Manufacturing Executive - November 2008 - (Page 4) paul tate/editor’s letter Turmoil Demands Less Complexity f There may be trouble ahead. It’s time to transform that archipelago of isolated technologies and processes into a rolling landscape of efficiency and excellence. rom his plush Hamburg office, Farhad Vladi sells islands. Private islands. Anywhere in the world. From a tropical paradise in the sun-soaked South Pacific, to a wind-swept rocky outcrop in the Baltic. It’s a good business. Vladi is one of the best island brokers in the world. He has sold more than 2,000 wavelapped sanctuaries to the rich and famous, private investors, and those who just want to get away from it all. But be careful what you wish for. Vladi believes there two types of islands — quality islands that are habitable, close to infrastructure, not too far from the mainland, and with easy access to support services; and adventurer islands, where you’re totally on your own and even the local fishermen think twice before agreeing to drop you off. Now take a look around. Does the company outside your window have the cohesive, integrated landscape of efficiency and productivity you were hoping for? Probably not. More likely, there’s still a worrying collection of isolated islands of activity and technology, hard to tame, hostile to change, and badly connected to the rest of your manufacturing mainland. One senior executive at a German automaker recently complained: “We’re still getting trapped on islands. Suppliers provide lots of great gimmicks for management, but what we really need is something that actually does the work.” Maybe it’s time to take a closer look at those awkward atolls. Are they quality islands, linked to infrastructure and worth the support, or are they too adventurous or too hostile to make good business sense? What’s the incentive? Volcanic financial turmoil certainly helps focus the mind. Recent months of doomridden disruptive global trading and unprecedented banking meltdowns have put every industrial sector under pressure. For manufacturing companies, the nearterm prospects for investment, revenue generation, and profitability are more uncertain than ever. Any strategy that reduces the complexity and costs of running daily 2008 operations, and helps harness the power and data assets you already have, is vital. The approach can be tactical or transformational, but urgent rethinking about how to close the gaps between multiple platforms, from shop floor to supply chain, from design studio to boardroom, could make a major difference to overall business performance. But how do you turn that archipelago of complexity into a useful part of the overall landscape of the company? This issue of Manufacturing Executive looks at some of the trends in building interconnected topologies for Europe’s manufacturing companies — landscapes of sustainable value, rather than disconnected enclaves. Perhaps most important, Executive Editor Mark Halper explores the latest thinking as the new European MESA group holds its biggest Euro-event yet, in Prague this month. The prospect of finding a way to link shop floor production islands to the enterprise landscape has besotted industry executives for years. There may be an end in sight. But what sort of end? Will you still need a separate MES layer to make it work, or are enterprise-wide manufacturing systems reaching out to the shop floor islands anyway? MES paradise, it seems, may still be a matter of perspective. We’ll bring you all the latest action in a special MESA roundtable in our next issue. Transforming islands into efficient manufacturing landscapes may demand more such industry initiatives. The history of the development of manufacturing technologies has taught us that real change is often achieved only by a strident combination of market demand and supplier response. The onus is on both sides to deliver results. The need is urgent. If technology is going to be a saviour of manufacturing in today’s tough times, it has to work, and all work together. Rearranging the deck chairs on the beach won’t hack it. Creating more effective landscapes takes a step change in thinking. s Paul Tate is Executive Editor of Manufacturing Executive. He can be reached at ptate@thomaspublishing.com. 4 November
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