The New PartNavigator 3.1 decision support adds predictive lifecycle analysis for optimum obsolescence and lifecycle management

GAITHERSBURG, Maryland, March 6, 2004 - Precience, Inc. today unveiled its new PartNavigator™ engineering decision support tools, which provides complete obsolescence and lifecycle analysis using an advanced health projection analysis algorithm. It significantly improves obsolescence management by identifying risk exposures in the future for procurability issues. This capability utilizes the Partminer lifecycle data as the basis to drive a 20-year health projection analysis. Design engineers use the solution, which calculates the projections in real time and shows the potential obsolescence risks in the future. Based on this modeling information, engineers can optimize the design based on it’s projected lifecycle. Hence a long product lifecycle industry such as automotive, industrials, medial, and aerospace, can optimize the supply chain procureability by quickly identified risks in a bill of material. It offers a database driven management system to track components and Bills of Materials (BOM’s) for obsolescence.

PartNavigator™ Engineering Decision Support Solution
PartNavigator™ CSM Suite 3.1 -- PartNavigator™ provides component and supplier data management with direct real time connection to Partminer’s CapsExpert system for lifecycle analysis. PartNavigator™ can search an entire BOM for component data sheets, lead times, cost, and other pertinent information over the Internet and within your MRP/ERP databases (ODBC). It offers bi-directional integration with OrCAD (CIS), Innoveda (DatabookII), Mentor (LMS) schematics. Spreadsheet driven database system provides seamless Bill of Material (BOM) management and back annotation to schematics. Engineers can also catalog their parts in the database as provided or link to their internal MRP/ERP database.

Lifecycle Analysis option
Bill of Material can be analyzed for a 20 health projection using advanced risk analysis algorithms, provided, a low, medium and high-risk lifecycle bands.

Today, engineers are required to spend hours searching for components data for design and procurement use. Although the Internet has facilitated this process, it remains labor intensive and inefficient requiring manual searches of numerous web sites, internal databases and printed data books. After this, the designer still has to update individual components on the engineering schematic with the information. PartNavigator can extract the BOM from the engineer’s schematic files and can launch a search on the Internet for the entire BOM (Bill of Materials). The search will return component data sheets, cost, supplier part numbers, lead times, and other pertinent information. This data can be added directly to the engineer’s CAE schematics as well as the procurement manager’s MRP/ERP databases. In this way, an entire schematic design can be loaded and unique electronics parts in the design can be searched for a match from multiple online distributors in seconds.

Today, procurement managers and supply chain partners are bogged down ‘scrubbing’ BOM information in order to feed appropriate supplier and vendor part numbers into purchasing and quoting software as well as e-business systems. This is a labor intensive, inefficient task throughout the electronics supply chain and presents a major stumbling block for achieving the full potential of B2B e-commerce.

PartNavigator’s Design Supply Chain Network introduces dramatic new efficiencies for design engineers, procurement managers, and their electronics supply chain partners and will act as a catalyst to propel B2B e-commerce in the trillion dollar electronics components and OEM industry. PartNavigator’s focus is to provide push-button, closed-loop Design Supply Chain networking and collaboration between IC procurement management and EDA tools thus helping customers reduce procurement delays, control cost and maintain design integrity.

PartNavigator 3.1 software is sold by Precience and through the company’s worldwide reseller network. The product is moderately priced for a single named user seat and is available immediately. The product is available on Windows 98/NT/XP/2000. Interested users are encouraged to visit our Web site at www.preceience.com for more information.

About Precience, Inc.
Precience is a leading worldwide developer of EDA design-for-supply-chain integration technology and component lifecycle management products including PCBNavigator, Obsolescence Manager, and PartNavigator. Precience is a privately held company established in 1995 with corporate headquarters at 201 Perry Parkway, Suite 1, Gaithersburg, and Maryland, 20866. To learn more about Precience and its products, please visit the Precience Web site at www.precience.com . For further information contact Precience at (301) 421-9054, or via e-mail at info@precience.com.

Precience, PCBNavigator, PartNavigator, and Obsolescence Manager are trademarks or registered marks of Precience, Inc. Mentor Graphics and PADS are registered trademarks and OpenDoor is a servicemark and/or trademark of Mentor Graphics Corporation. All other trademarks or registered marks are the property of their respective holders.