The manufacturing community is laying the foundation for a world of Internet-based commerce, reports a recent survey from Advanced Manufacturing Research (AMR).

According to the survey, more than 80 percent of manufacturers and manufacturing vendors/integrators are planning to use the Internet to link to customers and suppliers. This move toward electronic commerce will be driven by the development of "Networked Business Objects" (NBO) -- collaborative, flexible business process "objects" that automate and improve key parts of the manufacturing and supply-chain processes.

"NBO" refers to a series of internal and external business objects -- software components that support processes such as order entry, scheduling and purchasing -- that are linked via the Internet and have the ability to accomplish tasks automatically. Each business object is independent of the others, giving manufacturers the flexibility to change, add or remove objects without affecting other objects. Perhaps more importantly, the NBO approach frees manufacturers from the typical problems with ERP (enterprise resource planning) systems, which are often criticized for long implementations, lack of agility and high costs.

More than half of the companies surveyed provide companywide Internet access, and 83 percent have established home pages on the World Wide Web. Many of these companies are already providing access to various NBO objects, such as pricing/availability data (19 percent), order entry (9 percent) and order status information (8 percent).

The survey also reflects the continued growth of corporate intranets (54 percent), which feature applications such as document access/management, groupware and data warehousing.

With more than 65 percent of those surveyed desiring Internet-enabled enterprise systems, most companies recognized that electronic customer interaction is the first step: 84 percent said that customers will connect to their business systems via the Internet. Eleven percent said this is taking place now, 40 percent said it will take place in 1997-98, while 26 percent slated it for 1999-2000. Only 3 percent said "after 2000" or "never." Similarly, suppliers are another key part of the NBO scenario. A majority of those surveyed (86 percent) said they will connect with their suppliers' business systems via the Internet.

"NBO is coming, and manufacturers should start planning now," says AMR vice president Bruce Richardson. "Intranets are just the starting point. The key person in a manufacturer's future is not going to be the webmaster, however. NBO is not an Internet issue; it's a business issue, and senior-level management need to understand the promise of NBO and how it can support their company's vision."

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