Managing Automation - May 2008 - (Page 14)

05-08 MAILBOX Managing Automation Contact Info Managing Automation 5 Penn Plaza, New York, NY 10001 Fax: 212-629-1559 e-mail: dbrousell@ thomaspublishing.com SOFTWARE’S HARD SELL To the editor, BUYERS, BEWARE Readers resonate with Joshua Greenbaum’s suggestion that throwing expensive software at a problem may not be the best approach. Still other readers go one step further than Robert Malone on the issues of information overload and the need to rethink American values. Managing Automation is always interested in hearing your views on manufacturing and the articles and columns in the magazine. Send e-mail to DBrousell@thomaspublishing.com or mail to 5 Penn Plaza, New York, NY 10001. Managing Automation reserves the right to edit letters for clarity and length. I just read your “Performance Anxiety?” article in the March issue of Managing Automation and was refreshed by its contents (Notes, p. 16). For once you didn’t tell us that big software packages are the cure to what ails us. The company I work for is getting ready to start the process of writing endless checks to SAP to install an ERP package. The cure to every business problem today seems to be expensive software, or so most articles would have us think. No one knows the answers to today’s business challenges so they look for a panacea — a panacea that sucks tremendous resources from a company and once initiated is difficult to stop. Snake oil for the desperate! Thank you for a more realistic view of what software can and cannot do. Jock Stucki Maintenance Engineer highlights why numerous people have the appearance of being productive without accomplishing anything. Also, the need by corporate to have 100% buy-in from all parties kills a project. Jack Trout Centrilift BEYOND CHANGE To the editor, Thanks for rethinking the values (“Values Rebuilt Here,” Next, February 2008, p. 50). America became big with hands working. It is OK to also have a service factor, but finance and Wall Street have ruined this country. Rebuilding should be the buzzword; change is not radical enough. Tony Koechli CHV Group LLC Brighton, MI THE ENEMY IS US To the editor, LOOK BEFORE YOU SPEND To the editor, maonline managingautomation.com To read Joshua Greenbaum’s Notes column, visit: K Performance Anxiety? www.managingautomation.com /notes48 To read Robert Malone’s Next columns, visit: K The Digital Devolution www.managingautomation.com /next47 K Values Rebuilt Here www.managingautomation.com /next46 Great article! I have 25 years in high-tech manufacturing and found your “Performance Anxiety?” column (Notes, March 2008, p. 16) to have hit the nail on the head. Gerald W. Abbott Materials Manager Blacksburg, VA TOO MUCH INFORMATION To the editor, “The Digital Devolution” (Next, March 2008, p. 50) There are several areas you failed to mention in your “Values Rebuilt Here” column (Next, February 2008, p. 50). I cannot speak for the rest of the country, but in California, we have a political structure that does not want ANY manufacturing. First it was just clean manufacturing; now it’s no manufacturing. Taxes and regulations drive out any chance for a manufacturing business to succeed here. Manufacturing, like every other aspect of our lives, is governed and regulated by highly paid and poorly educated bureaucrats. China is discovering how well capitalism works, and we are dis- covering how well socialism doesn’t work. We cannot fault those companies that choose to survive. They must manufacture someplace else or not manufacture at all. Case in point: I have been trying to find a part for a General Electric refrigerator (parts orders are taken in Memphis, TN, not India) for two months. They have a Web site but do not answer e-mail. They have phone service, but you had better have all of the numbers from a difficult-to-find nameplate. I finally received a part number and sent a check. The part came in and it’s two inches too short. A customer service rep told me I received the correct part because the part number on her computer said so. I work with college students as a volunteer, and I tell them that if they want to go into engineering, they should forget manufacturing. Right now, the big dollars are in government-run projects: roads, water, air quality. They don’t have to compete; the supply of funding is almost limitless, and there is little if any accountability as to quality. Yes, there’s a problem: We’re it. Bob Kozlowski Nu Engineering Garden Grove, CA CORRECTION In “SCOR One for BPM,” a sidebar to an article in the April issue (p. 35), TIBCO Software Inc. was mistakenly referred to as an IBM company. TIBCO is an independent company. 14 May 2008 http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/thomas/ma0308/index.php?startid=16 http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/thomas/ma0208/index.php?startid=50 http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/thomas/ma0208/index.php?startid=50 http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/thomas/ma0208/index.php?startid=50 http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/thomas/ma0208/index.php?startid=50 http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/thomas/ma0208/index.php?startid=50 http://managingautomation.com http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/thomas/ma0308/index.php?startid=16 http://www.managingautomation.com/notes48 http://www.managingautomation.com/next47 http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/thomas/ma0208/index.php?startid=50 http://www.managingautomation.com/next46 http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/thomas/ma0308/index.php?startid=50

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

Managing Automation - May 2008 Contents Take 1 Award-Winning Shoe-Maker Otabo Alters Course, Shifts Production to China IBM Partners with Universities for Cloud Computing Getting Noise in Production Under Control Incuity Embarks on a Vertical Market Strategy Foundation Intensifies OPC Standard Testing Mailbox Notes PM Roundtable Cover Story: The Business of Going Green Special Report: Night and Day Delivering on Promises Finding the Right Fit for Wireless Driving RFID Product Scan Advertiser Index Next

Managing Automation - May 2008

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