Manufacturing Business Technology

• ProfitKey ERP gains MTI Costimator
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, September 10, 2007
  MTI Systems will embed its Costimator JS program in ProfitKey’s Rapid Response Manufacturing ERP software.
  
• RedPrairie teams with SAVVIS for U.S.-based data centers
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, September 10, 2007
  SAVVIS will support RedPrairie’s hosting services business with on-demand capabilities tailored to support customers of all sizes. 
  
  
• Flextronics to acquire med-device maker Avail
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, September 4, 2007
  The buy will establish Flextronics as a supplier and partner for the medical industry.
  
• Semiconductor manufacturer makes RFID look easy
  
  Sidney Hill, Jr., executive editor, September 4, 2007
    Workers at Freescale Semiconductor rely on active RFID tags (inset) to locate components during the production process. The tags are part of a network that matches RFID with standard wireless networking technology.
  
  
  
• Durable goods manufacturers seek and find additional risk management coverage
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, September 3, 2007
  Manufacturers are particularly prone to major financial losses should an accident or disaster occur.
  
  
• Channel Products green-lights IFS enterprise apps across all subsidiaries
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, September 3, 2007
  Channel Technologies Inc., will benefit from more timely financial and management reporting and increased flexibility, allowing process improvements that will help the family of companies better serve its customers.
  
• Honeywell delivers process, quality control to China's largest containerboard maker
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, September 3, 2007
  Honeywell will supply its Experion Process, Machine and Drives (PMD), Da Vinci quality control system and ProFlow and AquaTrol cross-direction control system to China-based Nine Dragons Paper Ltd.
  
• Data historian vendor faces an opportunity and a challenge: scaling to million-tag systems
  
  By Kevin Parker, editorial director (kparker@reedbusiness.com), September 1, 2007
  Be on notice: the term data historian doesn't do justice to the pervasive role such systems are poised to play in today's most dynamic industries, nor does it hint at the big part the technology will have in initiatives ranging from demand-driven manufacturing to plant energy management. If data historians turn out to be the killer app nobody ever heard of, however, answers to how the systems ...
  
• Small manufacturer finds QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions a better fit than ERP
  
  By Staff, September 1, 2007
  SVP Manufacturing, a Phoenix-based automotive accessories supplier, is a small enterprise. It has 25 employees in two locations, but recent growth prompted the company to move from a DOS-based accounting package to a full-blown ERP system. The original accounting package “didn't give us the flexibility to extract information the way we wanted to,” says Rick Hirsch, co-owner of SVP ...
  
• High-profile recalls prompt a hard look at supply chain risk management tactics
  
  By Staff, September 1, 2007
  When an earthquake badly damaged the main production plant of Japanese piston ring manufacturer Rikon Corp.—a supplier to all eight of Japan's automakers—suspended production caused widespread customer disruption. Just days later, El Segundo, Calif.-based Mattel was hit by the first of several product recalls involving lead paint.
  
• Life sciences sector uses PLM to shorten “innovation-to-registration” cycle
  
  By Jim Fulcher, contributing editor, September 1, 2007
  Like so many other kinds of companies, medical device manufacturers are under pressure to innovate, says Todd Hein, senior director of life sciences for product life-cycle management (PLM) vendor Agile Software. What adds a level of complexity is that they also must document their processes for regulatory bodies around the world.
  
• Can the “L” in PLM stand for lean?
  
  By William Atkinson, contributing editor(wjaa@midamer.net), September 1, 2007
  Some manufacturers are finding that product life-cycle management (PLM) software can serve as platform for applying lean principles to the product development process. Jim Brown, VP of product innovation and engineering research at Boston-based Aberdeen Group, describes the application of lean principles to product development as “a leading-edge approach,” but one that is growing ...
  
• ERP-Link business optimization platform drives SAP-Microsoft interoperability
  
  By Staff, September 1, 2007
  Two years ago, SAP and Microsoft saw an opportunity to ease interoperability between SAP's back-office applications and Microsoft Office, the most widely deployed set of productivity applications sitting on the desktop. The result was Duet—to date, a limited set of prime business process workflows that allow workers to interact with a number of SAP applications via Microsoft Office, where...
  
• Forecast accuracy, overstocks, and expediting comprise widespread inventory management pain points
  
  By Staff, September 1, 2007
  Given changing market forces, manufacturers and distributors apparently need a new inventory-management education, according to a new survey conducted by Cummaquid, Mass.-based Industry Directions. “They're stuck in the 1970s in managing inventories,” says Julie Fraser, principal analyst.
  
• Airplane components maker moves to digital archiving system for complex document management relief
  
  By Jim Fulcher, contributing editor (jimfulcher@comcast.net), September 1, 2007
  Making components used for aircraft engines is a complex process with an equally complex behind-the-scenes menagerie of records to manage for FAA compliance. Electro-Methods, South Windsor, Conn., designs close-tolerance flight safety components for aircraft engine manufacturers, and the U.S. and foreign governments.
  
• Purisma appliances: a new approach to data governance
  
  By Staff, September 1, 2007
  Taking a different approach to master data management (MDM) and related data governance issues, start-up Purisma, asks, why not put all this into an appliance? “Other [MDM] solutions force you to reengineer your systems to point to a single golden copy in one repository—an approach that can take years to accomplish,” claims Bob Hagenau, Purisma's VP of products.
  
• Wireless LANs bring newfound freedom, yet corporate databases at risk
  
  By Staff, September 1, 2007
  Businesses keep giving employees more and more wireless capabilities, but haven't freed their infrastructures from a wired network. According to Ontario-based Info-Tech Research Group, even in locations seemingly ideal for a fully wireless deployment—e.g., when developing or expanding office sites—a combination of wired local area networks (LAN) and wireless local area networks (WL...
  
• Mobile software pulls in business system information in the language users know
  
  By Staff, September 1, 2007
  Field service remains notoriously constrained by paper-centric and manual processes. That's why mobile enterprise applications are the next competitive differentiator—especially for service repair situations—when a customer has a problem with a product. Wi-Fi-enabled mobile applications offer much promise—with a caveat: Adoption is as much about culture change as it is process...
  
• Ethernet networks—already the standard for office settings—move into the plant
  
  By Jim Fulcher, contributing editor (jimfulcher@comcast.net), September 1, 2007
  The best approach to passing data between plant-level and enterprise systems—an issue manufacturers have wrestled with for years—could be to simply run a few extra feet of Ethernet cable. At least that's a method now being endorsed by some large IT vendors. “Customers want linked architectures supporting both the office network environment and the factory floor,” says P...
  
• Pharmaceutical firms look to logistics providers, RFID to manage shipping of sensitive goods
  
  By Staff, September 1, 2007
  When it comes to complying with government regulations, pharmaceutical manufacturers have special needs. Shipping temperature-sensitive items, referred to as “cold-chain” management, is a prime example. Canada, Ireland, China, and Singapore all have their own guidelines for this process, which has the entire pharmaceuticals supply chain working to create safe and cost-effective ship...