Manufacturing Business Technology - May 1, 2005

Concepts like closed-loop supply chain management and event-driven forecasting might have a grandiose ring to them, but they translate into concrete benefits for those who put them in practice in retail supply chains. Just ask Steve Bartok, corporate demand-planning manager for Wells Lamont.

• Applications and Services
• Real time's role in product quality
• Apps on Demand
• Salesforce.com's next customer management release breaks it out of CRM mold
• B2B Services
• SanDisk ekes profit out of excess inventory using online auctioning
• CRM Investments
• Personal productivity and enterprise interfaces starting to merge, says Microsoft
• CRM and the Call Center
• Ingersoll-Rand avoids tough spot with latest version of Siebel OnDemand
• Enterprise Asset Management
• Vendors upgrade systems to beat back competition with ERP's big league
• Lean Logistics
• Shipping bottlenecks from China subside, but risks still present, say experts
• Midsize Enterprise Market
• ERP vendors scramble to sign up midmarket VARs
• The Execution Space
• Enterprise vendors can't do everything (not that they'll admit it)

• Business Performance
• The loss of certainty
• Business performance in brief
• Ask AberdeenGroup
• What does it take to succeed at global trade management?
• Case-In-Point
• With Metreo pricing engine, Owens Corning always knows the price is right
• Strategic Maintenance
• Preventive maintenance can boost overall business performance
• Workforce Management
• IBM applies supply chain principles to human assets

• Columnists
• Back Talk
• Enterprise's top ranks may have gelled, but someone will buy Siebel
• Up Front
• A man with a plan

• Integration and Infrastructure
• The new sourcing mantra: Think globally
• Integration & infrastructure in brief
• Data Integration
• Application router meets straightforward data transformation needs
• Data Management
• New management solutions untangle storage networks
• Document Production
• Enterprise integration, custom capabilities key to successful forms automation

• Security/Wireless
• In brief
• RFID is the balm
• Pilot Projects
• Rockwell Automation says the time is right for RFID
• RFID Hardware
• Axcess offers tag for less than a sawbuck to jump-start RFID adoption
• RFID Projections
• RFID considered the next piece in IT infrastructure
• The Seamless Network
• Wi-Fi and Ethernet on same device as standards converge
• Wireless Standards
• ISA tackles industrial compatibility with Wi-Fi

• Views From the Front
• Tracing over existing apps
• Corporate
• Deals point to supply chain convergence
• Data Collection and ERP
• SAP, Intel leaving their footprints on RFID applications
• Economic Indicators
• Manufacturers upbeat on economy, but cautious as to growth
• Information Technology
• Windows, Linux neck-in-neck in cost-of-ownership race
• Midmarket ERP
• Microsoft formalizes Axapta ISV development program
• Operations
• What products should you RFID-tag first?
• Plant Survival Story
• "Creative destruction" closes 35,000 U.S. manufacturing sites
• Regulatory Compliance
• EPA streamlines hazardous waste tracking
• Chili powder saga highlights food traceability challenges
• Supply Chain Infrastructure
• Discrete manufacturers among top projected IT investors in 2005
• The ERP Horse Race
• Projected SSA Global IPO says much about enterprise market's future