Leading Public and Private-Sector Organisations Sponsor the Formation of The Product Life Cycle Support (PLCS) Initiative / PLCS, Inc. to Establish Electronic B

LONDON (PROTEXT) - Fourteen North American and Europeanprivate and public organisations have joined forces to establishan initiative that will aim to enhance the establishment and useof shared information for full-life cycle product support ofaerospace, defence, and other complex industrial systems andproducts. The Boeing Company, British Aerospace PLC (BAe), LockheedMartin Government Electronic Systems, Marconi Electronic Systems,Rolls-Royce PLC, the U.K. Ministry of Defence (MoD), the BaanCompany, FAIR information services, the Finnish Defence Forces(FDF), LSC Group Ltd., the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Defence /Det Norske Veritas, SAAB AB and Parametric Technology Corporation and Saab Aerospace AB announced todaythat they have jointly formed PLCS, Inc. as a collaborative venture. TheUnited States Department of Defense (DoD) is also sponsoring thiseffort with funding and technical support. Building on a proposal from the International CALS Congress,the listed sponsors have joined forces to launch a 3-year projectto accelerate the development and implementation of InternationalStandards that address the information needed for full life cycleproduct support. "We see PLCS as a keystone in the development of our policiesfor Integrated Logistic Support and driving down our equipmentsupport costs. It will enable us to contract against an open,neutral and commercial ISO support data standard," said GroupCaptain Fred Church, HQ Defence Logistics Organisation, UnitedKingdom Ministry of Defence (MoD). "We see a need to develop a data standard that includes allphases of the product lifecycle. Marconi believes that the PLCSinitiative presents an opportunity to accelerate the developmentand widespread acceptance of an industry standard to meet thoseneeds," said Sean Hellett, Director, Engineering Process, MarconiElectronic Systems. "As the cost of ownership becomes ever more significant to thedecision to buy, the implementation of standards created by PLCS,Inc. will become critical to organisations as they seek to selland support their products into the global market," said ProgramManager, John Dunford, PLCS, Inc. Based on the established techniques of the ISO STEP standard,the PLCS Initiative seeks to provide global agreement on thedefinition and communication of the information needed by usersto plan and execute support for complex, long life assets such asaircraft, ships, and large industrial plants. The work will takefull advantage of current STEP standards and work performed bythe four major STEP Centres to develop an open architecture forPDM software. Areas to be addressed by the initiative includeLife Cycle Configuration Management and Change Control, SupportEngineering, Inventory Management and the Conduct of Maintenanceand Usage Reporting. About PLCS, Inc. Incorporated in Delaware, U.S.A. during September 1999, PLCS,Inc. is an organisation established by leading private and publicsector organisations with the objective of developing andpromoting standards related to supporting the complete life cycleof products. The PLCS initiative is managed within theInternational Organization for Standardization (ISO) framework,and ISO/TC184/SC4/WG3/T8 is the responsible ISO Working Group.PLCS, Inc. headquarters is in Charleston, South Carolina, U.S.A.Organisations interested in sponsoring and participating in PLCS,Inc., or who require additional information can either obtainaddition information at www.plcsinc.org or contact the following: Howard Mason British Aerospace PLC P.O. Box 87 Farnborough Hants, GU14 6YU United Kingdom Tel: +44 1252 383129 Fax: +44 1252 384324 Howard.mason@bae.co.uk King G. Yee Boeing Commercial Airplane Group P.O. Box 3707 M/C 6H-AF Seattle WA 98124 United States of America Tel: +1 425 237-3401 Fax: +1 425 237-3428 King.g.yee@boeing.com ots Original Text Service: PLCS, Inc.Internet: http://www.newsaktuell.de Contact: Howard Mason ofBritish Aerospace PLC, +44 1252 383129; fax: 44 1252 384324; orHoward.mason@bae.co.uk; King G. Yee of Boeing Commercial AirplaneGroup, 425-237-3401, fax: 425-237-3428, or King.g.yee@boeing.comWeb site: http://www.plcsinc.org

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