Making American Manufacturing Competitive Again!

FACTON(R) Inc., a world leading product lifecycle software solutions provider that specializes in enhancing the profitability of manufacturing organizations by managing profit margins and reducing product costs announced a key partnership today with global Lean Design(R) pioneer, Munro & Associates, Inc. and its software development organization, Design Profit, Inc.

U.S. manufacturers are struggling to compete in a global market. This alliance provides invaluable resources to fine tune communication and transparency between engineering, operations and financial leadership so they can wring out every dollar to be competitive. Customers will have the unique ability to see real time financial effects of product and process engineering tradeoffs with FACTON and Design Profit(R) software while employing Munro & Associates' unparalleled success in Lean Design. The results: for the first time, companies will be able to truly link engineering and operational progress with financial monitoring in order to optimize their margins.

FACTON has proven success helping customers around the world reduce product cost by as much as 8% and cutting time to market by up to 30%. FACTON can optimize production costs through all product stages in manufacturing organizations by managing transparency in their product costs. Among the global companies that have already taken advantage of FACTON's solutions are: Airbus, Porsche, Behr, Siemens, Magna Powertrain, Brose, Mahle and Mercedes AMG.

Martin Nehls, CEO and co-founder of FACTON indicated, "I am excited about the potential of this alliance. We will make sure that the design analysis is getting into production and into the financial hands so that ideas can be implemented at minimum risk."

Munro & Associates has delivered increased profits globally in all manufacturing industries for over 20 years. Munro's Design Profit delivers a consistent analytical approach to easily capture design and process resultant cost metrics that provide essential knowledge to determine where and how to reduce lifecycle costs and maximize customer delight.

"This will be a powerful advantage for our customers," said Sandy Munro, CEO and Founder of Munro & Associates, Inc. "Many companies have tried to claim a total software solution to product development; however none have succeeded on their own. The two halves of the development equation, Engineering and Finance, were never represented properly because each group sees the development of a product in an entirely different way. This new software alliance acts as the glue that will bind Engineering and Finance into a coherent unbeatable product development team."

About Munro and Associates

Munro and Associates, Inc., founded in 1988, is headquartered inTroy, Michigan and has offices inEngland,Canada andJapan. Munro is a world class consulting engineering firm that specializes in helping its customers increase profitability by improving quality, reliability and value while reducing total lifecycle costs. The Munro team delivers in depth knowledge in product design, manufacturing, quality and technologies from a broad selection of industries around the world.

Design Profit(R) quickly identifies inefficiencies in the costs of quality, labor, parts and processes. As inefficiencies are identified and eliminated the product is greatly simplified, increasing product quality and company profit in lockstep. Design Profit is being used by companies around the world such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Nikon, Freightliner, Medtronic, Mitsubishi Electric, General Dynamics, Rubbermaid and more.

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

About FACTON

FACTON Inc., headquartered inAuburn Hills, Michigan, is the North American operations of FACTON which was founded in Dresden,Germany in 1998. Today, the company also has locations in Potsdam,Hamburg andBarcelona. The company currently has 60 employees in the U.S.,Germany andSpain, and 475 professionals in partner organizations covering engineering, finance and information technologies. FACTON was founded by brothers Martin and Thoralf Nehls, who combine financial and engineering background and experience into practical lifecycle costing software solutions.

    For More Information contact:
    FACTON Inc.
    Raymond D. Wagner
    (248)-364-0000
    www.facton.com
    ray.wagner@facton.com

SOURCE FACTON Inc.