Manufacturing Business Technology

• Electronics industry association's campaign on Congress seeks U.S. jobs creation
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, October 8, 2007
  Says CEA President and CEO Gary Shapiro, "We cannot let protectionist fears hold us back from doing what a great nation does: competing and winning in a global economy."
  
  
• Dynamic Process Simulation speeds supply chain, logistics optimization
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, October 5, 2007
  CreateASoft offers Simcad Pro 8.0 dynamic process simulation and decision-support software for material handling, distribution, warehousing, and logistics operations.
  
• Better documentation: Adobe offers new technical communication suite
  
  Rachael Young, MBT staff, October 4, 2007
  Adobe says its new Technical Communication Suite will allow technical communicators to make documents more powerful—and much more effective—by supplementing traditional text and graphics with rich media, including 3D images and video that can run on the Adobe Flash Player.
  
• The next step in PLM: Siemens showcases the latest version of its Teamcenter collaboration suite
  
  Sidney Hill, Jr., executive editor, October 4, 2007
  Siemens is so excited about Teamcenter 2007 that it chose to make its unveiling the centerpiece of the annual Product Development and Management Association (PDMA) conference that took place in Orlando this week.
  
  
• PLM throughout: Lean engineering environment spurs innovative high-tech machinery
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, October 3, 2007
  Optima Group says it will use CoCreate OneSpace Model Manager on a worldwide basis, coupled with its SAP enterprise system for an integrated product life-cycle management (PLM) environment.
  
• LANSA: "Business process integration for the rest of us"
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, October 3, 2007
  LANSA Composer is designed for the heartland of the System i community: the small and medium business.
  
• Siemens joins ISA Security Compliance Institute as founding member
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, October 3, 2007
  Members will develop a set of universal compliance requirements based on ISA 99 and other standards.
  
• Textile manufacturer gains visibility using RFID tags
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, October 3, 2007
  Simet and Alien are using the Griva implementation to promote RFID usage in the textile industry.
  
• Smart CRM: Infor inks data-driven partnership with Teradata
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, October 3, 2007
  The newly integrated solution will be marketed as Teradata Next Best Activity.
  
  
• Ramp it up: Ricoh relying on software to squash production bottlenecks
  
  MBT Staff, October 3, 2007
  Throughput Analyzer enables pinpointing constraints—areas such as activities or machines that are slowing production processes. Production managers can use that information to develop methods for eliminating the constraints, thus improving the plant’s ability to produce more goods within a given time frame.
  
• Fast tracking: Australian pharmaceutical maker automates regulatory compliance with MES
  
  MBT Staff, October 3, 2007
  Sigma Pharmaceuticals Limited automated its regulatory compliance processes by adopting a manufacturing execution system (MES) with electronic batch record (eBR) capabilities.
  
• SaaS downstream: Informance unveils on-demand manufacturing intelligence suites
  
  MBT Staff, October 3, 2007
  The Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) movement has made its way to the factory floor—or at least to the desktops of managers and executives responsible for monitoring plant performance. Informance On Demand is a Web-resident version of the Informance business intelligence (BI) platform.
  
• Dassault expands into product documentation with Seemage acquisition
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, October 2, 2007
  By reusing 3D design information, and PLM product-related data and information from ERP and CRM systems, any user anywhere will be able to create rich product deliverables and product documentation.
  
• Forget the bird flu: Bad suppliers pose a much greater supply chain risk
  
  Sidney Hill, Jr., executive editor, October 1, 2007
   
  Mundane things like inaccurate demand forecasts, IT system crashes, or poor supplier performance can wreak just as much havoc on a supply chain as any natural or man-made disaster. What’s more, these nonspectacular events are everyday occurrences in many supply chains, making them much greater threats to the overall health of a business.
  
• RedPrairie WMS gains RFID printer matchup
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, October 1, 2007
  The offering of a pre-integrated solution results in faster time-to-benefit for joint customers.
  
• ABI by the numbers: RFID moves beyond the basics
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, October 1, 2007
  ABI Research confirms RFID is firmly moving beyond compliance to tracking and processing goods in the supply chain.
  
• ERP/PLM link-up: Consona and Omnify bring integrated solution to the midmarket
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, October 1, 2007
  Integration between Consona Intuitive ERP and Omnify PLM allows small and midsize manufacturers to share and synchronize engineering and manufacturing data in an automated process.
  
• FreeFlow disposition options keep inventory moving in harmony with the sales channel
  
  By Staff, October 1, 2007
  When SanDisk, a Milpitas, Calif.-based manufacturer of flash storage card products, received MP3 players back from its sales channel, it sought to clear the inventory rather than hold it or reprocess it. It turned to inventory asset management services provider FreeFlow for assistance. “As is often the case in such situations, manufacturers want to differentiate these types of products f...
  
• Web-based warranty system cuts paper trail for Goodman Manufacturing
  
  By Jim Fulcher, contributing editor (jimfulcher@comcast.net), October 1, 2007
  One way to extend customer engagement and maximize revenue streams is to establish processes for extended warranty sales. But for manufacturers, it's a goal that's not quite as easy as it sounds. “Not only were we drowning in paper-based forms, but processing extended warranty paperwork was laborious,” says Rachel Cater, manager of extended services at Goodman Manufacturing, a Hous...
  
• Quality grows “in Stature” for innovative electronics components leader Molex
  
  By Jim Fulcher, contributing editor (jimfulcher@comcast.net), October 1, 2007
  Manufacturers with design and manufacturing facilities around the globe must ensure enterprisewide uniformity of practices. Now there are several ways to do that. For Molex—a Lisle-Ill.-based global supplier of electronic components tasked with maintaining consistency within its product development process—it involves Dyadem's FMEA-Pro7 (failure mode and effects analysis) software ...