Manufacturing Business Technology articles from June 2005

Manufacturing Business Technology archives from June 2005

Purity of heart is to will one thing.(Up front)
June 1, 2005... Rick Russell is CIO at Swiss-owned medical-device maker Medela's operations in McHenry, Ill. He says the site not too long ago ripped out a just-installed Tier 1 enterprise system and replaced it with one from QAD. The main reason for this...

Observations on offshore software development: it's boom time ... for some.(SOFTWARE 2005 CONFERENCE)
June 1, 2005... Software industry executives who gathered for Sandhill Group's Software 2005 conference--held in late April in Santa Clara, Calif.--found the topics of offshore development and outsourcing hard to miss. Hosting the event, Sandhill's M.R....

CEOs say users steer software products in unexpected directions.(Views from the front)
June 1, 2005... Two software industry CEOs appearing at Sandhill Group's recent Software 2005 conference made clear the importance of routinely letting customers drive product decisions. James Goodnight, CEO of business intelligence software vendor SAS,...

PLM is a plot perpetrated by the marketing department.(CORPORATE)
June 1, 2005... Product life-cycle management (PLM) is unique among enterprise applications in that it offers opportunities for revenue growth, as well as reduced costs. But for PLM to be an engine for the product innovation that drives revenue growth, it must...

Intermec simplifies RFID licensing for OEMs.(OPERATIONS)
June 1, 2005... The powers that be at Intermec aren't willing to go as far as Shakespeare's suggestion to kill all the lawyers, but they do want to leave them out of the licensing loop. Since June 1, the holder of 150-plus patents for core RFID technology has...

Cracking the code on IBM's latest acquisition.(INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY)
June 1, 2005... Companies with 18 employees and three paying customers generally aren't prime acquisition targets, which is why IBM's decision to purchase Gluecode seems surprising on the surface. But this small company could give IBM entree to a market it has...

Rural states suggest looking close to home rather than offshoring.(LOCALIZED OUTSOURCING)
June 1, 2005... The lure of low wages and favorable trade conditions is hard to resist, and demands from customers to meet the "China price" have pushed more manufacturers to look overseas for lower-cost operations. But offshoring is not the bottom-line...

Leadership awards surface in software development.(High Honors)
June 1, 2005... Cincom Systems' enterprise management software product, Control, has been named "Excellent Product in 2004" by e-works, China's leading IT application portal. More than 80,000 users of e-works--including industry experts, CEOs, CIOs,...

New alliance attempts cross-industry framework for electronic information compliance.(REGULATORY COMPLIANCE)
June 1, 2005... The complex and often contradictory regulatory compliance issues that companies wrestle with are legion. In fact, it's estimated there are 10,000 U.S. federal, state, and local regulations alone. Given globalization, it only gets worse. ...

Intuit releases solution for "health-conscious" IT network managers, engineers.(NETWORKING ADVANCES)
June 1, 2005... "Companies can't afford lost productivity caused by problems with mission-critical servers," says Tony Thomas, who oversees product management at Intuit Information Technology (IT) Solutions. "IT managers and network engineers know this, and...

Sundown on Golden State manufacturing: jobs at risk?(U.S. OUTLOOK)
June 1, 2005... California is a microcosm of the state of manufacturing in the U.S. With the sixth-largest economy in the world and 1.5 million manufacturing jobs--70 percent more than runner-up Texas--California faces obstacles common to all states, only...

Lean thinkers lauded in U.S. manufacturing industry.(SHINGO PRIZE)
June 1, 2005... North American manufacturers--15 in all--were awarded the 2005 Shingo Prize for Excellence in Manufacturing at the 17th annual conference and ceremonies in Grand Rapids, Mich., in April. This year's awards recipients in particular demonstrate...

Deloitte/NAM study reveals domestic and international intentions of U.S. manufacturing companies.(EXPANSION PLANS)
June 1, 2005... The biggest surprise to come out of the Manufacturing Location Survey conducted jointly by the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and New York-based Deloitte Consulting, released in March, is the high percentage of respondents that are...

Manufacturers fall near bottom of IT spending ranks.(TECH BUDGETS)
June 1, 2005... Manufacturing is 50 percent more likely than other industries to decrease IT spending in 2005--so says the Manufacturing Industry 2005 IT Budget & Staffing Report, released by Ontario-based Info-Tech Research Group in late April. In fact, of...

Repositories viewed as security link for Web services.(GARTNER SUMMIT)
June 1, 2005... A key message coming out of Stamford, Conn.-based research firm Gartner's Application Integration and Web Services conference is renewed interest in Web services registries and repositories. Registries were first envisioned as enabling...

Tell your kids to become plumbers.(In perspective)
June 1, 2005... On a ride back to the airport from one of my clients, the driver (let's call him Boris) was more than casually interested in the activities of the company I had just visited. After I explained the type of technology they developed, I asked...

Subscription software may be too good to be true.(In perspective)
June 1, 2005... With maintenance absorbing roughly 80 percent of most IT budgets, it's not surprising that software by subscription has struck a chord. Unlike traditional software license purchases, subscriptions relieve the customer of paying a large upfront...

Every customer is unique: Babcock & Wilcox, BT Industries, others leverage tools that bring designs, service into tight alignment with customer needs.(Cover Story)
June 1, 2005... Getting closer to customers often starts with being able to quickly configure custom products for them. But what if you aren't configuring from a preset mix of common components? What if your solutions must fit the unique process engineering...

All the right views: 3D visualization prompts issue awareness among product stakeholders.(Applications & Services)
June 1, 2005... "We spent a lot of money on meetings and conference calls," says Terry Van Olst, director of engineering development at Raleigh, N.C.-based Sensus Metering Systems, which supplies meter systems to the utilities industry. With design engineers...

Collaborative hub gets a tune-up with cross-industry enhancements.(SUPPLY CHAIN NETWORKS)
June 1, 2005... The Inventory Collaboration Hub (ICH)--integral to SAP's mySAP ERP and supply chain management (SCM) solutions--will soon include new industry-specific functionality, as well as the ability to run on SAP's NetWeaver browser-based platform. This...

SCADA users seeking tighter integration with business processes.(SUPERVISORY CONTROL)
June 1, 2005... Tighter integration with the rest of the enterprise likely will drive growth over the next four years in the market for systems that control and monitor remote operations in process industries--e.g., oil & gas, electric power, chemicals, and...

UGS and Tecnomatix: a marriage of depth and breadth--with reach.(DIGITAL MANUFACTURING)
June 1, 2005... In the wake of its acquisition of digital manufacturing solutions provider Tecnomatix, UGS is claiming its place as the "No. 1 digital manufacturing solutions provider in the PLM market." With a fully integrated product life-cycle management...

Decision support smoothes semiconductor test division's outsourced model.(CASE-IN-POINT)
June 1, 2005... Being able to quickly analyze different supply-side scenarios is just as important for Agilent's California Semiconductor Test division now as it was a few years ago. The difference today is the Santa Clara, Calif.-based unit now outsources...

Electronic commerce comes to the checkout counter.(SCAN-BASED TRADING)
June 1, 2005... If you are supplying to a big-box retailer, add this phrase to your vocabulary: scan-based trading, or SBT. According to a survey of 15-plus major retailers--including Target, Meijer, and AutoZone--conducted by researchers at New York-based...

Epicor Software announces integration of BMH's Open4 HRIS human resources solution with Epicor's Vantage enterprise system.(Apps in brief)
June 1, 2005... Epicor Software announces integration of BMH's Open4 HRIS human resources solution with Epicor's Vantage enterprise system. Both modules use Progress Software's OpenEdge development platform.

Honeywell's UniSim.(Apps in brief)
June 1, 2005... Honeywell's UniSim software and engineenng services allow process manufacturers to design and test new processes off-line and train employees prior to implementation. Once the new process is online, UniSim supports process control and...

Webcom, which offers solutions for the quote-to-order process for complex products and services.(Apps in brief)
June 1, 2005... Webcom, which offers solutions for the quote-to-order process for complex products and services, has joined Siebel Systems' Alliance Program as a CRM OnDemand Software Partner.

Pelion Systems and the Lean Learning Center will develop solutions that address the cultural side of lean manufacturing transformation.(Apps in brief)
June 1, 2005... Pelion Systems and the Lean Learning Center will develop solutions that address the cultural side of lean manufacturing transformation, including Pelion's manufacturing process optimization suite, offering advanced lean and flow algorithms, and...

Perfect Commerce, The Open Supplier Network (OSN), and Eutilia N.V. will deliver supplier relationship management services to the European market.(Apps in brief)
June 1, 2005... Perfect Commerce, The Open Supplier Network (OSN), and Eutilia N.V. will deliver supplier relationship management services to the European market. Perfect Commerce will enable Eutilia to offer integrated e-procurement solutions to Eutilia's...

Autodesk.(Apps in brief)
June 1, 2005... Autodesk announces new versions of its portfolio of solutions for 2D and 3D design and modeling, animation, visualization, data management, and collaboration. Among them is AutoCAD 2006, which offers improvements to the interface, annotation...

Net markets: the fittest survived by adding value.(In perspective)
June 1, 2005... In case you don't watch television, we live in an on-demand business world. To thrive, manufacturers must get the right information at the right time to bring the right amount of product to the right place at the right time. This is...

Think lean for the long term: IT can make the journey smoother, but not without corporate commitment.(Business Performance)
June 1, 2005... When Bridgeton, Mo.-based Hussmann Corp. set out on its journey to lean, things didn't go according to plan. One of lean's central tenets--pull-based scheduling--is typically achieved using kanban cards. But for Hussmann, a manufacturer of...

The right BI tool can lower ERP license fees.(DATA MANAGEMENT)
June 1, 2005... When Warn Industries, Clackamas, Ore., purchased its first business intelligence (BI) tool, it got an unexpected benefit. It found it no longer needed nearly 50 licenses for its ERP system--a discovery that led to an immediate $150,000 savings....

Plenty of rebate dollars going unclaimed from free trade agreements.(GLOBAL TRADE MANAGEMENT)
June 1, 2005... Globalization and the growing emphasis on foreign trade in the last decade has spawned more than 300 trade programs worldwide, with more coming online all the time, yet companies are failing to reap the full benefit in duty savings from...

Honda sets a higher standard for EDI compliance.(ELECTRONIC DATA INTERCHANGE)
June 1, 2005... All large companies that practice EDI expect their suppliers to adhere to certain standards for conducting those transactions. But Honda may be the only manufacturer that requires its suppliers' technology vendors to prove they also can meet...

How can a midsize manufacturer streamline its order-to-delivery process?(Ask AberdeenGroup)
June 1, 2005... According to AberdeenGroup, many companies have already improved return-on-assets for the order-to-delivery process with long-standing and well-run programs such as lean manufacturing. Now these companies are focusing on the 80 percent of order...

IT gets some smarts: intelligence techniques uncover the business value of information systems.(Integration & Infrastructure)
June 1, 2005... Suppliers of systems and network management software believe they've discovered a reliable way of verifying the business value of information technology. The answer, it seems, is to employ some of the same analytical capabilities that business...

Don't let confusion over competing standards derail your e-business strategy.(E-COMMERCE STANDARDS)
June 1, 2005... That old adage, "Too much of a good thing..." just may apply to B2B standards. While having a common way of formatting and transporting documents across electronic networks does make it easier for trading partners to conduct e-commerce,...

Don't retire those mainframes yet.(ENTERPRISE COMPUTING)
June 1, 2005... Data integration software specialist Informatica says it has just the solution for companies seeking to extend the lives of their mainframes. Its PowerCenter for Mainframe application pulls information from a mainframe database and converts it...

IBM iSeries and partner software give Mississippi Sportswear a competitive edge.(CASE-IN-POINT)
June 1, 2005... When high-profile college teams like USC and Notre Dame take the field, they're wearing uniforms made by Mississippi Sportswear. The manufacturer, based in Kosciusko, Miss., is growing rapidly due in large part to its customer-friendly...

Linux variants are no sweat.(OPERATING SYSTEMS)
June 1, 2005... With new Linux distributors seemingly popping up every day, are users of the open-source operating system destined to face the same management issues that drove many of them away from UNIX? UNIX, once the dominant platform for running...

IBM integrates Trigo's PIM with WebSphere.(MASTER DATA MANAGEMENT)
June 1, 2005... Leveraging last year's acquisition of Trigo--a product information management (PIM) vendor--IBM has now integrated Trigo's PIM functionality with IBM WebSphere, which offers Internet infrastructure software--or middleware--for creating,...

Microsoft and PLM vendors team up on collaborative blueprints.(COLLABORATIVE COALITION)
June 1, 2005... Microsoft Corp. and a group of product life-cycle management (PLM) software and services vendors are hoping a new joint program will pave the way for improved PLM processes. The program, called Collaborative Product Development (CPD), will...

The "informal" link between IDS Scheer's ARIS and Microsoft BizTalk.(BUSINESS PROCESS MODELING)
June 1, 2005... Despite recent reports that IDS Scheer was working on an alliance to more tightly integrate its ARIS business process modeling package with Microsoft's BizTalk, the link between the two products remains informal, says Dr. Mathias Kirchmer, CEO,...

Security planning should include storage systems.(STORAGE MANAGEMENT)
June 1, 2005... While corporations readily spend millions of dollars to secure the data they send out over the Internet and various other networks in the course of doing business, very few even think about protecting the data residing on their storage systems....

Start expecting the unexpected: supply chain security means being ready for anything.(Security/Wireless)
June 1, 2005... In Genesis, Chapter 6, God told Noah, "Make yourself an ark." Lucky Noah. He was warned. Best not to count on the same divine favor to keep your supply chain humming when a random act of God--fire, flood, earthquake, raw material...

Alliance members address security for companies using VoIP.(INTERNET TELEPHONY)
June 1, 2005... Media coverage of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology has focused on its low cost. Security issues related to the technology have been less remarked upon. That said, a number of vendors and interested parties have announced the Voice...

PEAK Technologies has delivered a radio-frequency (RF)-based system to Nikon, a Melville, N.Y.-based optoelectronics manufacturer.(Wireless in brief)
June 1, 2005... PEAK Technologies has delivered a radio-frequency (RF)-based system to Nikon, a Melville, N.Y.-based optoelectronics manufacturer. The system includes 12 custom-developed SAP enterprise system transactions for use with data collection...

Making the best of a bad situation is business-as-usual for 3PL.(MASTERS OF DISASTER)
June 1, 2005... Detroit-based National Logistics Management (NLM) makes a business out of other people's misfortune. "When all else fails, companies call on us," says Jim Applegate, president of NLM's off-site services division. "We are the link in the supply...

Can we really "can" spam?(E-MAIL AUTHENTICATION)
June 1, 2005... The answer so far would seem to be "no." According to Stanford University's Institute for the Quantitative Study of Society, dealing with spam accounts for five minutes out of every hour spent online. Lost productivity is estimated to be $20...

New use for RFID: settling product delivery disputes.(THE AUDIT TRAIL)
June 1, 2005... That RFID tagging enables wireless gathering of stock delivery data is not news; the novel uses that are being found for the data, however, tell a compelling story. Take, for example, the OATePOD module from OATSystems. Ready for release...

GE develops secure shipping container solution.(TAMPER-EVIDENT TECHNOLOGY)
June 1, 2005... It's a post-9/11 nightmare: a true believer with an agenda and a talent for explosives tampering with a shipping container. Securing ocean trade from thieves and counterfeiters is an ongoing challenge for global manufacturers. Last fall,...

As a business strategy, innovation trumps globalization.(Back talk)
June 1, 2005... If you watch Lou Dobbs Tonight, the business news show on CNN, on any given evening, you might get the impression that globalization is a sure sign that the Apocalypse is upon us. Unlike the distinguished Mr. Dobbs, who has written a book...