Real-time challenge to enterprise information systems

InTech, Oct 2004 by Watkin, Greg

An accelerated shift toward mass customization, outsourcing, and lean-enterprise performance management has brought new challenges to manufacturing operations, Chief among these is the need for information systems to begin matching the requirements of accelerated and more complex production systems.

"Cheaper, better, faster" has become the mantra for manufacturers large and small around the world. Cost pressures originate with more informed consumers and pass through original equipment manufacturers to affect every tier in the supply chain. Competitive pressures raise the bar in terms of greater selection with quick delivery and high quality at lower cost, which drives down margins.

Time to market is compressed, and product cycles are now months or weeks rather than years. In the new global marketplace, competitive advantage depends on delivering products-inexpensively, rapidly, and predictably-designed precisely to customer requirements.

This accelerated shift toward mass customization, outsourcing, and lean-enterprise performance management has brought new challenges to manufacturing operations. Chief among these is the need for information systems to begin matching the requirements of accelerated and more complex production systems, which enables better information to arrive at the right time and the right place-automatically.

Physical, information flows

Automated information collection is the answer, and the manufacturing value stream (MVS) is made up of two interconnected flows. Physical flow encompasses the movement of goods and materials aimed at increasing velocity by the reduction of work-in-progress inventory and cycle times. The second aspect involves data (or information) flows that trigger value-added work, the physical movement of parts and inventories, and status visibility across the MVS.

Faced with the challenge of accelerated physical flows through more complex and globalized supply chains, manufacturers and suppliers want to modernize and automate information flows. Poor information visibility caused by delays in delivering "batchcd"and error-prone "hand-entered" information and IS bottlenecks drives both groups to build "just-in-case" inventory and slows the rate of transactions. The time it takes to generate useful information from raw data contributes to extended cycle times.

The rising use of bar-coding and radio frequency identification (RPID) software and hardware technologies over the last fifteen years on the manufacturing side demonstrates how widely accepted automated data collection has come to be.

Technology now delivers fully integrated and real-time processes that quickly marshal and distribute data from the supply chain right through the manufacturer and its warehouse, and on to the end user and back.

Automatic identification and data collection (AIDC), bar codes, RFID, scanning devices, and software connect this information to the main enterprise resource planning system; these technologies herald just-in-time manufacturing and reduce marginal-value work.

Islands unite

One challenge in data collection has been eliminating the "islands of automated information" that typify legacy data-collection systems dating from the 1980s and 1990s. It's been difficult to get these systems to speak to each other. As a result, decisions requiring information flows between different cells and departments often had to wait until someone put the data on paper. Online collaborative decision making can occur in real time.

Lockheed Martin Aeronautics implemented this type of system at its plants in Dallas-Fort Worth, Marietta, Ga., and Palmdale, Calif., to enable the company to record and validate all work performed-as it occurs-and transmit it across platforms.

Previously AlDC in manufacturing, warehousing, logistics, and supply chain was about collecting information on the shop floor and sending it up to company analysts for interpretation. Data flows went principally in one direction. Now, advanced data collection enables information to travel electronically sideways to other departments, and to vendors along the supply chain. Two-way information flows in real time mean that more data can go directly to the shop floor.

Extending the automated real-time data collection system offers the same potential for all aspects of enterprise operations. It also upgrades the company's information highway to match today's more complex physical inventory traffic flows.

Behind the byline

Greg Watkin is vice president of marketing with Epic Data, Inc. (www.epicdata.com) and has more than twenty years of experience in the automated data collection industry. His e-mail is Greg_Watkin@epicdata.com.