Customer Uses Wonderware MES, not ERP for Operations Management

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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.

Repost: Hey You, Get Off of My Cloud: CIO Concerns with Cloud ERP Systems

http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/erp-roi/hey-you-get-off-of-my-cloud-cio-concerns-with-cloud-erp-systems-54350

IT Toolbox conducted a web study of CIO's to understand their proclivity for purchasing cloud-based ERP systems.  For me, the findings were somewhat surprising, for it indicates that there is still uncertainty and doubt that a cloud-based ERP will provide the stable platform and confidence in performance that you'd get from an on-premise system.

But I think it goes beyond that.  There are 3 manifestations of the cloud that can be used for hosting an application: public cloud (like Amazon), private cloud (like an ASP/Application Solution Provider) or hybrid cloud (mix of the two).  The concerns of the CIO's in this instance seem to be fixated on the downsides of a public cloud.  This makes sense, because a public cloud normally has multiple tenancy (ie, more than one entity using it at any time) and so you must deal with bandwidth, uptime, and oftentimes, security.  But a private cloud avoids all of those pitfalls.  So for me, it's a matter of education.

The cloud does not equal the internet.  It is infrastructure, software, and platform.  And there are multiple ways of addressing to ensure that uptime, security, and reliability are not in question.  It's no different than having a bank of servers in your facility.  Sometimes, things happen...

Invensys has been working with Microsoft now for almost a year to bring cloud-based industrial solutions to market: reporting, storage and analysis.  So it's interesting that the hesitancy we heard from customers a year ago still exists.  Hopefully, with continuing education, customer successes, and economic benefits, we won't have the same discussions in another year!

Why automate food safety solutions?

By Niels Andersen, VP Manufacturing Business Consulting, Invensys Operations Management

We are now on track to get a revised food safety system in place in the USA. President Obama signed the Food Safety Modernization Act into law on January 4, 2011, and the FDA issued the proposed rules to fulfill the requirements for preventive controls in human food on January 4, 2013. The proposed rules are based on widely-accepted industry standards, so there should be few surprises for manufacturers. There is still work to be done to get the finalized rules in place, but there is now little doubt that the Food Safety Modernization Act is here to stay.

With the Food Safety Act in play, the question that Invensys now asks ourselves is "how do we bring value to our customers by automating food safety solutions?"

5 Ways to Leave Your MES Vendor

With apologies to Paul Simon for a “borrowing” of his song title, we continually come across customers that may have standardized on a #MES (Manufacturing Execution), #EMI (Enterprise Manufacturing Intelligence), #Batch (Batch Recipe Management) or other enterprise automation (#Level 3) application. And then, for various reasons, they start to rethink their current strategy or implementation.  It could be precipitated by a management change; a hot new product line, a line or plant expansion, or a market shift.

So how do you know it’s time to look for another vendor?  Here are some tips that can help you to determine if you and your current provider are heading, or should be heading, for a separation.