Intelligent Manufacturing € March € 1996 € Vol. 2 € No. 3
Intelligent Manufacturing € March € 1996 € Vol. 2
€ No. 3
Automobile manufacturer Honda of America Manufacturing Inc.
(Marysville, Ohio) has signed a contract with ShivaSoft Inc.
(Edmonton, Alb., Canada) to implement ShivaSoft's finite capacity
planning and scheduling software system in all of its U.S.
manufacturing facilities. These include two automobile plants, a
motorcycle and all-terrain vehicle plant, and an engine plant.
The Shiva system will become an integral part of all planning and
scheduling required for the assembly lines and other in-house
activities, which include stamping, engine casting, welding,
painting, injection molding, and machining. Implementation of the
Shiva system at the two automobile plants is now underway, with the
motorcycle and engine plants scheduled for later this year.
Frontec AMT Inc. (Stamford, Conn.), a provider of intelligent
messaging software, and Manugistics Inc. (Rockville, Md.), a supplier
of supply chain management software, have joined forces to provide a
transportation planning system with intelligent messaging solutions
for supply chain management. The two companies will integrate
Frontec's Intelligent Messaging Solutions with Manugistics
Transportation Planning. The new product, called Manugistics
Intelligent Messenger (MIM), will extend Manugistics' transportation
solution to provide an enhanced enterprise-wide solution for
transportation planning, execution and analysis.
MIM's intelligent messaging function will give users better planning
and decision-making capabilities, faster access to key business
information and alerts to critical events. MIM will also improve the
information flow among trading partners, increase planner
productivity and enhance customer service. Using intelligent
messaging, MIM will evaluate application messages -- booking
responses and shipment status -- to recognize key business events,
determine what action is required and send out alerts and alarms to
the appropriate decision makers. Carrier bookers, notifications,
advanced ship notices and vendor route instructions will be
communicated throughout the supply chain in the most expedient form
for the receiving partner, including EDI, e-mail, Lotus Notes, fax
and pager.
Tecnomatix Technologies (Novi, Mich.), a supplier of
computer-aided production engineering (CAPE) software for automated
manufacturing systems, has received an initial order valued at
approximately $600,000 from the British car manufacturer, Rover, for
its Valisys, ROBCAD and Dynamo products and engineering services. The
Tecnomatix products will be used by Rover's Large Car Division, which
designs and manufactures the Rover 600 and 800 models.
Rover plans to use Dynamo's digital mock-up capabilities to design
and study feasibility of assembly operations and Valisys/Assembly for
tolerance management. In addition, Dynamo and ROBCAD/Man will be used
to design, test and optimize automated and manual operations on the
final assembly line.
Baan USA Inc. (Menlo Park, Calif.), a vendor of enterprise
resource planning (ERP) software, has named Technology Solutions Co.
(TSC) (Chicago, Ill.) as an international Americas partner for the
installation of Baan's ERP software. TSC is a provider of consulting
and systems integration services.
TSC will work closely with Baan on several customer implementations
in the electronic and warehouse distribution industries. To support
these efforts and future engagements, TSC expects to have 40 trained
and certified Baan professionals by mid-summer. Baan's family of
UNIX-based, client/server ERP applications supports the entire
spectrum of an organization's business processes, including
manufacturing, finance, distribution, service and maintenance
operations.
Porsche Cars North America Inc. (Reno, Nev.), a distributor and
importer of Porsche automobiles, automobile parts and accessories,
has purchased client/server-based Supply Chain Planning software from
American Software (Atlanta, Ga.), a supplier of integrated supply
chain management systems. Porsche hopes that American Software's
product will help it pinpoint delays; coordinate manufacturing,
logistics and shipping more effectively; and keep Porsche car owners
satisfied.
Currently, about 25% of the value of Porsche spare parts arrive from
Germany via air. By providing more precise forecasts, fine-tuned by a
series of advanced algorithms, the Supply Chain Planning software
will help Porsche meet its target of virtually eliminating air
freight orders from Germany, in the process reducing transportation
and logistics costs. These precise forecasts are critical in
maintaining optimum stocks required for a 98% fill rate, since it can
take as long as 10 weeks to get a back-ordered part from Germany.
FACT Inc. (Norcross, Ga.), a supplier of supply chain
synchronization software, has changed its corporate name to SynQuest
Inc. The company has also acquired Log'In (Rennes, France), a
developer of multi-level, supply chain optimization software. The
name change and Log'In agreement follow SynQuest's recent acquisition
of Mandis manufacturing and supply chain management software (see
Intelligent Manufacturing, November, 1995).
SynQuest will integrate the Log'In and Mandis software with its
existing manufacturing management software, creating a product suite
that includes manufacturing execution, enterprise resource planning
(ERP) and optimization systems designed to meet needs ranging from a
single plant to a complex network of multiple plants, suppliers and
customers. The integration of the three software components is
designed to enable manufacturers to achieve faster order fulfillment
cycle times, lower work-in-process and finished good inventories, and
higher on-time delivery rates.
Log'In's Cadence software product goes beyond process simulation to
include an optimization module based on genetic algorithm
technologies. Cadence provides flexible planning and optimization
techniques designed for multi-plant and supply chain operations, and
complements shop floor scheduling software available from SynQuest.
With Cadence, companies can model business processes for a single
plant or across an entire supply chain. The software then assesses
the impact of multiple constraints on the processes and identifies
the right balancing of multiple business objectives for peak
performance, generating an optimized plan or schedule. In addition to
including Cadence in an integrated application suite, SynQuest will
offer the software as a standalone product.
Tyecin Systems Inc. (Los Altos, Calif.), a provider of simulation
products for semiconductor manufacturers, has signed an agreement
with IBM-Japan. Tyecin's ManSim/X simulation tool will be embedded
into IBM's Poseidon system for planning and scheduling in
microelectronics manufacturing enterprises. The Poseidon system has
been in use at IBM-Yasu for more than seven years and has been
installed at nearly a dozen customer sites throughout the
Asia-Pacific region. Sites include silicon wafer fabs, module
assembly manufacturing and LCD manufacturing.
Initially targeted for the 50+ Asia-Pacific region semiconductor
manufacturing sites presently under construction or planned for
completion by the year 2000, the Poseidon system is designed to
manage multiple parallel manufacturing lines as well as multiple
subcontractor facilities. Future plans for Poseidon include expansion
of the target market to the U.S. and Europe.
Airplane manufacturer The Boeing Co. (Seattle, Wash.) has awarded
a contract change to Structural Dynamics Research Corp. (SDRC)
(Milford, Ohio), a supplier of mechanical design automation and
product data management (PDM) software, to extend the period of
performance for PDM, process redesign and related PDM consulting
services through 1996. The value of the contract change is estimated
at $2.8 million. SDRC has been the primary supplier of PDM software
for Boeing since 1994.
Boeing is employing Metaphase Series 2 software within its Define and
Control Airplane Configuration and Manufacturing Resource Management
(DCAC/MRM) initiative, which will enable Boeing to simplify and
improve its airplane configuration and manufacturing processes.
SDRC's role in supporting Boeing will increase this year with the
establishment of a permanent SDRC Competence Center in Seattle to
support Boeing and other major clients in the Northwest.
Matsushita Electric Ltd.'s European Television Division (Cardiff,
U.K.), which will produce over 1 million Panasonic television sets
this year for U.K. and overseas markets, has installed a $465,000
logistics and data capture system at its manufacturing site in
Cardiff. The system was supplied by JBA International (Mt. Laurel,
N.J.), a provider of midrange applications software and development
tools.
The Cardiff plant recently built a 76,000 sq. ft. warehouse next to
its manufacturing operation. The new JBA system will enable Panasonic
personnel to obtain accurate, real-time data to control 2.5 billion
TV set components as well as newly manufactured TVs entering the
company's warehousing operation.
Concentra Corp. (Burlington, Mass.), a supplier of knowledge-based
engineering automation software solutions, has signed an agreement
with Singapore-based Tata Technologies. Tata has chosen Concentra's
ICAD System, an intelligent design process automation solution, for
use within the Tata Group, one of India's largest manufacturing
conglomerates. Tata Technologies, which specializes in software
development and consulting to large manufacturing companies, has also
been engaged to provide application development, implementation
support and other technology consulting services to Concentra.
Tata's software purchase, valued at $1.75 million, provides for a
significant number of licenses for the ICAD System and related
software modules, including a digital mannequin for improving
automotive ergonomics that runs as an application on top of the ICAD
System. The software will be used initially in the Tata Group's TELCO
unit, one of India's largest motor vehicle companies, for design of
new cars and trucks.
Tata has also agreed to expand its relationship as a development
partner by extending and enhancing the Integrated Car Engineer (ICE),
an automotive conceptual design application based on the ICAD System
(see related article). The ICE system, which
will be used by Tata's TELCO unit, will be marketed globally to
automotive companies.
Intercim Corp. (Burnsville, Minn.), a supplier of factory
information management systems and services, has signed a five-year
licensing agreement with Surfware Inc. (San Fernando, Calif.), a
supplier of CAD/CAM systems. Surfware will integrate Intercim's
numerical controls software with its SURFCAM surface modeling and
machining system.