Manufacturing Business Technology

• Practical applications: Vendors unveil wireless solutions that manufacturers find useful 
  
  Sidney Hill, Jr., executive editor, December 2, 2007
  The possibilities for deploying wireless technology in production settings are growing as vendors develop manufacturing-centric applications on top of wireless platforms. Examples include an equipment health-monitoring application that runs on Honeywell's OneWireless mesh network.
  
  
• High-availability server ensures centralized IT network access for German automaker
  
  By Staff, December 1, 2007
  MAN Nutzfahrzeuge—a Munich-based vehicle manufacturer that sold 80,000 commercial vehicles and 7,300 buses in 2006—places a premium on a high level of server availability. After successfully using high-availability software and service solutions from Marathon Technologies for a few years, leadership at MAN's commercial vehicles unit decided to do more.
  
• Excel-based collaboration tool is free; ensures single version of truth
  
  By Karen Dilger, contributing editor (kadilger@comcast.net), December 1, 2007
  Using a spreadsheet for personal use is a lot different than managing one in a process involving a whole group. There are plenty of applications available to enable spreadsheet collaboration, but most require purchasing and learning new software. Most users prefer to use tools they already have, and Microsoft Excel remains the clear-cut spreadsheet of choice among desktop users.
  
• Acsis/SAP tool provides plant-level integration, MES adjunct, track & trace
  
  By Malcolm Wheatley, senior contributing editor (malcolm_wheatley@compuserve.com), December 1, 2007
  Originally conceived as a means of efficiently passing data between the manufacturing execution system (MES) layer and an ERP transaction backbone, an innovative software platform from SAP partner Acsis has evolved into a fully functional, serialized track-and-trace solution. “Consumer goods and defense manufacturers have no choice but to comply with traceability mandates from retailers a...
  
• Content-centric application puts context into engineering document management
  
  By Carolyn Heinze, contributing editor (carolynheinze.blogspot.com), December 1, 2007
  Engineering organizations have long struggled with management, modification, and distribution of project documentation. With efficiency a priority, how does one get the right information to those who need it, when they need it—whether they are in the same department, at a different site, or working on a different but related project altogether? McLaren Software puts it all together with i...
  
• Put down that spreadsheet: ERP follows food to the plant floor, and out the door
  
  By Jean Thilmany, contributing editor (thilmanyj@yahoo.com), December 1, 2007
  Retailers looking to stock Berner Foods' line of meats and cheeses often ask Berner to demonstrate how nimbly it could respond to a food recall. When bidding for business, the Roscoe, Ill.-based manufacturer must show potential supermarket and big-box retail customers that it can trace the ingredients in each of its products to the supplier level within two hours.
  
• There's New Momentum afoot to minimize risk, forge a stronger supply chain
  
  By Jim Fulcher, contributing editor (jimfulcher@comcast.net), December 1, 2007
  As more companies realize just how fragile the links in a global supply chain actually are, risk mitigation moves from a low-level to a high-level priority. “To cope with largely unpredictable events, leading companies make supply chain investments to ensure goods continue to flow despite major disruptions,” says Patrick Connaughton, senior analyst with Cambridge, Mass.
  
• When BOMs slow batching processes, you need an archive
  
  By Jean Thilmany, contributing editor (thilmanyj@yahoo.com), December 1, 2007
  Ever notice some computer slowness after you've downloaded music or photos? The same thing can happen with a manufacturer's ERP system. While the overloaded PC may take minutes to load a photo, the manufacturer's problem is more significant. Important systems can slow down at exactly the wrong time, says Brian Babineau, senior analyst with Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG), a Milford, Mass.
  
• Solution monitors IT systems for strict regulatory compliance
  
  By Karen Dilger, contributing editor (kadilger@comcast.net), December 1, 2007
  Regulations are there for a purpose, but that doesn't change the fact that complying with them can be a real pain. Compliance management capabilities help companies execute a regulatory process by ensuring that IT applications, systems, and security measures meet specifications. By integrating compliance management with the overall enterprise architecture, companies can determine how IT changes...
  
• Google's shine dulled as e-business scores take a hit in customer satisfaction survey
  
  By Karen Dilger, contributing editor (kadilger@comcast.net), December 1, 2007
  The University of Michigan's annual American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) tracks how successful e-business providers are at pleasing their customers. After six straight years of rising aggregate scores for the e-business sector, the 2007 score fell to 75.2 on ACSI's 100-point scale. This dip for the e-business category as a whole is due to a decline in perceived quality, says Larry Freed,...
  
• Rockwell Automation Fair highlights process-sector push
  
  By Roberto Michel, senior contributing editor (robertomichel@charter.net), December 1, 2007
  A steady stream of acquisitions by Rockwell Automation is enhancing its appeal in process industry verticals. The automation giant—historically strong in discrete and hybrid sectors—also owes part of that momentum to software activities. A key part of this activity is enabling new application offerings to plug into the service-oriented architecture (SOA) developed by the company's R...
  
• Rockwell partners eye information management
  
  By Staff, December 1, 2007
  The industrial machinery and equipment skid partners that use Rockwell Automation controllers in their products are still the bread and butter of Rockwell's Automation Fair, but not all exhibitors at this annual event are hardware-focused. This year's event, held in mid-November in Chicago—saw increased population by exhibitors that stress information management.
  
• Parsec Automation urges tangible financial spin on OEE
  
  By Staff, December 1, 2007
  Operational equipment effectiveness (OEE) looks at three factors: asset availability, performance or rate, and quality. Getting plant managers, Six Sigma gurus, and other process excellence experts excited about OEE metrics is one thing, but senior executives are an entirely different proposition. Unless, of course, OEE is given a financial spin.
  
• Manufacturers tackle complexities of online, indirect sales
  
  By Karen Dilger, contributing editor (kadilger@comcast.net), December 1, 2007
  It's easy to get lost in the world of online shopping. There are so many paths to take as you try to find the exact product you need, often passing through links to manufacturers, retailers, distributors, and comparison-shopping sites. An e-commerce system from Channel Intelligence not only makes the buying process more efficient and productive for the user, but improves the relationship betw...
  
• Stanford forum unearths big benefits in B2B outsourcing
  
  By Frank O Smith, senior contributing editor (fosmith@thewritinggroup.com), December 1, 2007
  According to Stanford University's Global Supply Chain Forum, companies using outsourced B2B solutions experience a return nearly 2.5 times their annual investment. A recent Stanford study sponsored by B2B e-commerce vendor GXS says such strategies garnered a 62-percent increase in customer satisfaction.
  
• Oracle targets enhanced S&OP with Interlace buy
  
  By Staff, December 1, 2007
  In another shot across the bow of SAP, Oracle is in the process of buying Interlace Systems, a supplier of integrated business planning tools. Interlace's offerings ensure that sales & operations planning (S&OP) efforts remain on target. Oracle will fold the Interlace offering into the enterprise performance management (EPM) suite it inherited from the PeopleSoft acquisition.
  
• MCA asks: Why choose one major ERP partner when you can have two?
  
  By Staff, December 1, 2007
  MCA Solutions has reinvigorated its relationship with Oracle, becoming an authorized reseller in the Oracle Partner Network. That allows MCA to offer Oracle's database technology pre-integrated with MCA's Service Planning Optimization software suite. For Chief Executive Bob Salvucci, the move takes MCA a step closer to the kind of relationship it has enjoyed with Oracle rival SAP.
  
• Going up: Elevator maker credits e-commerce platform for online sales boost
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, November 28, 2007
  ThyssenKrupp Elevator Manufacturing France (TEF), one of the world’s leading elevator companies, has significantly boosted its online sales and overall revenues after adopting a new e-commerce software suite that contains a robust product configurator.
  
• After TomorrowNow: SAP appears to be retreating from Oracle consulting business
  
  Sidney Hill, Jr., executive editor, November 28, 2007
  The mass defections of senior executives from its TomorrowNow business—and an accompanying announcement that the unit might soon go up for sale—is an indication that SAP’s strategy of making money by offering service contracts to Oracle customers wasn’t such a good idea after all.
  
  
• Wireless connection: Siemens and Apprion partner on industrial wireless networking solutions
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, November 28, 2007
  Siemens is offering customers more options for deploying wireless technology in process-oriented production environments through a partnership with Apprion.