Manufacturing Business Technology articles from November 2006

Manufacturing Business Technology archives from November 2006

Taking a global view.(Company overview)
November 1, 2006... By Malcolm Wheatley, Senior Contributing Editor Good sourcing strategies are about more than finding the lowest cost Wal-Mart , widely recognized as the retail industry's low-price leader, gets roughly 85 percent of its goods from...

Planning engine manages volatile demand without stockpiling inventory.
November 1, 2006... By Elizabeth SanFilippo Until just a few months ago, PEMSTAR 's strategy for dealing with constant changes to incoming orders was to build inventory buffers. But management at the Rochester, Minn.-based electronics services provider knew...

Vendors say profit-optimization solution proves time is money.
November 1, 2006... By Staff Applications that force salespeople to stay within specific price ranges can be useful, but they don't always maximize profits, says Michael Rothschild, CEO of Maxager Technology . Rothschild argues that ensuring the highest...

Software is the latest weapon in the battle against counterfeiters.
November 1, 2006... By Staff Nearly every company with a successful product is a potential victim of unscrupulous merchants looking to sell counterfeit versions of name-brand items. Now software vendors are giving brand owners some tools to fight back. ...

Tests, tips, and tools from experts in planning and execution.
November 1, 2006... By Staff Anritsu and TradeBeam simplify stricter compliance Staff Anritsu --a Japanese manufacturer of test & measurement equipment, and devices and components used in telecommunications, including military applications--must...

From databases to Web services, enterprise vendors seek new market advantage.
November 1, 2006... By Staff Comparing new releases of enterprise solutions coming out this fall, it would seem three prominent ERP vendors are pursuing three rather different development strategies. The influence of feedback Two years in...

In brief.
November 1, 2006... By Staff SoftBrands will offer ASI DataMyte total quality software as part of the quality component of the SoftBrands Fourth Shift Enterprise ERP solution. SoftBrands has approximately 5,000 customers in more than 100 countries...

If familiarity breeds contempt, market domination breeds hackers.
November 1, 2006... By Sidney Hill, Jr., Executive Editor Apple Computer may soon be singing a new iTune on the subject of security. Last month, the maker of Mac computers and the wildly popular iPod personal entertainment device issued a statement chastising...

Strategies for survival.
November 1, 2006... By Cole Ollinger, Senior Contributing Editor Short term, prices may fluctuate, but over the long haul manufacturers must prepare for higher energy costs High energy cost is a painful fact of life for American manufacturers, and looks...

The IT factor.
November 1, 2006... Jim Fulcher, Contributing Editor Making the right decisions about information technology can transform a business Building a new facility is challenging, but likewise opens up a whole new window of opportunity. So when Pepsi-Cola...

Genesis Microchip yields visible gains with real-time information access.
November 1, 2006... By Staff Making a profit in the semiconductor business necessitates staying on top of yield --i.e., the proportion of sellable product in every production batch. In semiconductor manufacturing, yield can run from 70 percent to 90...

The focus shifts from all the available data to just the right data.
November 1, 2006... By Hope Neal, Contributing Editor Using business intelligence (BI) data to evaluate--and ultimately improve--corporate performance requires knowing exactly what data should be examined and what should be ignored. Mark Smith, CEO of...

Design collaboration tool shortens sales cycles; raises revenue for Fresno Valves.
November 1, 2006... By Staff Fresno Valves & Castings , Selma, Calif., significantly boosted its revenue stream after it began using a design collaboration solution to support the sale of its custom irrigation gates. "There was a bottleneck in...

Shop-floor link to PLM could save millions; vendors respond to the notion.
November 1, 2006... By Staff Manufacturers could save hundreds of millions of dollars a year by creating direct feedback loops between production-management and product-design applications, according to a University of Michigan engineering professor. And at...

Cognos partners with Constar for S&OP blueprint.
November 1, 2006... By Staff Capitalizing on evolving market requirements for business performance solutions, Cognos is developing a series of industry-specific Performance Blueprints that move beyond basic business intelligence tools to offer pre-configured...

Industry groups, alliances collaborate for top-floor/shop-floor interoperability.
November 1, 2006... By Staff The name is both descriptive and prescriptive: Manufacturing Interoperability Guideline Working Group . Comprised of members from five organizations, their collective goal is to foster greater interoperability by ensuring...

Profit from secure supply chains.
November 1, 2006... By Roberto Michel, Senior Contributing Editor Dow Chemical, IBM find business benefits from security measures In the days following September 11, 2001, air freight came to a halt during the temporary closure of air travel, while...

Get ready for SOA.
November 1, 2006... By Erik Keller, Contributing Editor Regardless of approach to purchasing technology, service-oriented architectures will infiltrate all IT shops For the foreseeable future, any company deploying new IT systems--or upgrading existing...

Symantec warns: New threat is data theft, not network disruption.
November 1, 2006... By Staff Electronic security vendor Symantec says it has seen a rise in malicious code--including viruses, worms, and trojans--targeted at enterprises. "Threats are aimed at specific enterprises with fraud or theft of confidential...

Optimization supplier to enterprise vendors finds entry to applications business.
November 1, 2006... By Staff ILOG , a vendor of rules-management systems and optimization technologies used by enterprise and supply chain vendors, may shortly enter the applications business itself. ILOG's new product offering, the Optimization...

Integrator says common practice for supervisory control security isn't good enough.
November 1, 2006... By Staff The U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) has recognized that there are significant vulnerabilities to the "control systems that govern our critical infrastructures," and that the challenge of securing them against cyber threats...

SOA harnessed for manufacturing-centric "business process applications".
November 1, 2006... By Staff Vitria may soon become a more familiar name to manufacturers. The supplier of enterprise application integration and business process management tools is developing applications that support manufacturing-centric processes. ...

Furniture maker finds, moves inventory faster with wireless technology.
November 1, 2006... By Malcolm Wheatley, Senior Contributing Editor By installing Symbol Technologies mobile computers linked to a Symbol wireless network, furniture manufacturer Fraenkel Co. increased finished goods inventory accuracy, says Donna Holten,...

IBM issues an SOA laundry list.
November 1, 2006... By Staff As part of a large rollout of service-oriented architecture (SOA)-focused products and services, IBM now has vertical-industry offerings that fall under the brand IBM WebSphere Business Services Fabric, and incorporate...

Free tech support and education the order of the day.
November 1, 2006... By Staff IBM offers free RFID support for apps Staff The need for companies to master RFID development and support supply chain partners that have taken the plunge is the genesis behind free online access to tools and...

Oracle, IBM release content solutions for SOA environments.
November 1, 2006... By Staff New Oracle Content and Records Databases target companies dealing with content in mostly unmanaged environments. The two new products are options for the Oracle Database Enterprise Edition, and include interfaces for use within...

Innovation and globalization at Emerson Process Management.
November 1, 2006... By Kevin Parker, Editorial Director After 37 years of service to the process industries, John Berra, president of Emerson Process Management, says he sees ahead a moment in time alive with new possibilities. A $4.2 billion provider of...

Glovia unit says SaaS plus services will meet the ERP needs of underserved small manufacturers.
November 1, 2006... By Staff While the success of CRM vendor salesforce.com is well known, use of software-as-a service (SaaS) as a delivery model for enterprise resources planning (ERP) solutions has yet to hit full stride. A bet is being placed,...

Lenghty recovery times follow supply chain disruptions.
November 1, 2006... By Staff More than two-thirds of companies that experienced supply chain disruptions say it took more than a week to recover, according to a study by New York-based Accenture . The study, which polled 151 supply chain executives in U.S....

Product intelligence solution strengthens its search.
November 1, 2006... By Staff Centric Software 's InSight 6.0 offers a high degree of built-in intelligence for recognition of product and technical content. InSight discovers and classifies results based on common product attributes from CAD, product...

SIM study reveals what's keeping IT executives awake at night.
November 1, 2006... By Staff CEOs and CIOs are placing more emphasis on security technologies; business process management (BPM); and business intelligence (BI)-- but alignment of IT and business strategies remains their top concern. That's according to an...

Some large manufacturers disinterested in policing Chinese currency manipulation.
November 1, 2006... By Staff The board of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) voted against the recommendation of its own International Economic Policy Committee (IEPC) in choosing not to support the proposed bipartisan-sponsored Chinese...

Plant composite application succeeds in wake of acquisition; sparks industry revitalization.
November 1, 2006... By Staff SAP says there are today more than 300 installations of its key technology for plant-floor integration just more than a year after acquiring Lighthammer, original developer of what is now the Manufacturing Integration and...

Managed services spark supply chain outsourcing.
November 1, 2006... By Staff Ensuring the right product gets to the right place at the right time is a huge challenge. Throw in product configuration, forecasting errors, or transportation hassles, and the task is magnified exponentially. That's why...

Digital archiving gains favor in compliance initiatives.
November 1, 2006... By Staff Whether addressing regulatory, security, liability, or some other issue tied to risk or prohibitive costs, demand is growing for digital archiving systems used to capture electronic signatures, says Arthur Riel, CTO of...

For success to follow, PLM requires a focus on business processes.
November 1, 2006... By Staff Product life-cycle management (PLM) solutions are nothing new--after all, they've been around for years. The difference today is that manufacturers now better realize the scope involved. "As manufacturers look creatively and...