Manufacturing Business Technology articles from October 2005

Manufacturing Business Technology archives from October 2005

No longer inelastic to economic conditions.(Up front)
October 1, 2005... It surprises Michael Terzich, SVP, Zebra Technologies Corp., how many manufacturers embark on multimillion-dollar ERP projects and only think of printing as an afterthought. "Suddenly," he says, "they realize printers must be compatible with...

NAM attracts spotlight with endorsement of John Roberts for Supreme Court.(THE POLITICS OF MANUFACTURING)
October 1, 2005... When the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) held a press conference on August 10 to announce its endorsement of John Roberts--now the Bush Administration's nominee for Chief Justice of the Supreme Court--it became the first industry...

Clarification.(Correction Notice)
October 1, 2005... A case study that appeared in a Microsoft-sponsored custom publishing supplement in the August issue of Manufacturing Business Technology discussed Microsoft's role in the development of product life-cycle management (PLM) solutions. Autodesk...

Industry vendor gets nod from the man himself.(CORPORATE)
October 1, 2005... In a keynote address at its premier event for software developers, Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates unveiled Microsoft's next-generation software platforms: Microsoft Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 12. Data...

Big consulting expertise available to small companies.(OPERATIONS)
October 1, 2005... Small manufacturers are at a disadvantage when it comes to acquiring expertise to improve operations. Affordable help is available through the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), a network of centers in every state linked through the...

Specifications seek to reroute e-mail.(INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY)
October 1, 2005... With its routers moving the majority of e-mail traffic, Cisco Systems is taking an active role in protecting Internet users from e-mail fraud. Cisco has joined a number of technology companies--including Yahoo--in developing an e-mail...

IBM transforms its own supply chain success into revenue stream.(SERVICE MARKETS)
October 1, 2005... Ranked by Boston-based AMR Research as having the top-performing supply chain in the world, IBM says it will leverage that capability to offer outsourced supply chain services. IBM views such transformational services as a high-growth market...

IBM releases first results of Ascential acquisition.(DATA INTEGRATION)
October 1, 2005... When IBM acquired Ascential last spring, the data integration provider was just months away from releasing its first next-generation products, code-named Hawk. With Hawk, Ascential would finally unify the data-transformation product family...

Unified project grid puts regulatory projects in the IT safe zone.(COMPLIANCE INITIATIVES)
October 1, 2005... Regulatory compliance just got a bit easier, thanks to the Unified Compliance Project (UCP). Undertaken by the Seattle-based IT Compliance Institute (ITCI), UCP's goal is to map requirements and eliminate overlap in some 60 regulations and...

Global executives seem more pessimistic; report cites political turmoil as factor.(MARKET CONFIDENCE)
October 1, 2005... The fifth Global Survey of Business Executives, generated by New York-based McKinsey, shows a significant drop in confidence--falling steadily for 15 months--with a global 10-percent drop in the most recent quarter. Sharper declines were...

Warehousing solutions vendors consolidate for takeoff.(GROWTH MARKETS)
October 1, 2005... The warehouse management software (WMS) market showed healthy growth in 2004, despite heavy consolidation that typically acts as a drag on sales. According to a recent study by Dedham, Mass.-based ARC Advisory Group, after several slow years,...

Trade document control system lightens the load on goods-shipment processes.(GOING PAPERLESS)
October 1, 2005... Costly delays in global shipments due to trade document snafus may be a thing of the past for those who adopt supply chain infrastructure provider GT Nexus' new global document control system, called eDocs. The Web-hosted solution streamlines...

Infor buys process-specific PLM vendor, Formation Systems; BEA extends portal line with Plumtree.(ACQUISITIONS)
October 1, 2005... Adding breadth to its process manufacturing group solution in August with the acquisition of product life cycle management (PLM) vendor Formation Systems, midmarket enterprise systems vendor Infor set forth on its fourth acquisition of the...

Small wonders: big vendors may dominate, but emerging software companies meet critical needs for Fox Electronics, WestFarm Foods.(40 emerging vendors)(Cover Story)
October 1, 2005... In these days of enterprise software market consolidation, why would a manufacturer buy from a small company that may not be around for long when larger software companies beckon? The short answer is that emerging vendors continue to develop...

Why PCs should go away.(In perspective)
October 1, 2005... My aunt, who is in her seventies, recently called and told me she was ready to buy a PC and get an Internet connection for her condo in Florida. Just my luck. I love my aunt, but the idea of being 24/7 nephew tech support is a bit more than I...

The Web's next act is rich.(In perspective)
October 1, 2005... If you ask someone why the Internet has been so successful, they'll likely say it's because it is user-friendly and ubiquitous. Ask any tech industry veteran the same question, and you'll probably hear the word "standards." Behind the scenes,...

How times have changed; best-of-breed supply chain management vendors must adapt to changing paradigms, or get left behind.(Applications & Services)
October 1, 2005... When Spuhl--a manufacturer of printing machines based in St. Gallen, Switzerland--embarked on a business reengineering project, the company quickly saw it needed appropriate enterprise applications to support its new production and supply chain...

Enterprise vendors get boost from small buyers, strategic add-ons.(ERP MARKET SNAPSHOT)
October 1, 2005... In 2004, the ERP market edged back from the slow-growth years of earlier this decade, but remains nowhere near the boom times of the late 1990s. Does that mean the ERP market is stagnant? Hardly, say vendors and analysts, who point to...

Protecting product information means blending business solutions.(INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY)
October 1, 2005... In the early days of the Internet, easy data access for partners and a "zero-client" footprint promised a new era of collaboration. While things are undoubtedly changing, some software vendors stress the need for more control over technical...

SAP says medium-size business strategy pays off.(TARGETING VERTICALS)
October 1, 2005... In spite of the skeptics who said SAP could never effectively sell into the mid-market, the software giant seems to be making serious inroads to a space once dominated by smaller, supposedly more flexible and vertically targeted software...

MatrixOne.
October 1, 2005... MatrixOne announces Designer Central, a workgroup design application that manages the product design and collaboration process from a central application. Because it is CAD-system-agnostic, it eliminates the need to support multiple CAD...

Aras Corp.
October 1, 2005... Aras Corp.'s Innovator, version 7, contains a quality planning module that offers a process-based approach to identifying and mitigating new product reliability risks during the development cycle. Also added are enhancements to the program...

Pelion Systems.
October 1, 2005... Pelion Systems now offers a manufacturing process optimization (MPO) solution tailored for the automotive market. Integrated with existing ERP/MRP and advanced planning systems, Pelion Automotive MPO combines lean, Six Sigma, and flow...

Rockwell Automation.
October 1, 2005... Rockwell Automation announces Propack Data PMX MES 4.1, its newest manufacturing execution system for the life sciences industry. It offers clinical supply and batch management, line performance and monitoring, and comprehensive automation...

Product information systems embrace company data for a single version of the truth.(MASTER DATA MANAGEMENT)
October 1, 2005... The latest attempts to arrive at "a single version of the truth" about company data are focused in consumer packaged goods and retailing, and revolve around data synchronization and product information management (PIM). Jim Murphy, analyst...

Predicting supply chain risk requires new-generation apps.(In perspective)
October 1, 2005... Post-Hurricane Katrina, we see the value of prediction--and that it's not sufficient alone. The storm was predicted a few days in advance, yet disaster readiness was low-level and reaction time inadequate. Risk is inherent no matter your...

Getting lean is a group exercise; reaping full benefits of lean requires supplier cooperation--and the right technology.(Business Performance)
October 1, 2005... Like a growing number of manufacturers, the Automotive Group of Milwaukee-based Johnson Controls has adopted lean manufacturing. But two things separate Johnson Controls from the masses of lean practitioners: its use of information technology...

Marsan Foods finds real-time monitoring improves overall performance.(CASE-IN-POINT)
October 1, 2005... Upon moving into a new plant in 2000, Marsan Foods--a Toronto-based manufacturer of frozen entrees, soups, and other items--launched a continuous-improvement program that initially led to numerous process revamps. But the program's impact on...

Vendor agreements seek to enable sustainable regulatory, environmental compliance.(PARTNERSHIPS)
October 1, 2005... Targeting high-tech electronics manufacturers, Synapsis Technology now offers its material aggregation and reporting system, called EMARS, as complementary to Oracle's E-Business Suite and PIM Data Hub. EMARS analyzes and tracks compliance at...

Global competition could be a boon for best-of-breed vendors.(OPTIMIZATION ENGINES)
October 1, 2005... The desire for simpler--and less expensive--software implementations caused many manufacturers to shy away from best-of-breed supply chain systems in recent years in favor of sometimes less sophisticated applications embedded in an ERP suite....

Niche search engines pinpoint specific needs.(SEARCH ENGINES)
October 1, 2005... Blame it on Google--or Yahoo!, or Ask Jeeves--but the world loves search engines. And because these high-profile tools cannot--and do not--meet everyone's needs, some smaller vendors are making a business out of offering search capabilities for...

Infravio.
October 1, 2005... Infravio's X-Registry Platform 5-consisting of integrated registry, repository, and governance capabilities to enable end-to-end service life-cycle governance-allows enforcing business policies that are essential to a service-oriented...

Data problems--and solutions--come in many forms.(DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT)
October 1, 2005... As a distributor of electronic components for more than 300 manufacturers, Mouser Electronics, Wayne, Pa., handles five million-plus products. So it's not surprising that Mouser CEO Glenn Smith describes the company's efforts at keeping data...

Study reveals extracting value is top IT governance imperative.(IT PRIORITY-SETTING)
October 1, 2005... With major transactional systems largely in place and well rationalized, CIOs for midsize and large manufacturers should be focusing over the next five years on how to extract as much value as possible from existing system investments,...

What's the point of business performance management initiatives?(Ask Aberdeen Group)
October 1, 2005... A recent survey and corresponding report from Boston-based Aberdeen Group indicates best-in-class enterprises, in launching business-performance management initiatives, focus on critical areas that are frequently given little attention by...

Intel inside the BMW: rear-seat "infotainment system" empowers executives to work on the road.(Integration & Infrastructure)
October 1, 2005... Many automobile enthusiasts consider BMW M Class cars to be as close as the average driver could ever come to owning a racecar. "These are the leading edge of sporty cars. Driving one is like bungee jumping into the horizon," declares...

What you don't know about SOAs could hurt your business.(SERVICE-ORIENTED ARCHITECTURE)
October 1, 2005... A service-oriented architecture (SOA) can be a vehicle for turning information technology (IT) into a strategic business weapon. However, few manufacturers know how to exploit this architecture, and not enough IT vendors are offering sufficient...

Hosted PIM smoothes trading-partner relationships at International Paper.(CASE-IN-POINT)
October 1, 2005... While the practice of exchanging documents and other information with trading partners electronically is becoming more common, it isn't necessarily getting easier. In fact, many companies find it is getting more difficult as they look to trade...

Sun acquiring SeeBeyond says integration isn't a stand-alone solution.(MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS)
October 1, 2005... Filling a gap in its Java Enterprise System, Sun Microsystems acquired enterprise application integration (EAI) vendor SeeBeyond for $387 million. Founded in 1989 as Software Technologies Corp., the company became SeeBeyond in 2000, and three...

Inventory liability--the scourge of supply chain management.(Response Management)(Advertisement)
October 1, 2005... Some things never seem to change in life. Excess inventory is one of them. In spite of all the investment in state-of-the-art demand and production planning systems, improvements in inventory management have been marginal at best. In fact,...

Securing the process industries: everyone wants a secure plant floor, but process manufacturers have special concerns that require unique strategies.(Security/Wireless)
October 1, 2005... No matter what product is going out the door, basic plant-floor security issues remain the same. To start, these include control of physical and electronic access to the plant and its IT environment, intruder prevention and detection, timely...

Lower costs for machine-to-machine communication will lead to new industrial applications.(THE MONITORING MOVEMENT)
October 1, 2005... The maturation of remote monitoring has the makings of the next "disruptive technology." So says Glen Allmendinger, president of San Francisco-based consultancy Harbor Research. "Continuous monitoring is game-changing. The minute I put a...

New printers still based on line-matrix technology.(IMAGING TECHNOLOGIES)
October 1, 2005... It's natural to assume that newer technology improves the way a job is performed, but that may not be true when it comes to documents and forms that support manufacturing operations. Printronix, which introduced the first line matrix...

Alliance Lab logs RFID tag study results online.(This just in)
October 1, 2005... The RFID Alliance Lab, Lawrence, Kan., released this past summer the results of extensive RFID tag performance test results on 10 leading electronic product code (EPC) tags. The lab conducted more than 5,000 tests under varying...

New ISO framework addresses IT system security risk, vulnerability.(SECURITY STANDARDS)
October 1, 2005... In June, The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Engineering Consortium (IEC) released ISO/IEC 17799:2005, the latest update to their code of practice for information systems. This version includes more...

RFID community working to share patents--with one notable exception.(INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY)
October 1, 2005... Widespread adoption of RFID technology took a step forward on August 9, with the announcement of a "patent pool" consortium intended to streamline user access to RFID intellectual property. Nearly 20 companies holding RFID patents-including...

RFID will find first home in CPG and pharmaceuticals.(BEYOND SLAP-AND-SHIP)
October 1, 2005... "Supply chain event management is the largest application of RFID technology in industry today" says John Fontanella, senior VP of supply chain services at Boston-based AberdeenGroup. Supply chain event management solutions notify users...

Preplanning enables remote operation when public infrastructure fails.(BUSINESS CONTINUITY)
October 1, 2005... The grim pictures of Hurricane Katrina managed to put disaster recovery top-of-mind for many manufacturers. But when thinking about worst-case scenarios, executives should not overlook the more common situation where their facilities are...

Fear not: the high-tech industry remains healthy at its core.(Back talk)
October 1, 2005... Thoughts that occurred to me on a recent trip through the tech industry's cradle of life--aka, Silicon Valley: The excursion started in San Francisco--site of Oracle OpenWorld, the annual gathering of Oracle customers--where it was apparent...

RFID, realistically speaking: Pacific Cycle, home of Schwinn, saw the Wal-Mart mandate as opportunity, not obligation; enterprise infrastructure delivers supply chain benefits.
October 1, 2005... Pacific Cycle, the largest bicycle supplier in North America, looked upon Wal-Mart's mandate to its top 100 suppliers to RFID-tag inbound cases and pallets not as an obstacle to be overcome, but rather as a business opportunity. "It was a...

Product innovation at risk: share intellectual property securely in an era of globalization--outside the enterprise, beyond the firewall, even off-line.
October 1, 2005... The computerization and telecommunications advances of the last 20 years have led to an interesting situation. Because of these technology advances, the cost of business transactions has dropped like a rock. Companies stick to core...

Documents that call home: platform includes tools for securely managing intellectual property.
October 1, 2005... Data capture, workflow, security, and validation are among the fundamental capabilities needed for secure management of intellectual property. The Adobe Intelligent Document Platform furnishes these and other capabilities, built into the...

Power to the people: Intelligent Documents serve as interface to enterprise systems.
October 1, 2005... Adobe Systems, says Mike Morel, director of manufacturing solutions, is in the business of bringing people, processes, and information together." In many companies, that's thought to be the role enterprise resources planning (ERP)--as the...

40 emerging software vendors.
October 1, 2005... 40 Emerging software vendors COMPANY SOLUTION TYPE; TARGET CUSTOMER SIZE BY REVENUE; INDUSTRIES SERVED Access Commerce Interactive selling & configuration; $75 access-commerce.com...

What do you want to achieve? IQMS partners with Steere Enterprises, other manufacturers seeking continuous improvement--including tailored functionality, integrated EDI, and system alerts.(Advertisement)
October 1, 2005... Manufacturers today have fewer choices when it comes to enterprise solutions, due to vendor consolidation over recent years. The supposed dominance of a few mega-vendors begs the question: Why would a manufacturer choose a...