Manufacturing Business Technology articles from February 2008

Manufacturing Business Technology archives from February 2008

Oracle changes tactics, but not intent.
February 1, 2008... By Sidney Hill, Jr., executive editor The handling of its latest high-profile acquisition revealed a gentler-though not necessarily kinder-Oracle Corporation. In fact, purchasing middleware heavyweight BEA Systems is a strong...

Industrial wireless: Driving connectivity beyond the office.
February 1, 2008... By Kevin Prouty, senior director, manufacturing solutions, Motorola Enterprise Business That wireless connectivity across the enterprise can deliver value is well recognized. However, establishing wireless connectivity in an industrial...

Three-in-one combination mobile tablet eases operator setup, data integration.
February 1, 2008... By Karen Dilger, contributing editor (kadilger@comcast.net) Today's plant-floor operators are being weighed down by handheld devices that collect and read information, including bar-code scanners, laptops, cell phones, and PDAs. ...

Network acceleration cures congestion for pharma supplier.
February 1, 2008... By Staff Palo Alto, Calif.-based Affymax -a former division of Philadelphia-based pharmaceuticals giant GlaxoSmithKline -faced critical network congestion when it moved to a network-attached storage architecture. The network, recalls...

Data storage growth now a pressing issue for mid-tier manufacturers.
February 1, 2008... By Frank O Smith, senior contributing editor (fosmith@thewritinggroup.com) Midtier enterprises face many of the same challenges in managing IT resources and data storage that large enterprises do, but typically lack the IT staff with the...

Rexam's agile IT initiative keeps plants running.(Company overview)
February 1, 2008... By Malcolm Wheatley, senior contributing editor When John Niemzyk joined Chicago-based Rexam Beverage CanNorth America (NA) in 2004, an awkward systems-management problem lurked in his in-tray. A division of London-based Rexam, an...

Supply chain redesign gives Volvo CE options in after-sales service.(Company overview)
February 1, 2008... By Malcolm Wheatley, senior contributing editor Not long ago, fast-growing Brussels, Belgium-based Volvo Construction Equipment (CE) saw it faced a challenge with its after-sales spare parts supply chain-especially in the company's...

Lean beacon: German industrial giant pioneers Toyota-style initiative; SAP integration to follow.
February 1, 2008... By Malcolm Wheatley, senior contributing editor (malcolm_wheatley@compuserve.com) At Munich, Germany-based MAN Nutzfahrzeuge -the 13-plant truck and bus manufacturing division of industrial giant MAN-two successful pilot implementations...

Supplier networks offer more than just reduced prices.(Company overview)
February 1, 2008... By Carolyn Heinze, contributing editor (carolynheinze@free.fr) The process of vetting suppliers and obtaining competitive pricing is a challenge for all manufacturers. Small to midsize operations, where resources are fewer, especially feel...

Pharmaceutical industry shows progress with demand-driven model; more work to be done.
February 1, 2008... By Carolyn Heinze, contributing editor (carolynheinze@free.fr) By adopting B2B technologies such as EDI, the pharmaceutical industry is making significant progress toward enabling a demand-driven model. In many cases, inventory has...

Have we entered the era of disposable ERP?
February 1, 2008... By Cindy Jutras The selection of an ERP system has traditionally been viewed as a five- to eight-year decision. But the reality is few are replaced within that time frame unless the choice of systems was limited by budget or foresight,...

As energy consumption goes strategic, new programs target efficiency.
February 1, 2008... By Frank O Smith, senior contributing editor The price volatility of energy influenced both Boston-based AMR Research and Chicago-based Grant Thornton to name energy costs among the top business threats and concerns in 2008. Once considered...

Market moves of Siemens, Rockwell quicken digital manufacturing drum beat.
February 1, 2008... By Frank O Smith, senior contributing editor Industry watchers didn't have to wait long to see what market moves the Siemens Automation & Drives (A&D) acquisition of UGS in the spring might engender among leading competitors in the...

Enterprise asset management secures a foothold in software user group agendas.
February 1, 2008... By Staff The enterprise asset management (EAM) market, according to a fall briefing from Frost & Sullivan, is on the verge of two things: significant growth, and substantial change. The San Antonio-based analyst firm projects the EAM...

Embrace the role and value of master data management.(Company overview)
February 1, 2008... By Colin Snow, VP and research director, Operational & Supply Chain Performance Management, Ventana Research Too often, business executives are uncertain about the quality of their organization's data. It's an important issue today in part...

CAD data finds new use in manufacturing supply chain, support organizations.
February 1, 2008... By Staff 3D CAD data has many other uses outside the engineering function-in computer-based training tools, for example, as well as in marketing and maintenance manuals. But making use of 3D data for such purposes presents a challenge...

When worlds connect: IBM sees potential for IM, virtual role playing in PLM processes.
February 1, 2008... By Jim Fulcher, contributing editor (Jfulcher@comcast.net) Web 2.0 technologies like instant messaging (IM) have radically changed the way many people interact with friends and family. Just ask the average teenager how many IMs or text...

Design-to-cost tool raises dividends for aerial platform maker JLG.
February 1, 2008... By Staff JLG Industries is a global manufacturer of design-to-order forklifts and mobile aerial work platforms. No longer relying on complete vertical integration of its design/production process, the McConnellsburg, Pa.-based company...

Rich retrieval: Autodesk, Google, Microsoft simplify CAD file search.
February 1, 2008... By Frank O Smith, senior contributing editor A treasure trove of CAD documents is more readily available to the world with Autodesk 's December announcement that design files in its Design Web Format (DWF) can now be searched, indexed, and...

2008 will be the year of the perfect storm for manufacturing operations.
February 1, 2008... By Alison Smith 2007 was the third year of ramped-up spending on manufacturing operations software. Based on AMR Research's annual ERP spending study, manufacturing operations today competes for first place as the most strategically...

Gauging the changing nature of change.
February 1, 2008... By Kevin Parker, editorial director Given a constant interplay between ruling management concepts-such as lean production or globalization-and an information technology (IT) infrastructure integral to the business process, manufacturing...

PTC unveils new version of Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire, plans for CoCreate.
February 1, 2008... By Kevin Parker, editorial director Some might find it ironic that PTC , the originator of parametric modeling, now has its own 'explicit' modeler. The new modeler comes with the $250-million acquisition of CoCreate that PTC announced in...

Adobe technology makes MFG.com an easier place to buy, sell goods.(Company overview)
February 1, 2008... By Staff Founded in 2000, Atlanta-based MFG.com is the world's largest online manufacturing industry marketplace, with $15 billion worth of transactions made on the platform since its inception. MFG.com recently completed a major revamp of...

China's surge as steel exporter linked to trade-distorting energy subsidies.
February 1, 2008... By Staff A comprehensive report released January 8 highlights the massive increase in China's trade-distorting energy subsidies to its steel industry. This correlates to a surge in steel production there that took China from being a net...