Managing Automation - November 2008 - (Page 11)

MES” — that is, a modular MES application that can deliver nuggets of needed information to facilitate OEE, asset tracking, or other activities. While most MES companies are building more and more complexity into systems, he said, Wonderware is on a quest to simplify the configurable components. “So, fundamentally, our MES strategy is different,” he said. That’s not all that’s different — or changing — since Bhattacharya came on board. When he joined Wonderware in August 2007 as the chief software solutions officer, prior to his appointment as president, he recognized the valuable resource the company had in its 3,000 systems integrators around the world, he said. And, once he was able to adjust his mind-set from the enterprise focus he was so accustomed to in his previous life as an SAP executive and start viewing the world from a plant floor perspective, he zeroed in on the partner ecosystem. “I realized that the systems integrator partnerships that Wonderware has could be its biggest asset,” Bhattacharya said. They allow Wonderware to focus on its core competency, which is building products, not selling them, he added. To strengthen those relationships, Wonderware recently added an “endorsed” designation to its systems integrator partnerships. There are currently about a dozen integrators in the endorsed category, which is reserved for Wonderware’s closest business relationships and results in technology sharing, joint marketing, and business development. The goal is to foster an environment of coinnovation, Bhattacharya said. He is also institutionalizing processes that will cultivate tight bonds among chosen integrators around the world. “Innovation will happen faster when you look at it coming in from the outside. That’s why co-innovation is important,” he said. On the innovation front, Wonderware is readying a number of updates that will roll out over the next several months and reflect the R&D investments recently made in the area of enterprise manufacturing intelligence (EMI). They will also leverage graphical key performance indicators (KPIs) within the Wonderware System Platform, which includes MES, HMI, SCADA, and EMI software. The company’s acquisition of Cimnet in July, for example, provided the libraries that will be found in many of the updated offerings, and Bhattacharya is searching for other tuck-in acquisitions that will augment his overall strategy of simplicity, modularity, and empowerment. “We are starting to build a holistic solution for distributed production so [manufacturers] don’t have to go to four or five different vendors,” he said. Collectively, Bhattacharya’s efforts over the past year are taking Wonderware to the next level. So, what more could he want from this organization that, with the right guidance, has the ability to reshape itself every few years? “I’d love to move faster,” he quipped. Scan A Back inMA MA NOVEMBER 2007 handful of manufacturers were championing the “digital factory” as a game-changing concept, despite obstacles, such as high costs, a long learning curve, interdepartmental culture clashes, and a lack of standards. Other companies were skeptical. Indeed, the definition of the term varied from company to company. Yet, organizations already on the path of integrating and digitizing design-to-manufacture processes cited advantages such as eliminating rework and program delays and reducing capital investment. ORACLE DEMOS FUSION APPS, REVEALS DELAYS racle Corp.’s long-promised new enterprise application suite, Fusion Applications, won’t be a reality for at least another year, according to Oracle officials who spoke at the company’s OpenWorld customer conference in September. In 2005, shortly after acquiring PeopleSoft and JD Edwards, Oracle announced its plans for Fusion Applications, which, the company said, would be a new suite of offerings combining the strengths of its stable of application products, including E-Business Suite. Oracle said then that it intended to roll out a comprehensive set of Fusion Applications in 2008. In January 2006, Oracle said it was “halfway” to that goal. Since then, Oracle officials have declined to discuss the rollout schedule. In panel discussions at OpenWorld in San Francisco, however, Oracle officials said the company is now shooting for late 2009 for a rollout of Fusion Applications. And, in a published interview, Oracle Senior Vice PresiSteve Miranda dent of Fusion Applications Development Steve Miranda said only early customers are likely to receive Fusion Applications late next year. At OpenWorld, however, Oracle did conduct limited demonstrations of pieces of Fusion Applications, including what it called Financials Fusion Edition, as well as new customer relationship management and human capital management applications. Officials indicated that the new products would feature tightly integrated business analytics and collaboration based on Web 2.0 technologies, such as unified com- O MA NOVEMBER 2003 nlike CRM or ERP software, firstgeneration PLM required customization to meet the needs of a user’s specific industry. Vendors began to respond to customers’ requests for PLM packages tailored to vertical industries to speed up their development time and lower costs. For the most part, the vertical versions incorporated best practices, terminology, data definitions, and process flows in offthe-shelf packages. U M A N OV E M B E R 19 9 8 hoosing a vendor was no longer a simple, straightforward task. Manufacturing companies had to rethink their priorities and prepare to buy into an entire automation strategy, not just select a single device. That’s because success had come to depend on the management of information from all parts of the enterprise, and a product choice would determine the ways in which crucial data would flow through the company. C M A N OV E M B E R 19 9 3 s distributed, integrated networking was becoming essential in manufacturing, the need for improved computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) infrastructures became urgent. In order to improve design and process operations to keep up with the competition, companies needed to adapt their CIM environments to be more in sync with their networks. And they needed to upgrade their computer systems to handle design and manufacturing tasks. A 11 November 2008

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

Managing Automation - November 2008 Contents Take 1 At One-Year Mark, Wonderware President Focuses on Empowering Plant Operators Oracle Demos Fusio Apps, Reveals Delays Baan Founder Says BPM Will Replace ERP Emerson Talks Wireless at Annual User Group Event Merger Complete, Intercim Focuses on Collaboration Notes Cover Story: The New Supply Chain Reality Special Report: Keep Out Integration: The On-Demand Interchange Industries: Ending the Endless Waves of Paper Product Scan Advertiser Index Next

Managing Automation - November 2008

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