Manufacturing Business Technology

• Microsoft orchestrates an enterprise-ready BizTalk RFID platform
  
  By Staff, June 1, 2007
  The next version of Microsoft BizTalk Server business process management software will have RFID capabilities that Microsoft positions as a more enterprise-ready approach to RFID than that offered by traditional RFID middleware. Steve Sloan, senior product manager for Microsoft's Connected Systems Division, says the RFID capabilities are a major area of focus for the next version of BizTalk, kn...
  
• Financial-based partnerships, extended warehousing strategies lead to supply chain optimization
  
  By Staff, May 1, 2007
  Innovative supply chain strategies that marry physical goods movement with financial information sharing—and financial underwriting—can open the door to greater end-to-end supply chain cost savings, says a new report from Boston-based Aberdeen Group. This is especially true in the case of extended global supply chains that tap emerging markets where labor costs are low, but the loca...
  
• Global e-pedigree standard ratified
  
  By Staff, May 1, 2007
  EPCglobal has ratified a standard for using RFID and other technologies to establish chain-of-custody pedigrees for pharmaceuticals moving through the supply chain. The new standard is based on intellectual property developed by SupplyScape. "The standard enables companies in the pharmaceutical industry to comply with all state and federal pedigree regulations," says Lucy Deus, SupplyScape VP o...
  
• Survey offers insight to outsourced DC operations
  
  By Staff, May 1, 2007
  The top three reasons for outsourcing distribution center (DC) operations include the need to add peak season or overflow capacity, gain flexibility to manage growth or changing requirements, and improve customer service, according to a recent Supply Chain Consortium survey. But of the 100 companies surveyed, only one-third actually outsource a portion of their DC functions—and the majori...
  
• RFID market segment growth expected to vary
  
  By Staff, May 1, 2007
  Prognosticating the fortune of RFID hardware vendors in the manufacturing sector remains murky despite anticipated double-digit growth in unit shipments, according to Dedham, Mass.-based ARC Advisory Group. "Growth within a given segment of the RFID market will come partly at the expense of existing options," says Chantal Polsonetti, a VP of manufacturing services for ARC.
  
• Intermec RFID-enabled warehouse functionality on a "quiet rise"
  
  By Staff, May 1, 2007
  Auto-ID vendor Intermec offers a number of new RFID-enabled solutions that lend themselves to better data capture in warehouse environments, particularly by enhancing forklift units and reducing RFID noise. As an alternative to stationary portal readers that snag snapshots of forklifts moving tagged pallets about, Intermec and forklift manufacturer Cascade Corp.
  
• IBM projects underscore possible RFID depth, reach
  
  By Staff, May 1, 2007
  IBM Global Business Services is engaged in two RFID projects that give testament to the technology's growing depth in some industries, and breadth of unique application adaptability in others. The first is a full implementation rollout at Honda Italia—a motorbike manufacturer based in Atessa, Italy—by which tags are being attached to a chassis to track production, and to critical co...
  
• Solutions combo puts new spin on RFID data
  
  By Staff, May 1, 2007
  The challenge for Salt Lake City-based Schiff Nutrition International was how to meet the Wal-Mart RFID mandate for tagging cases and pallets of vitamins, nutritional supplements, and bars without making extra work for employees who move cases to pallets in preparation for shrink-wrapping and shipment.
  
• Active mock-up and direct-face editing among new features in UGS NX CAD release
  
  By Staff, May 1, 2007
  Integrated solutions usually win, but with a new version of its NX CAD package, product life-cycle management (PLM) vendor UGS isn't placing all its bets on tighter integration between NX and its Teamcenter product data management (PDM) system. The new NX 5 also has a bevy of features that promise to accelerate product development.
  
• Leiner handles healthy growthwith Pilgrim Software compliance suite
  
  By Staff, May 1, 2007
  For a while, Leiner Health Products was just a small company serving a limited number of large accounts. Then the Carson, Calif.-based company grew to become the largest domestic private-label manufacturer of vitamins, minerals, and nutritional supplements; and the second-largest U.S. manufacturer of private-label, over-the-counter pharmaceuticals.
  
• Sterling Commerce opens the door to EDI, customer satisfaction at Therma-Tru
  
  By Jim Fulcher, contributing editor, May 1, 2007
  A couple of years ago, Therma-Tru Doors faced a request from its larger customers to exchange business data electronically. “We were dealing with some large distributors that use EDI. They wanted—and one actually mandated—us to use EDI,” says Gary Gretka, EDI coordinator at the Maumee, Ohio-based manufacturer of fiberglass and steel exterior door systems.
  
• Secure 3D data sharing deliversclear market advantage for Peerless Group
  
  By Staff, May 1, 2007
  A key characteristic of success in global product development efforts—i.e., the use of distributed design and manufacturing networks—also can be the entry point to a project's gravest threat. “Manufacturers face a fundamental conundrum,” explains Jim Brown, VP of product innovation and engineering for Boston-based Aberdeen Group.
  
• Execution platform bridges gap between enterprise system, warehouse control devices
  
  By Jim Fulcher, contributing editor, May 1, 2007
  The value of automation becomes clear—says Dan Hanrahan, president of Numina Group, a Woodridge, Ill.-based material handling systems supplier—when a distributor's customers operate in a just-in-time (JIT) environment and won't carry much supply inventory. “Not only must distributors run faster and more accurately, but they can no longer afford an army of people running around...
  
• Industrial goods maker takes ERP SaaS plunge
  
  By Staff, May 1, 2007
  Tapping the small and medium business (SMB) market has been the goal of every major ERP vendor over the last 10 years. Now Glovia Services, a new business unit of Glovia International, is considered the first midmarket ERP vendor to deliver a manufacturing operations-oriented ERP solution based on software-as-a-service—or SaaS.
  
• Right Hemisphere moves 3D design dataoutside the engineering department
  
  By Staff, May 1, 2007
  What do technical publication specialists, trainers, advertising agencies, and service organizations all have in common? Answer: the need to work with, and share, 3D visualizations of complex designs. It's a need that drives some manufacturers to extreme measures: deploying expensive CAD software licenses, for example, to people who don't design products, but who do work with 3D product represe...
  
• Data migration tool eases transfer path from Excel to SAP
  
  By Staff, May 1, 2007
  Spreadsheets can be a lifesaver for companies that rely on them for countless tasks. But when used for updating and transferring large amounts of data, users often must manually key in data that already exists in digital format. Not only is this a wasteful exercise, but it can be particularly time-consuming when moving data from Microsoft Excel or Access programs into various SAP business syst...
  
• Tectura and Microsoft Dynamics enable hot progress in a cold business
  
  By Staff, May 1, 2007
  Manufacturing software should streamline processes, leading to less manual effort, and an agile enterprise. That particular realization prompted Hansen Technologies—a Burr Ridge, Ill.-based manufacturer of parts and components for industrial refrigeration systems—to evaluate its options.
  
• Power lift: Tectura grabs “Hercules” size funding of $22M
  
  By Staff, May 1, 2007
  Hercules Technology Growth Capital has delivered $22 million of debt financing to Tectura, the Microsoft Business Solutions 2006 Global Partner of the Year. Tectura specializes in Microsoft Dynamics AX, Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Microsoft Dynamics SL, and Microsoft Dynamics CRM solutions delivery.
  
• In brief
  
  By Staff, May 1, 2007
  South Korean vehicle manufacturer Hyundai/Kia Motor Group is deploying an RFID system for tracking part shipments from 200-plus global suppliers to its automotive assembly plants. The first phase of the project will tag boxed and cased parts from five major suppliers serving Hyundai/Kia's manufacturing facility in Alabama.
  
• Open PLM solution ties manufacturing, quality, customer information back to product record, audit trail
  
  By Jim Fulcher, contributing editor, May 1, 2007
  As manufacturers demand more from their business systems, product life-cycle management (PLM) software vendors in particular must respond to changing market requirements with solutions that allow collaboration across the extended enterprise. Omnify Software, a PLM vendor focused on the electronics, medical device, mechanical, and defense industries, offers a case-in-point.