Manufacturing Business Technology articles from October 2006

Manufacturing Business Technology archives from October 2006

Extending into lean.
October 1, 2006... By Malcolm Wheatley, senior contributing editor Benchmade Knives, Husqvarna, others leverage existing platforms to cut waste, pull demand, increase capacity When George Onderdonk joined Oregon City-based Benchmade Knife Co. as...

Oracle E-Business suite helps innovative biotech cope with FDA compliance.
October 1, 2006... By Jim Fulcher, contributing editor The process of developing a new drug, running the clinical trials, and getting U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) approval is a lengthy oneoften more than 10 years in the making. Use of an enterprise...

Real-time performance management requires an intelligent backup.
October 1, 2006... By Staff There's no getting around the fact that companies need access to real-time plant-floor data. And as they shift toward real-time performance management (RPM), says Craig Resnick, research director at Dedham, Mass.-based ARC...

Real-world workshops reveal disconnect between lean programs, aspirations.
October 1, 2006... By Staff At Lean manufacturing workshops held this summer, delegates from some of Europe's leading manufacturers endorsed findings from Boston-based AMR Research , pointing to a disconnect not only between manufacturers' lean programs...

Comergent's enterprise system extensions reach out to partners, customers.
October 1, 2006... By Staff Privately held World Wide Technology is a St. Louis-based, $2-billion supplier of supply chain solutions, encompassing 1,300,000 square feet of warehousing and distribution space in 13 centers across the U.S. But when customers...

Trends, tips, and tools from experts in planning and execution.
October 1, 2006... By Staff Distribution-center dynamics starting to shift Staff According to a survey by the Supply Chain Consortium , comprised of participating suppliers and retailers, 43 percent of retail operations have implemented highly...

Uncovering the value of SOA.
October 1, 2006... By Sidney Hill, Jr., executive editor Before the cloak-and-dagger efforts aimed at finding who was leaking board room secrets to the press came to light, the biggest news surrounding Hewlett-Packard (HP) was the resurgence of its PC...

The rebirth of knowledge management.
October 1, 2006... By Hope Neal, contributing editor Information explosion has companies seeking better collaboration tools Knowledge may be power, but the ability to manage knowledge--or more precisely, corporate information--definitely is money....

Brooks Software sees "unified" user interface as key to SOA usage.
October 1, 2006... By Staff Highly configurable, portal-based user interfaces (UI) will comprise an integral component for how companies exploit service-oriented architecture (SOA) and composite applications, according to Brooks Software , a provider of...

Workforce optimization apps extend lean endeavors.
October 1, 2006... By Staff Workbrain says its labor-management applications can complement a manufacturer's lean initiatives. Minneapolis-based food giant General Mills and Atlanta-based sports apparel maker Russell Corp. have deployed Workbrain...

What KPI metrics do best-in-class companies monitor?
October 1, 2006... By Staff In an AberdeenGroup benchmark survey report, Global Manufacturing: MES and Beyond , it is demonstrated that best-in-class companies are more likely to have strategies in place to unify processes and systems across locations,...

Prepackaged integration solution becomes change agent for chemical manufacturer.
October 1, 2006... By Staff When Salt Lake City-based petrochemical manufacturer Huntsman asked a consulting firm to analyze maintenance operations at its Rozenburg facility in The Netherlands, the challenges were evident. The inability to coordinate...

The journey they're on.(Company overview)
October 1, 2006... By Frank O Smith, senior contributing editor Every company listed today in the Fortune 500 began, one way or another, as a start-up. That is to say, it emerged via a transformative process that some might call "the hero's journey." ...

Services as business process start point.
October 1, 2006... By Cole Ollinger, contributing editor ARIS SOA Designer promises smoother process orchestration A properly built service-oriented architecture (SOA) could serve as a platform for developing and managing business processes. So it's no...

webMethods extends SOA portfolio with Cerebra metadata technology, Infravio governance solutions.
October 1, 2006... By Staff WebMethods recently acquired substantially all the assets of Cerebra, a semantic metadata-management technology provider. Cerebra's solutions will be embedded as a differentiating feature within future editions of the webMethods...

IBM "pushes the edge" of RFID in pharma supply chain.
October 1, 2006... By Staff IBM now has an RFID solution for pharmaceuticals track & trace that also guards against counterfeiting. Based on the IBM WebSphere software platform and an architecture that enables companies to leverage existing assets, the...

RFID market report charts progress in item-level tagging.
October 1, 2006... By Staff A report offered by IDTechEx , Ann Arbor, Mich., claims item-level tagging is happening faster than most realize. The research firm forecasts 200 million tags will be used in 2006 for item-level tagging alone. By 2007 it will...

Standards facilitate product development and usage, data sharing.
October 1, 2006... By Staff EPC IS standard passes the test Staff The EPC Information Services (IS) Working Group completed interoperability testing of the new RFID software standard for IS. "EPC IS enables worldwide trading partners to...

Novell OS enables employee access to applications with single ID, password.
October 1, 2006... By Elizabeth SanFilippo Employees normally juggle multiple user IDs and pass-words to access applications, which results in security risks, as well as wasted time and money. As a company that continues to grow through acquisition, South...

Lawson Software, Avnet tap DSI for automated data capture.
October 1, 2006... By Staff Data Systems International (DSI) will offer its dcLINK automated data-capture and RFID solution to Lawson Software users as part of a new agreement with the enterprise vendor that makes DSI a one-stop source for handheld and...

Addressing China's need for ERP.
October 1, 2006... By Kevin Parker, editorial director The Beijing Diantong Wintronic Electronics Co. is found in the city's outlying Changping district. On a dusty, treeless road, within a white, two-story building sitting under a fierce sun, something...

GM backs IT purchasing standards for highly effective buyers, suppliers.
October 1, 2006... By Staff General Motors (GM) is bringing greater discipline to the software procurement process by codifying a standard for acquisition best practices, working in collaboration with Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute (SEI);...

ISA accepts proposals to move wireless standards forward.
October 1, 2006... By Staff The Instrument Society of America's (ISA) call for technical proposals on wireless communication standards in July prompted some two dozen technology vendors to present schemas before ISA working groups. The ISA-SP100...

Microsoft, Google, Big 3 auto press Congress for R&D tax credit.
October 1, 2006... By Staff An election-year standoff has businesses sweating whether Congress will reinstate a popular R&D tax credit before the end of the year. The credit expired at the end of 2005, and has long served as a perennial bargaining chip in...

Web site demonstrates live integrated control and HMI solutions.
October 1, 2006... By Staff The FactoryVision Web site--created by Siemens Energy & Automation --presents different overviews of live control and human machine interface (HMI) applications from the end user, OEM, system integrator, and supplier points of...

The right ESB could ensure SOA success.
October 1, 2006... By Staff A core component of most service-oriented architecture (SOA) strategies is an enterprise service bus (ESB) functioning as an integration backbone. But IDC, an IT market research firm based in Framingham, Mass., warns that not...

Tiny HP memory chip pilots with big momentum.
October 1, 2006... By Staff Hewlett-Packard 's (HP) experimental memory chip--branded the Memory Spot--isn't much bigger than a grain of rice, yet it holds a short audio or video clip, or a substantial amount of text. The wireless data chip needs no...

Auto suppliers fail to leverage full value of IT.
October 1, 2006... By Staff Automotive equipment suppliers choosing to reap the full potential of information technology are enjoying stronger management commitment for additional IT investment. Those that don't find themselves constantly seeking new ways...

Business process platform overcomes design-time limits.
October 1, 2006... By Staff Exostar 's ForumPass 3.0 delivers a highly secure platform to manage design- and program-related business processes in a neutral, hosted environment. The result, says Peter Scott, VP of corporate development, is a solution for...

What's driving IT spending?
October 1, 2006... By Staff With the July 2006 deadline for RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) compliance behind them, manufacturers face possible revenue loss--or at the very least, disrupted revenue--when countries begin enforcing...

Accenture puts millions into industry-specific services.
October 1, 2006... By Staff Paving the road to service-oriented architecture (SOA) takes commitment and money, which is why New York-based Accenture is committing $450 million over the next three years to help its clients realize the benefits of the new...

Survey confirms need for automation in domestic and international supply chains.
October 1, 2006... By Staff For the vast majority of manufacturers, global supply chains are only half as automated as domestic supply chains, with the largest manufacturers possessing the largest gaps in automation between domestic and international. The...

Momentum matters.
October 1, 2006... By Erik Keller, contributing editor It's tough for small software vendors to become profitable, but it's easier than ever to start a company from scratch In the 1990s it was easy to start a software company. Raise between $5 million...

Healing Time.
October 1, 2006... By Cole Ollinger, senior contributing editor Medical products sector attacks regulatory, performance issues with rich systems mix The medical device sector wants it all: better, faster, and cheaper performance while achieving full...

IBM reaffirms support for JDE solutions set.
October 1, 2006... By Staff Following Oracle 's announcement last spring that it would continue supporting applications from its acquisitions indefinitely, IBM and Oracle jointly announced continuation of their alliance covering JD Edwards World, a...