Managing Automation - February 2009 - (Page 21) DEEPDIVE collaboration ORK 2.0 BY STEPHANIE NEIL Web 2.0 technology — wikis, blogs, Twitter — is quickly becoming the collaborative engine of manufacturers that need better ways to share information internally as well as with suppliers, customers, and field service. Web 2.0 changes the rules, as collaboration can now happen instantly with no expertise required and no complex infrastructure to manage. Just ask any Gen Y kid infiltrating the workforce. Gen Y, sometimes referred to as “the Google generation,” has grown up with mobile devices, text messaging, blogging, and chatting via social networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace. And, as they enter the workforce, they expect to have these same communication tools available to them at their place of employment. It’s in their blood. “As the next generation of workers comes into play, they expect that they will have the same tools in the business office and interact the same way they do at home or did in college,” says Patricia Wilkey, director of global desktop and mobility at EDS, a Hewlett-Packard company. Manufacturers can resist the pressure to cater to the incoming generation, but it might be just what many need to move forward in a fast-paced, ever-changing, and financially fragile business environment. That’s because, even though it has been possible to integrate applications, share data in databases, or send a file in an e-mail, these methods are not real-time and usually require expensive hardware and software to make them run. In addition, some manufacturers turn to technology tools to enable connectivity, but miss the mark when it comes to creating value —which is all about content. “It’s not just connecting people; it is connecting people in an information-rich environment,” says Mark Heidenreich, innovation and lifecycle management practice leader at Capgemini. And, though that may mean providing a way for people to look at, comment on, and mark up a CAD file, for example, “it doesn’t assume these people have a bunch of experience using a CAD system,” says Benjamin Friedman, research manager at Manufacturing Insights, an IDC company. “Now, the impetus is a force that says, ‘In order to be competitive, you have to share best practices and you have to make certain information socialized, February t was 10 p.m. Jim Wetzel was at home watching the news on television while surfing the Web on his computer. Suddenly, an instant message (IM) popped up on his screen, asking, “Jim, you there?” It was a General Mills system engineer who was having trouble executing a batch recipe at the plant. Seeking help, Wetzel sent an IM to one of General Mills’ batch experts, and the three worked out the problem — over a communication string in an IM window. A faulty controller was fixed remotely, using a wide area network, and everything was documented, all in a matter of 30 minutes. “We use instant messaging all of the time,” says Wetzel, technical director for the control and information systems group at General Mills, “as well as wikis, blogs and we just got approval for an internal [version of] Facebook.” Manufacturing, as General Mills demonstrates, has entered the era of Web 2.0. By definition, Web 2.0 is the use of Web technology and Web design to enhance creativity and communications, secure information sharing, and enable collaboration through Web-based communities, social networking sites, video sharing, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies. Never heard of these things? It’s time to find out, because the new Web age is upon us, and everyone, from CEOs to line operators, is all a-Twitter! (Twitter, of course, is a text-based micro-blogging service.) Operating in a global market where supply chains and engineering teams are dispersed and much of production is outsourced, manufacturers have struggled to find a better way to communicate and, more important, collaborate. They’ve implemented EDI and B2B hubs to work with suppliers, and they’ve tapped collaboration tools, such as Microsoft SharePoint, to implement workflows and allow teams to share information. But much of the technology within the manufacturing enterprise is tied to client/server architectures and requires an understanding of the program in order to exchange information. 21 2009 Photo: Liv Friis-Larsen
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