4 Stars for Wonderware MES by Global Food Company!

Customer Evidence verified by TechValidate.

This Global 500 Food Company gained enterprise integration into their SAP ERP, as well as using it as a trusted backup system in case the ERP goes down.

Repost, with comments: AstraZeneca's Focus On Supply Chain: With Change Comes The Obligation To Respond

Pharmaceutical Online recently posted an article on the need for tight collaboration within a pharmaceutical company's supply chain in order to respond to changing market conditions.

 

They also mentioned a Gartner study defining the five steps that a company needs to make in order to ensure an effective supply chain: React, Anticipate, Integrate, Collaborate, and Orchestrate. For years, we have been saying that using solutions such as MES and Workflow can be the underpinning of a responsive, agile supply chain.

Why?

How Enterprise Integration Brings Enterprise Intelligence

For nearly 20 years, the "holy grail" of automation was to ensure effective communications between Level 0 and 1 (the automation/devices layer) with Level 2 and 3 (the visualization and Manufacturing Execution Layers).  Why? Because in order to run a manufacturing enterprise effectively, you needed to not only understand, but bring the real-time process data into your business systems, for better, more informed decision making and overall analysis of yields, quality, throughput, inventory consumption, downtime, etc.

Enterprise Integration--the act of physically and logically "connecting the dots" between the process and the business systems--accomplishes a very important task, providing the data that drives the decisions. But there's another, sometimes nuanced, benefit of Enterprise Integration, and that's gaining Enteprise Intelligence.

Large Enterprise Chemicals Company improves Quality and Productivity by more than 30% using Wonderware MES!

Customer Proof verified by TechValidate.

Wonder why you should consider a #ManufacturingExecutionSystem? Here's a proof point for you.  A large chemicals customer was able to increase their overall product quality, and operations productivity, using Wonderware MES Solutions.

MES software has been used for over 25 years to manage the transformation of raw materials through finished goods for a variety of industries and customers. Especially in this day of strict controls and regulations, having an MES provides a solid infrastructure for process control and Good Manufacturing Practices. Organizations like MESA International have focused on bringing end users, solution providers and vendors together to benefit and progress the industry.

But the proof is in the actual benefits, and here's a customer example of the value they've received by implementing an MES system from Wonderware.

The intersection of food, and drugs

I read an article today about Nestle developing foods with "real" health benefits: Nestle to test effect of nutrients on human cells.  At first glance, the title infers to activities that are scary, ominous.  But further reading, you find that Nestle is developing foods that are good for you--provide health benefits beyond nutrition.

This is interesting for a number of reasons

The need for better control of the food manufacturing process, through #MES

I read an article today on SmartBrief that said FDA recalls more than doubled in this quarter, primarily due to undeclared allergens. Here is the article link:

http://www.smartbrief.com/news/gma/storyDetails.jsp?issueid=C815E5BB-7A9C-4A0B-B3F4-8A02B272EFA5&copyid=8C2DB16D-CFB4-41CA-A7BB-13A33D45D6ED&campaign=googleplus&ref=googleplus8C2DB16D-CFB4-41CA-A7BB-13A33D45D6ED

Repost, with comments: Traceability to be a top consumer food trend in 2014

 http://www.smartbrief.com/11/13/13/traceability-be-top-consumer-food-trend-2014-1

The drive for better understanding of food sources continues, with point of origin labeling now a prequisite for many consumers.

This is an extension of the Food Safety Modernization Act now being mandated by the US government, requiring a swift and definitive response to a recall event.

For companies like Invensys serving the food and beverage industry, this is a welcome movement, for the industrial automation industry has strived to put better controls around a manufacturing process supply chain, starting with the raw ingredients/incoming quality inspection and extending through final delivery to the customer.  The more transparency the manufacturer has to their process, the better they can control and manage.  That's the focus of #ManufacturingExecutionSystems, providing the supply chain visibility, quality control, and transformation management of raw materials to finished goods. Long a staple tool for the food and beverage industry, #MES has expanded beyond the traditional plant floor to provide enterprise integration (for example, the amount of material consumed by operation), quality and production management (yields, throughput, LIMS integration) as well as equipment uptime (bottlenecks, yields, quality). It's a comprehensive solution to help manufacturers meet their customer needs for better quality, security and peace of mind.

Expert: Food trends to watch as population grows, with comments

http://www.progressivegrocer.com/top-stories/headlines/market-trends/id40177/expert-column-the-future-of-our-food/

This article from Progressive Grocer aptly captures the needs and demands of customers as the food supply chain becomes more complicated and the information needs of the consumers becomes more pronounced. The public is becoming more educated, and the onus is on the suppliers to become more transparent, not only in the ingredients, but likely in the sourcing of location, the way the products have been processed, and the extent of the supply chain prior to final placement in stores.

We as providers to the industry can assist in the information gathering and oversight of the food manufacturing process. The technology is called MES (Manufacturing Execution Systems) and it's been around for over 25 years.  Tracking from raw materials through finished goods, MES offers supply chain transparency, processing visibility, and a "system of record" of the transformation.  As consumers demand more insight, MES is a great way for processors to create an environment of conformance & compliance, responding to government regulations (such as the Food Safety Act) as well as establishing an infrastructure for Good Manufacturing Practices for the processor as a means of self-regulation.

There are a number of providers of MES--check out www.mesa.org and of course Wonderware offers a wide suite of solutions to scale from a single plant through an enterprise. MES is the way the industry can respond to more demanding, and changing, consumer tastes.

Invensys and Microsoft, Together Again at the LATAM CIO Leadership Forum 2013

From Sept 30 through October 3, 2013 Invensys joined Microsoft’s Latin America CIO Leadership Forum in Miami, FL.  This event was created for CIO’s from government, industry and education, and offered a full program for both peer networking and deep-dive presentations.

Covering key IT topics as the cloud, devices and apps, mobility, big data, the forum also featured a case study from HP, and product updates from their CRM, Office and ERP teams.

Building on the interest for big data, the cloud, and mobility, Invensys showed solutions for food and beverage and CPG, water/wastewater and oil and gas.

Invensys Solutions for Food and Beverage, CPG were shown at the CIO Summit, based on Microsoft's technology stack

Bill Schiel and Marcelo Zaremba discussed with attendees scalable solutions based on Wonderware MES, SCADA as well as Consulting and Services offerings.

Invensys' Marcelo Zaremba discusses manufacturing operations solutions with CIO

For CIO’s, key care-abouts are keeping up with the pace of technology that is occurring today.  The cloud offers opportunities for cost savings, scalability, and ubiquitous access to applications enterprise-wide, but it also brings with it needed policies for security and standardization.   Mobility and the “Bring Your Own Device” momentum challenge CIOs with creating policies for compliance and multi-platform support. And Big Data feeds the needs for better analysis, knowledge management and decision making, but CIO’s must face multiple data source consolidation/acquisition and visualization.

Microsoft and Invensys, together have created solutions that build on the base technologies of big data, mobility and cloud.  For more information, please visit http://iom.invensys.com/EN/Pages/IOM_PartnersMicrosoft.aspx and for our cloud solutions based on Azure,  http://global.wonderware.com/EN/Pages/InvensysCloudforManufacturing.aspx

NEW! MES Operations 2012 Training

NEW! MES Operations 2012 Training

Wonderware MES/Operations software brings you visibility and control to your process by enforcing routes, work order management, and traditional MES functionality such as track and trace and product genealogy.  MES Operations is the latest version of Invensys' offerings for this market, and we are now offering training through our Lake Forest, CA office.

Increasing MES Productivity with Workflow: A White Paper

http://iom.invensys.com/EN/pdfLibrary/WhitePaper_Wonderware_IncreasingMESProductivityWithWorkflow_07-11.pdf

this white paper, authored by Tom Troy of #Invensys, aptly describes the benefits received by coupling a Manufacturing Execution System with Workflow.   MES, as you may know, is a comprehensive application that covers the transformation of raw materials through finished goods within an enterprise.  Many different industries use MES to ensure quality, compliance, high yields, consistent throughput to drive productivity, safety and brand management.

Adding workflow to an MES builds capabilities for "closed loop" remediation of processes, be it corrective action, alarm management, noncompliance release, or any number of operations where collaboration between workers or departments are required.

For more information on #MES, click here.  For more information on #Workflow, visit here.

Safety Regulations: Food Safety Regulatory Outlook for 2013

Safety Regulations: Food Safety Regulatory Outlook for 2013

For the past few years, the demand for food safety has had a domino effect: it's not only the producers, but the suppliers to these organizations that have to be cognizant of the reporting, tracking and systems infrastructure that are necessary for compliance.  Invensys (and other automation suppliers) have offerings such as #MES, #Quality, #EMI and other visualization, reporting and analysis tools to help manufacturers/processors maintain or establish compliance.  This article is a good overview of the challenges facing us all in 2013.

Better Yield Accounting Methods Improve Financial Results

"MES" has a lot of meanings, and when you look at the refining industry, it doesn't always have immediate applicability. An application like Yield Accounting takes the facets of MES (traceability, process control, model-driven execution) and overlays a costing function to ensure all aspects of operations are coordinated. Read on!

Better Yield Accounting Methods Improve Financial Results