Manufacturing Business Technology - March 1, 2005

Like most every executive involved in logistics management, Brian Beattie knows the theoretical advantages of radio-frequency identification, or RFID. But unlike many of his peers, Beattie's company is live with a program that leverages RFID tagging to track assets and shipments in supply chains.

• Applications and Services
• Plant-floor security, by the numbers
• Case-In-Point
• Johnson Controls levels schedules in a lean manufacturing environment
• Finite Capacity Scheduling
• Demand-driven model keeps best-of-breed vendors in the black
• Product Life-Cycle Management
• Next on the horizon: the bill of process
• To-Order Manufacturing
• Instrument maker follows the rules to ease complex configurations

• Business Performance
• Business performance in brief
• Stop saying, "That's what I should've done"
• Ask AberdeenGroup
• Case-In-Point
• Contract manufacturer turns to PLM supplier for data cleansing solution
• Enterprise Performance Management
• Intentia aligns with Cognos to bring BI to the midmarket
• Platform Integration
• Crystal Reports now a full part of the Business Objects family
• Support For Innovation
• Think outside the box using tools in a box

• Columnists
• Back Talk
• Why there's no need to fear China
• Up Front
• A bridge from personal productivity to the enterprise

• Integration and Infrastructure
• Integration and Infrastructure in brief
• An open question
• Collaborative Supply-Chains
• Technology, data, relationships underpin successful partner/customer strategies
• Document Management
• Adobe almost embraces Linux
• Enterprise Networks
• Acquisition gives Cisco upper hand in both wired and wireless networking
• Grid Computing
• Sun wants users to see grid technology as a business tool

• Security/Wireless
• In brief
• Bar codes: not dead yet
• Partners for Progress
• Zebra, SAP, and Wavelink simplify secure wireless system management
• Plant-Floor Wireless
• ZigBee standard could be automation future force
• RFID Rollout
• METRO Group DC achieves 99-percent tag-read rate using Intermec solutions
• RFID Tools
• A&D giant leverages DoD experience in a developer's kit
• Security Hardware
• IBM first in line for trusted I/O device

• Views From the Front
• In brief
• Big Three Auto
• U.S.A-TEAM looks first at the plant floor in collaboration with NIST
• Connecting With Lean
• QAD seeks gain from Oracle's technology focus
• Corporate
• Companies understand the value—and cost—of good employees
• Global Dominance
• China and India push to compete with divergent approaches
• Information Technology
• Be it Linux or UNIX, IBM says, "Just buy our servers"
• Manufacturing and Politics
• NAM wrestling with members' divergent views on global trade
• Market Consolidation
• Infor buys MAPICS; SAP acquires TomorrowNow
• Mergers and Acquisitions
• Will the falling dollar make American software vendors targets?
• Operations
• China up; Japan up; OEMs down
• Plant-Floor Integration
• ABB upgrades 800xA framework using IBM WebSphere
• Software and CPU Capacity
• Hardware advances have potential to raise software license costs
• Trade Management
• Financial firm ventures into logistics with Vastera acquisition