Manufacturing Business Technology articles from March 2006

Manufacturing Business Technology archives from March 2006

The revolutionary impact of plant-floor computerization.(Up front)
March 1, 2006... Given budget constraints and a shortage of qualified personnel, "There are fewer people in plants today doing cool things," says Gregg Le Blanc, a product director with OSIsoft, and given his wealth of handson experience, goatee, and hip...

First Microsoft/SAP joint product released to early users.(ENTERPRISE APPS ACCESS)
March 1, 2006... Mendocino, the project to marry Microsoft desktop productivity tools with SAP business applications, moved from strategy to initial deployment in late December with the release of Version 1 to 40 select joint customers and 10 business partners....

Industry group tackles metrics for ROI on security solutions.(APPS PROTECTION)
March 1, 2006... How to justify security investments--both on the part of software developers and companies evaluating purchases--is the focus of a new group launched late last year. The Application Security Industry Consortium (AppSIC) is going after the...

Unsettling signs for U.S. manufacturers.(CORPORATE)
March 1, 2006... U.S. Manufacturing Innovation at Risk, a report by Dr. Joel Popkin lists five warning signs as to why downward trends in U.S. manufacturing innovation pose a serious threat to America's longterm economic growth. 1. Manufacturing output has...

Field-service/back-office link calls for mobile solutions.(OPERATIONS)
March 1, 2006... Boston-based Aberdeen Group says 88 percent of best-inclass service organizations in high-tech, discrete, and process manufacturing think strengthening the connection between the field and the back office is a top priority. Most execs also...

Cisco promoting "intelligent" IT networks.(INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY)
March 1, 2006... Cisco Systems' strategy for staying atop the networking-gear market revolves around building "intelligent" devices. That became apparent late last year with the unveiling of the Cisco service-oriented architecture, or SONA, model. According to...

Advocacy group faults federal government for lack of fraud prevention.(CYBER SECURITY)
March 1, 2006... A Cyber Security Industry Alliance (CSIA) report released last December roundly criticizes the federal government for not doing enough to curb cyber crime. The alliance--formed two years ago by system security vendors McAfee, Symantec, Check...

Report shows threshold of skilled worker lags advance of technology.(INNOVATION AS STRATEGY)
March 1, 2006... The 2005 Georgia Manufacturing Survey, benchmarking use of modern manufacturing technology, practices, and techniques in 648 companies, found the major barrier to innovation has now shifted from financial constraints to a lack of skilled...

SCADA and security solutions supplier Verano bought PlantData Technologies, a deal expected to culminate in real-time security from a single source.
March 1, 2006... SCADA and security solutions supplier Verano bought PlantData Technologies, a deal expected to culminate in real-time security from a single source. PlantData reviews assets within the network and identifies areas considered susceptible to...

Remote revolution puts strain on strapped IT resources.(WORKFORCE MOBILITY)
March 1, 2006... Heightened use of mobile devices actually results in an unexpected burden on IT support staffs, when it comes to service. IT departments already low on resources are expected to support the mobile workforce in a timely way. Now it seems the...

Recent reports from "the zone.
March 1, 2006... The China Industrial Zone--or the CND, as it's more commonly called--is based in Changzhou. Recent reports from the zone indicate increased activity for a number of American manufacturers. Notable announcements by the companies include: ...

Reed exhibitions targets design-to-manufacturing process at annual Chicago area show.(NATIONAL MANUFACTURING WEEK)
March 1, 2006... The location for National Manufacturing Week (NMW) may have changed, but the exhibition and conference focus remain squarely on the tools, solutions, and methodologies used to improve plant and enterprise performance. This year, NMW will be...

Technology makes a difference to smart organizations: JetBlue's focus IT is to keep its cost down rather than support complex business processes.(In perspective)
March 1, 2006... Though there are many naysayers today when it comes to technology, there are just as many examples whereby technology, correctly applied, really does the trick. Here are five of my favorite truisms, with supporting examples. Excessive...

Will SOA make enterprise systems less transaction-centric? Imagine a business environment where communication among customers, partners, and suppliers accomplishes the mission regardless of technology constraints or boundaries.(In perspective)
March 1, 2006... Working with high-tech manufacturers has my wheels turning. Think about this: very few industries operate at the velocity of high-tech. Given opportunities for explosive growth and high margins, competition is ferocious, and the rules change...

Innovation accelerated: PLM tools prove out concepts, speed collaboration for Callaway Golf and others.(Cover story)
March 1, 2006... Inside the gleaming glass headquarters of Callaway Goff in Carlsbad, Calif., product developers are hard at work coming up with the next great golf club. However, much of what Callaway does to launch clubs such as its Big Bertha Fusion FT-3...

Trek's time-trial triumph.(INNOVATION SPOTLIGHT)
March 1, 2006... When Lance Armstrong won his record seventh Tour de France last summer, he was aided by a new time-trial bicycle developed in just 28 days by Trek Bicycle Corp., Waterloo, Wis., the bike sponsor of Armstrong's Discovery Channel team. The bike's...

P&G's CarpetFlick expands Swiffer brand.(INNOVATION SPOTLIGHT)
March 1, 2006... Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble (P&G) revolutionized the market for floor-cleaning products with its Swifter brand in 1999, but after years of success and expansion, a simple fact stuck out, says Bob Godfroid, a product design manager at P&G:...

How we work now: wholesale workplace changes wrought by globalization lead to "human capital" crisis; knowledge workers found on plant floor.(Human capital management)
March 1, 2006... To understand how profoundly information technology can change manufacturing, one need only compare the 1962 launch of the Boeing 727 with that of the Boeing 777, first built in 1994. It took 5,000 engineers--burdened with thousands of pounds...

21st century logistics: forecasting remains relevant in the ongoing document management revolution.(Applications & Servicies)
March 1, 2006... With supply chains extending due to globalization, Razat Gaurav, VP of global transportation and distribution for supply chain management solutions vendor i2 Technologies, sees businesses facing two main challenges: managing costs, and securing...

Cautionary survey: operations outsourcing elusive in electronics: it is one thing to adopt outsourcing as a business model; it's quite another to do it effectively.(in perspective)
March 1, 2006... Manufacturers are more reliant upon operations outsourcing than ever, and the primary motivation for this has been to lower the asset base for improved return. Many also seek to lower operations costs so as to provide competitively priced goods...

Is single-vendor versus best-of-breed a dead issue?(ERP STRATEGY)
March 1, 2006... Interoperability is a big selling point for ERP vendors, and currently, the major players--Oracle and SAP--are pushing their own middleware platforms, which they claim make integrating specialized third-party applications with an ERP backbone...

Buying Datastream's EAM gives Infor a solution for midmarket enterprises.(MIDRANGE ERP)
March 1, 2006... The recent purchase of enterprise asset management (EAM) software supplier Datastream by Infor fills a hole in the midrange ERP vendor's portfolio, giving Infor entree to process and discrete manufacturers, and distributors in asset-intensive...

Supply chain solutions vendor ClearOrbit recently picked up eBoomerang's suite of returns-management applications, which track, manage, and process returns in real time from a Web-based platform.
March 1, 2006... Supply chain solutions vendor ClearOrbit recently picked up eBoomerang's suite of returns-management applications, which track, manage, and process returns in real time from a Web-based platform. Tools within the suite allow users to define...

Instron links quality and service issues via Agile PLM.(CASE-IN-POINT)
March 1, 2006... When product engineers at Instron are hard at work on a new product, or revisions of existing products, they have the software equivalent of a quality expert looking over their shoulders. That's because Instron--a Norwood, Mass.-based...

Siemens enlists partners to bolster MES sales.(MANUFACTURING EXECUTION SYSTEMS)
March 1, 2006... As do Microsoft Business Solutions and SAP in the ERP market, Siemens Energy & Automation is using partners to bolster its presence in the manufacturing execution systems (MES) space, relying on systems integrators with expertise in designated...

Jewelry supplier sparkles at inventory management.(CASE-IN-POINT)
March 1, 2006... Stuller Settings, a jewelry component and accessory supplier, bills itself as a just-in-time supplier that promises its customers it will "carry inventory so you don't have to." Orders placed by 5:00 p.m. are expected to be delivered the next...

Global execution: enterprisewide MES enables better control of far-flung production facilities.(Business Performance)
March 1, 2006... As more manufacturers turn to global business models to reduce operating costs, they're finding that taking orders and generating production plans at the enterprise level can be risky business--particularly if the people doing those jobs can't...

Process control and PLM in the limelight at daratechPLANT2006 conference.(ENGINEERING BEST PRACTICES)
March 1, 2006... A record turnout of professionals from the process and oil & gas industries gathered in Houston in late January for the daratechPLANT2006 conference. The event presented a timely review of best practices, evolving operations, and emerging...

Emerging vendors leverage lost or locked information in process control.
March 1, 2006... Among the vendors in the emerging technology pavilion at the January daratechPLANT2006 conference, sponsored by Cambridge. Mass.-based Daratech, were Falconer Technologies LLC and iWare, a division of knowledge management software provider...

Partnering seen as key to any China operations launch.(OFFSHORING STRATEGIES)
March 1, 2006... TSS Technologies, a Cincinnati-based contract manufacturer, learned quickly that launching its first production facility in China could not easily be done by TSS staff alone. Setting up human resources, accounting, and procurement functions...

Fabric maker learns forecasting, operational metrics.(CASE-IN-POINT)
March 1, 2006... When senior management at Propex Fibers decided the company's supply chain needed an overhaul, the entire supply chain organization went back to school. More than 35 employees attended a course in supply chain management at the Logistics...

ERP and BizTalk integration leads to high-level customer service for Q*Media.(CASE-IN-POINT)
March 1, 2006... A faster learning curve for enterprise system users and accurate inventory data from an ERP system are helping Q*Media provide better customer service. Yet many of the value-chain benefits of the system stem from the relative ease with which it...

Midsize manufacturers reengage with online sales; benefit from customer context.(CRM/E-COMMERCE INTERSECT)
March 1, 2006... Large numbers of intelligent people once firmly believed that by the time 2006 rolled around, almost all buying and selling--from groceries to commercial real estate--would be done over the Internet. But the complexity of selling...

How are leading manufacturers addressing quality issues?(Ask Aberdeen Group)
March 1, 2006... Although quality is a key determinate of customer satisfaction and long-term corporate viability, many companies continue to struggle with the basics of data collection, maintaining disparate systems, and enforcing standard operating...

Spend wisely: proper planning lowers IT infrastructure costs.(Integration & Infrastructure)
March 1, 2006... Information technology managers everywhere are facing the same paradox: hardware and software prices keep dropping, yet the cost of managing a corporate IT infrastructure continues to rise. How is this possible? Analysts link it to contemporary...

VoIP goes beyond economical phone calls to enable supply chain communication.(INTERNET INFRASTRUCTURE)
March 1, 2006... Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) systems, which connect via the Internet rather than wire lines, will become the infrastructure of choice as communication devices multiply to include phones, e-mail, computers, and personal digital assistants...

Large vendors throwing weight behind SOA standards.(SERVICE-ORIENTED ARCHITECTURE)
March 1, 2006... A group of high-profile technology suppliers is attempting to develop a set of standards that would make it easier to create--and deploy--service-oriented architectures (SOA). If they succeed, SOA adoption could accelerate. An SOA is a...

ISA working on standards for securing plant-floor networks.(CONTROL-LAYER SECURITY)
March 1, 2006... Plant-floor control network security is an urgent issue for manufacturers seeking to integrate control and enterprise systems and, at the same time, secure critical operations and processes. With that in mind, the Instrumentation, Systems, and...

Application developers like the new SQL Server; users yet to weigh in.(DATABASE UPDATE)
March 1, 2006... Microsoft contends the latest release of its database--SQL Server 2005--makes it easier than ever to mine valuable business information from raw data while also being cheaper to manage. And some of the independent software vendors (ISV) that...

Novell.
March 1, 2006... Novell will combine its SUSE Linux operating system with Concurrent's RedHawk Linux operating systems via Concurrent's Real-Time Extensions. Novell also will sell Concurrent's NightStar development tool set, which supports debugging of...

Catania Spagna, a supplier of oils and vinegars, is using RedTail's Transaction Managera with Xpress Conveyor (RTTM-XC).
March 1, 2006... Catania Spagna, a supplier of oils and vinegars, is using RedTail's Transaction Managera with Xpress Conveyor (RTTM-XC) SasS Platform, a single-source system for EDI and global data synchronization that integrates EDI and data-sync requirements...

Click Commerce's new RFID Competency Center in Chicago demonstrates the Intelligent Supply Chainm an RFID solution created by Click and VueTechnology.
March 1, 2006... Click Commerce's new RFID Competency Center in Chicago demonstrates the Intell gent Supply Chainm an RFID solution created by Click and VueTechnology, which offers item-level RFID. The demo tracks inventory. through a tiered supply chain from...

Vendors say all companies can have systems that manage themselves.(AUTONOMIC COMPUTING)
March 1, 2006... The appearance of autonomic computing solutions for small and medium businesses (SMBs) may be the signal that this technology is shaking its pie-in-the sky image. Championed by IBM, autonomic computing is an approach to self-managed systems....

New Web site serves up RFID tags to small businesses, on demand.(COMPLIANCE SOLUTIONS)
March 1, 2006... Paragon Data Systems is offering a novel solution for companies that need to start RFID tagging, but aren't quite ready to make large investments in the technology. By logging on to www.paragaonrfid.com, manufacturers can order as many tags as...

Pfizer deploys multiple-level RFID tagging to combat drug counterfeits.(PHARMA SECURITY)
March 1, 2006... Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer is using RFID to stymie the burgeoning market for its most counterfeited drug, Viagra. The company also hopes the technology will aid compliance with upcoming government requirements to prevent counterfeiting of all...

SOA and all that jazz.(Back talk)
March 1, 2006... Most business executives know it pays to have interests--even passions-outside of work. These extracurricular activities help us relax from the pressures of work, and often that time away--whether it's two hours or two weeks--can inspire...