Intelligent Manufacturing € June € 1996 € Vol. 2 € No. 6

Products

PeopleSoft Manufacturing
PeopleSoft Manufacturing is an enterprise software solution for manufacturers based on integrated product configuration capabilities, a real-time planning and scheduling system, a customizable and flexible architecture, and embedded workflow. It is targeted at discrete manufacturers with production environments such as make-, build- and configure-to-order, as well as repetitive, mixed mode and make-to-stock. PeopleSoft Manufacturing comprises five applications: Engineering, Bills and Routings, Production Planning, Production Management and Cost Management. Also, a Product Configurator is designed to streamline processing from demand through manufacturing to consumer. It enables manufacturers to define the characteristics of a product in real-time and determine if, when and how to produce each particular product. PeopleSoft Manufacturing makes use of intelligent workflow agents: application agents which trigger workflows based on business rules; database agents that monitor tables and initiate workflows based on exception conditions; and message agents that provide connectivity to every participant in the process. Pricing begins at $90,000.

PeopleSoft Inc.
4440 Rosewood Drive
Pleasanton, CA 94588-3031
(510) 225-3000
br> http://www.peoplesoft.com

ERM-m
The Manufacturing Enterprise Reference Model (ERM-m) is designed to help manufacturing organizations improve their operations by providing them with a "strawman" model of the best process designs in the industry. The model was developed as part of project sponsored by the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences. The ERM-m model provides a baseline road map as a starting point for business process reengineering (BPR). The idea of the reference model is that BPR projects fail when either the organization cannot decide how it works (build a model of itself), or when it has this model it cannot decide how or what changes to make from the "as is" to the "to be.

The ERM-m can be used for both purposes. By applying attributes from its own organization to the model, the BPR team can perform analysis of its operations in terms of factors such as: process and cycle times, effect of a process on product quality, and identification of the highest cost process or processes.

Wizdom Systems Inc.
1300 Iroquois Avenue
Naperville, IL 60563
(708) 357-3000

Workcell Planner
Workcell Planner is a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet-based program designed for manufacturing and operation management professionals. This intelligent software provides a set of tools to help users optimize workcell configurations for efficient capacity utilization and balanced throughput. It translates a forecast or order backlog into machine and manpower requirements for each resource in a workcell and compares this with available capacity. By allowing "what if" analysis of the interaction of setup time, lot size, efficiency, operation yield and work practices, the Workcell Planner identifies the bottleneck resource in advance of production, enabling the user to configure the cell for balanced throughput. Price: $79.

User Solutions Inc.
11009 Tillson Drive
South Lyon, MI 48178-9318
(810) 486-1934

http://www.usersol.com

MTMS
MTMS is a PC-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) package which offers a number of options to the user in terms of modules to support all manufacturing and distribution efforts. MTMS Inquiry is a client/server solution that allows interactive query and report building. MTMS Insight provides graphical navigation of multi-dimensional information, letting the user capture data and give it immediate visibility. Through the Transformation Program, Insight allows the user to graphically enhance information by adding new levels and groupings not available in the source data.

LK Global Manufacturing Systems (USA) Inc.
216 Haddon Avenue
Westmont, NJ 08108
(609) 869-0770

Tactic
Tactic 3.2 for Windows is a PC-based finite capacity scheduling system that can integrate with existing business systems to enhance their value, or operate as a stand-alone production scheduling tool. Manufacturers can use Tactic to help consistently quote competitive lead-times and ensure on-time delivery without excessive inventory, underutilized equipment, high expediting costs or inefficient labor. When customer changes or shop floor problems occur, manufacturers can use Tactic to assess the effect and then to work around any problems. Tactic's intelligent "what if" features allow it to explicitly consider plant capacity to produce schedules that are realistic and achievable. Manufacturing staff can further refine schedules by rapidly modifying routings, process times, work loads, order priorities, machine, tooling, material or staff availability. Tactic then shows the impact of the proposed change.

Waterloo Manufacturing Software
10574 Ravenna Road
Twinsburg, OH 44087
(216) 425-2466

Armor Advantage
Armor Advantage Series software now includes an Accounts Receivable module. With this new module, manufacturers can compute and post early payment discounts, minimum payments due and late charges for each customer account. It allows manufacturers to print an Aged Schedule showing customers whose accounts are past due. Comprehensive and user-defined customer statements are also available.

Armor Advantage also allows manufacturers to add new customers at any point within the system.

Armor Systems Inc.
1626 West Airport Blvd.
Sanford, FL 32773-4814
(407) 323-9787

STATnet/2
STATnet/2 2.0 is a network-based, real-time statistical process control (SPC) and quality-data management system directed toward people and processes. On the plant floor, it provides connectivity to a range of measuring instruments and devices for data entry. The system is designed to help people on the plant floor improve product quality through real-time control of manufacturing operations.

STATnet/2 integrates with Intercim's FACTORYnet I/S factory information system (see Intelligent Manufacturing, May 1996). That module transfers critical manufacturing information from the engineering department directly to the shop floor and manages that information on a real-time basis.

Intercim Corp.
501 East Highway 13
Burnsville, MN 55337
(612) 894-9010

HFA System
The HFA System is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) software solution that integrates customer-driven manufacturing methodology from initial order entry to order shipment. Its system development is aimed at driving the configuration process throughout the business enterprise -- order processing, pricing, production scheduling, demand management and logistics. The HFA System has a three-tier architecture with presentation, business logic and database access in distinct, loosely coupled domains. This design combines a business object framework with component-based software construction to provide both configurability and scalability across the enterprise.

Friedman Corp.
104 Wilmot Road
Deerfield, IL 60015
(847) 948-7180

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