Unifi Technology Group, Charlotte, N.C., the newly formed consulting company of Unifi Inc., has
announced that it will merge with the automation solutions provider, CIMTEC, Charlotte, N.C. The
newly merged company will be called Unifi Technology Group.Unifi Technologys current expertise
includes solutions in integrated manufacturing, factory automation and e-commerce. These solutions
use Enterprise (ERP) and Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) products and internally developed
software tools.CIMTEC has provided automation solutions to U.S. manufacturers since 1988. It
specializes in applying leading-edge technology and automation to the factory floor.Our newly
merged organization will provide solutions that integrate the factory floor with internal business
systems and ultimately extend out to the supply chain, said Ralph Mayes, president and CEO of Unifi
Technology.Unifi Technology and CIMTEC recently partnered to link the enterprise system and factory
floors of Unifis new state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities. This partnership created a systems
architecture that provides real-time data for decision making and processes hundreds of thousands
of transactions per day, the companies said.Mayes said that one value-added service Unifi
Technology will provide to manufacturing clients is a methodology that allows a large amount of
real-time data from the factory floor to be linked to the ERP system and run as a mission-critical
application.We see this as a tremendous opportunity in the textile industry since most ERP systems
are not linked directly to the factory floor, he said. The industry is going to have to address
this issue as systems are extended to embrace supply-chain management and e-commerce.
August 1999
