Manufacturing software integrates shop floor data

By Ahmed ElAmin

- Last updated on GMT

As part of the wave of new networking products that integrate
management tools with shop floordata, Informance International has
released its version of what is called manufacturing intelligence
(MI) software.

MI describes software and related technology used by companies in a bid to automate theaggregation of plant to enterprise data so management can make faster, more informed decisions abouttheir operations.

Informance claims its Enterprise Solution for manufacturing companies accelerates improvements, drives operating strategies andhelps managers obtain actionable data. The software performs multi-site performance analysis,provides production financial performance data and aggregation information from a variety of facilities.

The company said that the Enterprise Solution software, when used in conjunction with its PlantSolution product, provides a holistic approach to leverage intelligence.

The Informance Enterprise Solution contains two modules. The Informance Manufacturing Strategistmodule provides multiple scenario analysis. This allows managers to evaluate strategies and real-time data from the manufacturing network.It allows operational teams and executives to forecast the potential impact of decisions by facility and across the entiregroup.

It also monitors performance against targets in real time at many levels - all facilities, by plant, by asset or work center.

The Informance Enterprise Alerts module provides notifications of events that need managementattention. Management can receive warnings if the enterprise is in danger of missing any metric due to issues at any level - facility, asset orresource, Informance stated.

It also allows individuals and teams to access a dashboard to manage issues globally from a single source.

A study by Aberdeen Group last year found that top manufacturers are using MI software to integrate management tools with shop floor data to boost productivity by up to 27 percent.

About 44 per cent of companies in the Aberdeen Group study said the pressure to reduce costs and do more with less was the main reasons behind theirimplementation of MI software. About 38 per cent said implementation was a response to pricing pressure from customers and competitors, while 34 per cent said it would help them maintain or sustain a competitive advantage.

For the survey, the research firm examined how US companies used MI to bridge the gap between theEnterprise Resource Planning (ERP) tools used by management and the Manufacturing Execution Systems(MES) employed on the shop floor.

Traditionally the approach to getting useful data has been to connect ERP directly with MESsystems. Aberdeen found the best-in-class manufacturers used MI to boost the quality of analysisgained from using both ERP and MES.

Companies employing MI software effectively gained an average of 27 per cent improvements inyield and a 12 per cent increase in capacity use, Aberdeen found.

Related topics Processing & Packaging

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