Managing Automation - March 2008 - (Page 24)

[ COVER STORY ] Portucel Viana Thinking Outside the Box ntil recently, the process of receiving customer orders and translating them into production orders was a disjointed af fair at Por tucel Viana, a 300-person, Por to, Portugal-based manufacturer of corrugated board and paper for packaging. Incoming customer orders — mostly arriving via the Web —would be received by a homegrown order management and invoicing system running on an AS/400. Then, the customer order would be manually transmitted to a specialized “trimming” system, running on a PC, which configured the order. The configured order would be passed back to the AS/400, which would transmit it to Portucel Viana’s MES production system for scheduling and execution. Because those systems were not integrated, Portucel Viana frequently encountered communication or data entry problems that could bring a halt to production and shipping for an hour or two. And because the order management system wasn’t integrated with the company’s scheduling application, Portucel Viana couldn’t always be sure that it could deliver product to customers exactly when it said it would. As the company grew, it had a choice: It could hire more people to fill the role of human integration among order management, configuration, and production systems or it could look for an integrated approach. Not surprisingly, two years ago, Portucel Viana chose the latter. “We decided we should have a system in a single platform to avoid these problems,” says Helena Ribeiro, who is responsible for IT systems at Portucel Viana. Portucel Viana elected to replace the homegrown order management and configuration systems with a commercial platform that could be easily integrated with its production scheduling environment, its SAP ERP system, and its quality management system. As a result, the company — a unit of Europac SA — now can schedule production more quickly and predictably and can guard against quality problems earlier in the production process. Two years ago, Portucel Viana replaced its standalone order management system with OptiVISION, an order-to-cash process optimization software product from Honeywell Process Systems. Since the tool was designed specifically for manufacturers of pulp and paper-based products, it incorporates into one system order management, invoicing, and trimming functionality for which Portucel Viana previously used two standalone systems. More impor tant, the OptiVISION system could maonline managingautomation.com RELATED ARTICLES: SAP Vs. Oracle: Tackling the Plant Floor www.managingautomation.com/ERPextend Onward, March! www.managingautomation.com/2007poll Coping with Integration Complexity www.managingautomation.com/integrate2 Creating the One Enterprise www.managingautomation.com/integrate COMPANIES MENTIONED: Dassault Systemes www.managingautomation.com/Dassault Extricity Inc. www.managingautomation.com/Extricity SAP www.managingautomation.com/SAP3 Visiprise www.managingautomation.com/Visiprise3 ma March 24 2008 http://www.managingautomation.com http://www.managingautomation.com/ERPextend http://www.managingautomation.com/2007poll http://www.managingautomation.com/integrate2 http://www.managingautomation.com/integrate http://www.managingautomation.com/Dassault http://www.managingautomation.com/Extricity http://www.managingautomation.com/SAP3 http://www.managingautomation.com/Visiprise3

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Managing Automation - March 2008

Managing Automation - March 2008 Contents Take 1 Mailbox Mitsubishi, IBM, and ILS Team Up to Make Integration Easy for Automakers Former Agile Exec Takes the Reins at Arena Solutions The Next Phase for 2006’s PM Award Winner Integration Firm Boomi Redesigns for On-Demand Ex-Wonderware Chief Takes Helm at Apprion Notes Cover Story: A Rare Breed Special Report: Where are Control Architectures Heading? Transformation: Back to Reality Integration: Getting Standards Under One Roof Industries: The Quest for the Perfect Order Product Scan Advertiser Index Next

Managing Automation - March 2008

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