Manufacturing Business Technology articles from August 2006

Manufacturing Business Technology archives from August 2006

Suite strategies for midmarket ERP.(Company overview)
August 1, 2006... By Roberto Michel, senior contributing editor How product rationalization of acquisitive midmarket ERP vendors impacts Organic Valley, others Imagine after a full-blown ERP implementation, the midsize company you work for successfully...

Biometrics solve multiple-password entry problem.
August 1, 2006... By Staff In what might seem like a bit of science fiction, users can now log into GE Fanuc 's Proficy iFIX plant-operations system by scanning their fingerprints, facial features, or retinas instead of typing in passwords. Proficy...

Announcing OEM Edge.
August 1, 2006... By Staff GE Fanuc 's new OEM Edge program offers EdgeTools in the form of proof-of-concept hardware, development software, training, marketing tools, conversion services, application support, and third-party device integration; and OEM...

"Should-cost" metric leads to parts,materials savings.
August 1, 2006... By Staff Companies should consider direct-materials procurement as the next target for potential savings. So says The Center for Advance Purchasing, which indicates direct-materials costs account for more than 35 percent of spend for...

Voice-enablement vendor sees synergies with RFID, distribution.
August 1, 2006... By Staff Beyond meeting customer mandates, many consumer packaged goods manufacturers have seen limited value from their RFID investments. Now Vocollect -in a test bed of sorts involving users of its voice technology solutions-is looking...

Contract-management/ERP pairing putssavings back on the books.
August 1, 2006... By Staff Boston-based AberdeenGroup estimates 80 percent of B2B transactions are governed by contracts, yet it's been estimated sloppy procedures are costing upwards of $150 billion a year in missed savings opportunities. Good...

Firepond rides Salesforce.com's coattails with SaaS framework.
August 1, 2006... By Staff Firepond is no newcomer to the sales quotation and product configuration market-it's been at it for about 20 years-but its latest push owes much to a relative new kid on the block in the software market. Firepond is among the...

PLM vendors get busy, aim highon the M&A front.
August 1, 2006... By Staff There's been some high-end shopping in the product life-cycle management (PLM) software market, but this time the activity centers around vendors buying each other. Cambridge, Mass.-based Daratech , which closely follows...

Failure to change can be fatal, even for industry leaders.
August 1, 2006... By Sidney Hill, Jr., executive editor A good percentage of the articles appearing in this magazine over the past year revolve around one theme: manufacturers' need to continually adapt to change. That's because we are in an era in...

Catering to customer demand.(Company overview)
August 1, 2006... By Malcolm Wheatley, senior contributing editor Adept, Airbus experience different degrees of success with demand-driven model Adept Technology makes industrial robots, but its business revolves around customer service, which explains...

Study shows substantial waste in working capital in U.S. and European companies.
August 1, 2006... By Staff In a survey of 2,000 of the largest companies across the U.S. and Europe, Atlanta-based advisory firm The Hackett Group found $1 trillion-plus unnecessarily tied up in working capital. The study, which comes as a result of...

Oracle trumpets win "over SAP".
August 1, 2006... By Staff Oracle , the second-largest ERP software supplier, cites a recent contract with Packway Industries to use the Oracle E-Business Suite Special Edition as proof of the vendor's inroads to the midmarket. Packway, which makes...

Midsize Avocent calls mySAP "the right choice".
August 1, 2006... By Staff With roughly 1,300 employees and $500 million in annual revenue, Avocent is the quintessential midsize manufacturer. The Huntsville, Ala.-based IT equipment maker also is exactly the kind of company SAP is courting in its quest...

Ask AberdeenGroup.
August 1, 2006... By Staff What do best-in-class manufacturers do differently? Manufacturers invariably focus on three dimensions of performance: quality, price, and delivery. Nearly all performance measurements fall into one of these categories. The...

Fast changes: Execs weigh in on high-velocity business transformations.
August 1, 2006... By Staff A global survey of executives by New York-based McKinsey underscores the price of freedom-of information, that is. The survey, titled An Executive Take on the Top Business Trends , cites innovation and freer access to...

Straw into gold.
August 1, 2006... By Malcolm Wheatley, senior contributing editor Production management "shelfware" at acquired paper mill unlocks companywide gains In fall 2004, David Krupp, enterprise manufacturing systems manager at what was then International...

Another growth curve.(Company overview)
August 1, 2006... By Scott Bury, contributing editor India-based IT services firms bidding for share of the U.S. consulting market It's no secret India is emerging as a global center for IT outsourcing, but the actual numbers surrounding this...

NOVA Chemicals seeks integration with SAP andPavilion for next-gen manufacturing intelligence.
August 1, 2006... By Jim Fulcher, contributing editor With two computing platforms in use at NOVA Chemicals , it was logical to want to integrate them. But rather than tackle the integration itself, the Alberta, Canada-based manufacturer of plastics and...

Standards at issue in RFID reports, new product development, technology agreements.
August 1, 2006... By Staff Enter the reusable tag Staff Intermec now offers what it calls a rugged reusable RFID tag capable of withstanding extreme temperature and hazardous material exposure. The Intermec RFID Large Rigid Tag can be rewritten...

Cultural fit should be top criterion for choosing an outsourcing partner.
August 1, 2006... By Staff Russell Stover is a household name in the candy business. In fact, the three brands made by the Kansas City, Mo.-based company-Russell Stover, Whitman's, and Pangburn's-account for 60 percent of all boxed chocolates sold in the...

Emerson finds multiple uses for procurement software.
August 1, 2006... By Staff The name Emerson has long been associated with innovative technology for industrial, commercial, and consumer markets. But soon this St. Louis-based conglomerate may be well known for its innovative use of strategic sourcing...

Airbus saga the latest on complexity and communications.
August 1, 2006... By Kevin Parker, editorial director "For all the complexity, the mistakes grew out of relatively simple lapses in communications. Engineers at Toulouse [France], and at the Airbus plant in Hamburg, Germany, tweaked the design of the A380...

Siemens user conference offers high-wire solutions for plant-floor/enterprise integration.
August 1, 2006... By Staff Blown out of New Orleans by Katrina, Siemens had to relocate its 2006 Automation Summit user conference to one of the few places that has the capacity to handle short lead times: Las Vegas. And while the theme was Winning...

Consolidation seen in HCM markets.
August 1, 2006... By Staff Within a span of five days, human capital management (HCM) solutions supplier Kronos issued two merger announcements. The first deal involves talent-management vendor Unicru, acquired for nearly $150 million in cash. Unicru...

EPCglobal offers help finding RFID value.
August 1, 2006... By Staff EPCglobal US, the not-for-profit RFID standards body, has three industry-specific kits-also called value models for chemical, aerospace, and retail pharmacy-for finding the best uses of RFID. Last year, EPC released similar...

A different way of measuring project success.
August 1, 2006... By Staff Any IT project completed on schedule, within budget, and with the exact functionality outlined in the original specification is a success, right? Not so, says Helen Putkszta, senior consultant with Arlington, Mass.-based Cutter...

Symbol and Intermec resolve disputes.
August 1, 2006... By Staff Intermec and Symbol Technologies , two pioneers in auto-ID and data capture, recently settled all outstanding intellectual property (IP) disputes in an agreement whereby both vendors cross-licensed certain patents, and entered...

Global ERP users explore steadily "dependable, independent" QAD.
August 1, 2006... By Staff QAD distinguishes itself in the ERP market as a company with considerable ballast owing to consistency of vision, as well as the steady hand of its founder and President Pam Lopker, and her husband and business partner, CEO Karl...

Oracle releases PeopleTools upgrade.
August 1, 2006... By Staff PeopleTools is the name of the 4GL originally created by PeopleSoft as the tooling for customizing its ERP suite. A new version, Oracle PeopleTools 8.48, adds service-oriented architecture (SOA) compliance with native support...

Heady transformation leads UGS to innovative digital manufacturing solutions.
August 1, 2006... By Staff UGS has been busy. And productive. But most important, innovative. This was the message at the product life-cycle management (PLM) vendor's annual analyst briefing in New York City in June, which this year was significantly...

In brief.
August 1, 2006... By Staff The ever-acquisitive Made2Manage Systems just bought Intuitive, a midmarket ERP vendor focused on discrete manufacturing. Intuitive's products will be supported and enhanced using Made2Manage's integration model. Says Steve...

Dell plant exceeds first-year goals.
August 1, 2006... By Staff The buzz at Dell Computer 's 750,000-square-foot manufacturing facility outside Winston-Salem, N.C., last October came from the employee cafeteria, where Michael Dell, North Carolina Governor Mike Easley, and 500 guests attended...

Kodak sees bigger picture in digital business model.
August 1, 2006... By Staff First announced in 2004 as part of its migration from a 120-year history in film to its involvement in the digital revolution in photography, Kodak is aligning its manufacturing facilities with specific business units. It's...

Gartner numbers show dramatic growth for Oracle Fusion middleware.
August 1, 2006... By Staff The market for integration middleware continues to be strong and highly concentrated, says Stamford, Conn.-based Gartner , with a handful of vendors accounting for 69 percent of sales. Gartner Research VP Joanne Correia says...

OPC Foundation extends standard for enterprise integration.
August 1, 2006... By Staff The OPC Foundation used Dedham, Mass.-based ARC Advisory Group's June Forum to announce its new Unified Architecture (UA) for data and information sharing between the plant floor and the enterprise. OPC UA unifies all OPC...