Manufacturing Business Technology

• AMR ranks the leading supply chains
  
  Staff, July 25, 2007
  The universe for companies considered is the Fortune Global 500. Financial performance (60 percent) and individual analyst assessments (40 percent) determined ranking.
  
• Video products leader Sony links RFID and security video to cut shipment losses
  
  Staff, July 25, 2007
  Sony Europeis implementing an integrated RFID/video system to gain greater visibility and accountability of shipments of high-cost consumer electronics out of its major European distribution warehouse in The Netherlands.
  
• Shaw Industries extends RFID beyond mandates
  
  Staff, July 25, 2007
  A RFID Master Bill of Lading tracking and visibility system originally piloted in 2006 achieved 100 percent read rates; and will be extended now to seven primary and 30 regional distribution centers.
  
• MBT Whitepapers
  
  By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff, July 18, 2007
  
  
• Five steps to bridging the gap between IT and lean
  
  David Caruso, July 18, 2007
    A growing number of IT leaders recognize the value that lean can bring to a business and they are looking for ways of delivering the appropriate systems to lean practitioners. A pragmatic approach to bridging the gap between lean and IT would encompass these five steps: 
  
• FullTilt suite makes fast work of product information management
  
  Malcolm Wheatley, July 18, 2007
  When Milwaukee-based badge and label manufacturer Brady Corp. decided to build an online store, it hit a problem: using Excel spreadsheets to manage the information for tens of thousands of products was error-prone and inefficient.
  
• Small auto components manufacturer finds QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions a better fit than ERP
  
  Elizabeth SanFillippo, July 18, 2007
  SVP Manufacturing manages inventory and forecasts using Intuit's QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions, and is able to focus on its customers and deliver products faster than ever before.
  
  
• Oracle buying PLM vendor is no surprise to those who follow enterprise software trends
  
  Roberto Michel, July 18, 2007
  The recent announcement that Oracle Corp. plans to buy product life-cycle management (PLM) vendor Agile Software continues a trend of major ERP suppliers either acquiring or building applications in areas once almost entirely addressed by best-of-breed vendors.
  
• Purisma appliances signal new approach to data governance
  
  Tony Baer, July 18, 2007
  Taking a different approach to master data management (MDM) and related data governance issues, Purisma, a new start-up, asks, why not put all this into an appliance?
  
• Building products and processes at the same time
  
  By Staff, July 1, 2007
  Widely viewed as a product life-cycle pioneer, PTC's Pro/ENGINEER software for mechanical design also is seen as the forerunner of today's high-powered and feature-rich management platforms. Given the merger mania in the PLM sector, PTC's 2005 acquisition of manufacturing process management vendor Polyplan Technologies looks like a precursor to the digital manufacturing era that's taking shape...
  
• Impact on the enterprise does not require an extensive search
  
  By Staff, July 1, 2007
  Google has been quite vocal in its desire to compete with Microsoft for the hearts, minds—and desktops—of knowledge workers. To that end, it now offers Google Apps and Google Desktop, two sets of applications that some industry analysts have labeled Microsoft Office and Microsoft Outlook clones.
  
• Turning everyday applications into collaborative business solutions
  
  By Staff, July 1, 2007
  While it doesn't use the term Enterprise 2.0 in its marketing efforts, Adobe Systems is at the forefront of this movement, which is all about harnessing interactive, Web-based technologies for business use. With its popular PDF Reader and Adobe Flash—the engine behind a plethora of animated features that show up on Web sites—Adobe is developing solutions that help manufacturers str...
  
• BI platform provider turns out continuous-improvement solutions
  
  By Staff, July 1, 2007
  The inherent and growing risk involved in running complex global supply chains is sparking interest in technology that analyzes current performance and allows developing strategies for improved performance. SAS, a leading supplier of business intelligence (BI) and performance-management solutions, is capitalizing on this trend.
  
• Multisite fulfillment processes move to forefront of the demand-driven model
  
  By Staff, July 1, 2007
  Best known as a supplier of EDI infrastructure, Sterling Commerce has in the last several years assembled a portfolio of supply chain applications for multichannel supply chain execution and fulfillment, and is on the verge of making what it terms “major announcements” in this area over the course of this summer.
  
• Front-runner in on-demand software model accelerates apps test-drives
  
  By Staff, July 1, 2007
  Imagine browsing supply chain applications and test-driving them just like music lovers do with iTunes. Some say this “Try before you buy” model is the wave of the future, and Salesforce.com has been at the forefront of this movement. The San Francisco-based supplier of customer relationship management (CRM) systems has set the standard for on-demand applications, which it is now e...
  
• Suite facilitates information collection and analysis in the real-time factory era
  
  By Staff, July 1, 2007
  “Business people suddenly discovered real time,” is how OSIsoft President and CEO Patrick Kennedy characterizes the past 12 months. As a result, there's been something of an explosion taking place in the amount of real-time data being collected from the factory floor—a development reflected both in the demand for OSIsoft's products, and in the changing nature of those products.
  
• Moving reporting ahead of the curve in SaaS fashion
  
  By Staff, July 1, 2007
  Business Objects is using the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model to get its sophisticated business intelligence and reporting solutions into midsize enterprises. Its SaaS solution, Crystalreports.com, went from concept to 40,000-plus subscribers in just 12 months. “We moved our SaaS product from concept to actual subscribers while creating a new and sustainable revenue model for Business...
  
• Software strategy blurs the line between SOA and applications
  
  By Staff, July 1, 2007
  Gauging the impact of IBM's strategies across its businesses over the past year first requires a look at the software end, where dozens of acquisitions were made to fill out its brands—the latest being the Watchfire deal that, when closed, will add testing for Web application security flaws into the Rational brand.
  
• Next transformation deconstructs conventional products into mix-and-match service components
  
  By Staff, July 1, 2007
  BEA's evolution from Java to service-oriented architecture (SOA) provider reflects the larger trend of the middle tier becoming the next enterprise software battleground. With the emergence of SOA commoditizing software architecture, and Web services standards starting to level the playing field on how software applications expose functionality, the path is cleared for emergence of composite ap...
  
• Office productivity, Web 2.0, SOA seen as “new vistas” in apps vendor partnerships
  
  By Staff, July 1, 2007
  Microsoft Corp. passed a significant milestone in releasing Vista, the latest version of the Windows client platform; and put a stake in the sand regarding the next refresh of the Windows Server platform, which will occur in 2008. But for manufacturers—like most enterprises—platform changes take a back seat until application providers update their products.