ActionPlanT - The European ICT Forum for Factories of the Future Envisioning the Role of ICT in the Manufacturing Industry

PARIS, September 9, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Intercim, LLC, a global leader in software solutions for Manufacturing Operations Management and Intelligence, announced its involvement as a research partner in the research project "ActionPlanT" which is co-funded by the European Commission under the Private-Public Partnership (PPP) "Factories of the Future" initiative of the Seventh Framework Programme for research and technological development (Grant Agreement Number 258617). The scope of "ActionPlanT" is to develop a vision on the short, medium, and long term role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the European manufacturing industry.

ICT plays a multifaceted role in all major European industrial sectors and its contribution to the manufacturing sector has become paramount over the last few years. Quite undeniably, ICT will become increasingly intertwined with future manufacturing processes and will be seen developing efficient business processes through dynamically evolving business models.

To underline Europe's global leadership and excellence in manufacturing, it is imperative that improvements at both the technological as well as the awareness level are made for ICT-enabled manufacturing processes. This can be done only through a thorough analysis which will help to understand the fundamental driving factors of the future manufacturing landscape - both in terms of quantifiable factors such as technology as well as other more qualitative factors such as politics, environment, and societal needs.

"ActionPlanT" which started on June 1, 2010, addresses an audience covering the knowledge triangle that represents the interaction between research, education, and industry. The project will outline the vision of the future role of ICT in manufacturing for the commission's Eighth Framework Programme for research and technological development (FP8). Moreover, it will explore a concept of disseminating knowledge and future requirements through a well established platform consisting of manufacturing and ICT experts from both academia and industry.

"ActionPlanT" is coordinated by SAP AG, business software vendor, three European universities (University of Patras in Greece, Politecnico di Milano in Italy, and Ecole Polytechnique Federale of Lausanne in Switzerland), two research organizations (Fraunhofer-IPK in Germany and Fatronik-Tecnalia in Spain), one employers' organization and trade association (Agoria ASBL in Belgium), and the small and medium-sized enterprise Intercim in France which is a leader in manufacturing and production operations, and management software solutions for advanced and highly regulated industries.

Further information on the research project ActionPlanT:

http://www.actionplant-project.eu/

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About Intercim:

Intercim has a 27-year history of helping advanced and highly regulated manufacturers reach their business goals through best in class software solutions. Early 2009, Dassault Systemes a world leader in 3D and Product Lifecycle Management took a minority position in Intercim. Both companies consider critical that information exchange and collaboration between engineering, manufacturing and the supply network be handled in real-time. For the first time, the combination of Intercim's software capabilities with the virtual experience provided by Dassault Systemes' solutions allows this type of mission-critical collaboration and knowledge sharing. Intercim works mainly for advanced and highly regulated industries and with industry-leading customers such as Boeing, Sanofi Pasteur, Ball Aerospace, BMW, and Honeywell.

For more information, visit http://www.intercim.com

SOURCE Intercim