Manufacturing Business Technology

• Microsoft, CoCreate say solutions act as umbrella for "perfect storm" in automotive
  
  By Staff, July 1, 2005
  David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research, Ann Arbor, Mich., says the auto industry is facing a "perfect storm" that may peak some time in the next year. Speaking at Breaking Point, an event sponsored by product life-cycle management (PLM) vendor CoCreate and held at the Microsoft offices in Southfield, Mich.
  
• You can't Google product data
  
  by Staff, July 1, 2005
  One look at Google's stock price tells you search technology is hot. And its popularity has a number of vendors looking to replicate Google's success—albeit on a smaller scale—by developing search engines that cater to niche markets. For instance, Product Sight sells search technology optimized for product life-cycle management (PLM).
  
• Product quality is looking up, thanks to PLM adoption
  
  by Staff, July 1, 2005
  The time and cost savings that can be achieved from adopting product life-cycle management (PLM) software are well documented. Now there is growing evidence that PLM adoption can improve product quality as well. "When you ask companies that are in the process of implementing PLM why they're doing it, a faster time-to-market is the usual answer," says Michael Burkett, a PLM director...
  
• Personalized Web pages lure customers, give sales staff instant feedback
  
  by Staff, July 1, 2005
  Palmyra, N.Y.-based Garlock Sealing Technologies, a $250-million manufacturer with 15 facilities in eight countries, sells, potentially at least, more than 100,000 possible fluid sealing solutions. Ensuring that updated information about this extensive product line is available to sales staff and customers has been a major challenge.
  
• Microsoft partner says "Axapta's just right" for verticals customization
  
  by Staff, July 1, 2005
  When Microsoft Business Solutions (MBS) announced it would rely on independent software vendors (ISVs) and value-added resellers (VARs) for vertical solutions, Junction Solutionsis what it had in mind. The Microsoft gold-certified business partner has expertise in both MBS's Axapta ERP system, and the food & beverage and multichannel retail verticals.
  
• Forward-thinking 3PL folds in lean Six Sigma
  
  by Staff, July 1, 2005
  Transplace, a third-party logistics (3PL) provider, has embarked on a lean Six Sigma program with an eye toward bringing the service to its customers as well. The result of the merger of the transportation business units of six of the largest publicly held truckload carriers, privately held Transplace is a full-service operation for logistics outsourcing, transportation management, ...
  
• Oracle upgrades J.D. Edwards World; says it wants to keep those users
  
  by Staff, July 1, 2005
  Oracle says the recently announced upgrade to the J.D. Edwards World package is evidence of its commitment to continue supporting all of the customers it acquired in its hostile takeover of PeopleSoft. The J.D. Edwards World customers were considered the most likely to be abandoned by Oracle, since that package runs on the IBM iSeries, a self-contained platform that includes its ...
  
• User may know best when it comes to reducing risk in enterprise systems projects
  
  by Staff, July 1, 2005
  Asuret, a Brookline, Mass.-based consulting firm, claims to have a solution for the problem of failed enterprise software implementations. It says the answer is to simply listen to the client. Rather than maintaining complete reliance on experts, this services provider says it trusts its clients to identify and use their own expertise, and supports that with the right project met...
  
• SOA figures prominently in SAP transformation
  
  by Staff, July 1, 2005
  SAP used its Sapphire 2005 user conference, held in Boston in May, to deliver a status check to 8,500 attendees regarding execution of the enterprise vendor's version of a plug-and-play service-oriented architecture (SOA). Partners clamoring aboard were in great evidence, including Microsoft, Intel, Cisco, and Hewlett-Packard.
  
• Software pricing preferences may be self-fulfilling prophecy
  
  by Staff, July 1, 2005
  The software industry has long been criticized for its pricing model, says San Francisco-based Sand Hill Group in its CEO Outlook report, a survey of executives of small to midsize software vendors. In response to these criticisms, some vendors have established subscription-based and value-based pricing, or use of application service providers (ASPs).
  
• RFID just wants to be free—or at least open
  
  by Staff, July 1, 2005
  Taking pages from the Linux and Apache playbooks, The RadioActive Foundation wants to bring open source to RFID. The brainchild of Canadian RFID systems integrator N4 Systems and supply chain management vendor Refactored Networks, the organization launched in June with the mission to accelerate EPCglobal standards adoption via open-source software, says Refactored Networks' CEO ...
  
• Too many "phish" in the corporate pool
  
  by Staff, July 1, 2005
  Heard of phishing? If so, you're ahead of two-thirds of your colleagues, according to a poll conducted by Rochester, N.Y.-based Harris Interactive and commissioned by Websense, a provider of solutions for managing employee Internet use. The survey, which included responses from more than 300 IT decision makers and 500 employees of organizations with at least 100 employees, reveal...
  
• Pharma expo puts stress on performance, security, and compliance
  
  by Staff, July 1, 2005
  Interphex 2005, a pharmaceutical conference and exposition held in New York in late April, showcased solutions and strategies for three top-of-mind issues that resonate across this and other sectors of the manufacturing industry. Production strategies While the manufacturing industry in general attempts to embrace lean to improve production processes, the pharma industry itself fin...
  
• Speech technology boosts the business case for a voice-directed WMS
  
  by Staff, July 1, 2005
  Voice-enabled computer applications are no longer strictly the stuff of science fiction. Still, the latest in speech technology—specifically, speech recognition and synthesis combined on a wearable, wireless computer connected to a warehouse management system (WMS)—just may leave you in awe.
  
• Siemens, SAP embrace ISA S95 standard to tie business and production processes
  
  by Staff, July 1, 2005
  Siemens Automation & Energy decided to bundle its first-ever North American manufacturing execution system (MES) conference with its Process Automation User Conference in May in Tampa, Fla., giving 500 joint attendees the opportunity to view the company's integrated portfolio vision, including links between the control and enterprise layers.
  
• Inaugural publication reveals secrets to success in China
  
  by Staff, July 1, 2005
  Last year, Singapore-based Inspire Publishing launched a partnership with the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade—or CCPIT—to coproduce the China Compass Series 2004/2005 of trade directories for key industries in China. Among Inspire's publications is Who's Who in China, a collection of biographies, success stories, and company networks.
  
• Revenue growth in 2004 seen as widespread across sectors
  
  by Staff, July 1, 2005
  An industry "report card" on 2004 manufacturing revenue growth confirms recovery was broadly spread across sectors, with some doing better than others. Framingham, Mass.-based Manufacturing Insights reviewed 240 domestic and international companies in nine industries to evaluate to what extent they have grown without any sacrifice in profits, and the degree of variability among c...
  
• Biggest offshoring wave set to break
  
  by Staff, July 1, 2005
  Automotive components, fabricated metals, and pharmaceuticals are among the manufacturing sectors set to become part of the next big wave in offshoring, according to a New York-based McKinsey Co. 2005 quarterly report. These are among the skills-intensive sectors that will augment the labor-intensive sector that drove the first wave.
  
• Users on IQMS: not your typical ERP company
  
  by Staff, July 1, 2005
  Enterprise vendor IQMS is a throwback to a bygone era—a time when it wasn't unusual for a software company president to double as lead programmer. If IQMS continues to grow at its current pace, however, the days of Randy Flam, company president and lead programmer, walking customers through the details of the latest product upgrades at the annual user conference may be numb...
  
• Collaborative hub gets a tune-up with cross-industry enhancements
  
  By Staff, June 1, 2005
  The Inventory Collaboration Hub (ICH)—integral to SAP's mySAP ERP and supply chain management (SCM) solutions—will soon include new industry-specific functionality, as well as the ability to run on SAP's NetWeaver browser-based platform. This all happens with the next revision of ICH, scheduled for release Q3 2005.