Apps-support overhaul nets efficiency gains for contract manufacturer
Roberto Michel, contributing editor -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 8/1/2004 6:00:00 AM
PEMSTAR's roster of packaged applications reads like a "Who's who" list of enterprise software for manufacturers: MAPICS for ERP, Agile Software for product record management, Datasweep for production management, and i2 Technologies for planning and sourcing optimization. With the power of those applications, however, also comes the complexity of supporting users spread across countries.
The direction that PEMSTAR, a Rochester, Minn.-based contract manufacturer, has taken is to put application-support specialists in regional sites so that its corporate IT staff can focus on strategic projects.
"Having a couple of experts for each region is more cost-effective than having a couple of people at each site," says Chris Towns, PEMSTAR's IT director for corporate applications. "Our central group for applications support can still step in if necessary, but a big benefit of the reorganization is that it frees us up from the day-to-day tasks of administering the applications."
The applications still reside on servers at PEMSTAR's data center, but a solution from Citrix Systems gives users access to those applications through whatever interface PEMSTAR's IT staff deems appropriate. Citrix calls its product an access infrastructure solution, and it has become a key enabler of PEMSTAR's application support strategy because it allows all applications to be deployed and managed from a central location.
With some applications, such as Datasweep's production management package, the access infrastructure is combined with wireless thin-client terminals that have no hard drives or local disks. "There are no moving parts in the thin clients," Towns says, "so they are clean-room friendly, very reliable, and very secure."
While PEMSTAR hasn't fully quantified the savings from the reorganization, there has been IT head-count reduction. Some engineers and manufacturing managers who had been turned into application support experts have returned to their original roles, while central applications experts are focusing on strategic projects such as combining bits of functionality from the Datasweep and Agile packages to create a better return materials authorization solution.
"We're getting away from the days of just implementing and upgrading software," says Towns. "We think of the applications almost as one family that we can draw on to meet most needs that arise. We look [at existing applications] first to see if there is functionality we can apply or extend to solve a problem."
