Purdue News

August 25, 2000 Procter & Gamble and APC sign global licensing agreement WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Procter & Gamble Co. has entered into a global licensing agreement with Advanced Process Combinatorics Inc., developers of supply chain and manufacturing optimization software located at the Purdue Research Park. This global licensing agreement gives P&G worldwide use of APC's state-of-the-art combinatorial optimization technology in the form of the VirtECS software system. VirtECS software is a wholly engineered system for supply chain configuration and manufacturing optimization, allowing the user to incorporate capacities, transportation channels, geographic data, costs and forecast uncertainty in one optimization system. "Our customers like APC's innovative and intuitive approach to their complex problems and recognize that the new methods we have brought to market have enormous potential for supporting e-business and new manufacturing and business paradigms," said Joseph Pekny, a Purdue chemical engineering professor and APC's chief executive officer. Founded in 1993, APC specializes in scheduling and supply chain design software for process and discrete manufacturing industries, helping established companies make business decisions more effectively through sophisticated computer software designed at Purdue University and implemented by APC for commercial use. APC is located in the Purdue Technology Center, part of the small business incubation complex operated by the park. Planning with older technologies involves laborious effort on the part of users or simulation of many separate plans, limiting the number of possibilities that can be examined. The VirtECS system employs a simple approach for describing the problem to be solved and a powerful mathematical engine for automatically examining the many different ways it can be solved. The answers provided by the VirtECS system can be used stand-alone, underneath spreadsheets and databases, or integrated with enterprise resource planning systems. This flexibility and power lets users focus more on the creative and strategic options in solving their problems, Pekny added. Sources: Joe Pekny (765) 497-9969; pekny@combination.com Mike Menefee (765) 497-9969 x 113, menefee@combination.com Writer: Jeanine Smith, (765) 496-3133; jsmith@purdue.edu Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu Related Web sites: Purdue Research Park incubators To the Purdue News and Photos Page