Increased Business Value With Collaborative Manufacturing

In today’s emerging global economy, seamless communication does not stop at the four walls of the plant. Sharing information in real time both within the enterprise and beyond is an essential component to maintaining information integrity and achieving operational excellence. This communication must also include supply chain-wide notification of status and events in real time to effectively link a global network of suppliers, manufacturers and customers. The right manufacturing execution solution will empower manufacturers to achieve seamless integration across their business systems and software—while protecting IT investments and customer relationships. It will achieve this by integrating Web-based solutions directly with enterprise and business-to-business applications. A manufacturing execution solution should also provide the platform for real-time information flow, eliminate process gaps and deliver competitive advantage—eliminating the delays and errors caused by systems which cannot effectively share operational data.

Finding the Right Manufacturing Execution Solution for Your Unique Environment
As you move toward coupling your manufacturing operations tightly with logistics, transportation and customer demand, finding the right solution is key. As with any enterprise-wide software evaluation process, there are a handful of important questions that must be answered prior to selecting a vendor. You must be able to find a solution that addresses your business’ specific pain points at a cost that works within your budget. For each vendor involved in the selection process, it is essential that your selection team gather detailed responses to the following issues:

• Breadth of technology - Does the vendor offer a wide range of supply chain-related solutions that integrate easily on the same platform? Does it have experience integrating with a variety of software and hardware systems? Does it have a history of releasing product upgrades containing new functionality that demonstrates a commitment to excellence in the space?


• Ability to adapt to change - How does the vendor approach changes to your system as your requirements shift? Does it utilize costly custom code? Do these changes carry forward during an upgrade?


• Company history - Has the company been in business for a number of years? Does it have a track record of solving problems for manufacturers? Does the product line demonstrate progressively more complex technologies developed using the most advanced toolsets?


• Financial stability - Will the company be around in three years to support the system you have purchased? Are the vendor’s sales growing? Does the company have a sufficient amount of emergency capital in case of an economic downturn?


• Customer base - Does the vendor have a long list of satisfied customers? Are the majority of these customers referenceable? Can the vendor prove it can keep customers happy over the long term?


• Implementation success - Has the company ever had a failed implementation? If so, how recently? What were the reasons?