Intelligent Manufacturing € October € 1995 € Vol. 1 € No. 10
Intelligent Manufacturing € October € 1995 € Vol. 1
€ No. 10
Tyecin Systems Inc. (Los Altos, Calif.), a vendor of simulation
software products for semiconductor manufacturers, and Harris Corp.'s
Semiconductor Sector (Melbourne, Fla.), a semiconductor manufacturer,
have signed a technology exchange agreement encompassing a broad
spectrum of software systems for semiconductor capacity planning,
financial planning, order scheduling, and factory floor dispatching.
These software systems can be used to manage wafer fabrication,
assembly, and test operations with applications from the factory
floor to the enterprise level.
Tyecin will receive exclusive worldwide rights to IMPReSS (Integrated
Manufacturing Production Requirements Scheduling System), which
represents over 20 man-years of development by Harris and IBM. Harris
will receive broad access to use of Tyecin's family of factory
planning and scheduling systems.
Tyecin plans to further develop IMPReSS into a commercially available
enterprise production planning and material scheduling system
available to the semiconductor industry at large. The IMPReSS system
was developed by Harris following the acquisition of GE/RCA/INTERSIL
in late 1988. At that time, Harris urgently needed an integrated
financial planning and production scheduling system that could
encompass far-flung semiconductor operations, each with distinctly
different manufacturing and management information systems. Without a
commercial alternative, Harris began to implement a linear
programming solution capable of optimizing the allocation of a single
order stream throughout the worldwide manufacturing network and
within existing capacity constraints. IMPReSS was subsequently
reengineered by the IBM Consulting Group's Management Technologies
practice under contract to Harris.
Utilizing a system design that exploits multiple, parallel
processing, the Harris system can run an 18-month plan in no more
than a few hours and has led to 95%+ on-time delivery performance.
This plan is run once a week for 30,000 active products which are
produced in eight fabs, eight assembly areas and five test areas
worldwide.
System Software Associates Inc. (Chicago, Ill.), a provider of
supply chain management and business process reengineering software,
has merged with Softwright, a U.K.-based software company
specializing in business object technology. As a result of the
merger, SSA also now owns 50% of Integrated Objects, a provider of
business object software.
SSA plans to incorporate technology from Integrated Objects and
Softwright into its BPCS Client/Server product line. BPCS
Client/Server provides business process reengineering and integration
of all operations, including multi-mode manufacturing processes,
supply chain management and global financial solutions.
Industri-Matematik Inc. (IMI) (Tarrytown, N.Y.), a supplier of
demand chain management solutions for manufacturers, has been awarded
a $1 million contract from Alpina S.A. (Valley de Sopo, Colombia), a
$200 million dairy foods provider. Alpina will use IMI's System ESS
software as part of an initiative to create modern and flexible
production facilities, supported by a competitive commercial and
distribution network, to improve customer service while reducing
overall costs.
System ESS software tightly integrates management of information from
order processing, logistics/manufacturing and customer service
operations, making this information accessible throughout the
lifecycle of a customer order. The solution is designed for rapid
implementation and enterprise-wide integration, enabling customers to
achieve fast time to benefit and support global operations.
Alpina has structured a distribution network that covers the entire
Colombian market, serving more than 85,000 commercial customers
through four marketing channels. With System ESS, Alpina plans to
improve operation of its national and regional distribution centers,
administration of transport and distribution fleets, and better
manage inventory control, orders, billing, dispatches and
distribution routes. The new software also will provide Alpina's
sales network with more accurately priced promotions and timely sales
reporting.
Parametric Technology Corp. (Waltham, Mass.), has received a $1.1
million order for its Pro/Engineer mechanical design automation
software from Schlumberger Ltd. (New York, N.Y.), a global
corporation that provides oil drilling equipment, oil field services,
computer test equipment, water measurement systems, electricity
measurement systems, and related services. With this order,
Schlumberger plans to standardize on Pro/Engineer software to
automate its mechanical design-through-manufacturing process
throughout its 12 divisions.
Parametric has also received a $1.4 million order from Pirelli S.p.A.
(Milan, Italy), a producer of high-performance automotive tires and
optical telecommunications and energy cables. The Pro/Engineer
software will be used to automate, streamline and manage the
company's design-through-manufacturing operations worldwide.
A third company, Sanyo Electric (Osaka, Japan), a manufacturer of
consumer electronics, has placed a $1.9 million order for
Pro/Engineer and Pro/Mechanica software. Sanyo is using the software
to automate and streamline all of its mechanical product development
operations.
Elsag Bailey Process Automation N.V., a Netherlands-based
manufacturer of automation systems, instrumentation products and
services, has signed a worldwide strategic alliance marketing partner
agreement with Gensym Corp. (Cambridge, Mass.), a provider of
software for creating intelligent real-time systems. Bailey will
develop and resell applications built with Gensym's flagship product,
G2, as well as other Gensym software products. These solutions will
be targeted for organizations in the process industries, such as
chemical and petrochemical plants, pharmaceutical manufacturers, pulp
and paper companies, and electric utilities.
Bailey's customers are seeking solutions for intelligent power
generation, predictive process control, intelligent alarming, on-line
diagnostics, and advanced emissions control. Its alliance with Gensym
will bring together the technology and resources needed to provide
these solutions.
Currently, developers can use Gensym bridge products to seamlessly
integrate G2 with Bailey's Network 90 or INFI 90 Distributed Control
Systems. This provides an integrated environment for intelligent
process management, real-time quality integrated environment for
intelligent process management, real-time quality control, and other
supervisory-level applications.
LPA Software Inc.'s Semiconductor Solutions Division (South
Burlington, Vt.), a supplier of yield management software for the
semiconductor industry, and FASTech Integration Inc. (Lincoln,
Mass.), a developer of manufacturing execution systems (MES)
software, have formed a partnership to jointly market LPA's Protocol
Communication Workbench products worldwide.
The Protocol Communications Workbench was developed for equipment
manufacturers testing the communications capabilities and software
interfaces of automated manufacturing equipment. With Protocol,
equipment can be characterized before it is integrated into the
production line, greatly reducing the integration effort.
ABB Industrial Systems Inc. (Rochester, N.Y.), an industrial
automation organization, has formed a business alliance with BBN
Software Products Corp. (Cambridge, Mass.), vendor of software and
services that help manufacturers optimize their processes to deliver
products to market faster. ABB's Advant Station 500 Series
Information Management Stations will be used with BBN's Cornerstone
software (see Intelligent Manufacturing, June
1995).
Cornerstone provides flexible, interactive statistical quality
control (SQC) to enable manufacturers to monitor and improve their
processes. Advant Station gathers data from different sources in a
facility - from the manufacturing floor to the accounting office -
and creates custom reports that analyze historical data and project
future results.
Manufacturers' Services Ltd. (Roseville, Minn.), a manufacturing
services company, has purchased its first Asian manufacturing
operation, a high-volume plant specializing in surface mount
technology for computer components, network products and consumer
electronics. The acquisition of Connett Technology (Singapore) will
allow Manufacturers' Services to directly support the Southeast Asian
manufacturing market.
Manufacturers' Services will retain all the employees and acquire the
assets of Connett Technology. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Manufacturers' Services provides clients with a complete range of
services for every phase of the manufacturing process, including
design, centralized purchasing, component manufacture, assembly,
logistics and operations, distribution, and ongoing support. The
company also has operations in Ireland and Spain, and an electronics
manufacturing facility in Sunnyvale, Calif., that will begin
operations this fall.
PRI Automation Inc. (Billerica, Mass.), a supplier of factory
automation systems, has received a multi-million dollar contract from
Motorola (Austin, Tex.), a manufacturer of wireless communications,
semiconductors and advanced electronic systems, to automate
Motorola's new MOS-13 semiconductor wafers. PRI will provide a
complete interbay automated material handling system for
manufacturing the wafers.
In a separate announcement, the United States Display Consortium
(USDC) (San Jose, Calif.), a public/private partnership providing a
common platform for flat panel display manufacturers, has chosen PRI
to develop a material handling and laser marking system for flat
panel displays. Currently, panels are tracked manually during
manufacturing with scribes or pens. PRI will provide a standardized
system to mark flat panel substrates using a 2-D matrix code for
tracking throughout the manufacturing process. The system will
include control software with host communication capability, process
tool interface and standardized cassette input/output. Florod Corp.
(Gardena, Calif.), a manufacturer of laser marking systems, will
develop the laser marker and reader technology which PRI will
integrate into the project.
Orissa International (San Jose, Calif.), a supplier of finite
scheduling software for manufacturers, has changed its name to
Thru-Put Technologies. The name change coincides with a move from
Torrance, Calif., to San Jose. The company's flagship product,
Resonance finite scheduling software, enables manufacturers to
maximize throughput from their plants by helping them manage their
constraints.