Manufacturing Executive - November 2008 - (Page 10) Making Software Tick Like Copenhagen’s renowned astronomical clock, finely tuned manufacturing relies on integrating information from across the universe of operations, ranging from the shop floor to the enterprise. i F nside Copenhagen’s monumental red brick city hall sits a paragon of artistic and precise mechanical engineering: Jens Olsen’s astronomical clock. This gold, steel, and brass exemplar of Danish craftsmanship, with its elegant curves and gloriously exposed mesh of gears, dials, and weights, displays an awe-inspiring array of information about time and space. “Everything, from where you are in the Milky Way to what time it is,” says Soren Andersen, who refurbished Olsen’s labour of love a decade ago. Not only does the clock tell you the hour, minute, and second, but it also charts lunar and solar eclipses, stars, equinoxes, sidereal time, the Julian and Gregorian calendars, and more. I didn’t come to Copenhagen to see the clock, although luckily I managed a peek. I came to visit Thomas Parbst, worldwide industry marketing manager for Microsoft Business Solutions, to talk about Microsoft Dynamics ERP software. And as soon as Parbst star ted enthusing about how Dynamics can help a manufacturing executive make critical decisions, it dawned on me that a manufacturer’s software universe is like Olsen’s work. ERP programs like those from Microsoft, Oracle, and SAP are fine ways for manufacturers to store and organize data on inventory, sales, payables, Soren Andersen with Jens Olsen’s astronomical clock receivables, bills of material, and other key functions. But just as Olsen’s clock tells far more than time, ERP can do plenty more for a manufacturing company. Rather than simply reporting the state of inventory, for instance, ERP can incisively inform an executive on when to buy more materials; when to sell more finished goods; when to adjust pricing; whether to commit to a big, opportunistic order that has just come in; and whether to supplement production by tapping a partner. To extract this ERP gold, Microsoft’s Parbst points out, manufacturers should ply ERP full of data from other areas of the company, such as the factory. This means integrating ERP with manufac- URTHER READING ARTICLES: t A Rare Breed www.managingautomation.com/rarebreed t Can MES Play a Lead Role? www.managingautomation.com/mesrole t Making Sense of MES www.managingautomation.com/mes2 turing execution systems (MES) software that notes events in the plant. As Parbst says, the ERP-MES combination “is part of the stor y of supply chain management” because “it helps a manufacturer to plan resources, to plan capacity.” That’s because MES can give a real-time accounting of what materials are in use, a particular machine’s reliability, and what output levels an executive can reasonably expect from a given plant. Combine that with data already in the ERP system, and the executive can make bold decisions. Imagine, Parbst says, that a brake manufacturer receives a rush enquiry from a Japanese automaker as to whether it can supply 10,000 sets of brakes. The auto company wants an immediate answer. Suddenly, the brake maker “needs a lot of information from the shop floor right away to know whether they have the capacity and can meet the request,” Parbst says. With MES feeding ERP, a top account executive knows whether to take the order, especially if his own suppliers collaborate with similar MES-enriched ERP information. That’s why Microsoft is engaging integrators such as Logica and others, which, in turn, tie Dynamics into MES systems like Invensys’ Wonderware and Siemens’ Simatic IT. It’s why ERP companies are buying MES vendors — take, for example, SAP’s acquisition of Visiprise earlier this year. As we noted in September’s Prague Roadtrip, “The Unbearable Lightness of ERP,” MES vendors say they can unlock ERP’s potential. Copenhagen was a resounding corollary: ERP vendors clearly see the value of MES. Manufacturers should demand more ERP-MES hookups. Such combinations can allow them to peer into the business stars. s — Mark Halper 10 November 2008 Photo courtesy: Soren Andersen http://www.managingautomation.com/rarebreed http://www.managingautomation.com/mesrole http://www.managingautomation.com/mes2
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