Shop floor visibility
USDATA seminars highlight e-manufacturing
Mary Stearns Sgarioto Senior Editor -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 1/1/2001 7:00:00 AM
A four-city seminar series-held in November and sponsored by USDATA, a Richardson, Texas-based supplier of integrated manufacturing software solutions and Houston-based Compaq Computer, a personal computer and server supplier-discussed how best-in-class manufacturers are striving to become more demand-driven in the Internet age, and reviewed the visibility tools they use to meet these business demands.
The U.S. seminars featured keynote speaker Julie Fraser, principal of Industry Directions, a Cummaquid, Mass.-based strategic analyst firm. According to Fraser, "A lot of companies are not ready for e-Business and collaborating with trading partners." Fraser adds that some manufacturers are paralyzed because there are so many choices. Her advice to manufacturers: focus on fulfillment and developing partnerships. "Fulfillment retains customers," Fraser says. It also is important is to build partners, which she defines as "groups of customers that connect to product sets."
To make a profit in the 2000s, Fraser says manufacturers need to be more collaborative, customer-focused, and demand-driven. While the plant floor used to be seen as far removed from customers, it will be an increasingly essential part of serving demand effectively. Plant software solutions-as well as integration and analysis tools-are critical to e-manufacturing success.
What's driving this change? According to Fraser, customer focus will drive improvements and changes in responsiveness, collaboration, innovation, and customer service. She says best-in-class companies will shift focus from the warehouse to develop real-time visibility to the plant floor, which is "of highest relevance" for demand-driven strategies.
Andrew Kerr, a USDATA vice president, told seminar participants that a manufacturer's "level of competition is limited by lack of information." He contends that Xfactory, USDATA's manufacturing execution solution, addresses this challenge by allowing manufacturers to "see everything" for full production visibility.
