Manufacturing Executive - November 2008 - (Page 15) staggeringly low 15% to 25%, varying across industries. That untapped potential represents a market opportunity of $12 billion, AMR says. In the long run, manufacturing executives might go for such outlays to help them realize what AMR’s Oxford, England-based research director Nigel Montgomery points out would “I think you can do that [integrate more deeply] much better through acquisition.” —Vivek Bapat, SAP be the ultimate capability of MES: to tie changing demand straight into the shop floor. In what Montgomery says would mark a “demand-driven” state of ERP-MES harmony, a clothing maker churning out green t-shirts for Prague can adjust instantly when demand suddenly shifts to blue, as word filters through an ERP system and then to the plant floor. Likewise, a camera company that starts losing sales because customers suddenly demand more megapixels could, in theory, receive the customer demand trends in real time and promptly retool or increase production at a plant that’s already geared up. About 70% of companies surveyed by AMR take three weeks or longer to respond to changes in demand. Well-integrated ERP and MES systems could slash that time. Of course, that sort of immediate response scenario remains a long way off for many manufacturers, and would work best if the clothing and camera companies’ suppliers had wellsynchronized ERP and MES systems that let them start churning out, say, more blue dye. ERP LOYALTY One of the main forces of resistance: Executives believe ERP does it all. “Some manufacturers have invested hundreds of millions of euros in ERP systems,” says Marc Leroux, marketing manager for collaborative production management at Swiss automation giant and MES vendor ABB. “People that have implemented an ERP system believe they have already accomplished the integration. The reality is that they ran out of money or the complexity was overwhelming, and the ERP implementation stopped at manufacturing.” To help convince manufacturers that MES could improve ERP’s effectiveness, Leroux notes that integration of the two has to improve from merely providing an interface, to supporting rich integration. “With an interface, you have to worry about keeping the two in sync,” he says. “If you change one, you have to change the other, and then you start wondering which is the right one.” It is just this sort of rich integration that is driving many MES companies and ERP vendors to work together. It is what motivated ERP giant SAP to acquire Visiprise in July. Although SAP was already reselling and integrating Visiprise MES software, the acquisition increases SAP’s ability to integrate because it puts the company in control of the Visiprise roadmap, says Vivek Bapat, SAP’s vice president of solutions marketing for manufacturing, supply chain, and PLM. “We wanted to integrate much deeper,” Bapat says. MES Isn’t Always Necessary “I think you can do that much better through acfor ERP Integration quisition because we’re any people agree that plying ERP with factory able to converge roadmaps floor data can improve enterprise operations. more clearly.” But amid all the talk of integrating MES softIn fact, SAP’s acquisition ware into the enterprise suite, some say that such intemore than three years ago gration is overkill. of Lighthammer and its MII Duncan Fletcher, the U.K. managing director for suite (manufacturing inteAustrian SCADA vendor COPA-DATA, says that manugration and intelligence) facturers often can accomplish the same factory-tomarked a big step in SAP’s enterprise goal simply by tying SCADA straight to the MES integration plans. The enterprise without going through an MES layer. In the tools help break down what SCADA approach, data goes directly from machine senBapat calls “manufacturing sors to ERP. Fletcher counts BMW and Austria’s Collini Metal among his customers doing just that. execution silos” in which “For a large number of projects, the MES adds a level various MES systems exist of complication and difficulty, so one has to ask the quesindependently of one antion, ‘Why should I do that?’ ” Fletcher says. other and of the enterprise. COPA-DATA has enriched its SCADA software, Another reason that SAP called Zenon, with modules for maintenance, batch manwent for Visiprise, Bapat agement, and industrial performance — covering many says, is that “we were able MES attributes but for less money. COPA-DATA charges to get quality people who £4,500 for a SCADA program that tags 4,000 pieces of have been doing this for a information, such as temperature, pressure, and levels, couple of decades.” and £7,500 for an unlimited tag version. Strengthening his Even with tools, products, case, COPA-DATA in mid-September received integraroadmaps, and people, intetion certification from ERP vendor SAP. gration requires hard work. But SAP had recently purchased MES vendor Visiprise, As SAP’s ERP archrival Orso doesn’t he think MES-ERP integration has a place? “I’m acle is quick to point out, trying to think of a scenario in which I would want to put there’s no guarantee that in MES and I’m struggling,” Fletcher says. SAP’s Visiprise acquisition “It’s a question of what do you want to do with the will sprinkle integration fairy data,” says Nigel Montgomery, research director at AMR dust across the executive in Oxford, England. SCADA suffices for simple data, while suite and factory floor. MES better serves more complicated data sets spanning “They’re str uggling organizations. Confused? One integrator, Paris-based Atos Origin, through how to get that sells a service called MES Scan to help make the call. integrated,” says Jon Chor“There’s no right or wrong. It depends on your requireley, vice president of prodments,” says Luca Benporath, Atos Origin’s director of uct strategy supply chain the global manufacturing market. management at Oracle, a company that does not M November 2008 15
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.