Apriso Continues Growth & Innovation, Leading the Industry in Delivery of Operations Execution Systems for Global Manufacturers

Need for global real-time visibility into production and supply chain processes fuels increased purchases and implementations of firm’s FlexNet solution for manufacturing operations execution

(LONG BEACH, CA – November 13, 2007) – Apriso Corporation, a provider of adaptive software solutions for global manufacturers, today announced the completion of another record quarter for the period ending September 30, 2007.  New and expanded customer orders reflect growing validation that operations management and execution systems provide an effective solution to improve manufacturing performance.  While enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are ideal for global planning, Apriso FlexNet® goes beyond what traditional manufacturing execution systems deliver by offering real-time visibility to adapt, manage and improve performance across manufacturing operations and supply chain networks.

“The growing market acceptance of Apriso’s FlexNet solution is attributed to its ease of enabling adaptability and flexibility across multiple production and supply chain environments,” stated Jim Henderson, president and CEO of Apriso.  “Unlike others who paint a vision of enabling flexible production environments, Apriso is actively deploying customers’ 20th, 30th, 40th and more mixed production locations, while easily updating processes at live locations as deployments continue.”

Reflecting the expanded geographic scope of new customer activity within the third quarter, a major Japanese automotive supplier will now implement Apriso FlexNet across several factories and supply chain locations, representing Apriso’s Global Consulting partner B-en-g’s largest implementation to date for the region.  This $2+ billion USD international manufacturer understands the acute need for global visibility and control across a widely distributed operations and supply chain network.

In recognition of its continuing product acceptance, Apriso was recently highlighted by Manufacturing Business Technology (MBT) as a Top 40 innovative vendor within the Manufacturing Industry.  As MBT states, “Apriso sees itself more broadly as a provider of highly adaptive, enterprise operations execution systems—or OES.  Based on a service-oriented architecture (SOA), Apriso FlexNet solutions drive a demand-driven fulfillment strategy across multiple production facilities.”

Global manufacturers who have started or expanded their Apriso FlexNet deployments in the third quarter to enable real-time operations execution across multiple locations and environments include:

1. Amcor – a world leader in innovative packaging, will expand their Apriso deployment into Amcor’s Flexibles division, spanning more than 20 locations to improve operations performance by providing global visibility to the firm’s production environment and supply chain network
2. Ensign Bickford – the global leader in energetic solutions for military demolition, minefield breaching, vehicle protection, tactical weapons, space, and strategic applications will be using Apriso’s operations execution system for better visibility and tracking of business processes, to improve overall operational performance while complementing Lean initiatives
3. European Automotive Supplier – one of the world's largest automotive glazing supplier, will be deploying Apriso FlexNet as an operations execution system to improve adaptability of their production and supply chain, enhancing overall operations performance
4. Japanese Automotive Supplier  – a leading global manufacturer in Japan selected Apriso FlexNet as their manufacturing execution system to integrate their SAP ERP system with their shop floor, providing real-time visibility across operations
5. Volvo CE – one of the world’s largest manufacturers of construction equipment recently expanded their Apriso deployment, as discussed in the cover story of October’s MBT magazine, at:  http://www.apriso.com/library/website/volvoce.htm

Continued Thought Leadership
Apriso has been actively engaged over the past quarter with speaking engagements, targeting manufacturing executives and managers, explaining and educating how new systems are now available to better identify best practices by providing real-time operations intelligence.  This improved operations visibility is allowing for dramatically increased adaptability on the production line, yielding lower idle inventory levels while still supporting just in time production sequences.  Growing consensus among manufacturers has identified adaptability as being critical to achieving high customer satisfaction, as an attribute that separates ‘best in class’ manufacturers from the rest. 

In August Apriso was represented at Techieindex, a Business Intelligence conference, where the growing importance of using Business Process Management (BPM) as part of data collection activities was discussed. Later in August, Apriso presented at AIAG’s Autotech 2007 Conference its findings as Co-Chair of the Plant to Business Manufacturing Interoperability (P2B) Project.  In September, Apriso and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) co-presented a case study at the Automotive Manufacturing Solutions (AMS) Global Conference on a large global engine manufacturer.  Discussion focused on a current Apriso and TCS implementation to establish, integrate and maintain adaptable business processes between enterprise applications and the machine layer, including OPC servers, SCADA and PLCs.

About Apriso
Apriso Corporation is a software company dedicated to providing competitive advantage for its customers. It does so by enabling organizations to adapt quickly and easily to market changes and unexpected events. Apriso’s FlexNet platform provides visibility, adaptability and real-time control of manufacturing operations across the enterprise and supply chain network. This is accomplished by integrating planning, execution and control, increasing operational efficiency and eliminating errors in the production process. Apriso serves more than 160 customers in 40 countries across the Americas, Europe and Asia, powering more than 600 installations worldwide. Its customers include General Motors, Lear, Honeywell, Microsoft, L'Oreal, Lockheed Martin, Becton Dickinson, Rubbermaid, Saint-Gobain, Novelis and Essilor.  For more information, please go to www.apriso.com.

Apriso and FlexNet are registered trademarks of Apriso Corporation. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.