32 onwindows.com 33 33

“ Our solutions are allowing not only better collaboration, but greater visibility into every aspect of the plant floor. Managers can understand what’s going on in real time, and the solutions are intuitive and easy to use because they are based on familiar interfaces” Nick Barnett, Microsoft

Twenty years ago, manufacturing was much simpler. Henry Ford-style mass production was still mostly the order of the day, with assembly line after assembly line

dedicated to churning out identical products that tallied with the ‘one size fits all’ mentality of the time.

But things have changed. Now, customers demand products tailored to fit their individual needs. Mass production has evolved into mass customisation, which translates into more complicated and more time-consuming operations.

Nick Barnett, director for Microsoft’s manufacturing operations in EMEA, says that this complexity demands much more agility if manufacturers are to stay competitive. “Rather than having ten or fifteen lines dedicated to a certain product, manufacturers often now make different products on each line, varying specifications from day to day, or numerous times within a shift,” he says. “Manufacturers need to be flexible to cope with this.”

Karim Lokas, vice president of marketing and product strategy at Camstar agrees with Barnett. “As more products get introduced, there are more process changes,” he says. “In order to handle these changes, plants need to be more flexible and efficient – something that can be achieved through a greater investment in manufacturing execution systems (MES).”

It’s not just the greater variety of products that is

With products getting more complex and more customised too, manufacturers need affordable, adaptable manufacturing execution systems to manage efficiency and workflow, and to guard against the high cost of audits and litigation. Lindsay James reports

GoWith the

FLo

W

manufacturing execution systems

solution focus

35

highlighting a need for better MES, but the increased demand for traceability too. “We’ve all seen a lot of stories in the news about when products have problems and hit the consumer – be it around food scares, paint on toys, or car manufacturing faults,” explains Barnett. “This brings both bad publicity, with the consequential damage to the brand, and, in many cases, litigation. Going hand in glove with this are numerous new regulations that are forcing manufacturers to improve traceability.”

Thomas Lantermann, technical consultant at Mitsubishi Electric Europe, echoes Barnett’s thoughts. “Accountability is a key challenge,” he says. “In the past, corporate boards were often cosy gentlemen’s clubs that had little idea of the day-to-day operations of the businesses they were responsible for. However, changes in the legal and regulatory landscape have changed all this. Today, corporate management has a very real responsibility to run the business in a safe, efficient and profitable manner. To further focus their attention on this, top level management can find themselves with personal legal liability, not being able to hide behind their companies.”

It doesn’t stop there. Other industry trends such as shorter product lifecycles, globalisation of the market, increasing price pressures and lower consumer loyalty, have created mounting pressure on the industry, requiring total visibility across the plant floor. Combine all these pressures with the more active role taken by shareholders nowadays, which has created increased pressure to maximise revenue and profits in the short term, and the need for greater supply chain collaboration, and the need for a transparent view of the factory floor becomes obvious.

But while the business case for MES is undeniably

strong, there are still many manufacturers that don’t have these systems in place. Julie Fraser, principal industry analyst at research firm Cambashi, says that this lack of competent technology is holding back not only those inside plants trying to focus efforts in the right areas, but also those throughout supply chains and in customer service who need visibility into inventory, schedule adherence or slippage, issues with on-time shipment and the ability to modify customer orders without undue margin erosion. “It also can hurt innovation efforts if design and procurement teams don’t have adequate data on what issues are occurring in the plant based on their products and materials,” she says. “And of course, all that hurts financial outcomes.”

Microsoft’s worldwide industry technical strategist Sam Youness concurs: “Those lacking in these technologies face increasing costs,” he explains. “If there’s a change needed on a production line then these companies will often need manual intervention, making the business inflexible and inefficient. Fulfilling orders on time and within budget can be difficult.”

Even those manufacturers that do have these systems in place often have disjointed, antiquated solutions that are hindering, rather than helping, the production process. “Most companies have a wide range of systems that were installed over many years,” explains Lantermann. “Usually this takes place with no overall strategy to assure interoperability; people come and go, technologies develop and become obsolete, and so on. Hence a key technical challenge is being able to communicate with many different types of systems to access all the different data that is essentially trapped within them. Without this,

manufacturing execution systems

solution focus

37

visibility across a whole enterprise is difficult to achieve.”Tim Barber, European business director at Lighthouse

Systems, agrees that fragmented information systems make it impossible for manufacturing operations to have a real time, holistic view of operating performance and issues. “What is missing is a coherent strategy of how to move forward,” he says. “A single, joined-up view of operations is essential, so whether it’s drilling into history of production as a result of a customer complaint, looking to optimise aspects of manufacturing operations, tracking inventory, or giving a real-time dashboard to all operators on a line, all aspects need to come together.”

Microsoft is working to provide this single view of operations, creating a strategy that is focused on integration and collaboration. According to Logica’s recent MES product survey, which was carried out by Cambashi, Microsoft is the dominant technology at the core of almost

all MES products on the market. “Microsoft has led the way in this segment, with strong support for MES for many years,” explains Fraser. “This is a real benefit for manufacturers as it means that all solutions can talk to each other, creating a totally integrated environment.”

Youness explains that the Microsoft partner community is using products such as Performance Point Server, Office Communication Server, BizTalk Server, SQL Server and SharePoint Server to benefit manufacturers across the globe. “Working alongside our partners we are tackling the integration issues that have always been a problem,” he says. “With our combined solutions, our clients can experience a totally collaborative environment.”

Invensys is one Microsoft partner that has deployed a significant number of MES solutions around the world. “The solutions range in size from basic OEE applications to comprehensive multi-plant solutions that are tightly

36 onwindows.com

Case study

Unified manufacturing and logisticsGlass manufacturer gains transparency with integrated enterprise solution

Globalisation means increasingly distributed and diverse operations and customers. Standardisation and quality improvement

programmes become even more of a challenge. Saint-Gobain Sekurit, one of the top three glass manufacturers in the world to the automotive industry, knows these challenges first hand, as it decided to unify manufacturing and logistics across 44 of its European sites.

“We are heavily exposed to client pressure to contain costs and improve logistics excellence,” says Pascal Ober, Competence Centers director at Saint-Gobain Sekurit. “In fact, our customers asked that we reduce prices by six per cent while simultaneously delivering ten per cent in productivity improvements. This necessitated a radical change in both our enterprise resource planning (ERP) and supply network solutions. We currently enjoy a 44 per cent market share in Europe and 22 per cent worldwide.”

FlexNet is much more than just a plant-level MES; it is an enterprise, collaborative solution to manage and execute production and warehouse activities across 44 Saint-Gobain Sekurit locations in nine countries, automating all aspects of shop floor production at both manufacturing and service centre sites. With FlexNet, real-time visibility, synchronisation and control is now possible across the company’s distributed manufacturing operations.

The system provides hard data on processes and costs of manufacturing to ERP, for reliable calculations of project expenses, efficiencies and profitability. It functions as an ERP module, with similar interfaces, master data, system maintenance and reporting features.

Implementing FlexNet across this many diverse sites went surprisingly quickly, thanks to the Apriso ‘Core’ implementation program and standardised integration with most plant operating systems, including those running Microsoft Windows.

The Core program identified the key business processes that comprised most of the necessary functionality for a typical Sekurit facility. This ‘blueprint’ of best practice processes was packaged and distributed to each location,

Saint-Gobain Sekurit was especially concerned with the need to move from producing individual pieces of glass, to providing encapsulated modules with special packaging for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). This meant a more rigorous pricing procedure, with product costing information available during the prototyping process. It also meant consolidating revenue and costs by project, something that had been extremely difficult before.

The solution was to adopt a two-platform strategy by implementing enterprise systems for resource planning and manufacturing execution. This strategy has extended efficiency, visibility and control down to the shop floor. As an innovative manufacturing execution system (MES) solution based on Microsoft’s .NET architecture, Apriso’s FlexNet seamlessly integrates with other Microsoft operating systems with its modular architecture, further simplifying deployment.

treating FlexNet as an enterprise application, rather than a typical MES system for a single plant. Once business processes were identified that achieved superior operations execution performance, they were bundled as a template, to be used at other sites to improve overall system performance and operational excellence.

Explaining how this dual-platform solution changed things at Saint-Gobain Sekurit, Ober says: “We now have standardised practices throughout our European facilities. Each plant has the same FlexNet version, along with ERP across the enterprise, yet the template is flexible enough to be easily modified to meet local conditions, as well as be updated to reflect new process improvements.

“Costs are now calculated accurately and consistently at the product level. We can relate cost to specific issues for assessing productivity. More accurate figures translate into more precise bids, making us more competitive.”

Sekurit named its ERP/FlexNet project Avenir – French for ‘to move forward’. After evaluating the system’s performance and with plans for further expansion, the company clearly considers Avenir a move forward in the right direction.

Siemens energy and Automation manufactures and sells high performance induction motors at its Norwood facility in the US. these motors are sold into the most demanding applications in the industry. high performance, low maintenance and long service life are essential to Siemens’ continued success in this worldwide market.

Also critical to Siemens’ success is customer satisfaction. Customers demand quick turnaround of quotations and consistent quality and performance. A manual quotation system that was hampered by a number of time consumptive processes drove quotation turnaround times to as much as five days. A mix of e-mails and faxes made the quotation system error prone and pricing quotations inconsistent. With a product that featured thousands of possible configurations, and nearly as many pricing variables, Siemens knew it would be a huge challenge to streamline and automate this process.

After an exhausting evaluation of nearly every

interactive selling and product configuration solution on the market, Siemens came to the conclusion that Cincom Acquire was the only solution that would address its business challenges.

the results of this implementation were both fast and dramatic. the manual processes required to complete the motor performance certification data required by Siemens’ customers was reduced from four weeks to less than a single hour. engineering resources were reduced because Acquire actually creates the CAD drawings used for proposals. Pricing is now accurate in a market that is subject to volatile pricing structures. Lead times are reduced by equally impressive amounts.

overall benefits to Siemens include quotation time reductions from days to minutes, increased quotation volumes of three to five hundred per month, dramatic reductions in lead times, increased product consistency and pricing consistency and overall higher margins on every sale. Perhaps most amazing of all is the simplicity and ease of use associated with Cincom Acquire. Users only need product knowledge and very limited it support. Cincom Acquire guided selling and Product Configuration software is used by over 30,000 users worldwide.

solution spotlight

manufacturing execution systems

solution focus

“ In today’s complex environment these solutions are invaluable. They can deliver visibility and transparency, which are the prerequisites to increase productivity and lower cost of audits” Jan Snoeij, MESA

Customer: Siemens energy and AutomationPartner: Cincomsolution: Cincom Acquire

39 38 onwindows.com

integrated with business level and plant level applications,” says Tom Troy, director of MES at the company. “These MES applications use Microsoft technologies extensively to deliver highly robust and scalable solutions. From SQL Server through to SharePoint and the .NET Framework, these solutions have allowed us to more rapidly develop highly configurable and robust applications that help our customers achieve significant business value.”

Global technology provider Siemens is also seeing the advantages of using Microsoft technology.

“An MES system like Siemens’ Simatic IT, efficiently integrated with all layers of the plant and leveraging the capabilities of integration with Office and the other IT applications offered by Microsoft, allows for complete control of the production cycle,” says Giacomo Torre, the company’s head of product management for MES. “Simatic IT uses a broad range of Microsoft technologies, from Windows 7 through to SQL Server, .NET, SharePoint, Visual Studio, System Center Configuration Manager and Surface to name just a few.”

“Siemens’ use of System Center is unique in the industry,” says Barnett. “It allows the MES system to be updated automatically with new versions and patches. No one else currently does this.”

By implementing MES solutions from Microsoft and its partners, employees across a manufacturing business

can realise considerable benefits. “Our solutions are allowing not only better collaboration, but greater visibility into every aspect of the plant floor,” continues Barnett. “Managers can understand what’s going on in real time, and the solutions are intuitive and easy to use because they are based on familiar interfaces such as Microsoft Office.”

Jan Snoeij, principal consultant at Logica and chair at MESA International says that these technologies are enablers for achieving operations excellence. “In today’s complex environment these solutions are invaluable,” he says. “They can deliver visibility and transparency, which are the prerequisites to increase productivity and lower cost of audits. Only with knowledgeable decision making one can be successful with respect to these aspects.”

These solutions can help compliance efforts through better traceability. “MES can significantly aid regulatory compliance,” says Greg Quinn, vice president at Preactor North America. “With ever changing regulations, along with industry standards such as ISA-95, manufacturers require solutions that deliver interoperability across manufacturing business processes. Solutions from Microsoft and its partners are key to this.”

Cambashi’s Julie Fraser explains that her research over the years has shown that companies using MES are able to improve against both financial and operations metrics more rapidly than others. “The benefits of integrated

Manufacturing and slitting high value films can be a dicey business, unless you have a real-time system to plan and manage the operations. Production events occur quickly and frequently. Upsets can happen in a heartbeat, changes are inevitable and corrective actions need to be determined and directed in real time. For one such company in this industry, GreyconMill was chosen to address these situations because it it has been specifically designed for dealing with the production and converting of rolled products or flat sheets.

GreyconMill, which is built completely with Microsoft technology, can be deployed locally or remotely, in standalone or clustered configurations, or run in virtual environments using Windows terminal Server. the deployment architecture can be changed at any time, to adapt to a changing environment.

Another important feature for this customer was the requirement for a highly advanced user interface,

designed for intuitive use and ease of operation, and yet capable of conveying complex information in an easy to understand graphical format. Within GreyconMill it found examples of such usage in the presentation of production schedules and trim patterns, product genealogy charts, and scrollable defect displays for rolls, which show the type and location of defects entered manually or captures from online scanning or camera systems.

the support of performance management initiatives was another critical requirement for this installation. GreyconMill was found to be superior because it is designed to capture data from all operational areas, analyse and summarise this data, and present the resultant information as key performance indicators to support strategic initiatives for lean manufacturing, Six Sigma, total quality management and balanced scorecards.

Another key design requirement to provide improved visibility into the operations, for all users. the most common reason given for purchasing and installing a new MeS is to achieve this into company operations. GreyconMill was judged as superior in this regard.

solution spotlight

viewPoint

Winning in the manufacturing arenaClarity, adaptability and scalability are all key to a successful MeS solution, says Mark Collins

Over the past 20 years, I believe there are two changes which have had, and will continue to have, the most impact on the manufacturing

systems arena. The most significant change lies in the development of technology, and the establishment of Microsoft as the technology foundation for enterprise systems. The technology advances impact not only the computing platform, and what we can do with the software, but also the communications technologies, and the abilities to interface and interconnect diverse systems. Life has become a lot easier.

The second most significant area of change is in the evolution of back-office systems into formal enterprise requirements planning systems or supply chain management systems and how they have taken over functions previously performed in manufacturing execution systems (MES) – areas such as capacity planning, inventory management, warehousing and shipping, for example.

As a leader in providing scheduling and optimisation

solution – deploying the solution to plants in Scandinavia and in the US, and is currently in the process of deploying additional solutions in Europe and North America.

Anyone looking at the GreyconMill solution will immediately see the extensive use of graphics in the user interface, whether it is in the way we present schedules, look at product or order genealogy, or view production status versus plans. Designed from the ground up to operate in a .NET environment, our solution is highly adaptable to a variety of different operating environments, and interfaces to related systems and services. We have also embraced the technology to make our solution truly scalable with highly flexible deployment configurations for central or remote installation, in virtual and extendable situations. The use of Microsoft .NET technology and the associated ClickOnce deployment method also provide

systems to the global rolled products and flat sheet industries – pulp and paper, metals, plastics and film, textiles and non-wovens –Greycon has always had one foot in the MES pool. Sitting between the supply chain world and the manufacturing floor, the products Greycon offers are grouped into GreyconSuite, and include S-Plan (for advanced capacity scheduling), X-Trim (for cutting optimisation), and opt-Studio (for advanced scheduling and optimisation of production operations). The company has been in business for over 25 years, and operates from offices in the UK, Europe, North and South America, and the Asia Pacific region. All its solutions are certified by Microsoft, SAP and Intel, and run exclusively on Microsoft platforms.

Several years ago Greycon developed its first MES system, deployed as a lightweight MES, serving as a front-end to SAP on the production floor. In 2008, Greycon acquired the assets of a start-up company in Europe, which had developed and deployed what is now known as GreyconMill. Greycon has since invested significant resources in the further development of this new technology

massive benefits in an MES context: different workstations can run different versions of the software simultaneously; and software updates are automatically deployed without any intervention or installation process.

There are a number of factors that we attribute to the success Greycon has had in GreyconMill, even in light of a poor global economy. This is best told though in the words of our customers, as they have talked about the decision factors they felt were most important in choosing GreyconMill: the newness and freshness of our technology; the degree to which GreyconMill enhances visibility into operations; the adaptability and configurability of our solution architecture; the price point we have established for software and services, relative to our competition; and the reputation Greycon has established with major corporate accounts around the world.

manufacturing execution systems

solution focus

Mark Collins is the vice president of MES for Greycon and is responsible for sales and marketing, software development, customer projects, and post-implementation support for GreyconMill MES. A veteran of 30 years in the mill products sector, Collins has 20 years of experience in the pulp and paper industry, and 10 years in textiles and metals.

Customer: Film manufacturersPartner: Greyconsolution: GreyconMill

41

manufacturing execution systems

solution focus

MES include automating some aspects of data collection, which can improve accuracy and timeliness not only of status information, but of data critical to understanding root causes of problems and inefficiencies,” she says. “This leads to ongoing improvements and cost reductions. Ironically, the objection to these systems is often that operators will need to spend time that would otherwise be ‘productive’ in entering or confirming data. By ensuring that processes are operating well and operators are doing exactly what they need to do with full support, MES can improve productivity and reduce waste and errors.”

A recent MES implementation at global automotive manufacturer Pininfarina highlights just how business changing these benefits can be. Pininfarina has a resumé of high profile customers including Ferrari, Maserati and Jaguar, and so it is always looking for ways to improve its production process. Pininfarina implemented Siemens’ Simatic IT solution in order to improve the overall production throughput by increasing the speed and accuracy of data captured during the manufacturing process and synchronising production activities with business priorities from the ERP system. This automated data collection allows tracking and tracing, and provides operators with the right information at the right time. This helps them focus on building quality products and improving the manufacturing process instead of manually documenting the production process. It also improves their decision-making capacity and responsiveness to

When British duvet and pillow manufacturer John Cotton found its purpose-built Cobol system struggling to support its increasingly complex production line, it realised it needed to make a change.

“the decision was purely down to risk,” says Chris earl, the firm’s group it manager. “We were having more problems with the old bespoke system and with only one person supporting it there was huge potential for a major problem that could affect production performance. the support gap had to be filled or we needed a whole new approach.”

the company chose Lighthouse Systems’ Shopfloor-online MeS system, which uses a Microsoft SQL Server database and is built on .Net. the solution has proven to be invaluable. “All nine lines are using Shopfloor-online, it is the backbone of executing work on the shop floor,” earl continues. “the system is being used by operators, supervisors, managers, and scheduler, engineering and finance support staff. Aside from the obvious advantage that we now have a supported mainstream system that runs on modern technical infrastructure, we also have additional benefits. the main one is the increased visibility and ease of access to all production data in one place. Whereas before, we had reached the end of the road, now we are only just beginning to explore the future potential that Shopfloor-online gives us.”

solution spotlight

Customer: John CottonPartner: Lighthousesolution: Shopfloor-online

43

manufacturing execution systems

solution focus

in direct and indirect labour costs, cut the cost of poor quality through variability reduction and lessen the cost of good quality through integrated quality controls,” says Camstar’s Lokas.

“Supporting information for the people involved – from technicians and operators to supervisors to plant managers – can truly enable a better optimised outcome,” says Fraser. “Often people feel more in control and have higher job satisfaction – lower turnover can reduce training expense and time, and result in more knowledgeable staff to focus on improvements. When new people do come on board, it’s easier for them to ramp up successfully because they have all the information they need in the system.”

Invensys’ Troy says that as time goes on there will be further benefits of MES, mainly because there will be advanced collaboration and real-time workflow capability embedded in the technology to allow customers to better manage production operations in real time within a manufacturing facility, as well as across multiple plants within a manufacturing enterprise. “We expect to see an increase in mobile

technology and applications on the plant floor to give workers more freedom to move around to attend to manufacturing activities, as well as other non-manufacturing related activities in a timely and coordinated fashion,” he says.

Torre agrees, adding that as time goes on the process of consolidation and adoption of standard technologies that is in progress now will continue. “Self-developed dedicated applications that today are still used by many customers will disappear in favour of standard but highly configurable systems, reducing the cost of implementation but also the total cost of ownership,” he explains. “The ISA-95 standard will continue to grow and will be more and more required. Integration of business systems and MES is already achieved by the best-in-class products and is supported by efficient technologies, but the new frontier is integration of the product and process development cycle with the execution phase, that means integration of PLM with MES. Siemens has understood this and is already presenting innovative solutions in this area, thanks to the acquisition of UGS and the use of Microsoft architecture.”

42 onwindows.com

production events based on real-time information. MES solutions can also improve process performance.

Whether the process is automated or manual, seeing the impact of issues on the entire set of interdependent processes can greatly enhance process reliability and quality. Measures such as overall equipment effectiveness often are improved by leveraging MES data. MES also provides an early warning system for maintenance, and data on which the production and maintenance groups can agree on for appropriate

planning. “Our research also shows that companies with MES are able to reduce their cycle times more than others, a sign that the process is improving,” says Fraser. “Perhaps most telling, that end-to-end process view can help ensure that products ship from the plant on time – a critical factor in customer success.”

Just as automating control of a machine-based process can improve outcomes in quality, cost, and productivity, MES can do so for the entire scope within the plant. “These technologies can enable a reduction

Plzensky Prazdroj, a member of SABMiller, is the leading beer producer in central europe, the largest exporter of Czech beer and, by volume, the second largest global brewing company worldwide – producing and bottling over 10 million hectolitres of beer annually and exporting to 55 countries on five continents. Plzensky Prazdroj is best known for its flagship Pilsner Urquell beer, the world’s first golden beer, which gave its name to pilsner type beers.

As part of a process to improve production efficiency, the company sought a comprehensive solution that would fully automate its production lines. they wanted to use industry standard, state-of-the-art technologies that would enable reduced stoppage time, increased intervals between stoppages, and reduced costs in its three production plants in the Czech Republic. in addition, the automation of manual tasks and the availability of real-time information and visibility were critical to the enhancement of a performance-driven culture.

Following a thorough market survey, Plzensky Prazdroj implemented Prodac’s MeS at all SABMiller plants in the Czech Republic. Critical factors in Prodac’s selection included its 20 years of experience in the beverage industry, and its unique, easily customised solution – designed especially for the industry and installed at major manufacturers such

as Coca Cola, Diageo and Carlsberg. Built using SQL Server, .Net tools and Microsoft Reporting Server, the sophisticated, rapidly implemented solution required only configuration, no code. Providing a powerful data collection engine with real-time dashboard, advanced report generator, and scheduling and quality tools, it offers real-time management decision support.

Following the implementation of the Prodac system, Plzensky Prazdroj now monitors and optimises operations in all three plants, in real time, from a central point. Roi has been maximised: the company reports a 15 per cent annual reduction in stoppages as well as significantly improved overall equipment effectiveness and throughput. Costs have been cut due to decreased losses and reduced set-up time, manual data entry has been eliminated, and the availability of results has advanced the performance-driven culture.

solution spotlight

“ It can hurt innovation efforts if design and procurement teams don’t have adequate data on what issues are occurring in the plant based on their products and materials, and of course, all that hurts financial outcomes” Julie Fraser, Cambashi

Prediktor has delivered a SCADA and MeS solution to one of Nortura’s manufacturing plants. Nortura has more than 6,000 employees and is Norway’s largest meat producer with 39 plants in Norway. At its biggest sausage plant, it selected Microsoft partner Prediktor and its it platform Apis Click&trace.

Nortura’s existing solution was outdated and was distributed with several smaller solutions which were not well integrated with each other. they therefore chose to remove the existing SCADA platform and implement a seamless SCADA and MeS solution based on Prediktor’s Apis Click&trace solution. the solution implemented by Prediktor includes the following main functionalities:• SCADA is an integrated part of the MES and

provides control and information to the operators. the whole production line is included in one user interface system, and Web technology enables office users to view plant status screens

• Recipe management keeps all information about raw materials and process set points and communicates these set points to the equipment and machinery. Version control of recipes is also handled

• Tracking fulfils the government requirements regarding traceability, but in addition it gives possibilities to optimise the production process based on data analysis combining tracking, quality and process information. Automated tracking based

on weighing signals and CiP data is implemented• Production planning and scheduling is integrated

and uses overall orders from the eRP system. Batches are scheduled by production managers with time, material and equipment based on recipes. operators execute planned batches and reports result

• Overall equipment effectiveness is used to measure the use of the production and to analyse where to put the effort to increase the effectiveness

• The system is tightly integrated with the ERP system, receiving overall production orders and reporting raw material usage and production volumes.

the solution from Prediktor has made the daily operation significantly easier for Nortura and, with total production tracking, it can securely handle any product quality deviation in a fast and correct manner.

solution spotlight

Customer: NorturaPartner: Prediktorsolution: Apis Click&trace

Customer: Plzensky PrazdrojPartner: Prodacsolution: Prodac MeS

manufacturing execution systems

solution focus

45

Ge intelligent Platforms

Ge intelligent Platforms delivers Proficy operations management software solutions that are proven to reduce costs, increase efficiency and enhance profitability. We help businesses drive results on the plant floor and across the enterprise – empowering strategic business initiatives and delivering value for a sustainable competitive advantage. www.ge-ip.com/operationsmanagement

Greycon

Greycon supports its software with a broad range of services to ensure smooth and effective implementation and trouble-free operation. our company is staffed by professionals offering a wide range of skills and expertise in our project methodology, applications and customer service. We work closely with our customers to understand their business requirements and the details of the process that our applications will support.www.greycon.com

Hyla soft

hyla Soft is a leader in it solutions for companies in the manufacturing industry. We fulfil the increasing needs of software technology to improve the production and management of manufacturing plants. We understand the technology strategies that companies must apply if they wish to be successful in this ever-evolving market of manufacturing. our specialities focus on food and beverage, automotive, pharmaceutical, chemical and transport industries.www.hylasoft.com

industrial technology systems (its)

itS, an approved Aspentech, Siemens, honeywell and Wonderware systems integrator, specialises in offering independent MeS advice and integration services. if you require a reliable, well-designed MeS system, with fast and accurate data retrieval that will improve your productivity, yield and genealogy, you can rely on itS to meet your needs.www.its-ltd.co.uk

inQu

inQu informatics is an independent solution provider, with over 20 years’ experience in the MeS arena and a wealth of experience undertaking continuous improvement initiatives. Many world-class manufacturing companies engage inQu in the process of optimising their manufacturing environment. Manufacturing execution systems are production critical systems to address the growing complexity of production and supply networks.www.inqu.de

invensys operations Management

invensys operations Management offers a holistic and cost-effective way to optimise the business impact of your operation’s performance and overall profitability. We help improve the performance of your key resources (people, equipment, energy and materials) in real time, with dramatic, measurable results, using a collaborative and open approach.iom.invensys.com

ipesoft

ipesoft has been specialising in manufacturing information systems for almost 15 years. During this period it developed and implemented comprehensive solutions in large industrial and power companies in Central europe. its MeS solutions bring a new view into manufacturing businesses and help them to grow by improving production efficiency. www.ipesoft.sk

Lighthouse systems

Lighthouse Systems is one of the world’s leading developers of MeS with offices in London, Singapore, Australia and Rochester in New York. Lighthouse Systems’ Shopfloor-online is Web-based modular software that provides real-time visibility of the entire manufacturing operations environment. it is being used in a wide range of industries with some of the biggest manufacturing companies; it is deployed in 15 languages in 28 countries.www.lighthousesystems.com

Prediktor

Prediktor is a Norway based industrial it solution provider with strong competence and references within MeS and PiMS. our real-time solutions include data collection, advanced data analysis and Web-based reporting. Prediktor also delivers oeM software solutions, where our speciality is adding real-time capabilities to third party solutions. www.prediktor.no

PPi-Multitask

PPi-Multitask is a company that specialises in the development and implementation of complete solutions for planning, management and control of industrial activities, which improves production gains significantly. it acts on industrial automation projects, productivity improvement and MeS and advanced planning and scheduling system solutions implementation.www.ppi-multitask.com

Prodac

Prodac Systems is a leading international software company with two decades of successful experience in pioneering MeS and enterprise manufacturing intelligence eMi solutions for filling and packaging operations. As a former Coca Cola subsidiary, we have a unique solution for the food, beverage and brewery industries, with 20 years’ experience installing our solution at leading manufacturers. www.prodacsystems.com

siemens

As a leading software supplier, Siemens industry Automation optimises the entire value-added chain of manufacturers – from product design and development to production, sales and a wide range of maintenance services. Simatic it is the MeS offering from Siemens. the Siemens-Microsoft MeS expertise Center, located in Genoa, italy, has been created to provide information about MeS and the related new technologies.www.siemens.com

Logica

Logica is a business and technology service company, employing 39,000 people. it provides business consulting, systems integration and outsourcing to clients around the world, including many of europe’s largest businesses. Logica creates value for clients by successfully integrating people, business and technology. it is committed to long- term collaboration, applying insight to provide innovative answers to clients’ business needs.www.logica.com

Mitsubishi electric

Mitsubishi electric is an acknowledged global automation leader. our key technologies are developed in house and manufactured in our own factories. We maintain complete control over technology, performance, quality and supply. the end result is we know what our customers need because we are a global manufacturing enterprise too.www.mitsubishi-automation.com

nearsoft

NearSoft europe has developed five powerful products: MoM4Scheduling, MoM4Capacity, MoM4execution, MoM 4Reports and MoM4Resources. these solutions all comply with iSA 95 to support intra-manufacturing operations management information in production, maintenance, quality and inventory. MoM4 empowers Lean Six Sigma across the enterprise, allowing collaboration intelligence at a reasonable price.www.nearsoft.eu

Preactor

Preactor international is a world leader in production planning and scheduling software used by a wide range of businesses. Frequently integrated with eRP, MeS and supply chain management solutions, Preactor’s breakthrough technology is used by more than 3,000 small, medium and large multinational companies located in 67 countries.www.preactor.com

ascari solutions

Ascari is a specialist consulting and it services company with particular strengths in semiconductor, high-tech, automotive and technology start-up. Ascari has implemented MeS, enterprise resource planning, factory automation and Web-centric systems for customers throughout europe. Solutions include full manufacturing traceability, factory automation, MeS/eRP integration and operational visibility.www.ascarisolutions.com

Camstar

Camstar, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, is the leading provider of MeS and quality management technology for high tech and life sciences manufacturing. the Camstar enterprise Platform enables a closed-loop quality process that allows future products to be designed better and manufacturing processes to be leaner and more efficient.www.camstar.com

Cincom

Cincom and its partners provide enterprise software and services to simplify and improve your business operations and customer communications – without forcing you to change how you run your business. in the end, we realise that the greatest value we offer is to help you deliver a great experience to your customers.www.cincom.com

eshbel

eshbel’s flagship eRP system, Priority, is built on a component-driven platform with tightly integrated functionality (CRM, SCM, PM, APS, together with the traditional financial modules and more) and multinational and multilingual capabilities. eshbel currently has over 3,000 customers with a combined user base of over 200,000 Priority users worldwide.www.eshbel.com

apriso

Apriso Corporation is a software company dedicated to providing competitive advantage for its customers. it does so by enabling organisations to adapt quickly and easily to market changes and unexpected events. Apriso’s FlexNet provides visibility, adaptability and real-time control of manufacturing operations across the enterprise and supply chain network.www.apriso.com

As part of this Solution Focus, Prime is proud to present a select number of Microsoft partners involved in the manufacturing execution systems arena. in this exclusive partner spotlight you will find details of some of the leading MeS solution providers around the world.

44 onwindows.com

Advancing Product Quality

Microsoft Mes Partner spotlight