Manufacturing Executive - March/April 2009 - (Page 16) factory” — a virtuous circle of constant improvement so that PLM knows when, for example, faulty soap dispensers roll off the line, and it immediately changes product design or the manufacturing process. The factory sends many of these instructions wirelessly to and from machine sensors, and reassembles the production line in a hurry without timeconsuming re-cabling. “We’re still many years away from the real digital factory,” says Detlef Zühlke, chairman of the factory’s executive board. This is the SmartFactory, a trial production facility funded by 22 manufacturers and technology vendors to stress-test the factory of the future. Manufacturers, including chemicals giant BASF, appliance juggernaut Bosch, and German pump and valve powerhouse KSB, and technology vendors, such as Siemens and SAP, are pooling resources here to refine the latest digital and integrated manufacturing technologies and concepts. Because SmartFactory pushes modern manufacturing technology to the edge, it exposes the sheer cliff faces where the would-be factory of the future plunges to the realities of today’s limitations. While many of the individual technologies perform well, they remain islands of excellence, often falling down when manufacturers try to tie them together. “What’s missing is the integration of all these things based on standardisation,” Zühlke says. “It’s still manufacturer-specific.” In other words, if a company uses Siemens automation equipment, Dassault Systèmes PLM, and Wonderware MES software, the holistic circle of constant improvement can easily break down over integration problems. The circle may come apart again as it widens to include supply chain partners that use even more disparate brands. Throw in wireless connections, which suffer from integration challenges and unreliable technology, and the whole thing can As the automation and ERP companies have extended their reach into overlapping areas, many have prioritized the integration of their own growing rosters of software over integrating their products with those of other vendors. “There’s a big battle between ERP providers and automation. As users, we’re stuck in the middle,” says Manfred Oesterle, KSB’s vice president of automation products and a member of the executive board at SmartFactory. “Our hope is SmartFactory can get better visibility, better ideas of standardisation.” The problems with integration feed other impediments to the digital factory. “The technology is definitely there, but the adoption rate has been relatively measured because it’s complex, it’s expensive, and there’s a steep learning curve,” says Dick Slansky, an analyst at research firm ARC. “There has to be a readily interoperable exchange of models.” S The Long Haul years “We’re still many What’saway from the digital factory. missing is the integration of all these things based on standardisation. Chairman, SmartFactory “ Detlef Zühlke get downright dysfunctional (see sidebar, p. 18). Exacerbating the problem is a clash between automation vendors, such as Siemens, GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms, Mitsubishi, Rockwell, and Schneider, and ERP vendors, such as SAP and Oracle. Automation and ERP suppliers have marched into each other’s territories in recent years with acquisitions and partnerships vying for digital factory business. Siemens, for instance, acquired PLM vendor UGS; Schneider recently agreed to resell Dassault PLM software; GE Fanuc acquired software companies, including MES vendor Mountain Systems; SAP recently acquired MES vendor Visiprise; and Oracle picked up PLM vendor Agility. ome vendors don’t deny the current sorry state of integration, although they say that integration is a huge challenge and won’t happen overnight. “We always said it’s not a workload for a year or two; it’s a work load for a decade,” says Ralf-Michael Franke, CEO of Siemens’ Industrial Automation Systems business unit. Siemens acquired PLM vendor UGS two years ago. “In the last two years, we’re on schedule, but integration is maybe at 20%, which is according to our plans.” For now, then, Franke concurs that Siemens can more reliably integrate its own technologies than it can tie together an amalgam of brands. “With the brands bought from Siemens, we can guarantee the interoperability,” Franke says. “Otherwise, the customer has to guarantee it.” He acknowledges that only about 10% of Siemens customers use all-Siemens software such as Teamcenter PLM and Simatic IT MES. Users and vendors agree that the factory of the future won’t power up until integration issues resolve. As Matt Holland of GE Fanuc says, “Very few people are building new factories. Really, the factory of the future is working with the factory of today.” Therefore, any vendor will have to integrate various ERP, MES, PLM, and other software. Holland claims that GE Fanuc has placed a huge emphasis on integrating across other brands, at least in Europe, where its presence in hardware such as PLCs is not as strong as in its U.S. home territory. The company started acquiring manufacturing software companies early this decade with the purchase of SCADA company Intellution in 2002. It subsequently bought MES vendor Mountain Software, and today offers a suite of manufacturing software under the Proficy brand. “We’ve had to be able to integrate to many of our competitors. We’re not the market leader in some of these spaces. We’re very much ahead of the curve in integrating our technology,” Holland says. At the same time, GE Fanuc continues to advance its own products. Sometime this year — Holland won’t say 16 Manufacturing Executive MAR/APR-09
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