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Size matters
Is ERP size-specific? Brian Tinham talks to manufacturers about finding the right fit – their choices and the key issues in selecting, implementing and integrating a new system |
15/04/2008
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Growing in stature
Like teenagers, advanced planning and scheduling systems may be capable of great things but can be misunderstood. Brian Tinham examines their real potential |
21/01/2008
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Talking the same language
Shopfloor data is increasingly being recognised as key to everything, from continuous improvement to business agility. Brian Tinham looks at how to get your assets talking |
09/10/2007
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Getting ERP best value
It’s not so much about looking under the covers: getting best value from ERP today is less about functionality and more about proper business analysis, good old-fashioned ITTs and due diligence, says Brian Tinham |
29/09/2007
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Free software?
Open source is gaining prominence – and not just in the developer community – but can it really slash your costs?
Brian Tinham finds out |
25/09/2007
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Grundfos pumps up with e-training
Grundfos’ adoption of an Adobe Connect-driven e-learning system has transformed development and
delivery of product training, both for employees and for customers worldwide, says Brian Wall |
25/09/2007
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Under control
Poor decision support is costing manufacturers millions of pounds, despite huge advances in the technology to change all that. Brian Tinham examines the issues |
19/09/2007
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Uplifting technology
Getting your warehouse in the picture needn’t be the trial it once was. Brian Tinham assesses the opportunities from integration and newer technologies |
18/07/2007
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More than just a browser
Browser-based systems are set to offer manufacturers more than most can imagine, according to Jonathan Orme |
01/06/2007
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From shopfloor to top floor
It’s been possible for many years, but with ISA95 the lofty goal of shop floor to top floor integration is easier to attain and even more worthwhile. Antony Adshead reports |
02/05/2007
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More than T&A
They’re no longer just about clocking on and off: time and attendance systems can transform production improvement, says Simon Macpherson. Brian Tinham reports |
11/04/2007
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Lean supply chain
There was a time when e-business was for the big boys. But Howard Joseph of McGuffie Brunton tells Brian Tinham that the doors are now wide open for manufacturing SMEs |
11/04/2007
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Fit for growth
Hard pressed manufacturing SMEs need to think carefully before rushing into system purchases. Craig Such of Access Supply Chain tells Brian Tinham how to do it |
11/04/2007
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Complex supply chain scheduling made simple
Large scale, complex manufacturing has always been difficult and expensive to schedule, but Preactor has now proved a simple and realistic solution. Brian Tinham reports |
04/04/2007
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Seeing is believing
When it comes to ERP systems, manufacturing SMEs may well be shocked by how little they can get away with paying for so much. Brian Tinham reports |
29/03/2007
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TT's China connection
Thinking about joining the rush to China? Brian Tinham talks to Dale Kirkwood at automotive supplier TT Electronics about this company’s experiences |
22/03/2007
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Time and attendance or business insight
Often regarded as the poor relation in manufacturing systems, time and attendance software can do far more than simply improve labour utilisation – although at typically 15% with little effort, that alone is not to be sneezed at. But Racal Acoustics and KLM UK Engineering are among users that have turned their time and attendance data into production and even business insight. Indeed in the words of the latter: “It’s bringing in an awful lot of business.” |
27/01/2007
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Built on blueprints
Akzo Nobel’s Marine and Protective Coatings Business Unit – International Paint to most of us – is approaching its next major ERP upgrade as anything but an IT project. Like an increasing number of more enlightened global manufacturers, it sees this very much as a business project predicated on clear prospects for significant business economies and improvements, all the result of new IT capabilities that substantially change what’s feasible. But what’s particularly intriguing is that its expectations are so high and so compelling despite the company having already taken what those in the know would describe as a model business-centric approach to IT that dates right back to the late ‘90s. |
20/01/2007
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Seeing is believing
Current thinking is encouraging investment in production systems that can improve company-wide visibility and flexibility, as well as factory performance. It’s about enabling more agile business able to respond more quickly and positively to customers’ changing requirements, market trends and new opportunities – as well as delivering manufacturing efficiencies and cost cutting. In short, systems that don’t just optimise at the plant level or take care of supply chain operations and events, although both remain important, but that facilitate joined-up business decision-making and actions. There are several types of system that go some way to fitting the bill, but for me – given the nature of most manufacturers’ existing ERP installations and the prevalence of MRPII for planning, alongside a mix of spreadsheets and shop floor data collection (SFDC) and production management systems handling the rest – APS (advanced planning and scheduling) systems remain among the most compelling. |
15/01/2007
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IT keys to mouth watering benefits
If you’re after a vision of how an ERP system implementation can become both driver and foundation of a total business transformation, look no further than Yorkshire Water. This one is extreme, and although the ERP system happens to be SAP, it’s the business objectives and how they were met that matter most here. |
11/12/2006
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Data hub gets global bearings group rolling
When automotive bearings firms Glacier Industrial Bearings, Glacier Vandervell and Garlock Bearings came together as GGB, the group found itself with 13 sites around the world, some manufacturing, some distribution, some sales offices – but all with different ERP and legacy systems and incompatible business processes and parts data. It needed to consolidate its IT, but it also needed to cut costs, reduce inventories and improve customer service by getting slick and lean internally, inter-site and in its supply chains. |
04/12/2006
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Setting the IT agenda for your business in 2007
What’s hot? What’s not? Who cares? What matters to management teams running the various aspects of increasingly stretched and complex manufacturing companies today has nothing whatever to do with what analysts, journalists or anyone else see as ‘hot’, ‘in’ or ‘fashionable’. The primary concern is simply keeping the operation going, cutting costs and attempting to get production better and smarter – meaning faster, more efficient, more flexible and the rest of it. Brian Tinham talks to senior users in manufacturing for some serious clues |
28/11/2006
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Your underlying technology is key
Technology matters: although we’re lulled into thinking of IT as a commodity, choices of platform are fundamental not only to the scale of business benefits achievable, but the speed of implementation, cost, ROI and future-proofing. So says Tony Brookes, sales and marketing manager at Exel Computer Systems. “It’s a critical message for those defining their IT strategies for 2007.” |
28/11/2006
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Getting a single business window
Any manufacturing business process focused around a customer must go much deeper than simply maintaining that relationship and monitoring service levels. It should also embrace customer-orientated back-office issues, such as dealing with quotations, checking items in stock and promising delivery dates. |
28/11/2006
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SaaS: the brand new business case
"It’s seriously past time to reconsider what on earth we’re doing with our IT in businesses at board level.” That’s the challenge from Paul Davenport, European channel sales director at WASP IT, which has been successfully delivering ERP and full IT and network infrastructures as hosted services over VPNs (virtual private networks) to manufacturers for the last four years. |
28/11/2006
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