Intelligent Manufacturing € April € 1995 € Vol. 1 € No. 4

Balancing Technology and Manufacturers' Needs

By Bob Turek

Who drives technology? Industry "think tanks" like the Gartner Group and AMR spend a lot of time analyzing where we are and where we ought to go. The result is good visionary thinking which may or may not come to pass. In fact, recent technological trends have changed so fast that a "leap frog" effect occurs where, for example, the trend toward client/server applications gets derailed by object-oriented technology. We're left to wonder which applications vendor is ahead of the other today: the one with application logic available on the client, or the one beginning to rewrite its applications in an object-oriented mode?

Errors in applying technology occur when manufacturing companies fail to understand their reason for being in business. Many MIS departments act like they do not know that their company's primary purpose in life is to produce, sell and service their products, rather than to implement the latest and greatest technology.

A more specific example is that of an engineer-to-order manufacturer who has a painful need for integrated quoting and estimating functions, but instead selects a vendor with object-oriented financial applications and weak quoting and estimating. The result could be the acquisition of a software package that has some "bleeding edge" technology but doesn't satisfy the requirements of the manufacturer.


What Are Manufacturing Applications Vendors Selling?
This may shock you, but many vendors don't know what business they are in. There is a growing trend toward selling technology (object-oriented, client/server, etc.) when functionality either doesn't exist or does not fit the manufacturer's needs. The market is in a state of chaos when it comes to technology. There are a number of prominent application software companies that are going through a difficult period because they pursued a technological approach that did not allow them to produce a fully functional product.

Consider for example the ASK debacle with the Advance product. In that scenario, ASK attempted to continuously upgrade to the latest technology, but ended up in an endless product reengineering loop. How many of the vendors that you are considering today have the same type of problem? How many of them are pursuing three and four products with different technological levels (e.g., server 4GL, client/server, object-oriented)?

One software company pursues a "contemporary technology" approach to deal with the chaos in the market. This approach requires them to be very familiar with the latest technology and then carefully apply this technology so their customers have complete functionality and upgradeability.


Suppliers Must Know Their Niche
When is the last time you heard the following from an application software company: "I'm sorry, but we are not pursuing your business at this time because of our focus and desire to serve the customers in our market niche"? It is a rare software vendor that has the honesty and confidence to back off certain types of business. The best sales teams in this business turn down much more business than other teams. It's called focus. This is to your benefit.

Nothing is more frustrating than going through an entire evaluation with four to five vendors, only to discover that important functionality was "hidden," misrepresented or misapplied. The software vendor loses other business they should have been working on and the prospect loses time and money.

Manufacturing software companies, like manufacturing companies, must figure out who they are, what market niche they serve best, and carefully apply the technology available so as not to be obsoleted but still serve their customers. This approach promotes high quality proven applications in the niche served with a vision for incorporating technological changes. It is clear that such vendors focus on functionality and carefully incorporate technology. So how do you weed out the vendors who do not fit this approach earlier in your evaluations?


The Solution Summary: A Key Step
Often evaluations go through a Request for Proposal (RFP), survey (vendor learns your business), demo cycle with four to five vendors. An evaluation step that is not normally performed, but can save a lot of time and effort, is the "solution summary." This is a short meeting that takes place after a survey to see if the vendor understands your business and can apply their software to your business. You need to give the vendor time to prepare a presentation for this meeting.

Without actually demonstrating software, the vendor should be able to talk about specifically applying their software to your key business issues. They must pass this step in order to go on to the demonstration stage. The best evaluators will eliminate all vendors except one or two at this time.

A vendor that does not propose this step is probably avoiding issues. Those that don't seem to understand your business probably are having a hard time understanding how to apply their software to your business. There is no need to put these vendors through the agony of a demo which could take one, two or three days. If you believe that the software product applies but the vendor personnel do a poor job of performing a solution summary, get a new sales team! Don't take a poor sales team through a process that they are guaranteed to lose.


Practical Advice
John Albin, manufacturing MIS manager for Industrial Tools Inc. (Ojai, Calif.), a maker of thin film disk drive head slicing machinery, talked to me about technology recently, and I thought I'd pass along some of his comments. This is a man with experience on the shop floor, in production control, and in operations management.

Albin is constantly challenged by those wanting to explore new technology. ITI's president reads the computer and industry trade magazines and asks him why they aren't implementing certain technologies. Albin is aware of the latest trends, but he is also aware of the need for seasoning and proving technologies. Fourth-generation languages, relational databases and certain levels of client/server are all proven and efficient technologies that went through a "proof" cycle and are necessary because of the demands of the user.

Albin feels that users have to be ready to accept new technologies before they are implemented. A recent example of user-led technological change is the possible upgrading of a PC network to allow more workgroup computing with products like Lotus Notes. When dealing with the manufacturing application software, Albin's focus is on basic functionality, i.e., can the software package carry me through a business cycle from sales, purchasing, planning, manufacturing, shipment and invoicing without breaking down. In other words, can I really use this package to run my business?

When dealing with PC tools, Albin's focus is on how these tools can efficiently use the database developed by the application to make decision making more efficient. That is his version of client/server. There is no technological confusion at ITI. The vision and direction and reasons for acceptance of new technology are clear. We all can learn from this common-sense approach mixed with real manufacturing floor experience.

Bob Turek is a Los Angeles-based senior consultant for Visibility (Wilmington, Mass.), a developer of business information systems for agile manufacturers. He can be reached at (805) 268-8808.