will discuss historical challenges to collaboration and how the evolution of supply chain management and product lifecycle management (PLM) has resulted in new, more effective methods of communication. He will also elucidate the significance of the study from OESA and the Harbour-Felax Group, which includes data collected over the period of five years from General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, Toyota, Nissan and Honda.

Later in the morning, automotive analyst and president of the Harbour-Felax Group, Laurie Harbour-Felax, will discuss solutions for cutting the cost of tooling practices based on case studies from the aforementioned OEMs. Also speaking at the event will be industry leaders from Clark Hill PLC and General Motors.