Manufacturing Business Technology

• Nalco masters data governance with quality management tool
  
  By Frank O Smith (fosmith@thewritinggroup.com), May 1, 2008
  With operations around the globe and more than 70,000 customers in 130 countries, data quality ended up being the hot button in Nalco Company's migration to a single global instance of SAP. “Data governance is a critical issue for the company. Quality data is a key asset,” says Charlon Franklin, senior data steward analyst for the Naperville, Ill.
  
• Automotive SOA exchanges live information between plant floor, enterprise solutions
  
  By Jim Fulcher (jimfulcher@comcast.net), May 1, 2008
  The sticking point when trying to connect the top floor with the shop floor is they usually aren't on the same common platform or infrastructure, claims Fred Yentz, COO, ILS Technology LLC. “What makes matters worse,” he says, “is manufacturers don't want custom middleware.” But for some companies in the automotive industry, that's changing due to collaboration starting ...
  
• SOA pinpoints links between services and business processes
  
  By Staff, May 1, 2008
  Progress Software says its Actional suite of service-oriented architecture (SOA) management software offers new ability to understand and manage the relationships between individual services and complete business processes. “As SOA makes its way more deeply into the fabric of enterprise infrastructures, increased visibility, governance, and security are even more important,” says Da...
  
• Lean sourcing: Automotive supplier develops protocol for cutting procurement costs
  
  By Ann Avery, contributing editor (ann@averywriting.com), May 1, 2008
  The cut-costs mantra doesn't let up in the automotive industry, and original equipment manufacturers (OEM) continue to turn to their suppliers to help alleviate the margin crunch. While suppliers may already have pared their own costs down to the bone, opportunities may still exist in the gaps covered by lean sourcing applications and associated best practices.
  
• Good deal: Web-based marketplace takes back, serves up surplus equipment and parts
  
  By Staff, May 1, 2008
  Industrial repair and spare parts mark the sweet spot for Ann Arbor, Mich.-based SurplusTrack.com. A Web-based marketplace, SurplusTrack.com offers companies a way to remove surplus or obsolete parts both from their books and physical premises. “We maintain a warehouse because many clients are looking for someone to quantify their goods and remove them from their floor space to keep them...
  
• Metal finisher enjoys real-time costs picture from ERP for the order-driven business
  
  By Malcolm Wheatley, senior contributing editor (malcolm_wheatley@compuserve.com), May 1, 2008
  When Rosler Metal Finishing hung out its shingle in Battle Creek, Mich., in 1999, its enterprise application needs were relatively few. As a manufacturer and distributor of machine tool consumables on behalf of its German parent company, Rösler GmbH, simple spreadsheets and a basic accounting package cut the mustard.
  
• Outsourcing maintenance opens up plant availability for Tier 1 auto supplier
  
  By Jim Fulcher (jimfulcher@comcast.net), May 1, 2008
  The decision for Griffin, Ga.-based Nacom Corp., an electronic assembly supplier to automotive OEMs, to relocate to Mexico wasn't an easy one. The most pressing priority leading up to the move was building sufficient stock inventory to meet customers' requirements during the transition—even though the plant was closing.
  
• Above and beyond: ATS goes the extra mile to serve Reservist employees
  
  By Staff, May 1, 2008
  The Illinois Committee for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR), an agency of the Department of Defense, recently gave Peoria, Ill.-based Advanced Technology Services (ATS) its “Above and Beyond” award in recognition of extraordinary support of its employees who serve in the National Guard and Reserve.
  
• IT for green manufacturing is changing the cost-prohibitive mind-set
  
  By William Atkinson, contributing editor (w.atkinson@mchsi.com), May 1, 2008
  For Harry Brix, director of procurement at Syosset, N.Y.-based Paradigm Group, a supplier of janitorial and sanitary products, green manufacturing is “very chic.” Brix says green strategies emerged in the 1970s, but interest waned, only to surface again in the '90s, and wane again. Many believe this time it's here to stay—namely Nabil Nasr, Ph.
  
• Business intelligence solution presents customer data without delay
  
  By Karen Dilger, contributing editor (kadilger@comcast.net), May 1, 2008
  The accounts receivable (A/R) department at Virtek Vision International had its hands full. Credit managers at the Ontario-based supplier of laser marking products needed to keep collections up-to-date by identifying those potentially delinquent before they became problems. Until recently, workers relied on spreadsheets that pulled information from the company's ERP system.
  
• Fashionistas say they know as much about innovation—and outsourcing—as the others
  
  By Kevin Parker (kparker@reedbusiness.com), May 1, 2008
  The needs of the fashion industry, when it comes to product life-cycle management (PLM), are different from those of other discrete manufacturers. But as systems evolve for fashion life-cycle management, it may be that these fashionistas—obsessed as they are with visual images—have something to teach other kinds of goods makers.
  
• Next-generation PLM: Avoid being a casualty in vendors' fight for market supremacy
  
  By Sidney Hill, Jr. (shill@reedbusiness.com), May 1, 2008
  Product life-cycle management (PLM) software vendors are investing heavily in what they describe as next-generation solutions. That's good news and bad news for companies looking to deploy PLM technology. The good news is there are applications out there to address myriad product-development issues facing contemporary manufacturers—such as the need to share detailed product data throughou...
  
• Seismic price shifts, changing global diets put the squeeze on food processors
  
  By Staff, May 1, 2008
  It doesn't take but a cursory glance at most agricultural commodity prices to know something seismic is occurring, and food processors are caught in the middle of thin margins and big cost increases. Some startling incongruities in agricultural commodities in recent months: It's classic supply and demand, with demand rapidly trending toward outstripping supply on a long-term, global basis.
  
• World Trade Group “rethinks” how business is done
  
  By Staff, May 1, 2008
  If you find yourself wondering how executives in other companies and industries cope with globalization, the skills shortage, and economic shortfalls, you're a prime candidate for membership in the World Trade Group (WTG). Since 1999, this London-based organization has been sponsoring conferences that give forward-thinking manufacturing and supply chain executives a chance to network with like-...
  
• SMBs set to slash marketing costs using SaaS research model
  
  By Frank O Smith (fosmith@thewritinggroup.com), May 1, 2008
  A partnership between Vantedge Group and AbsolutData aims to bring the value of manufacturing market intelligence to small and midsize businesses (SMB) via an on-demand model with an affordable monthly service fee. According to Bob May, senior VP of analytic services for Vantedge Group, “We've come up with the Software-as-a-Service [SaaS] approach.
  
• USBIC study data: Imports still assail U.S. manufacturers
  
  By Frank O Smith, senior contributing editor (fosmith@thewritinggroup.com), May 1, 2008
  Despite price advantages created by the weakening dollar, many U.S.-based manufacturers of high-tech and other capital-intensive products lost share in their home market to global competitors at an accelerating rate in 2006, according to a study by Washington-based U.S. Business and Industry Council (USBIC) issued earlier this year.
  
• Supply chain software: New i2 solution coordinates production and supply chain activities
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, April 30, 2008
  Supply chain management software supplier i2 Technologies offers a new solution that promises to coordinate production activities with those of the rest of the supply chain.
  
  
• Vertical ERP: IQMS enhances support for process manufacturing
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, April 30, 2008
  IQMS, a supplier of ERP software, has announced enhanced support for the process manufacturing industry with the release of its Master Batch solution.
  
• Earnings reports: SAP, Siemens suffer first-quarter profit slump
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, April 30, 2008
  Software giant SAP and automation and electrical products maker Siemens both reported unexpected dips in earnings for the first quarter of 2008. Economic conditions, including rising raw material costs and the weak dollar, were cited as contributing factors.
  
• SHOMI, Part2: The most influential technology vendors in the manufacturing industry
  
  Bob Parker, VP Research, Manufacturing Insights, April 30, 2008
  Manufacturing Insights has dubbed SAP, HP, Oracle, Microsoft, and IBM "the most influential vendors in the manufacturing industry." The analyst firm also has agreed to let MBT print excerpts from its extensive report on these vendors' approach to the manufacturing space. This second article in a five-part series focuses on Hewlett-Packard.