Intelligent Manufacturing € July € 1996 € Vol. 2 € No. 7
Intelligent Manufacturing € July € 1996 € Vol. 2
€ No. 7
United Electric Controls Co. (Watertown, Mass.), a manufacturer of
pressure and temperature controls for industrial equipment, has
signed a $1.2 million contract with DataWorks Corp. (San Diego,
Calif.), a supplier of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software
solutions for discrete and repetitive mid-range manufacturers. United
Electric plans to implement DataWorks' ERP solutions at sites in
Connecticut, Massachusetts and Canada as part of its long-term goal
of reducing time-to-market, minimizing waste and lowering costs.
"The real value of new software and hardware platforms for United
Electric lies in how it can help us streamline and upgrade the flow
of information among departments and to and from the field," said
Dave Reis, president of United Electric. "We want to develop an
information system that will enable us to provide extremely fast,
accurate and complete answers to every inquiry we receive. Our goal
is to use information technology to coordinate the efforts of all
departments to greatly enhance the support for our field sales force
and our customers."
Meanwhile, Wiremold Co. (West Hartford, Conn.), a manufacturer of
electrical products, has signed a $2.2 million contract with
DataWorks and plans to implement the DataWorks software at 13 sites
throughout the U.S. and Canada. The company hopes to reduce its order
processing time from 24 hours to two hours, which will better
leverage its manufacturing flow system.
QAD (Carpinteria, Calif.), a supplier of manufacturing management
software, has signed a multi-million dollar license agreement with
Schlumberger Ltd. (New York, N.Y.), a provider of oil field services,
measurement and systems. Schlumberger will install QAD's MFG/PRO
software at 18 international sites as the standard solution for its
$2.7 billion Measurement & Systems business units. With the
installation, Schlumberger will integrate the entire financial,
manufacturing, sales, distribution and field services when applicable
for the units, which supply measurement-related products and services
to utility and communications companies.
QAD's MFG/PRO enterprise resource planning (ERP) software environment
enables multi-national manufacturers to manage information across
their extended enterprise. It supports organizations by integrating
multiple geographic sites and supply chain partners through a suite
of integrated manufacturing, distribution, planning and financial
application modules.
QAD has also formed a cooperative marketing and development
partnership with CODA (Harrogate, England), a supplier of
enterprise-wide financial accounting software systems. CODA will
integrate its CODA-Financials, a client/server financial software
package, with QAD's MFG/PRO, using interface standards developed by
the Open Applications Group (OAG), a non-profit organization
dedicated to developing connectivity and integration among enterprise
software applications. CODA earlier formed a similar partnership with
Marcam Corp. (Newton, Mass.), a supplier of open enterprise
applications for process and discrete manufacturers (see
Intelligent Manufacturing, May 1996).
QAD and CODA will also collaborate on marketing and sales of a
high-end client/server solution for repetitive and discrete
manufacturing which combines MFG/PRO and CODA's financial accounting
systems. The integrated products will allow customers to select the
best applications for their needs, and implement them
efficiently.
Parametric Technology Corp. (Waltham, Mass.), a provider of
mechanical design automation software, has acquired project modeling
and management software technology from Greenshire License for $30
million. The acquired software, called Reflex, is a
three-dimensional, object-oriented modeling and management system
that allows users to design, visualize, manage and operate various
types of large engineering projects through the use of objects
created and stored in library databases.
Parametric estimated that it will take at least six months to
complete the development of a 1.0 release of the software. The
development program includes plans for a new user interface; support
for multiple platforms and operating systems; and development of
applications for selected vertical markets.
The Reflex technology includes intelligent parametric elements which
can provide Pro/Engineer-like associativity, so that changes to the
specifications of a project result in all relevant elements of the
model and the related drawings and schedules being instantly updated.
While Reflex represents raw technology by Parametric's standards,
there are several large engineering firms currently using customized
versions of the software to manage large projects.
A pan-European organization, Baan Business Systems (BBS)
(Barneveld, The Netherlands), has been established to focus on
delivering Baan's enterprise resource planning (ERP) software to the
small and medium enterprise market. Formed as a result of a merger
between Baan DITEC Informationstechnologie AG (München,
Germany), Baan Business Systems will initially concentrate on Germany
and the Netherlands, broadening its scope in due course to be active
in most major European markets.
Cap Gemini America (New York, N.Y.), an information technology
consulting company, has established a national practice to support
its alliance with Baan (see above item). Located in Grand Rapids,
Mich., close to Baan's International Support Center, Cap Gemini's
national practice is headquarters for over 40 consultants dedicated
to serving Baan's North American customers.
Cap Gemini's Baan national practice includes a demonstration center
equipped with hardware platforms running Baan's family of ERP
software. The center will be used for demonstrations, testing,
education, training and technical support.
J.D. Edwards & Co. (Denver, Colo.), a developer of business
solution software, has formed an alliance with SynQuest Inc.
(Norcross, Ga.), a provider of supply chain synchronization software,
to integrate SynQuest's EnSync software with J.D. Edwards' ERPx
product suite. The joint solution will enable manufacturers to plan,
schedule and manage the flow of work through the entire demand
fulfillment process.
EnSync provides real-time scheduling and monitoring capabilities,
enabling a plant to synchronize operations. The software's real-time
reporting provides continuous feedback to calculate capacity
requirements and dynamically reschedule operations to adjust for
actual shop floor performance. On the shop floor, EnSync graphically
displays the status of each job to personnel. It also displays
problem areas as they occur and notifies the responsible
department.
The ERPx suite of manufacturing/distribution products refines the
requirements planning process, for a single entity or for a large
organization utilizing multiple manufacturing facilities, through the
use of enterprise facility planning.
Central Products Co. (Menasha, Wis.), a manufacturer of carton
sealing tapes, has selected a full suite of integrated manufacturing,
financial and distribution applications from JBA International (Mt.
Laurel, N.J.). Central Products produces water-activated and
pressure-sensitive sealing tapes to the worldwide packaging
market.
Central Products' deal with JBA is part of its migration from
homegrown software to an integrated client/server environment.
Mercury Marine (Fond du Lac, Wis.), a manufacturer of marine power
parts and accessories, has selected Supply Chain Planning software
from American Software (Atlanta, Ga.) to improve planning processes
within its seven different business units, each with very different
requirements. For example, Mercury Marine's outboard motor business
has about 500-600 stock-keeping units (SKUs) whose sales are affected
by the time of year. Another unit, the parts and accessories unit,
has a more even demand during the year.
Mercury Marine plans to implement new planning processes that will
provide backward and forward integration within its supply chain. The
goal is to achieve complete supply chain integration and to be able
to implement vendor-managed inventory and other continuous
replenishment strategies.
Pivotpoint Inc. (Woburn, Mass.), a provider of client/server
enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions for intermediate-sized
manufacturers, has formed a partnership with TSI International
(Wilton, Conn.), a supplier of electronic commerce software. TSI's
electronic data interchange (EDI) functionality will now be included
in Pivotpoint's Point.Man ERP software, providing tight integration
between Point.Man and TSI's electronic commerce system.
EDI is the industry standard for exchange of routine business
documents and transactions between companies engaged in trading
activities. In effect, it acts as a translator to enable different
software packages to talk with each other. (For a more detailed
discussion of EDI and electronic commerce, see the new
Electronic
Commerce Update supplement included with this issue.)
Pivotpoint will bundle TSI's Windows-based EDI translator, Trading
Partner PC, and Mercator, its data-mapping product, as part of
Point.Man's "all in one" EDI package. Point.Man customers will be
able to obtain seamless transfers and management of data in
inter-company business transactions by choosing one enterprise
business solution.
Edify Corp. (Santa Clara, Calif.), a supplier of intelligent agent
software, has signed a development and marketing agreement with SAP
America Inc. (Wayne, Pa.), a supplier of enterprise resource planning
(ERP) software solutions for manufacturers, in which the two
companies will work together to market self-service solutions
comprising SAP's R/3 enterprise business software and Edify's
Electronic Workforce. These agent-based solutions will serve
customers across all of SAP's functional product areas, including
manufacturing, financial services and human resources, and will
feature corporate intranet, Web and telephone access.
Edify software will communicate with R/3 via SAP's Automation
Interface. The Electronic Workforce will maintain sessions with the
Intelligent Terminal, a server that sits between the SAP Application
Server and the Edify software. The Electronic Workforce will pull
requested data out of the SAP Application Server via the Intelligent
Terminal interface for distribution to the appropriate client
device.
With this configuration, the application is presented with an
interface oriented for the customer or employee (as opposed to
internal administrative personnel), and contains all of the business
rules and logic necessary to provide fully automated self-service
functions.
Red Pepper Software Co. (San Mateo, Calif.), a developer of
real-time supply chain optimization applications based on intelligent
agent technology, has signed a site license agreement with Texas
Instruments Inc. (Dallas, Tex.) for use of Red Pepper's ResponseAgent
enterprise planning solutions in its semiconductor manufacturing
operations. Texas Instruments Semiconductor, an $8 billion division
of TI, will use ResponseAgent in its integrated circuits operations.
ResponseAgents integrate single plant or supply chain-wide materials,
capacity and customer demand information, then apply advanced
optimization technology to rapidly generate plans or schedules.
TI Semiconductor's order fulfillment project will increase asset
utilization, reduce cycle times and enhance how TI goes to market.
The ResponseAgents will play a key role in the aggregate planning and
scheduling of all Texas Instruments' integrated supply chain of
fabrication plants, assembly, test and packaging facilities
throughout the world.
Carnegie Group Inc. (Pittsburgh, Pa.), an intelligent systems
integrator, has been chosen by steel-maker IPSCO Inc. (Regina, Sask.,
Canada) to develop a dynamic scheduling system for IPSCO's new steel
mini-mill being built in Montpelier, Iowa. The new system, developed
using constraint logic programming (CLP) technology, will allow plant
managers to run a variety of "what-if" and test scenarios to maximize
throughput and production even before mill start-up.
CLP software separates problem resolution and solution search, and
propagates constraints to deduce choice consequences, reduce search
space, and backtrack when detecting inconsistencies. The benefits of
using CLP include reduced development time, improved application
memory efficiency, and easier maintenance and extendability.
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