Manufacturing Business Technology

• GridWise membership grows as Congress passes landmark energy legislation
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, January 10, 2008
  The GridWise Alliance says 17 leading companies and organizations have joined its efforts to transform the nation's electric power system.
  
• Promising partnerships: RFID Consortium creates one-stop licensing; TAGSYS steps up frequency-agnostic infrastructures
  
  , January 9, 2008
  Seven companies with patented RFID technology have organized the RFID Consortium LLC to streamline licensing of patented UHF RFID technology essential for developing solutions. The overall goal is making it less costly and cumbersome for companies to employ patented RFID components—hence a single clearinghouse for licensing a broad array of technology.
  
• Regulatory compliance: MES, quality systems excel at pinpointing compliance violations
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, January 9, 2008
  Adopting manufacturing execution (MES) and quality management systems can give a company a decided advantage when it comes to identifying products or shipments that don’t conform to regulatory requirements. That’s the conclusion drawn from an analysis of more than 650 manufacturing companies conducted by Boston-based Aberdeen Group.
  
  
• Quality control: ASQ seminars meant to minimize unsafe products and recalls
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, January 9, 2008
  The American Society for Quality (ASQ) will offer a seminar, "Improving Quality and Product Safety," to manufacturers throughout China. The seminar seeks to enable Chinese companies to improve product quality and safety, and make their overall operations more efficient.
  
  
• SOA stalwarts: Microsoft, IBM support most service-oriented architectures
  
  Sidney Hill, Jr., executive editor, January 9, 2008
  Microsoft and IBM are the leading players in the service-oriented architecture (SOA) software market, according to a recent report from Boston-based AMR Research.
  
• Signal “delay time” technology betters RFID tag reads
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, January 9, 2008
  OMRON offers the means for assessing valid targeted RFID tag reads based on the delay between send/receive scanning cycles, overcoming problems inherent in methods based on signal strength and other protocols.
  
• Financial fallout: Weak markets will drive increased global outsourcing spend
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, January 8, 2008
  Bharat Desai, CEO of Syntel, an IT and business process outsourcing services organization, says outsourcing is a hedge against general IT costs that can—and will continue to be—a strategic component of research and development.
  
• A colorful celebration: Bluetooth marks 10-year anniversary at Consumer Electronics Show
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, January 7, 2008
  Bluetooth, the technology that spawned a legion of people walking around with metallic devices flashing blue lights poking out of their ears, is 10 years old. And the celebration is taking place at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. 
  
  
• Organizational change: IBM says restructuring should yield better hardware for SMBs
  
  Datamonitor Newswire, January 7, 2008
  The U.S.-based unit of IBM announced a restructuring of its hardware division that is expected to improve the company’s ability to design products specifically for small and midsize businesses.
  
  
• Workforce management: Laundry equipment seller cleans up its service operation
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, January 7, 2008
  Web Service Company, an organization that sells and services laundry equipment to commercial establishments such as apartment complexes, college residence halls, and military bases, says it has streamlined its operations after adopting the Service Workforce Management solution from Servigistics.
  
  
• Best sales practices: Manufacturers must enlighten customers, partners about custom products
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, January 7, 2008
  Some manufacturers may be harming their own sales efforts—particularly their ability to sell through indirect channels—by not properly educating customers and partners about the many options for customizing products.
  
• The Conference Board launches mature-workforce database tool
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, January 7, 2008
  The Employer-Practices Locator Web database enables employers, reporters, and researchers to locate examples of specific actions companies have taken to address impending mature workforce challenges.
  
• Partnership targets midmarket performance management
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, January 7, 2008
  Nagarro is partnering with Cognos for world-class business intelligence and performance management capabilities in custom applications developed by Nagarro.
  
  
• Get SMART with new supply management team assessment tool
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, January 7, 2008
   The Institute for Supply Management introduces SMART, a new assessment tool that appraises the skills of a supply team to uncover knowledge gaps and identify organizational training needs.
  
  
• AGCO chooses aPriori cost-management platform
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, January 7, 2008
  The aPriori Enterprise Cost Management Platform delivers real-time predictive product cost assessments throughout the entire development and production process.
  
• Dynamic data: Fujitsu Siemens Computers to launch Solutions Center for SAP apps
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, January 4, 2008
  Fujitsu Siemens Computers says its EMC Velocity Signature Solution Center will focus on enabling customers to accelerate the analysis of large business intelligence data sets using SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence Accelerator software as well as the dynamic infrastructure solution FlexFrame for SAP, running on Fujitsu Siemens Computers PRIMERGY servers and the NetWorker Backup Suite back-up and recovery solution.
  
• MoReq2 unification: Open Text commits to Europe's new records management standards
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, January 4, 2008
  Europe's new records management software standards, called MoReq2, are slated for adoption this year. While still being developed, MoReq2 will be a giant step forward in unifying records management software standards and practices across Europe. Once finalized, MoReq2 will give governments and corporations a single approach to managing their most important records—a daunting task for large organizations struggling with ever-increasing stores of electronic information.
  
  
• Lean beacon: German industrial giant pioneers Toyota-style initiative; SAP integration to follow
  
  Malcolm Wheatley, senior contributing editor, Nürnberg, Germany, January 4, 2008
  Dr. Marcus Schnell, head of production systems for industrial vehicle maker MAN Nutzfahrzeuge, says the company sought group-wide lean adoption through careful study of lean systems in operation at plants at Steyr, Munich, and Salzgitter. The ultimate task—under way now—is to synthesize a standard production system that's viewed as superior to any one system presently in place.
  
  
• First-day jitters: Supply managers’ report points to manufacturing slowdown
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, January 3, 2008
  Manufacturing executives may be a bit nervous at the start of the year after seeing the latest report from the Institute of Supply Management (ISM). The ISM report for December 2007, released Wednesday, indicates that the manufacturing sector is starting to contract after 10 consecutive months of growth.
  
• Infor launches green and sustainability programs
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, January 1, 2008
  Infor offers a new Web site that is dedicated to helping manufacture “going green,” including white papers, Webinars, podcasts, and product information.