Manufacturing Business Technology

• 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.
  
• Package for MRP prioritization wins APICS' Innovation award
  
  By Staff, January 1, 2004
  The Innovation award at this year's APICS conference went to Systems Plus, a small software vendor that sells an add-on to existing MRP systems that helps get orders out on time. OTTO (On-Time Orders) extracts information from legacy systems into a separate data warehouse. There, it runs a procedure that tags every activity directly to the top-level demand—i.
  
• Invensys's Wonderware gets into hardware
  
  By Staff, January 1, 2004
  There's a certain irony in the announcement late last year that Wonderware, a plant intelligence software vendor, will begin selling PC-based hardware. After all, the vendor rose to prominence more than a decade ago on the value proposition that manufacturers could use basic PC hardware—paired with Wonderware's low-cost, Windows-based software—to handle supervisory control tasks.
  
• In Brief
  
  By Staff, January 1, 2004
  
  
• Upside production flexibility (UPF)
  
  By Staff, January 1, 2004
  Tracking upside production flexibility (UPF)—a metric within the Supply Chain Council's Supply Chain Operation Reference model, or SCOR—can tell you how responsive your supply chain is to a quantum change in demand. Specifically, UPF measures the number of days required to increase your manufacturing output by 20 percent and do it on a sustainable basis, says Rick Hoole, a lead dir...
  
• Geographical, .NET synergies, in Epicor's deal for Scala
  
  By Paul Mann, contributing editor, January 1, 2004
  If, as expected, regulators and shareholders sign off on a proposed $87-million deal, enterprise suite vendor Epicor Software Corp. will acquire enterprise suite vendor Scala Business Solutions during the first quarter of 2004. "The anticipated transaction will create an entity with approximately $250 million in annual revenues, and with more than 20,000 customers, which makes us the eleven...
  
• Web services could make life easier for vendors and users
  
  By Staff, January 1, 2004
  The emergence of Web services promises to make it easier for merging software vendors—like Epicor and Scala—to blend their separate product lines. That means users shouldn't have to worry about being pressured to buy a whole new set of applications every time one of their vendors is acquired.
  
• Time for a technology prediction
  
  By Staff, January 1, 2004
  Robert Northrup, design and development director with Tallán, a professional services firm in Glastonbury, Conn., says in 2004 companies will better harness network computing power: "As companies look for ways to increase productivity, I think the distributed computing model will catch on in more places," says Northrup.
  
• Siemens to acquire IndX Software
  
  By Staff, January 1, 2004
  Siemens will acquire IndX Software Corp.—the provider of XHQ, an application for real-time operations intelligence—for an undisclosed amount. IndX will become part of Siemens Energy & Automation. "For the customer, the factory is a bottleneck," says Dietmar Siersdorfer, senior VP of manufacturing execution solutions, Siemens Industrial Solutions & Services (I&S) organiz...
  
• Comdex not what it used to be
  
  By Staff, January 1, 2004
  The fall Comdex event in Las Vegas has long been considered the granddaddy of all high-tech trade shows. But this past November, a long-time Vegas cab driver cracked that, "They held a trade show and nobody came." That's not entirely true. Regulars such as Microsoft chairman Bill Gates and Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy were there—delivering their customary dueling keynote speeches.
  
• Rockwell's leader sees rebound, with software key to growth
  
  By Staff, January 1, 2004
  Rockwell Automation celebrated its 100th year at its Automation Fair in Milwaukee in late November, but it also had another reason to celebrate: an upturn in the global manufacturing economy. Speaking at the event's media summit, Donald H. Davis, CEO of the plant automation hardware and software giant, said recent positive economic news coincides with improvement in Rockwell's demand picture.
  
• Agile, IBM, others take PLM in green direction
  
  Jim Brown, contributing editor, January 1, 2004
  Recent regulations—such as those for Waste of Electronic and Electrical Equipment (WEEE), and Restrictions on Hazardous Substances (RoHS) in electronics—increase manufacturers' responsibilities for product-related environmental impact. Companies are scrambling to meet this new level of scrutiny, and product life-cycle management (PLM) software vendors—given that their systems ...
  
• Up and running
  
  By Staff, January 1, 2004
  Enigma reports MTU Aero Engines' Zuhai facility in China is MTU's second maintenance, repair and overhaul facility to come online for real-time access to maintenance and parts information for five engine lines. Enigma integrates content, commerce, and collaboration in its 3C Support Chain Platform to deliver product information to the point of work.
  
• Vendors and users back group seeking common method for sharing product data models
  
  By Staff, January 1, 2004
  A coalition consisting of both developers and users of product life-cycle management (PLM) technology has formed what amounts to a standards body in hopes of forging a single method for creating, storing, and sharing product data models. UGS PLM Solutions (formerly EDS PLM Solutions) spearheaded formation of this group, which is called JT Open.
  
• Management moves
  
  By Staff, January 1, 2004
  Product life-cycle management vendor Aras Corp. has appointed Rick Lucier to CEO. Lucier was instrumental in growing Innoveda, a electronic design automation company, from $50 million to $110 million in annual sales. Senior management roles at Innoveda, Viewlogic Systems, and Synopsys included president, COO, and group VP.
  
• EU steps up mandated end-of-PLM; impact on U.S. not clear
  
  Staff, December 1, 2003
  Global manufacturers wanting to do business in the European Union (EU) must increasingly address end of product life, based on two directives that became effective February 2003. The Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment (WEEE) and the Reduction of Hazard Substances (RoHS) directives require EU member states to put in place and enforce collection programs for products ranging from toys and ...
  
• De-emphasizing ERP, Emerson and Lockheed don't ignore integration needs
  
  Staff, December 1, 2003
  Global manufacturers that believed even a few years ago that a sound enterprise strategy meant commitment to a single ERP suite now say integration technology will allow use of multiple ERP systems for the foreseeable future, without penalty. But these same companies see no less business reasons for enterprise integration, and they believe cost savings and revenue growth will follow from their ...
  
• Says here distributors and manufacturers don't like each other
  
  Staff, December 1, 2003
  A recent survey of industrial distributor operations by Industrial Distribution magazine and Philadelphia-based Pembroke Consulting reveals relations between distributors and their manufacturing suppliers are becoming more strained at the same time they're becoming more collaborative. For example, distributors view only 15 percent of manufacturers as "true partners.
  
• Wal-Mart is a change-agent for U.S. manufacturers
  
  Staff, December 1, 2003
  The success of Wal-Mart is having a profound impact on manufacturing strategies, the pace of globalization, and productivity. Economists are surprised that productivity gains have continued during the economic downturn that began in 2001. More recently this pace has even accelerated, as the following quote from The Wall Street Journal makes clear: The Labor department reported that the product...
  
• New team at Camstar has cure for medical device maker ills
  
  Staff, December 1, 2003
  Camstar, a manufacturing execution system (MES) vendor that's been around since the mid-1980s, is, like at least several other manufacturing applications vendors, focusing increasing energy on the medical device industry—and more generally on life sciences as a whole. The reason is simple. Because of its highly regulated nature, medical device manufacture clearly benefits from automated ...