Manufacturing Executive - January/February 2009 - (Page 22) R. Sreenivasan Carlos Eduardo DaSilva Arnesh Telukdarie Chris Biddle Ranjana Muley ated by Manufacturing Executive Editor-in-Chief David R. Brousell and Principal Industry Analyst Julie Fraser from Cambashi Inc., panelists debated how and whether to measure MES’ results, how to debunk the misconception that ERP “does it all,” whether to even continue to call it “MES,” how to integrate MES into the enterprise, and more. The roundtable preceded the annual European conference of the Manufacturing Enterprise Solutions Association (MESA). Brousell kicked off the candid talk by asking the seven users whether they deploy packaged MES software. Five said they do: Rolls Royce’s manufacturing systems executive, Chris Biddle; Rexam’s IT project manager, Michael Walsh; Campina manager Fons Hoekx; Sasol’s MES engineering manager, Arnesh Telukdarie; and Freudenberg-NOK’s global quality manager, Carlos Eduardo DaSilva. The Steel Authority of India’s general manager of MES, Ranjana Muley, and general manager for ERP-MES, R. Sreenivasan, said they use a homegrown solution, but are evaluating off-theshelf programs. From there the roundtable began as Logica consultant Jan Snoeij and Atos Origin consultant Reinoud Visser joined in. — M.H. Brousell: Let’s start with a basic question. Of those who have a package installed, what were the business and technical reasons behind getting one? Walsh: I can tell you the reason why. It was money, plain and simple — to make more money. We’re high-volume manufacturing and high investment, so we want to get the most out of our investment. MES — you have to put it in. Biddle: Systems have evolved in our assembly plants for similar reasons as yourself, Michael, in that we needed to reduce the amount of labour that we consumed in trying to trace all the serial numbers that go into modules and then into engines. Traceability alone took many, many man-hours. MES takes that away. You want to be able to have one view of Your plant in order to streamline Your business processes. “ produce every year, reducing the cost of manufacturing — this is the main goal for us. Hoekx: We have several reasons why we went to buy MES systems. The reason for our batch processes is pure cost — very quick execution from SAP ERP to the shop floor, our comReinoud Visser plete recipes, and, for our continuous Consultant, Atos Origin processing, to help our lean manufacturing program. Reducing costs all the way in our processes. That’s the main reason. “ Brousell: I’d like to direct this to our systems integration panelists. You do implementations over many different industries. What we’re hearing here, so far, is that cost has been a major factor in the acquisition of MES. Is that what you’re seeing, too? Snoeij: Actually, I see three main reasons why companies are investing in manufacturing IT. First of all, of course, efficiency and effectiveness, so cost and quality. The second reason is also related to cost, but cost in relationship to compliance. Quite a few industry sectors are forced by law or other regulations to prove that they did the right thing. The cost of proof and the ease of delivering that proof can be improved by MES or manufacturing IT. A third reason, and in my opinion what may become the most important one for the future, is agility. Lifecycles are shortening, and the changes are bigger and faster. Visser: I agree with Jan, of course, especially in pharmaceutical companies. The cost of compliance is very often a major driver for implementing MES. A fourth reason is plant visibility. Very often there is a difference between the executive or the ERP view of the plant and the way that the plant manager views his plant. Because of that difference, there’s always what some companies call efficiency costs, but you want to be able to have one view of your plant in order to streamline your business processes. Fraser: One of the big issues that a lot of companies face is that process and the key performance indicators for management. Optimization of the processes for the millions of parts we DaSilva: The goal was linking manufacturing control of the they already have an enterprise system. In a lot of companies, people think they can roll that system into the plant and get the same benefit as an MES. Did any of you have to fight that? 22 Manufacturing Executive JAN/FEB-09
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