Manufacturing Business Technology articles from June 2008

Manufacturing Business Technology archives from June 2008

Says here the end game will be 'platform as a service'.
June 1, 2008... By Kevin Parker, editorial director Much discussed, much remains to be seen when it comes to Software as a Service (SaaS), the subject of this month's cover story. It's said 40 percent of small-to-midsize businesses (SMBs) have either...

Don't overlook the basic plumbing that is ERP.
June 1, 2008... By Cindy Jutras ERP provides the necessary infrastructure that forms the operational and transactional system of record for manufacturers of all types and sizes.While an ERP evaluation was once thought to be a strategic five- to eight-year...

The time has come for the Operations Data Warehouse.
June 1, 2008... By Alison Smith The market's appetite for manufacturing operations performance visibility continues to blossom, maturing slowly from an early fascination with key performance indicators (KPI) to a more sophisticated recognition that while...

The next planning variable may be carbon control.
June 1, 2008... By Sidney Hill, Jr., executive editor Constraint-based planning is a basic tenet of supply chain management. It calls for identifying factors that can slow the movement of goods through a supply network and developing solutions to overcome...

Web paradigm arises as alternative to SOA.
June 1, 2008... By Tony Baer, senior contributing editor After recently surveying early adopters of service-oriented architecture (SOA), Ann Thomas Manes, an analyst with Midvale, Utah- based Burton Group , concluded that the technology approach was stuck...

As SOA adoption solidifies, good governance is recognized as critical next step.
June 1, 2008... By Staff Jerry Kelly, CIO and VP of 3Com , a global supplier of converged voice and data networking solutions, believes good governance is the cornerstone of success with service-oriented architecture (SOA). 'It's absolutely...

IBM investments: Telelogic acquisition finalized; EnterpriseDB gets backing.
June 1, 2008... By Staff Almost a year after making its original $745M offer, IBM completed its buy of Telelogic AB in early April, and plans to play a larger role in the software development aspects of product life-cycle management (PLM). Under the...

I/O worth millions: Weak economy signals IT's opportunity to improve data center performance.
June 1, 2008... By Frank O Smith (fosmith@thewritinggroup.com) The next time financial cutbacks are on the table, consider virtualization technology to improve data center performance and achieve cost savings. Virtualization can increase network, storage,...

Business advisory: Know SaaS issues before they impact operations.(Company overview)
June 1, 2008... By Gregg Le Blanc, principal, F5Direct Uncovering the benefits of Software-as-a-Service, or SaaS, requires understanding the terms and technologies involved so everyone can ask the right questions. Corporate IT, discrete manufacturing, and...

Global corporations see advances in applying search to product data.
June 1, 2008... By Kevin Parker, editorial director Most software applications are model-based, and include the set of procedures required to, for example, build a schedule, design a product, or control a production process. Search is different. It's...

Front-end sales tool brings newfound simplicity to complex products manufacture.
June 1, 2008... By Jim Fulcher, contributing editor (jimfulcher@comcast.net) Just because a company makes complex products doesn't mean configuring a sales proposal or a sales order needs to be complicated. Unfortunately, complexity is too often the case...

Beyond spreadsheets: Price management needs dedicated tools; market space still being defined.
June 1, 2008... By Karen Dilger, contributing editor (kadilger@comcast.net) Despite the importance of price as the determinator of revenue and profit, many companies remain baffled by the complexity of managing the pricing process, and fail to dedicate the...

Feel IT: Microsoft wants to earn your love for Dynamics.
June 1, 2008... By Frank O Smith (fosmith@thewritinggroup.com) Can users really love a business application? Jakob Nielsen, principal user experience manager, Microsoft Dynamics, asserts unequivocally you can. 'There's usability, and then there's...

Outsourcing Central: IQMS enterprise module schedules SC movement; monitors work status.
June 1, 2008... By Jim Fulcher, contributing editor (jimfulcher@comcast.net) The practice of outsourcing certain aspects of production is proving vital in certain industries. In fact, data out of Boston-based AMR Research suggests a confluence of economic,...

SAP SCM enhancements seek to simplify partner ecosystem interactions.
June 1, 2008... By Jim Fulcher, contributing editor (jimfulcher@comcast.net) Adapting to changing market conditions is considerably easier said than done when the business network includes global employees, suppliers, customers, partners, and distributors....

Turning plant operations over to the supply chain is a risky business.
June 1, 2008... By Malcolm Wheatley, senior contributing editor Having pushed its Taiwanese trading company partner for a site visit to the Chinese manufacturer of its product, says Jim Ridgwick, Shanghai-based manager in Deloitte & Touche LLP 's global...

Qualcomm wireless connectivity services let OEMs build out smarter machines.
June 1, 2008... Frank O Smith, senior contributing editor (fosmith@thewritinggroup.com) OEMs for industrial and other type machines are beginning to appreciate the opportunity to differentiate their offerings in the market by embedding intelligence in...

Next-gen DCS doubles as control system and 'information hub'.
June 1, 2008... By Sidney Hill, Jr., executive editor (shill@reedbusiness.com) Yokogawa Electric Corp. says the next generation of its CENTUM distributed control system (DCS) illustrates how the DCS is evolving from a single-purpose tool for managing...

Lightweight formats unlock 3D design intent.
June 1, 2008... Roberto Michel, senior contributing editor Making design data count where it really matters-during downstream, customer-facing processes-is easier these days at Indak Manufacturing Corp. , says John Clauson, CAD/drafting manager. That's...

History-free and feature-based: Siemens PLM Software unfurls its Synchronous Technology banner.
June 1, 2008... By Frank O Smith, senior contributing editor (fosmith@thewritinggroup.com) Eager to keep market interest whetted following its $3.5-billion acquisition of UGS early last year and subsequent announcement of its Project Archimedes...

Interop/Software 2008 addresses distributed performance challenges inherent to PLM.
June 1, 2008... By Kevin Parker, editorial director It's impossible to miss the fact that large global enterprises as well as midsize manufacturing companies have been centralizing their IT resources for several years now. They do so not only for the...

BPM for dummies: New book demystifies business process management.
June 1, 2008... By Sidney Hill Jr., executive editor Business process management (BPM) is a popular topic at manufacturing and supply chain conferences. But it appears that industry executives still have more questions than answers when it comes to...

Looming skills shortage prompts innovative workforce retention and recruiting strategies.
June 1, 2008... By Frank O Smith (fosmith@thewritinggroup.com) A shortage of highly skilled manufacturing workers-the people running sophisticated equipment on the plant floor, as well as engineering and management professionals-poses a serious threat for...

It's a pattern: SAS buys text mining specialist Teragram.
June 1, 2008... By Tony Baer, senior contributing editor (tbaer@tbaer.com) Extending its coverage from statistical to text analytics, business intelligence (BI) specialist SAS Institute has acquired Teragram, a 40-person organization based in Cambridge,...

Ayoka brings American business acumen to apps development, systems integration.
June 1, 2008... By William Atkinson, contributing editor (w.atkinson@mchsi.com) The U.S. manufacturing industry has lost its share of jobs to overseas competition, so when these companies seek outsourcing assistance, they may well prefer to work with U.S....

Statutory and custom-designed remedies speed the learning curve.
June 1, 2008... By Thomas J. Hall, Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz In the legal world, a 'remedy' is a tool available when a contract goes bad, when one party cannot, or will not, fulfill its obligations. Contract law provides a set of...

Durable goods unshipped orders hits new high; inventory increases raise red flag.
June 1, 2008... By Industry Monitoring Service, Prevel Consulting Based on preliminary U.S. Census Bureau data for the period March 2008, the economy continued to grow in the first quarter at a tepid rate of 0.6 percent. This is consistent with the signals...