The Intelligent Enterprise

The Intelligent Enterprise

The second part on this series on the Need for an Intelligent Enterprise

by Cronin Almeida, Invensys

source: http://www.busmanagement.com/media/focus-area-images/busmanagement/Issue-2/small/intelligent_enterprise-med.jpg

 

In evolution, the lack of intelligence has lead to extinction.  The same applies to Industrial enterprises these days. Intelligence is necessary for organizations to compete, stay lean, employ best practices and stay relevant to changing market conditions. Digital and physical infrastructure in the manufacturing and process domains are converging.  Computational power is being used in places unheard of. Organizations all over are becoming digitally aware and networked.

Most enterprises lack a clear process of information dissemination that would provide clear insights defining the trends and workings of a classic enterprise structure. Critical information may be lost in the maze of such a flow.  This lack of access to intelligent information required to do their jobs, or close information gaps to reach business objective calls for a unique solution.  But most solutions available in the market are:  

• Multiple, high maintenance application specific solutions:  Most solutions available in the market today are application specific and need a lot of effort to customize in order to make them compatible. Hence for a manufacturing entity there is a need to go for different specific solutions like Communications, LIMS, ERP, MES, Field Automation, Integrated Logistics Support, PLM & Document Management System. There are barely a handful of vendors that can give an end to end solution that have a plug and play features across all these applications. 
• Poor integration of the shop floor and ERP systems:  ERP and shop floor systems work on a parallel field without any significant interaction with each other. There are separate parallel applications for Vendor Management, Warehousing, Inventory Management, Accounts Payable & Document management. All this causes a lot of repetitive work thus decreasing efficiency of the organization. 
• Sluggish response to dynamic market demands:  Rapidly changing demographics causes huge swings in demand for manufactured goods. The vagaries of a global economy, freak weather phenomenon add to the woes of the manufacturing sector. Hence an enterprise must be quick to respond to these dynamic market demands. Most of the solutions available today are slow or very expensive to respond to dynamic market conditions.  They take considerable effort and resources to be reconfigured and optimized.
• Inconsistent knowledge management:  Shortage of skilled manpower and an ageing & retiring workforce causes a loss of critical process and maintenance knowledge.  Even present work order and project status are in jeopardy due to high attrition rates and a non-availability of a comprehensive and interactive document management solution.
• Expensive compliance measures:  Stringent regulatory and environmental compliance requirements cause a significant dent of the financial outlays of enterprises.  In the chemical, food and beverage, and Pharmaceutical industry there are numerous manufacturing compliance measures that need to be adhered to.  There are few out of the box and integrated solutions that helps to meet them.

On the next post we will be talking on the components of an intelligent enterprise. Do stay tuned.