Manufacturing Business Technology

• CMS Manufacturing joins IBM's ISV Advantage initiative
  
  By Staff, February 1, 2004
  With an eye on enhanced Web-based transaction processing, ERP vendor CMS Manufacturing Systems has joined IBM's ISV Advantage program, which targets independent software vendors (ISVs) with technical and marketing support to meet the IT needs of small and medium-size businesses. CMS Manufacturing targets participants in "lean" supply chains characterized by tight relationships, as found in a...
  
• ERP vendors ride medical device surge
  
  By Staff, February 1, 2004
  Rapidly evolving technology in medical devices and an aging U.S. population with rising health care needs have converged to make medical devices one of the fastest-growing manufacturing verticals. While vendors of manufacturing execution systems are zeroing in on the needs of these manufacturers, ERP vendors also are paying increased attention to the sector.
  
• ABB fires salvo in architecture war
  
  By Roberto Michel, editor, February 1, 2004
  Over the past year, Invensys has been pushing its software architecture as hard as any of the major plant automation vendors, but Dinesh Paliwal, an executive VP with rival ABB, and head of its $8.5-billion Automation Technologies business, isn't about to cede leadership to anyone. At a recent ABB media day introducing its new 800xA automation system, built on ABB's Industrial IT architecture...
  
• You can't know the players without a scorecard
  
  By Staff, February 1, 2004
  FreeMarkets is buying the sourcing & services assets of Covisint, an e-business service provider to the automotive industry. Covisint will transfer its customer contracts for auction services to FreeMarkets. Long term, FreeMarkets will serve DaimlerChrysler, GM, and Ford using FreeMarkets' own sourcing technology and services.
  
• JDS Uniphase and ClearOrbit extend Oracle "single data model" to outsourcing partners
  
  By Staff, January 1, 2004
  Fiber-optic components maker JDS Uniphase (JDSU)—with the help of independent software vendor ClearOrbit—is "extending" its Oracle enterprise suite so that six key contract manufacturers around the world interact directly with JDSU ERP via Web pages and Web services APIs. Doing so puts San Jose, Calif.
  
• The politics of productivity
  
  By Staff, January 1, 2004
  These facts exist among the year-end statistics touching on manufacturing, high-tech services, imports & exports, and the recovering U.S. economy:
  
• CDC Software seeks edge in China enterprise system markets
  
  By Staff, January 1, 2004
  It's often said business in China is driven by personal relationships. For that reason, numerous enterprise vendors currently active in China already have local operations in place. Now, Hong Kong-based chinadotcom Corp.—and its wholly owned subsidiary, CDC Software—have gone one step further.
  
• ABB merges "six into three" for sharpened automation tech focus
  
  By Staff, January 1, 2004
  Leading power and automation technology group ABB says it will merge its six automation business areas into three globally focused businesses effective January 1, 2004. The move continues an evolution that began in late 2002 when the group merged two automation-related divisions and combined 11 business areas into six.
  
• Cleansing data helps Longview Fibre wash out excess MRO costs
  
  By Staff, January 1, 2004
  When Longview Fibre, Longview, Wash., decided to run maintenance repair & overhaul (MRO) operations for all 17 of its plants on a single enterprise software system, management knew the change would not yield the expected productivity improvements, nor cost savings, unless the data contained in the company's existing system could be rationalized.
  
• IT by the numbers
  
  By Staff, January 1, 2004
  A survey of 549 senior executives at North American companies showed a slight inclination toward increased IT spending among manufacturing and distribution companies in 2004.
  
• Single sign-on applications save money, boost security
  
  By Staff, January 1, 2004
  Password proliferation—another byproduct of the Internet age—is more than just a nuisance to harried workers. It can drain productivity and threaten network security. Industry experts estimate that the average worker in a company with 50 or more employees has to remember between five and 20 passwords.
  
• Vendor publishes benchmarking results; the competition objects
  
  By Staff, January 1, 2004
  When enterprise application integration vendor Sonic Software published what it describes as a routine report outlining how its products stack up against a particular competitor, Sonic soon found itself facing off with that competitor in court. The competitor, TIBCO Software, filed suit in California Superior Court alleging that Sonic's publication of the report constitutes an unfair and dece...
  
• BI could be worth more if you spread it around
  
  By Staff, January 1, 2004
  Business intelligence (BI) software vendors argue that the value of their systems increases as the number of users within a company expands. And that idea is sparking a change in the makeup of BI software suites. Traditional BI packages were built for business analysts or "power users" who knew how to get the data they needed out of back-end systems.
  
• Pencil maker says software package verifies the value of IT investments
  
  By Staff, January 1, 2004
  Most companies believe information technology is a sound investment, but Dixon Ticonderoga—a manufacturer of pencils, pens, and art supplies based in Heathrow, Fla.—says it has a tool that can verify the business value of a company's IT spending. Garrett Grainger, Dixon Ticonderoga's CIO, says this tool worked so well in helping his department plan the IT budget for a recently open...
  
• Change management software can create orderly upgrade cycles
  
  By Staff, January 1, 2004
  Enterprise software is seldom, if ever, static. Both packaged applications and custom systems must grow and change as business needs evolve. And in the current business climate—where companies are constantly fine-tuning their business models—managing software upgrades is becoming an important discipline.
  
• Big gains found in warehouse overhaul
  
  By Alex Anderson, contributing editor, January 1, 2004
  With growth in the electronics industry flat or negative for several years, Avnet knew it had to generate significant internal efficiencies to maintain its dominant market position. The company—one of the world's largest distributors of semiconductors and other computer components, with $9.2 billion in annual revenue—accomplished this goal, and also dramatically improved productiv...
  
• In Brief
  
  By Staff, January 1, 2004
  
  
• Market logic behind Siemens' buy of IndX
  
  By Dan Sussman, contributing editor, January 1, 2004
  IndX Software Corp.'s second annual user conference was dominated by the announcement that plant automation giant Siemens is acquiring IndX (see Views from the front, page 9, for more), which offers software for operations intelligence. The past year was a good one for IndX, as it landed new customers interested in using Web technology to tap into real-time plant-floor data and turn it into u...
  
• When it comes to spreadsheets, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em
  
  By Staff, January 1, 2004
  Nothing ticks off anyone who believes in enterprise systems as "the single source of truth" more than the covert proliferation of rogue spreadsheets. Their ubiquity has led others to label Microsoft Excel as the world's most popular planning tool. In the pioneering spirit of "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em," demand planning vendor John Galt Solutions delivers its forecasting tool as an Exc...
  
• TRW, others evolve with vendors
  
  Paul Mann, contributing editor, January 1, 2004
  The past decade was marked by the rapid adoption of ERP as a manufacturer's core transactional system. This decade, however, is shaping up as an era of slower evolution, around the ERP backbone. That may involve companies moving to newer platforms, but sticking with the same vendor. Just ask Joe Drouin, VP and CIO at TRW Automotive, Livonia, Mich.