Press Release

For immediate release
Feb. 12, 2007

Softeon Provides Advanced Support for Supply Chain Postponement Strategies

Assembly Management System Delivers Powerful Capabilities for the Growing Number of Companies Adopting Make-, Assemble- or Configure-to-Order Processes in Distribution or Manufacturing

Vienna, VA -- Softeon, provider of the industry's most innovative software solutions for supply chain execution, announced today the release of an enhanced version of its powerful Assembly Management System, the industry's most functionally-rich software for managing a wide range of assembly, postponement, kitting and other supply chain processes in distribution or manufacturing.

A variety of supply chain pressures are leading many companies to adopt postponement-related strategies. For example, the increased use of offshore production and the "long supply chains" that result often lead to excess inventory levels and shortages of specific products.

As a result, many companies are turning to postponement strategies, in which they build base products overseas or domestically, but customize them as a late stage process to more flexibly meet actual demand.

Many manufacturers and distributors have lacked software that well supports postponement and make-, assemble-, or configure-to-order processes. This has meant a great deal of manual, paper-based activities, process inefficiencies, significant requirements for management attention, and data errors, making execution of these postponement strategies difficult and labor intensive.

Softeon's Assembly Management System provides these companies a robust software solution that enables them to fully capture the potential value of postponement or make-to-order strategies. Softeon's solution is available on either a stand alone basis, or pre-integrated with its Warehouse Management or Order Management systems.

The Assembly Management System allows companies to completely automate postponement, assembly or kitting processes. The benefits include significant reduction of manual, paper-based activities; high levels of data accuracy; and the highly efficient flow of materials into work centers and finished products out, while achieving real-time control of all the steps in the conversion or assembly process.

Softeon's AMS solution also includes a full activity-based costing capability, enabling detailed cost tracking and analysis for each step in the assembly or kitting process.

Key attributes of the solution include:

Powerful Work Order management, with the ability to manage the work order life cycle end-to-end from work order creation through production status and completion
Robust support for bill of material creation and maintenance, whether single level or multi-level BOMs
Highly intelligent materials management functions, ensuring delivery of the right materials at the right time to postponement or assembly work centers
Automation of many associated tasks, such as kitting, weighing, sampling, etc.
Detail cost management, such as product shortage/breakage accounting, and the ability to account for inventory status at work center/assembly line level
Automatic production line replenishment, with the ability to generate replenishment tasks automatically based on the work order requirement
Much more...

Softeon's Assembly Management System is delivering results for supply chain leaders such as Reliable Sprinkler, where it drives make-to-order manufacturing processes and auto-replenishment of materials and components into production work centers. Softeon's AMS can support postponement, kitting and other functions both in manufacturing and distribution.

"As with all Softeon solutions, we've developed the Assembly Management System in a way that provides a high level of functionality yet is very easy to implement and use," said Gana Govind, president of Softeon. "AMS enables companies to make drive efficiency and control into postponement and assembly processes."

About Softeon

Softeon (www.softeon.com) provides the industry's most functionally-rich suite of WMS and supply chain execution solutions. Built on an advanced, fully web-native technical architecture, Softeon's SCE series offers a comprehensive yet modular solution for warehouse and distribution management, order management, labor and resource management, work order processing, and transportation management. Companies consistently find the SCE series offers the most deep and comprehensive set of capabilities in the supply chain execution industry, supported by an advance and flexible technical architecture, satisfying both operations and IT requirements.

Softeon's growing list of customers includes such well-known companies as Time-Warner, Matrix, House of LaRose, Huffman Beverage, Federation Distribution Services, the IRS, Reliable Sprinkler, and other logistics leaders.

Contact information:

Shyam Krishna
shyam@softeon.com
703-356-8727
www.softeon.com