Manufacturing Business Technology

• UGS says new solution will broaden the product design community
  
  By Staff, February 1, 2004
  In an attempt to feed the growing desire for sharing product-related data with non-engineering groups, UGS PLM Solutions has created a version of its Teamcenter product-data management (PDM) application that runs inside the Microsoft Office suite. The new product is called Teamcenter Community. William Meredith, VP of Teamcenter Global Services, says this application is "very IT friendly" bec...
  
• ILOG now selling plug-ins to extend the power of supply chain applications
  
  By Staff, February 1, 2004
  For years, ILOG has supplied the optimization engines that power the supply chain management modules of enterprise software suites from major vendors such as SAP and Oracle. Now ILOG wants to generate additional revenue by building semi-custom applications that augment the enterprise vendors' supply chain systems.
  
• Don't gamble with your choice of standards
  
  By Staff, February 1, 2004
  Sooner or later, virtually every company will find itself engaged in some form of e-commerce, and doing so will require adherence to one or more standards for passing data between business partners. Many vendors—including suppliers of ERP, supply chain management, and other applications typically used by manufacturers and distributors—claim that documents or data generated in their ...
  
• ABB expands integration push with 800xA
  
  By Roberto Michel, editor, February 1, 2004
  ABB was one of the first plant automation system vendors to introduce an integration architecture, but lately, its rivals have been making architecture announcements while ABB has been fairly quiet. The reason for the reserve, as ABB's top automation executive explained at a press conference Jan. 7, was that it was waiting to release System 800xA, a new software framework for plant automation...
  
• Descartes poised to turn vision into reality
  
  By Alex Anderson, contributing editor, February 1, 2004
  Descartes Systems Group has long been recognized as a visionary in the logistics execution space. While that vision has failed to turn into steady profits, the company now says its technology investments have reached the point where they are about to pay off. "We have turned a corner," Manuel Pietra, Descartes' president and CEO, commented at Descartes Directions, a press and analyst event he...
  
• Vendors enter Microsoft Business Solutions "ecosystem"
  
  By Paul Mann, contributing editor, February 1, 2004
  Microsoft Business Solutions (MBS) isn't quite yet the 800-pound gorilla of the midmarket ERP segment, but already other software vendors are lining up to become part of the "ecosystem" surrounding its ERP offerings, which include Great Plains, Navision, and Axapta. One of those vendors is CIMNET, provider of the Factelligence manufacturing execution system (MES) solution.
  
• Planning vendors renew efforts at vertical approach
  
  By Staff, February 1, 2004
  Every supply chain performs the same essential task—fulfilling demand as efficiently and quickly as possible—but beyond that, there are big differences. An electronics industry supply chain faces a different set of constraints than a consumer packaged goods company or an industrial equipment maker.
  
• Tight times elevate Six Sigma ends over means
  
  By Staff, February 1, 2004
  In the 15 years since Motorola introduced the Six Sigma concept for quality improvement, thousands of companies around the world have embraced it and spent untold amounts of money on Six Sigma consultants, training, and related expenses. But with executives demanding that every investment deliver quick returns, some companies now are taking sober, carefully measured steps in embarking on Six ...
  
• AIAG makes progress with IV&I project
  
  By Staff, February 1, 2004
  This month the Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG) expects to complete initial testing as part of the proof of concept on its Inventory Visibility and Interoperability (IV&I) project—an ambitious program that will provide suppliers and OEMs with standards that cut across proprietary inventory management systems and help solve supply chain communication issues.
  
• In Brief
  
  By Staff, February 1, 2004
  
  
• Total Supply Chain Cost
  
  By Staff, February 1, 2004
  Total supply chain cost is considered one of the most difficult metrics to track. However, the potential rewards for getting a firm grip on this metric within the Supply Chain Council's Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model are staggering. "It is estimated that reducing the cost of your supply chain by 1 percent can be the equivalent of increasing revenues from 4 to 12 percent," says S...
  
• Mad Cow heightens lot tracking, but is ERP up to snuff?
  
  By Staff, February 1, 2004
  The discovery of Mad Cow disease in the U.S. late last year may trigger tougher traceability requirements, which will cause meat processors and others in the food industry to take a closer look at lot and batch tracking capabilities. However, say experts, the industry's tracking requirements aren't easily solved by most ERP systems.
  
• Datasweep stresses operations tie to WEEE regulations
  
  By Staff, February 1, 2004
  Product life-cycle management (PLM) vendors may have been the first to jump on compliance with Europe's Waste of Electronic and Electrical Equipment (WEEE) regulations, but they aren't the only ones stressing WEEE. Datasweep says the ability of its Advantage operations performance management suite to gather detailed product information addresses WEEE.
  
• HighJump CEO: no blind leap in 3M deal
  
  By Staff, February 1, 2004
  Chris Heim, CEO of supply chain execution software vendor HighJump Software, says the January 5 announcement that 3M will acquire HighJump for an undisclosed amount differs from recent consolidation moves in the enterprise software market. Heim says that most recent deals involve one software vendor buying up another, and then paring down staffs to achieve cost savings.
  
• SAP unveils first RFID-based supply chain package
  
  By Staff, February 1, 2004
  SAP is the first large enterprise software supplier to release a supply chain management solution that works with RFID technology. The core of this product is a piece of middleware called the SAP Auto ID Infrastructure. This infrastructure includes a rule-based engine that evaluates data picked up by RFID readers and determines which business systems should receive the data.
  
• It's shop floor, then top floor, for growth of Web services
  
  By Staff, February 1, 2004
  Most of the buzz around Web services is the potential for linking up companies that want to engage in e-commerce. But some industry experts believe Web services could show their true value faster on shop floors than at the enterprise level. One of those experts is Ron Sielinski, Microsoft's senior technical strategist for manufacturing solutions.
  
• Up and running
  
  By Staff, February 1, 2004
  Edwards Lifesciences is live with Precision Software's TRA/X trade logistics solution to streamline exporting and compliance processes, and automate export activity. Edwards is the No. 1 heart valve company in the world, and the global leader in acute hemodynamic monitoring. Goodrich Corp.'s aircraft wheel & brake services team has upgraded its Avexus Impresa implementation to version 7...
  
• Business Objects says integration with Crystal Decisions to follow road less traveled
  
  By Staff, February 1, 2004
  Business Objects has released a "roadmap" for integrating its business analysis applications with the query and reporting tools it picked up when it acquired Crystal Decisions. "We've spent the last six months getting input from customers [including manufacturers] to steer future product plans," Lance Walter, a Business Objects product director, recently told MSI.
  
• U.S. leads world in IT exports and imports, comprehensive study shows
  
  By Frank O. Smith, contributing editor, February 1, 2004
  According to the fifth annual Department of Commerce report—The Digital Economy, released in December 2003—the U.S. remains the world's largest exporter of IT goods and services, despite also experiencing the 13th consecutive year of IT foreign trade deficit—a record $86 billion for the year.
  
• Commerce Department official lambastes U.S. lack of manufacturing vision
  
  By Frank O. Smith, contributing editor, February 1, 2004
  Based on an official transcript released under a Freedom of Information Act request, politics of productivity were top-of-mind at The Future Face of Manufacturing roundtable sponsored by the Department of Commerce last summer. The event was limited to two-dozen attendees and was closed to the media.