Manufacturing Business Technology

• Front-end sales tool brings newfound simplicity to complex products manufacture
  
  By Jim Fulcher, contributing editor (jimfulcher@comcast.net), June 1, 2008
  Just because a company makes complex products doesn't mean configuring a sales proposal or a sales order needs to be complicated. Unfortunately, complexity is too often the case for sales in high-tech, industrial equipment, health care, and software/services. But that's not the case for best-in-class companies, which typically employ sales processes and technology that enable their sales forces...
  
• Beyond spreadsheets: Price management needs dedicated tools; market space still being defined
  
  By Karen Dilger, contributing editor (kadilger@comcast.net), June 1, 2008
  Despite the importance of price as the determinator of revenue and profit, many companies remain baffled by the complexity of managing the pricing process, and fail to dedicate the necessary resources to the issue. While the outlines of the fledgling pricing software space are somewhat murky, many organizations are ready to improve their pricing programs.
  
• Feel IT: Microsoft wants to earn your love for Dynamics
  
  By Frank O Smith (fosmith@thewritinggroup.com), June 1, 2008
  Can users really love a business application? Jakob Nielsen, principal user experience manager, Microsoft Dynamics, asserts unequivocally you can. “There's usability, and then there's desirability,” Nielsen explains. “Designing the user experience isn't just about making business applications usable, but making people love them.
  
• Outsourcing Central: IQMS enterprise module schedules SC movement; monitors work status
  
  By Jim Fulcher, contributing editor (jimfulcher@comcast.net), June 1, 2008
  The practice of outsourcing certain aspects of production is proving vital in certain industries. In fact, data out of Boston-based AMR Research suggests a confluence of economic, technology, and political factors that, when combined, will drive growth of logistics and greater supply chain outsourcing.
  
• SAP SCM enhancements seek to simplify partner ecosystem interactions
  
  By Jim Fulcher, contributing editor (jimfulcher@comcast.net), June 1, 2008
  Adapting to changing market conditions is considerably easier said than done when the business network includes global employees, suppliers, customers, partners, and distributors. That's why SAP will release a next-generation supply chain management solution later this year, one that is being developed with customers to address supply chain responsiveness and integration with partner ecosystems.
  
• Qualcomm wireless connectivity services let OEMs build out smarter machines
  
  Frank O Smith, senior contributing editor, June 1, 2008
  OEMs for industrial and other type machines are beginning to appreciate the opportunity to differentiate their offerings in the market by embedding intelligence in their products, as well as the means to communicate over vast distances to enable greater product uptime and service. Companies like Gardner Denver, John Deere, and ABB are turning to Qualcomm for assistance in providing the wired a...
  
• Next-gen DCS doubles as control system and “information hub”
  
  By Sidney Hill, Jr., executive editor (shill@reedbusiness.com), June 1, 2008
  Yokogawa Electric Corp. says the next generation of its CENTUM distributed control system (DCS) illustrates how the DCS is evolving from a single-purpose tool for managing production processes to take on the dual role of plant information hub. The next-generation Yokogawa DCS, dubbed CENTUM VP, is scheduled for release mid-June.
  
• History-free and feature-based: Siemens PLM Software unfurls its Synchronous Technology banner
  
  By Frank O Smith, senior contributing editor (fosmith@thewritinggroup.com), June 1, 2008
  Eager to keep market interest whetted following its $3.5-billion acquisition of UGS early last year and subsequent announcement of its Project Archimedes manufacturing initiative last summer, Siemens PLM Software heralded its April 2008 announcement of Synchronous Technology (ST) as “the next big breakthrough” in digital product development.
  
• Interop/Software 2008 addresses distributed performance challenges inherent to PLM
  
  By Kevin Parker, editorial director, June 1, 2008
  It's impossible to miss the fact that large global enterprises as well as midsize manufacturing companies have been centralizing their IT resources for several years now. They do so not only for the projected economies of scale, but to ease compliance management across multiple fronts. With systems scattered the world over, “Companies didn't know where their servers were, and they didn't ...
  
• BPM for dummies: New book demystifies business process management
  
  By Sidney Hill Jr., executive editor, June 1, 2008
  Business process management (BPM) is a popular topic at manufacturing and supply chain conferences. But it appears that industry executives still have more questions than answers when it comes to understanding BPM. That particular fact inspired an addition to the widely known “for Dummies” book series.
  
• Looming skills shortage prompts innovative workforce retention and recruiting strategies
  
  By Frank O Smith (fosmith@thewritinggroup.com), June 1, 2008
  A shortage of highly skilled manufacturing workers—the people running sophisticated equipment on the plant floor, as well as engineering and management professionals—poses a serious threat for North American industrial competitiveness. The shortage lies in the demographics as legions of baby boomers near retirement.
  
• It's a pattern: SAS buys text mining specialist Teragram
  
  By Tony Baer, senior contributing editor (tbaer@tbaer.com), June 1, 2008
  Extending its coverage from statistical to text analytics, business intelligence (BI) specialist SAS Institute has acquired Teragram, a 40-person organization based in Cambridge, Mass. The deal, which brings SAS the kinds of natural language analytic tools it has lacked, will allow the company to first focus on analytic applications targeting customer touch points, such as warranty and afterma...
  
• Ayoka brings American business acumen to apps development, systems integration
  
  By William Atkinson, contributing editor (w.atkinson@mchsi.com), June 1, 2008
  The U.S. manufacturing industry has lost its share of jobs to overseas competition, so when these companies seek outsourcing assistance, they may well prefer to work with U.S. partners. Arlington, Texas-based Ayoka offers an affordable onshore alternative for software outsourcing, targeting underserved industries such as manufacturing.
  
• Statutory and custom-designed remedies speed the learning curve
  
  By Thomas J. Hall, Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, June 1, 2008
  In the legal world, a “remedy” is a tool available when a contract goes bad, when one party cannot, or will not, fulfill its obligations. Contract law provides a set of statutory or “default” remedies that are available to everyone, and that apply to all contracts, unless the parties agree otherwise.
  
• Durable goods unshipped orders hits new high; inventory increases raise red flag
  
  By Industry Monitoring Service, Prevel Consulting, June 1, 2008
  Based on preliminary U.S. Census Bureau data for the period March 2008, the economy continued to grow in the first quarter at a tepid rate of 0.6 percent. This is consistent with the signals for durable goods and retail industries that Prevel has been tracking for some time: As has been the case since last year when the media drumbeat began, the vision of imminent economic collapse isn't suppo...
  
• RFID partnership: OATSystems and Cisco collaborating on solutions
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, May 30, 2008
  OATSystems is collaborating with Cisco Systems to integrate Cisco’s just announced Context-aware Mobility Solution with its own OATindustrial RFID applications, including its Asset Tracking and Work-in-Process solutions. The combination should enable OAT customers to seamlessly run their mission-critical RFID applications over the Cisco Unified Wireless Network today and virtually any wireless network in the future.
  
• Process outsourcing: Siemens to manage NIKE’s IT operations
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, May 30, 2008
  Siemens IT Solutions and Services has been awarded a 5-year contract to provide end-user outsourcing services to NIKE, Inc., the world's leading designer, marketer, and distributor of athletic footwear, apparel, equipment, and accessories.
  
• Wireless applications: Qualcomm connectivity services enable smarter machines
  
  Frank O Smith, contributing editor, May 30, 2008
  Manufacturers of industrial equipment and other type machines are beginning to appreciate the opportunity to differentiate their offerings in the market by embedding intelligence in their products, as well as the means to communicate over vast distances to enable greater product uptime and service. Companies like Gardner Denver, John Deere, and ABB are turning to Qualcomm for assistance in providing the wired and wireless network technology and intelligence to connect equipment anywhere in the world.
  
• Process management: MES/ERP blend yields performance improvement at Berner Foods
  
  Roberto Michel, senior contributing editor, May 30, 2008
  Getting a grip on real-time plant information without being locked into a custom-coded manufacturing execution system (MES) is giving rise to a whole new generation of plant intelligence solutions. For Dakota, Ill.-based Berner Foods, a configurable plant performance management system led to a 20-percent improvement in plant efficiency.
  
  
• Optimum speed: HP application modernization promises a clear path for legacy system upgrades
  
  , May 29, 2008
  Hewlett-Packard says it now has a way of letting companies see the right path to take when it comes to updating legacy systems. If the methodology works as promised, it could spur a cycle of companies supercharging aging applications that still perform critical business functions—albeit at albeit at less-than-optimum speeds.