Managing Automation - May 2008 - (Page 8)

INDUSTRY NEWS FULL COVERAGE MA NEWSLETTER TO SUBSCRIBE GO TO OF EVENTS AND ANALYSIS WWW.MANAGINGAUTOMATION.COM managingautomation.com Alliances, Executive Appointments, Mergers & Acquisitions, Products news For the maonline in perspective BY JEFF MOAD Record APPOINTMENTS Award-Winning Shoemaker Otabo Alters Course, Shifts Production to China tabo LLC, the small start-up shoe cently. “But when something doesn’t work, company that won Managing Automayou have to acknowledge it and learn from it.” tion’s 2005 Progressive Manufacturer Otabo’s business model — most of which is of the Year award, in part, because of still intact — is unique. At Otabo’s retail partner its determination to keep its production operalocations, customers have their feet digitally tions in the United States, has decided to close its scanned. Digital information describing the Pompano, FL, plant and outsource its manufaccustomer’s feet is transmitted to Otabo’s manuturing to China. facturing facility, where it is transThe shift to offshore manufaclated into a PC-based shoe turing, which is now being commodeling system that supports pleted, puts an end to a quest by hundreds of sizes. Robots then Otabo founder and CEO Howard form the leather and stitch the Shaffer to prove that by using shoes, removing much of the highly automated, digitally enabled labor cost from the equation. production methods, a shoe manShaffer three years ago estimated ufacturer in the United States that by using his highly automated could compete with Chinese proapproach, his company could ducers that enjoy far lower labor produce 1,500 pairs of shoes per costs. Shaffer and his team spent day with only seven employees Howard Shaffer more than 10 years and about $21 on the shop floor. million in an attempt to perfect a highly autoBut, Shaffer said, Otabo ran into a series of mated shoe-making process with which Otabo problems that, in the end, made it necessary to could compete against the rest of the world. move production to China. The software that “It’s a bit of a defeat not to have realized the ran the shoe-stitching robots — from Orisol — plans that we had,” said Shaffer by phone from proved unable to automatically adjust to the Guangzhou, China, where he was setting up his wide variety of shoe sizes that Otabo required. company’s new manufacturing operations reOtabo had to manually set up the machines for Laurence Dors-Meary joined Dassault Systemes in the newly created post of senior executive vice president, global development and resources. Also, Dassault named Scott Berkey CEO of SIMULIA, its brand for realistic simulation. GlobeRanger hired Guy G. Mikel as vice president, commercial sales. Kinaxis named Monique Rupert vice president, professional services. The Oracle Applications Users Group (OAUG) re-elected Jan Wagner president for 2008. Plexus Systems Inc. promoted Brian Gillespie to director of sales. Time Domain appointed Paul Reitmeier chief executive officer. O CONTRACTS Weetabix Food Co., American Beverage Corp., Home Market Foods, and Windsor Foods selected CDC Software’s manufacturing operations software. DEMDACO, a gift and home collections maker, chose Centric PLM software. Lennox International Inc. is implementing HighJump Software’s Manufacturing Advantage MES software to support its 1-million-square-foot Marshalltown, IA, Continued on page 11 Robots Get to Work in North America Robotics companies saw orders from North American manufacturers rise 24% in 2007, reversing 30% declines in 2006, according to the Robotic Industries Association, a trade group. North American customers ordered a total of 15,856 robots, valued at $1.07 billion. Sales to companies outside North America pushed the total to 17,261 robots, valued at $1.15 billion. “Most of the growth last year resulted from sales to automotive manufacturers and their suppliers. In this market segment, which accounted for 64% of all orders, robot sales in North America rose 43%,” said Ake Lindqvist of ABB Robotics and chairman of RIA’s Statistical Committee. Orders from outside the automotive area grew less than 1% and accounted for 36% of all orders, the RIA reported. Sales to life sciences/pharmaceuticals/biomedical customers increased 16% while sales to food and consumer goods companies rose 8% in 2007. The RIA estimates that roughly 178,000 robots are working in U.S. factories, second only to Japan. More than 1 million robots are installed worldwide, the group reports. NUMBERS North American Robot Shipments $1.0 billion $1.16 billion $0.904 billion $1.07 billion 18,228 units 14,838 units THE 12,765 units BY 2004 2005 2006 2007 U.S. dollars units ma 8 2008 May Source: Robotic Industries of America 15,856 units http://WWW.MANAGINGAUTOMATION.COM http://managingautomation.com

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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