Activplant Corporation Receives Patent on its Throughput Analyzer

Latest Innovation in Manufacturing Performance Management Software Now a Patented Technology

LONDON, ON – July 22, 2008 - Activplant Corporation (www.activplant.com), the standard in performance management software solutions for the world’s leading manufacturers, announced today that it has been granted a patent on its latest manufacturing software innovation the Throughput Analyzer. Since its release in 2007, the Throughput Analyzer has been deployed in many of the world’s largest manufacturing facilities. This patent confirms Throughput Analyzer’s cutting edge innovation in the performance management space, which enhances and extends the capabilities required by manufacturers in today’s competitive market place. The patented Throughput Capability Metric is a breakthrough technology that supersedes all previous measurement metrics including OEE and downtime in its ability to identify the key chronic disruptors to overall product flow.

“The manufacturing industry is facing daunting challenges, we are very pleased to receive this patent on an application that has the opportunity to revolutionize how companies drive performance improvements,” said Chuck Frosst, President, Activplant Corporation. “We have a desire to help our customers compete in some very challenging economic times. The Throughput Analyzer helps plant managers and operations executives to clear the fog from the lens and see exactly where to focus their improvement efforts, resulting in sustained operational improvements that can translate into significant savings and efficiency gains.”

Activplant pioneered manufacturing intelligence with the introduction of the Activplant Performance Management System in 1997; however since then realized that the space still lacked a repeatable solution that was quick to deploy and could recognize payback in weeks rather than months. The patented Throughput Analyzer application fills this void and is unique in that it is pre-configured to identify issues and provide root cause information relating to the performance of the manufacturing value stream.

“This patent represents a milestone in Activplant’s journey to help manufacturers transform the way they use data from the plant floor,” said Dennis Cocco, Founder and Chief Product Strategist, Activplant Corporation. “When we created the Throughput Analyzer we believed we had delivered a breakthrough technology that would become a strategic tool for manufacturers to drive performance gains. The feedback from customers has been overwhelming as they see sustained gains in improvement, helping them gain back a competitive edge provided by unbiased recommendations leading to plant floor improvement.”

This unbiased view introduces a new patented metric: the Throughput Capability Metric, which essentially determines how each line impacts the overall performance of end of line production. It provides a Balance Map simply coded to allow continuous improvement teams to see specifically where they need to focus their efforts. This innovative approach has been deployed at numerous large manufacturing organizations within several industrial verticals including automotive, industrial equipment, food and beverage, bottling and packaging resulting in sustained operational gains of 8% to 18% overall. The application has been deployed in as little as 6 weeks and delivers ROI typically within 6 months.

“High-volume, high-automation manufacturers need to be able to quickly spot bottlenecks in order to remove constraints and improve performance”, said Greg Gorbach, vice president, ARC Advisory Group. “Activplant’s Throughput Analyzer provides this information graphically, in real-time, and in context of the entire production process, allowing managers to make the best decisions to improve manufacturing productivity performance, and to focus their continuous improvement activities.”

About Activplant
An enterprise manufacturing intelligence market leader, Activplant’s Performance Management System has set the standard in operational excellence within the world’s largest and most admired manufacturers. Aimed at high-volume, high-automation plants, Activplant’s solution consolidates plant floor data into relevant real-time and historical information, enabling productivity gains by optimizing product, people, equipment and processes. With Activplant solutions, plant managers and manufacturing executives can focus on the key issues in their facilities that ultimately improve product quality, accelerate new product launches and drive performance gains. Activplant is a privately held company based in London, Ontario. For more information please visit www.activplant.com.

For more information, contact:
Kathryn Clark
Activplant Corporation
(519) 668-7336 ex. 378
kclark@activplant.com
or:
Jenn Sommer
Highroad Communications
(416) 644-2274
jsommer@highroad.com