Manufacturing Business Technology

• Application modernization: HP promises a clear path for legacy system upgrades
  
  Sidney Hill, Jr., executive editor, May 19, 2008
  Hewlett-Packard says it now has a way of letting companies literally see the right path to take when it comes to updating legacy systems. If the methodology works as advertised, it could spur a cycle of companies super charging aging applications that still perform critical business functions albeit at less than optimum speeds.
  
  
• Lean IT: New migration tools turn legacy systems into strategic weapons
  
  Paul Hollingsworth, Celona Technologies, May 19, 2008
  Two-thirds of CIOs believe strategic use of IT is critical to a business’s ability to innovate, according to a recent survey by Capgemini Consulting. But the same survey also revealed that only 25 percent of CIOs feel their IT function is actually driving business innovation. So why aren’t more IT departments supporting business innovation effectively?
  
  
• Lean replenishment: Wireless asset tracking system eliminates parts shortages
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, May 19, 2008
  GETRAG FORD Transmissions, a German company that deliver more than one million transmissions annually to major automotive manufacturers around the world, says its lean-oriented parts replenishment process is more efficient following deployment of a wireless asset tracking system. 
  
• Gartner report: Companies buying more IT services, even in down markets
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, May 19, 2008
  Worldwide IT services revenue totaled $748 billion in 2007, a 10.5 percent increase from 2006 revenue of $677 billion, according to Gartner, Inc.
  
• Economic trends: Manufacturers in upstate New York see both sides of globalization
  
  Kevin G. Hall, McClatchy Newspapers, May 19, 2008
  Midstate Spring has made coiled wire forms and precision for nearly seven decades. But the soaring price it pays for steel and copper wire is set by global supply and demand trends, and that's put Midstate in a world of hurt. Across town, a scrap yard operated by Metalico Syracuse Inc. is enjoying good fortune. It sells mostly to nearby mills such as Nucor Steel in Auburn, N.Y., not to foreign countries, yet it nets a rising global price. Welcome to the increasingly complicated world of international trade.
  
• Executive survey: Globalization is inevitable, but mostly positive, development
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, May 19, 2008
  Globalization is viewed by top executives at leading organizations around the world as an inevitable—and mostly positive—business challenge, according to an in-depth study of business leaders conducted by EquaTerra and World 50.
  
  
• Help wanted: Online job board is dedicated exclusively to PLM in manufacturing
  
  Jim Fulcher, contributing editor, May 19, 2008
  One of the ways to satisfy users’ high expectations for online search capabilities is to be able to refine the searches—and, therefore, the results. PLMjobs.com is doing just that. Launched May 17 and dedicated solely to product life-cycle management (PLM)-related positions, the Web site was created to help manufacturers quickly find qualified employees—and help workers find positions.
  
  
• Lighthouse streamlines SPC data collection for plastic products maker
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, May 19, 2008
  Novapak will use Lighthouse's Shopfloor-Online to automate its SPC data collection and reporting for five production facilities in the U.S.
  
  
• SC transformation: Sigma Electric chooses John Galt for planning solution
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, May 19, 2008
  Using the Atlas Planning Suite, the contract manufacturer will profit from a supply chain planning solution that improves forecast accuracy and reduces inventory levels.
  
• Enterprise software: Users say what makes a well-designed application
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, May 14, 2008
  In a recent international survey of more than 1,000 business IT users, carried out on behalf of enterprise solutions supplier IFS, more than one-third of respondents identified the Web as providing the most intuitive user experience. Only one in five cited business applications used in the workplace as easy to use—well behind the Web and email applications (27 percent).
  
• Corporate management: i2 Technologies names permanent CEO
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, May 14, 2008
  i2 Technologies announced its board of directors has named Dr. Pallab K. Chatterjee i2 chief executive officer (CEO). Chatterjee has been the Company's interim CEO since July 31, 2007.
  
• Mobile intelligence: Cognos analytics now available on BlackBerry devices 
  
  Reuters, May 14, 2008
  IBM says it has started selling software that lets customers access its Cognos business intelligence software via BlackBerry mobile devices.
  
• Corporate mergers: HP’s Hurd, known as Mr. Fix-it, takes gamble with EDS
  
  Brandon Bailey, San Jose Mercury News, California, May 14, 2008
  Buying a once-struggling tech-services company for nearly $14 billion may be Mark Hurd's biggest gamble since taking the helm at Hewlett-Packard in 2005. It's definitely HP's biggest acquisition since Hurd's predecessor, Carly Fiorina, acquired Compaq for $19 billion in 2002.
  
  
• Fresh slices: Irish bakery goes live with Lawson ERP; gets early notice of benefits
  
  Malcolm Wheatley, senior contributing editor, Portadown, County Armagh,, May 14, 2008
  On the point of going live with a pre-configured food-industry variant of Lawson Software’s M3 enterprise suite, Irwin’s Bakery—Northern Ireland's largest independent baker—finds itself in the comfortable position of having highly specific expectations about the impact of its new software suite.
  
• Research report: Demand for collaboration driving digital asset management market
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, May 12, 2008
  A new study from ABI Research forecasts the global market for Digital Asset Management (DAM) solutions—the use of software and hardware to store, organize, retrieve, and distribute the world's exploding volume of digital media files—to top $1 billion in 2013. The demand for business-related collaboration is expected to fuel  much of this growth.
  
• Mergers and acquisitions: Battery Ventures buying HighJump Software from 3M
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, May 12, 2008
  Supply Chain execution solution vendor HighJump Software will soon cease to be a 3M company. The Minnesota-based industrial conglomerate is selling HighJump to Battery Ventures. 
  
• Global trade report: WTO to push China on intellectual property rights protection
  
  Japan Economic Newswire, May 12, 2008
  The World Trade Organization has drawn up a report urging China to enhance steps to protect intellectual property rights with stiffer fines and criminal penalties for offenders, according to a copy of the report obtained by Kyodo News shows. 
  
• Government policies: NAM sides with Republicans on energy plan
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, May 12, 2008
  The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) has praised an energy plan offered by Republican Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky while criticizing a proposal from Senator Harry Reid, a Democrat from Nevada. 
  
• Intelligent installations: Qualcomm connectivity services let OEMs build out smarter machines
  
  Frank O Smith, senior contributing editor, May 12, 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.
  
• BPTrends advisory: Research confirms gaps in BPM maturity
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, May 12, 2008
  The State of Business Process Management 2008 report concludes that most enterprises are at CMMI Level 2 in terms of adoption; that the majority of respondents believe that their current business processes are only “occasionally” or “never” supported by existing applications; and interest in business process management (BPM) suites grows dramatically year-over-year.