Manufacturing Business Technology - September 01, 2005

When Tom Welke thinks back to the days before a new warranty-claims processing system streamlined the interactions between Whirlpool and its thousands of service partners, one issue—waste in the service chain—is top of mind. Welke is VP of North American customer care for the Benton Harbor, Mich.

• Applications and Services
• Build a better mousetrap
• Case-In-Point
• BreconRidge gains flexibility along with MES traceability
• Sizable 52-site ERP upgrade yields lessons in document management
• Color measurement supplier paints online-sales projections sky blue using product configuration software
• Manufacturing Execution Systems
• Compliance, real-time requirements drive MES adoption
• Market-Driven Strategies
• Distributors extend their range with Web-based functionality linked to back-end systems
• Medical-Device Management
• Pivotal uses Ross Systems tie, vertical CRM, to target manufacturers

• Business Performance
• Outsourcing separates winners and losers
• Ask Aberdeen Group
• Why should a company source goods and services from overseas?
• Case-In-Point
• Performance management suite gives optical products maker laserlike business view
• Six Sigma
• Performance initiatives must be more than skin deep
• Spend Management
• Sourcing vendors say acquisitions aim at one-stop data cleansing and analysis
• Supplier Relationship Management
• Survey says CEO to take on yet one more direct report
• Time and Attendance
• ERP-like solution fosters C-level control of absenteeism issues

• Columnists
• Back Talk
• In the technology industry, being big can sometimes get ugly
• Up Front
• Measuring gains and growing pains

• Integration and Infrastructure
• Alphabet soup: JavaOne spotlights Enterprise Service Bus
• Just married
• Data Backup
• Controlling information storage costs may be in the CARDs
• Data Management
• New market dynamics get storage vendors' competitive juices flowing
• Java's Tenth Anniversary
• A $100-billion market makes peace with IBM; flirts with open source

• Security and Wireless
• RFID market remains under construction
• Auto ID
• Free configuration services target the data-collection novice
• Compliance-Level RFID
• No-frills kits offer starting place for RFID adoption or testing
• Unique Identification
• Cognex, Lockheed Martin partner for DoD-mandated coding compliance

• Views From the Front
• How midsize ERP vendors fend off newcomers
• CRM for the Midmarket
• SSA Global buys customer management and HR-related suites
• Corporate
• NAM endorses Bush Supreme Court nominee
• IT Buying Intentions
• Business and IT execs diverge on spending plans
• Information Technology
• SMB market spending big on software, services
• Mergers and Acquisitions
• Drive for functionality, market share fuels Q2 consolidation spike
• Midmarket ERP
• Infor achieves scale; explicates future focus
• Operations
• SMBs: check SLAs with HP given reorg
• Plant Automation
• Foxboro offers up a "control-room makeover"
• Product Safety
• Commission levels fines at increased rate across vast jurisdiction
• Regulatory Angst
• Multiple sources cite the good and bad for Sarbanes-Oxley