Manufacturing Business Technology

• Automation vendors address need to govern industrial wireless use of local radio spectrum
  
  By Kevin Parker, editorial director (kparker@reedbusiness.com), September 1, 2007
  Given technology advances, emerging standards, and demand for affordable plant applications, in the last two years, major automation vendors have introduced products for wireless monitoring of the I/O and field devices used in process control. Just as important, they've introduced solutions for managing the wireless networks that result.
  
• Web-enabled technology makes fast work of trade regulation compliance
  
  By Carolyn Heinze (carolynheinze@free.fr), September 1, 2007
  Despite more than five years of on-again/off-again negotiations, the major stumbling blocks to a global free-trade agreement are differences between developed nations—the U.S., Japan, and the European Union—and the major developing nations, represented primarily by China, India, and Brazil.
  
• HP studies the IT infrastructure library with Opsware buy
  
  By Staff, September 1, 2007
  Seeking to broaden its footprint and support for IT infrastructure libraries (ITIL), Hewlett-Packard (HP) is offering $1.6 billion to buy Opsware. Should the deal close, it would bring IT infrastructure change management and run book automation tools currently lacking in HP's infrastructure management products, previously branded as OpenView.
  
• Emerging PLM vendor ecosystems will tame user process complexity
  
  By Staff, September 1, 2007
  Product life-cycle management (PLM) adoption continues apace—even in some unexpected areas—as companies seek out collaborative, engineering-centric product development. Add to that the demand for expanded software integration and end-to-end PLM processes, and incumbent PLM software vendors are feeling a whole new kind of pressure to upgrade and evolve their capabilities.
  
• Rockwell Automation taps ICS Triplex for critical process strength
  
  By Staff, September 1, 2007
  The recent acquisition of ICS Triplex is testament to Rockwell Automation's commitment to the process industries, and its grasp of the unique requirements for serving it well. ICS Triplex, a British company known for process safety and fault-tolerant technology for the oil & gas industry, counts Chevron, BP, Shell, Exxon Mobile, and Fina among its customers.
  
• IBM moves engineering VP to China as part of global focus
  
  By Staff, September 1, 2007
  By moving a top engineering executive in its supply chain organization to China, Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM is looking to ensure high quality for components sourced there, and build closer ties to a booming market. The decision to relocate Sophie Bechu, VP of worldwide engineering for IBM's Integrated Supply Chain organization, to Shenzhen in August 2007 also speaks to a deeper global approach take...
  
• SAP: We're ahead of Oracle, Siemens in PLM
  
  Sidney Hill, Jr., executive editor, August 27, 2007
    Kongsberg Automotive, which uses the SAP PLM suite to manage its product data, is looking forward to enhancements that will improve its ability to collaborate with supply chain partners.
  
• Agresso beats Microsoft, SAP to Vector Aerospace ERP deal
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, August 27, 2007
  Midmarket ERP vendor Agresso secured a deal with Vector Aerospace, a $300M provider of airplane and helicopter repair and maintenance services. The deal is notable because Agresso won it in head-to-head competition with SAP and Microsoft.
  
• RedPrairie teams up with the EPA for Green Supply Chain initiative
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, August 27, 2007
  RedPrairie will develop educational programs as an affiliate member of the EPA's SmartWayTransport Partnership.
  
• An acquisitive Business Objects leaps into "Top Three" in CPM ranking
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, August 27, 2007
  Business Objects commands an 8.9-percent 2006 worldwide market share based on total software revenue.
  
• Intermec RFID hardware first to be certified for use in China
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, August 24, 2007
  Intermec's passive UHF RFID readers comprise the first RFID hardware to be certified by China's State Radio Regulation Committee (SRRC).
  
• Solid reasons remain for manufacturing in Latin America, despite new Asian competitors
  
  Cole Ollinger, Contributing Editor, August 20, 2007
    Mixed economic signals in multiple countries make Latin America a region that manufacturers may find tempting to invest in, but it's also one in which investments have to be watched closely.
  Source: United Nations Economic Commission on Latin America and the Caribbean
  
  
• NAFTA's impact quantified; CATFTA's explored
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, August 20, 2007
  There’s little evidence that large numbers of U.S. manufacturing jobs were lost due to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). In fact, most economists believe NAFTA had only a marginal impact on the much larger U.S. economy.
  
• Numbers game: calculating the benefits of trade compliance
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, August 15, 2007
  Trade compliance now ranks alongside supply chain visibility as the top priority among shippers looking to improve global trade management.
  
  
• Welcome the era of Supply Chain Management II
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, August 15, 2007
  Supply Chain Frontiers, a collaboration between Georgia Tech and its partners, seeks to develop a new supply chain management model.
  
• Logistics costs up, nearly 10 percent of GDP
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, August 15, 2007
  Rising logistics costs have been anticipated given the nature of global supply chain management and execution.
  
• Yard Hound visibility suite just may be a DC's best friend
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, August 15, 2007
  PINC Solutions' Yard Hound Product Suite enables shippers to monitor trailers inside their customers’ yards via RFID.
  
• Ethernet networks—already the standard for office settings—are moving into the plant
  
  Jim Fulcher, contributing editor, August 13, 2007
    Rockwell Automation and Cisco Systems are collaborating on reference architectures and design guidelines aimed at deploying Ethernet-based production networks that can be integrated with the rest of the enterprise.
  
  
• Wireless LANs bring newfound freedom, yet users may be putting corporate databases at risk
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, August 13, 2007
  Businesses keep giving employees more and more wireless capabilities, but haven't freed their infrastructures from a wired network.
  
• Tag analytics provider reports "read milestone"
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, August 9, 2007
  RFID analytics and applications supplier T3Ci recently reported its billionth RFID tag read.