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Slide 1: In thIs Issue Factory of the future The technology that will allow factories to collaborate, innovate and prosper Conquering compliance Achieving competitive advantage in today’s complex regulatory landscape issue 19 winter 2009 KeePIng It together How Piaggio Aero is working with Dassault Systèmes to collaborate globally Mitsui & Co takes a bold approach to migrating its entire environment to enterprise cloud computing. Page 46 “Examples in the pharmaceutical and life sciences industry demonstrate that automating communication processes with the help of notification workflow software supports the drive for operational excellence.” Matthes Derdack, managing director, Derdack issue 19 winter 2009 onwindows.com Visit onwindows.com for news and views in manufacturing
Slide 2: foreword winter 2009 Editor in chief Adam Lawrence adam.lawrence@tudor-rose.co.uk News and online editor James Dodd james.dodd@tudor-rose.co.uk Features editor Lindsay James lindsay.james@tudor-rose.co.uk Production editor Rebecca Lambert rebecca.lambert@tudor-rose.co.uk Editorial contributors Mirko Bäcker, Siemens PLM Software Nick Barnett, Microsoft Bill Boswell, Siemens PLM Software Bill Carrelli, Siemens PLM Software Karel Crombach, Microsoft Dario Dellavalle, Piaggio Aero Industries Matthes Derdack, Derdack Andy Kennington, Siemens PLM Software Bjorn Kuijt, To-Increase Thomas Lantermann, Mitsubishi Electric Europe Matthew Littlefield, Aberdeen Group Antonio Maglione, Piaggio Aero Industries Bill Neuman, PTC Ari Pihlajavesi, Predisys Sai Sireesh Pachava, Microsoft Jan Snoeij, MESA Daniel J Staresinic, Siemens PLM Software Craig Rode, Microsoft Maryanne Steidinger, Invensys Jasmine Yalds, Tudor Rose Roberto Zuffada, Piaggio Aero Industries Green IT advisor Dr Bernd Kosch, Fujitsu Technology Solutions Creative director Leigh Trowbridge Designers Bruce Graham Paul Robinson Publication manager Christian Jones christian.jones@tudor-rose.co.uk Partner managers Amandip Singh amandip.singh@tudor-rose.co.uk Claire Brown claire.brown@tudor-rose.co.uk Ricky Popat ricky.popat@tudor-rose.co.uk Subscriptions Ritwik Bhattacharjee ritwik.bhattacharjee@tudor-rose.co.uk Reprints Stuart Fairbrother stuart.fairbrother@tudor-rose.co.uk Business manager Richard Pepperman Publisher Andy Clayton-Smith T he manufacturing and resources sector as we know it is going through fundamental changes. Faced with the demand for cheaper yet more bespoke products, manufacturers are becoming more globalised, and need to operate in an increasingly collaborative environment to drive excellence and efficiency. And while in the short term many are still focused on saving money as the economy continues to recover, to succeed in the long term they must compete and grow through innovation. At Microsoft we have always been at the forefront of change and we are constantly looking for new ways to meet the evolving needs of our customers. Our technology portfolio and partner network has never been stronger, and looking ahead we have a number of product releases to help customers get great value from their technology investments and become more innovative. Technology of the future is very much a focus in this issue of Prime. In our feature Forward thinking on page 34 we hear from key Microsoft partners about the new technology that will enable manufacturers to become more agile and improve performance on all levels. You can also read more about Microsoft’s and my own vision for the sector in my interview on page 16. Meeting the ever-growing needs of customers and regulation bodies – all while remaining competitive – isn’t easy. But with the right technology at their fingertips, manufacturers can achieve this while at the same time improving their operations and better preparing themselves for the future. I hope you enjoy the issue. Çağlayan Arkan General Manager, Manufacturing & Resources Sector Microsoft publishing partners Prime is produced as a partnership between Microsoft and selected key organisations from the manufacturing sector. These partners help set the editorial direction of Prime, and collaborate to provide you with content that covers the key issues facing manufacturing, and technology solutions that can address these issues. industry partners MESA is the first choice for industry professionals seeking innovative thinking and leadership to drive operations excellence. Our events and forums: • Enable members to connect and exchange strategies to facilitate operations excellence • Result in resources that accelerate learning and knowledge transfer • Provide best practices guidance to drive greater operations performance and profitability www.mesa.org Dassault Systèmes is the world’s leading product lifecycle management software applications and services provider. Its solutions enable the digital simulation of products and the definition of manufacturing and maintenance processes and resources. Central to Dassault Systèmes’ solutions (CATIA, SolidWorks, DELMIA, SIMULIA, ENOVIA, and 3DVIA), 3D offers realistic visualisation, unambiguous communication and true collaboration. www.3ds.com PTC, our business is product development – our objective is to provide the best product lifecycle management and enterprise content management solutions. For more than two decades, PTC has delivered leading software solutions to the manufacturing industry. We have offices in more than 30 countries and over 50,000 global customers. www.ptc.com OPC Foundation is dedicated to ensuring interoperability in automation by creating and maintaining open specifications. The Foundation has over 300 members from around the world, including nearly all of the world’s major providers of control systems, instrumentation, and process control systems. Microsoft is a member of the OPC Foundation and has given strong backing to it. www.opcfoundation.org Fujitsu Technology Solutions – a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner – employs more than 10,000 people and is part of the global Fujitsu Group, which delivers IT-based business solutions to customers in 70 countries through a workforce of more than 160,000 employees. With its Dynamic Infrastructures approach, the company offers a full portfolio of IT products, solutions and services, ranging from clients to data centre solutions, managed infrastructure and infrastructure-as-a-service. www.ts.fujitsu.com Invensys Operations Management is a leading provider of automation and information technology, systems, software solutions, services and consulting to the global manufacturing and infrastructure industries. Headquartered in Plano, Texas, its solutions are used by more than 40,000 clients around the world in more than 200,000 plants and facilities. www.invensys.com 1
Slide 5: contents winter 2009 22 contents winter 2009 Frontline 08 Microsoft joins non-profit consortium 22 Keeping it together Cover story 44 Powerful product management in practice Energistics, meanwhile Fujitsu leverages Windows 7 touch tech. Plus more technology news from the manufacturing sector around the globe How Piaggio Aero Industries is working with Dassault Systèmes to collaborate on a global scale Russian power engineering company coordinates its activities with Siemens Teamcenter and NX 45 Dynamic efficiency interview 16 Rebecca Lambert catches up with 28 Conquering compliance Features Çağlayan Arkan to find out his vision of the future 18 PLM or ERP? Viewpoint Bill Neuman explains the merits of integrating an ERP and PLM system Lindsay James explores the challenges of compliance and the solutions that are giving the most forward-thinking businesses competitive advantage 34 Forward thinking Dynamic performance measurement system improves energy and electricity consumption at Sasol 46 Virtual trading 19 The finer details Jasmine Yalds takes a look at the future of manufacturing, focusing on the technology that will allow factories to collaborate, innovate and prosper Mitsui & Co migrates its entire environment to enterprise cloud computing 47 Moving with the times Bjorn Kuijt explores the relevance of tailored solutions for specific industries in today’s manufacturing world 40 Automotive industry forums How technology is enabling manufacturers to tackle the complexities of today’s changing automotive business Using tools from Alchemy Solutions, Day-Timer successfully migrates its ERP software to Windows Server and .NET Framework 34 28 20 Efficiency through teamwork Teamcenter’s community collaboration solution leverages Microsoft SharePoint to resolve product development issues visually, says Bill Boswell 21 Driving operational excellence 48 Metrics that matter Signing off 41 Consumer goods Jan Snoeij discusses the importance of relevant metrics and why this year’s MESA European Conference was a success Matthes Derdack looks at how today’s pharmaceutical and life sciences industry can benefit from automating communication processes with notification workflow software The value of product lifecycle management technology in the packaging and artwork sector 42 High tech Current issues facing the high-tech and electronics sectors 08 Prime is Microsoft’s quarterly customer magazine for manufacturing and resources industries. For further information or to subscribe, visit: www.onwindows.com/prime Microsoft (NASDAQ ‘MSFT’) is the world leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realise their full potential. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software – anytime, any place and on any device. www.microsoft.com ISSN: 1747-1370 Issue 19 Published by Tudor Rose Tudor House 6 Friar Lane, Leicester LE1 5RA, England Tel: +44 116 222 9900 Fax: +44 116 222 9901 info@tudor-rose.co.uk www.tudor-rose.co.uk Managing Director: Jon Ingleton ISSN 1473-2173 Prime is published quarterly and is available via subscription. Please visit: www.onwindows.com/subscribe for more information. Printed in Great Britain by The Manson Group. © 2009 Tudor Rose Holdings Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be stored or transmitted or reproduced in any form or by any means, including whether by photocopying, scanning, downloading onto computer or otherwise without the prior written permission from Tudor Rose Holdings Ltd. Active Directory, BizTalk, Microsoft, Outlook, SharePoint, Visual Studio and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft in the US and/ or other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. Views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of Microsoft or the publishers. Acceptance of advertisements does not imply official endorsement of the products or services concerned. While every care has been taken to ensure accuracy of content, no responsibility can be taken for any errors and/or omissions. Readers should take appropriate professional advice before acting on any issue raised herein. The publisher reserves the right to accept or reject advertising material and editorial contributions. The publisher assumes no liability for the return or safety of unsolicited art, photography or manuscripts. 40 6 onwindows.com 7
Slide 6: frontline a digest of manufacturing technology news Chiltern upgrades financial systems with Dynamics GP IN FRONTLINE THIS ISSuE Companies Air Liquid Medical Systems ..................................... 14 Bruce Power .............................................................. 12 Chiltern International ................................................ 9 ClydeUnion Pumps ................................................... 10 DeepOcean ............................................................... 13 Nautor........................................................................ 12 Rio Tinto .................................................................... 13 Shell ............................................................................. 8 Statoil ......................................................................... 13 Textron ...................................................................... 10 Winchester Ammunition .......................................... 10 Dynamics GP will help Chiltern unify its financial systems Clinical research organisation Chiltern International has selected ST Consulting to implement Microsoft Dynamics GP v10 across its European offices. Focusing initially on the UK, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany and Italy, the rollout will likely be extended to the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Russia and Ukraine. “We are looking to upgrade the financial systems in our European operations,” said Ian McDonald, project manager for financial systems at Chiltern. “We believe that Dynamics GP will help us to achieve our objectives of providing a common financial reporting system across all operations, making the production of monthly management financial reports quicker and more efficient, and thereby provide improved financial analysis to our project teams. “We chose Dynamics as we know that it is quick and simple to install, and can integrate easily with the other business critical systems which we use to manage timesheets, revenues and expenses,” continued McDonald. “The Dynamics system is very user-friendly and the broad functionality of the system means that finance staff will be able to work more efficiently on a dayto-day basis, spending less time on manual administrative processes.” “By implementing Microsoft Dynamics GP v10 we will be able to provide Chiltern with a very modern, easy to use accounting platform which will improve its financial control across the countries in which it is based,” said Haseet Sanghrajka, managing director of ST Consulting. “Information will be exchanged easily between finance managers in different countries, and the ease with which Dynamics integrates with other third-party systems provides significant benefits to the business.” www.chiltern.com www.stconsulting.co.uk Solution providers ADA Technology Services .........................................13 Alchemy Solutions......................................................10 Beckhoff ......................................................................10 Brightsolid ...................................................................10 Capgemini...................................................................13 Cincom Systems .........................................................13 Dell...............................................................................13 Derdack .......................................................................13 DocuWare ...................................................................14 Energistics .....................................................................8 Fujitsu Technology Solutions ......................................9 Fujitsu ..........................................................................14 Getac UK .....................................................................14 Glovia International ....................................................14 Iconics ..........................................................................10 Ideal Product Data .....................................................12 Invensys Operations Management ..........................12 MESA .....................................................................10, 14 Open Text Web Solutions.........................................13 Preactor .................................................................13, 14 Rockwell ......................................................................14 Sescoi ..........................................................................13 Siemens PLM Software ........................................10, 12 ST Consulting ...............................................................9 Energistics believes collaborative technologies are the way forward for the oil and gas industry MiCrosoFt joins Global oil anD Gas ConsortiuM Microsoft has joined Energistics, a global, not-for-profit consortium focused on ways to facilitate exploration and production (E&P), information sharing and business process integration. By joining Energistics, Microsoft adds its expertise in developing and implementing unifying language as a common platform, helping the consortium meet its goal of uniting people, issues and ideas to facilitate E&P information sharing and business process integration. Microsoft, along with its ecosystem of partners, will help deliver Energistics’ standards – including the Wellsite Information Transfer Standard Markup Language and Production Markup Language (PRODML). “E&P companies are relying on development of standards such as PRODML to provide a common set of definitions and thus improve data exchange and work process efficiency,” said Catherine Madden, senior research analyst at IDC Energy Insights. “Companies that can help facilitate the development and deployment of open data exchange standards such as PRODML will play a vital 8 onwindows.com role in ensuring the industry can maximise potential cost savings.” “The oil and gas industry is undergoing massive changes,” said Albrecht Ferling, managing director of worldwide oil and gas industries at Microsoft. “By helping the industry adopt standards, Microsoft believes it can drive down cost by improving interoperability and “Having Microsoft as a member of Energistics is very positive news for the oil and gas industry” building a platform for collaboration and communication. Our customers benefit when standards are implemented because their software prices decrease, interoperability increases and adoption hurdles are lowered. As a result, they will be able to better execute their E&P information sharing and business process integration strategies.” “We are pleased to have Microsoft on board to help us to deliver the reference implementation for our standards,” said Randy Clark, president and CEO of Energistics. “As a body which facilitates an inclusive user community for collaborative technologies, we are keen to draw on Microsoft’s experience in the industry to help facilitate the development and deployment of open data exchange standards in addressing information challenges.” “Having Microsoft as a member of Energistics is very positive news for the oil and gas industry,” said Jaap Van Ballegooijen, leader of Royal Dutch Shell’s Smart Fields group. “Microsoft has demonstrated ongoing commitment and support of the Energistics standards through its participation and sponsorship of the latest PRODML specifications presentation at the Microsoft Global Energy Forum. Shell, Microsoft and Energistics also collaborated to explore new and innovative solutions through the software-plus-services approach by implementing a PRODML proof of concept utilising Microsoft’s Windows Azure platform.” www.energistics.org Microsoft technologies Fujitsu leverages Windows 7 touch tech Fujitsu Technology Solutions has released new desktop, notebook and thin client product lines specifically tailored to the recently released Windows 7 operating system. Fujitsu’s Lifebook tablet PCs now support Windows 7 multi-touch screen capabilities. The Dual-Digitizer technology in these devices automatically recognises if the user is working with Fujitsu’s multifunctional pen or their own fingers, and acts either as an active digitiser or touch screen accordingly. Fujitsu has also extended its TwinLoad option, enabling customers to buy new hardware, but defer the actual upgrade to Windows 7 until they are satisfied that the operating system is fully integrated with their corporate system. “The Windows 7 operating system is a great step forward for mobility and the user experience,” said Rajat Kakar, vice president of the clients’ group at Fujitsu Technology Solutions. “As users and the workforce become more mobile, touch screen capabilities for tablet PCs gain importance. We feel that Windows 7 allows us to provide a responsive and accurate touch screen experience.” http://ts.fujitsu.com .NET Framework ..................................................12, 13 Application Platform .................................................13 BizTalk RFID ...............................................................13 Dynamics GP ................................................................9 Exchange Server ........................................................10 Office ............................................................ 12, 13, 14 Project.........................................................................10 SharePoint ............................................................13, 14 Silverlight ....................................................................10 SQL Server .................................................................14 SQL Server StreamInsight .........................................14 System Center Operations Manager .......................13 Windows 7 ................................................. 9, 13, 14, 15 Windows Azure ......................................................8, 14 Windows Embedded...........................................10, 14 Windows Mobile ........................................................13 Windows Server ............................................ 12, 13, 14 Windows SharePoint Services ..................................12 9
Slide 7: frontline a digest of manufacturing technology news News in brief Microsoft has released to manufacturing the next-generation platform of its componentised, real time Windows Embedded CE operating system. The announcement was made at this year’s Embedded Systems Conference in Boston, US. Siemens PLM Software has purchased Rulestream, an engineerto-order software application for streamlining the business processes associated with custom-built products. Siemens will offer the solution to its customers under the Rulestream brand name and assume full responsibility for ongoing software development and support. This year’s European Manufacturing Enterprise Solutions Association (MESA) Plant-to-Enterprise Conference took place in Utrecht, the Netherlands and ran under the theme ‘Survive to Thrive’. It focused on the role of manufacturing execution systems and information technology in supporting the realtime production process. ClydeUnion migrates e-mail to Exchange Server UK IT services advisor Brightsolid has completed a complex e-mail migration project for ClydeUnion Pumps, an independent Scottish engineering and pumping solutions provider. The project, which came about following ClydeUnion’s acquisition of Michigan-based Union Pump, required Brightsolid to extract IT operations from within those of original owner Textron and migrate more than 1,400 users from around the world to a new Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 fully managed hosting system. The migration from the legacy system and full implementation took just four weeks. “It was important for ClydeUnion Pumps to have this entire migration of users completed within a set period of time, following the acquisition of Union Pump,” said the engineering company’s general manager of IT Murray Husband. “It was an important part of the original deal with Textron, and Brightsolid helped ensure that each milestone was met.” www.clydeunion.com www.brightsolid.com did you know Around 40 per cent of manufacturing business managers believe that IT plays a lead or important role in supporting operational excellence efforts. Source: IDC Manufacturing Insights Microsoft Project 2010 public beta has just been released. The revamped version is designed to help companies reduce costs by allowing them to make better and more informed decisions about budgeting and allocation of resources, simplifying project and portfolio management and improving efficiency. Alchemy Solutions, a provider of legacy modernisation solutions, has released a new system for serviceenabling mainframe business logic and integrating with modern application and Web environments – all without the necessity for code changes. This year’s ISA Expo automation and control show, which took place in Houston, Texas, saw Iconics demonstrate its newest HMI/ SCADA product, Genesis64, using the Microsoft Windows Embedded operating systems and a Beckhoff embedded controller. Winchester delivers rich online tool with Silverlight Winchester Ammunition has launched a new online ballistics calculator that allows users to compare up to five Winchester products at once under customisable shooting conditions. The calculator is a free tool built using Microsoft Silverlight. Silverlight is a cross-browser, crossplatform plug-in so it offers a wide range of compatibility and enabled Winchester to create a tool that does not have to be downloaded and run as a stand-alone application. “There were many advantages to using Silverlight in designing our new ballistics calculator,” said Brett Flaugher, vice president of sales and marketing for Winchester Ammunition. “The most important goal, however, was to offer our customers a new, advanced tool that would be compatible with their browser and easy to use.” “The Winchester ballistics calculator is a great example of the rich and interactive applications that Silverlight delivers,” said Steve Sklepowich, director for Silverlight at Microsoft. “It enables companies like Winchester to meet customer demand by providing a unique cross-platform, crossbrowser online experience in a detailed and efficient environment.” Research conducted by Winchester revealed that the majority of visitors to its Web site are experienced shooters and hunters who wish to research ballistics data. It was this information that prompted Winchester to create a new ballistics calculator with a greater level of detail and better functionality. http://ballisticscalculator.winchester.com www.microsoft.com/silverlight 10 onwindows.com
Slide 8: frontline a digest of manufacturing technology news Finnish yacht manufacturer deploys siemens PlM solutions Nautor, builder of the world famous Swan sailing yachts, has selected Siemens PLM Software’s Teamcenter as its corporatewide product lifecycle management (PLM) solution. The company has also selected Siemens’ NX software for yacht development. Antti Ivaska, technical director at Nautor said: “With Siemens PLM Software we see an opportunity to invest in a new enterprise solution for yacht development and product lifecycle management that is fully integrated and will enhance our competitive edge and customer value, and continue to help further our growth.” The Teamcenter PLM portfolio enables Nautor to collaborate easily by sharing design and product information within a single solution. NX, Siemens’ digital product development solution, will enable Nautor’s engineers to increase design efficiency, share design and innovation ideas, and meet customer-specific requirements more precisely. “The selection of Teamcenter and NX as a corporate-wide PLM solution by an industry-leading company like Major oil and gas enterprises opt for Windows 7 DeepOcean, a subsea services and construction support firm, and Statoil, one of the world’s largest offshore oil companies, have selected the Windows 7 operating system. DeepOcean is migrating from a Unixbased platform to Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 because of its need to support its sales force and engineers who travel between onshore and offshore locations. These mobile employees rely on portable computers that make up more than 25 per cent of the company’s computer fleet. “Windows 7 has enabled our mobile workforce to connect to the corporate network and access all the resources they need faster and more easily,” said Per Arne Strømø, IT manager at DeepOcean. “At the same time, Microsoft technology offers us a highly secure and reliable tool to help protect our confidential data and intellectual property even when on the road.” Statoil also wanted to ensure that workers in its global operations could fully collaborate with their colleagues. As such, the oil company intends to implement the Windows 7 and the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating systems, which together offer features such as BranchCache to improve data access at branch offices and DirectAccess to simplify remote connectivity. “Using Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, we’ll be able to better support our strategy as a global company and more easily share information no matter where our employees and consultants reside,” said Petter Wersland, leading advisor for IT infrastructure at Statoil. www.deepocean.com www.statoil.com News in brief Capgemini and Microsoft have co-launched ERP+, a multimillion euro initiative focused on maximising customer return on investment from existing SAP installations. The setup enables companies to combine the power of SAP and ease of use of Office and SharePoint technologies, Windows Mobile and Microsoft Application Platform products. Software provider Cincom Systems has received a ‘positive’ rating in Gartner’s nautor is famous for its swan line of fibreglass yachts Nautor is a testament to Siemens PLM Software’s ability to develop best-in-class PLM technology,” said Mats Friberg, vice president and managing director of Nordic operations at Siemens PLM Software. “We look forward to helping Nautor enhance product development capabilities to meet the challenge of turning more ideas into successful products.” Teamcenter makes extensive use of Siemens PLM’s global alliance with Microsoft. The Teamcenter Community collaboration engine, for example, is based on Windows SharePoint Services, and is tightly integrated with both Windows and Microsoft Office. “We are proud that a prestigious and famous Finish manufacturer of hightech performance cruisers has selected Teamcenter and NX as its PLM platform,” said Tapio Juurakko, managing director at Ideal Product Data, Siemens PLM Software’s partner in Finland. www.nautorswan.com www.plm.automation.siemens.com MarketScope for Sales Configuration, 3Q09 report. Cincom Acquire Sales and Product Configurator enables manufacturers to capture and deliver critical application, product, pricing and process knowledge to the point of sale. The process of deploying critical Microsoft applications in the newly released Windows Server 2008 R2 via Hyper-V on Dell EqualLogic storage arrays was demonstrated for the first time at this year’s UK Storage Expo. The sessions were conducted by ADA Technology Services. Sescoi has partnered with Preactor in a number of international markets in Northern Europe, Asia and the Americas. Sescoi’s Workplan Enterprise ERP system, designed for project based, custom manufacturers, and Preactor’s advanced planning and scheduling software have been fully integrated. Derdack, provider of mobile messaging platforms and notification workflow software, has become a member of the Microsoft System Center Alliance. The agreement will see Derdack’s message master Enterprise Alert software combined with Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007. Microsoft BizTalk RFID has been certified compliant with GS1 EPCglobal’s Electronic Product Code Information Service (EPCIS) standard for event management. The EPCIS standard enables organisations to accurately track and query goods throughout the supply chain for realtime progress information. did you know Manufacturing saw a resurgence in the third quarter of 2009, as production increased at an eight per cent annual rate. source: Manufacturers alliance/MaPi report Enterprise-wide operations clarity for bruce Power Canadian nuclear power company Bruce Power has selected Invensys Operations Management to help manage its equipment condition and performance monitoring (ECPM) project. Bruce Power currently operates six nuclear reactors and plans to restart two more. Together the eight units will boost the company’s total output of electricity to nearly 6,300 megawatts. Under the terms of the contract, Invensys Operations Management will provide a full suite of software and technology solutions to help Bruce Power effectively monitor its major assets across the eight units. “Built on the Archestra architecture, the new ECPM solution will provide reliable, robust and secure equipment performance monitoring,” said Mel Poy, project director at Bruce Power. “It also gives our engineers a single integrated view of historical and real-time process and plant data, as well as a platform to host various plantmonitoring applications. It will also make use of modern graphics to convey process information to engineers more intuitively and effectively.” 12 onwindows.com rio tinto unifies Web presence with open text Rio Tinto, one of the world’s largest mining and exploration companies, has standardised its Web presence with Open Text Web Solutions. As a result of various mergers, Rio Tinto previously had more than 80 separate Web sites created and run by separate divisions and individual mines around the world. This caused problems in communicating a consistent brand and sending coherent messages to stakeholders. The mining company selected Open Text to build a hub of Web templates – created, populated and managed centrally, but tagged for dissemination through the various global Rio Tinto Web domains. Brand and digital media consultancy Rufus Leonard was appointed to handle the technical build of the Web infrastructure, while creative agency View took care of Web design. “We conducted a thorough review of all the most appropriate Web content management systems,” said Bryan Smith, principal adviser for digital media at Rio Tinto. “Our evaluations revealed Open Text as being clearly the best for our purposes in terms of cost, governance, platforms and outcomes. “Open Text Web Solutions is based on Microsoft .NET which gives us the important benefit of being able to develop our own applications and plug them into the global Web cascade,” continued Smith. “It also allows us to run multiple Web sites from the core software hub in multiple languages, as well as populate multiple domains. This is vital to us as a major, multi-product, global business.” www.riotinto.com www.opentext.com a 2,300-acre site houses the bruce a and b generating stations Archestra software is built on the latest Microsoft .NET and Windows Server technologies, and offers a unified applications environment that enables rapid integration and deployment at low lifecycle costs. “Invensys Operations Management, ASECO Integrated Systems and Bruce Power are working as a coordinated team to develop a state-of-the-art plant visualisation system for the ECPM project,” said John Polcyn, vice president and chief nuclear officer for Invensys Operations Management. “This agreement shows what can be achieved when Invensys and its partners and clients collaborate and combine expertise and capabilities to address important industry issues. We are pleased to work with Bruce Power to add the backbone of a critical monitoring solution.” www.brucepower.com http://global.wonderware.com 13
Slide 9: frontline a digest of manufacturing technology news News in brief This year’s Rockwell Automation Fair took place at the Anaheim Convention Center in California. Themed ‘Smart, Safe and Sustainable Manufacturing’, the event gave attendees the opportunity to see the newest technologies and solutions available to help improve plant-wide optimisation, machine-builder performance and sustainable production. Fujitsu and Glovia International have together unveiled Glovia G2, a production management ERP tool for the manufacturing industry. The software is designed to increase the visibility of production conditions by individually tracking the production, sales, and inventory status of each business site in real time. DocuWare has verified the compatibility of its document management system (DMS) with Windows 7. DocuWare tests its DMS on various Microsoft platforms, such as Windows Server, SQL Server, Office and SharePoint. MESA International has formed an Asia Pacific expansion committee focusing on manufacturing execution systems. The committee – together with working groups in Australia, China, India, Korea and Singapore – is intended as a forum in which to share best practices, explore manufacturing information systems and discuss the emerging industry. Preactor International has provided Air Liquid Medical Systems with solutions to improve planning and scheduling at its factory in Antony, France. The implementation will allow the manufacturer to more rapidly generate work orders, synchronise procurement plans with production and better manage manpower. The Digital Pharma & Life Sciences Conference takes place this year on 10 February in Wiesbaden, Germany. The main topic focuses will be life sciences, research and development, and collaboration. streaminsight revealed as manufacturing forum hits texas This year’s Microsoft Manufacturing Operations Forum took place at the International Society of Automation expo in Houston, Texas. The event featured the first ever demonstration of Microsoft SQL Server StreamInsight, as well as sessions demonstrating the potential manufacturing applications of Windows Embedded and Azure. StreamInsight allows software developers to create innovative solutions in the domain of complex event processing (CEP). It allows them to monitor, mine, and develop insights from continuous unbounded data streams and correlate constantly changing events with rich payloads in near real time. “As a result of working closely with the industry groups that provided customer and partner requirements and feedback, the SQL Server team built a CEP capability in SQL Server,” Sam Youness, worldwide industry technology strategist for manufacturing operations at Microsoft, explained to Prime. “The CEP capability is called SQL StreamInsight and allows for processing of streaming data on the fly, without the need to store it in the database first. “This new feature allows users to query such data streams and extract valuable knowledge from them at the right time,” continued Youness. “It also opens the door to processing huge amounts of data collected at sub millisecond intervals. Such data can be found in manufacturing environments where thousands of tags in a manufacturing plant need to be read every tenth or hundredth of a second. It can also be found in financial applications, such as stock brokerages and in Web analytics.” www.microsoft.com/manufacturing Microsoft tackles climate change With a growing number of governments and scientists having agreed to try and limit the global average temperature rise to less than two degrees Celsius compared to preindustrial levels, companies like Microsoft are looking for innovative ways to help address environmental challenges. In light of the recent United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Microsoft’s chief environmental strategist Rob Bernard has been discussing how IT can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and minimise the effects of climate change. “At Microsoft we are pursuing several paths that we hope will lead to a more sustainable future,” Bernard said. “Firstly we aim to promote the role of software as a tool in helping to improve energy efficiency. Windows 7 has the most effective energy conservation features ever seen in a Windows product. Virtualisation is also a useful technology in meeting this goal in that it provides the right level of capability while reducing energy and improving efficiency. “Microsoft is also focusing on accelerating breakthrough solutions to environmental challenges. This is not something we can do by ourselves, which is why we have partnered with leading scientists to help us better understand our planet and the impact we have on it. “It won’t be easy to reach these goals and make a significant impact on the world we live in. We face difficult challenges, but with a commitment to act and the right technology tools, a clean and prosperous future without the looming threat of climate change is well within our reach.” Microsoft is also currently working to drive responsible and sustainable business practices across its own company. It has set a goal to cut its carbon emissions by at least 30 per cent by 2012 compared to 2007 levels. To do this it will be using software and technology to improve energy use across its buildings and operations, reducing air travel, and increasing its use of renewable energy. So far Microsoft has cut more than 100 million miles of air travel in the last year and its private bus system is helping cut 250,000 car miles each week. www.onwindows.com/tackling-climate-change.aspx new rugged tablet PC allows unprecedented control Getac UK has launched a new line of Windows 7-compatible tablet PCs – the first rugged computers to offer a multi-touch screen for use with or without gloves. The multi-touch technology on Getac’s V100 Tablet PC allows users to move and edit documents, rotate maps and photos, zoom in and zoom out of maintenance manuals, and navigate numerous system applications – all by using a series of finger gestures. Getac’s resistive multi-touch technology is not based on capacitance sensitivity, which means users can interact with the tablets while wearing protective gloves. This makes it ideal for industrial and field professionals who may work with dangerous chemicals or perform their job in extreme weather conditions. “Our customers work in some of the most extreme environments and weather conditions where touch screen technology and flick gestures are faster, safer, and more convenient than using a keypad,” said Getac UK’s business development director Peter Molyneux. “As a leading the tablets allow users to accomplish a variety of tasks using only finger gestures innovator in advanced rugged computer technology, it is only fitting that Getac is the first to offer multi-touch technology that can be used with or without gloves.” www.getac.com www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7 14 onwindows.com
Slide 10: frontline interview v – Çaglayan arkan grow through innovation, so FY10 and FY11 will be a critical period in which we will do a lot of work to help drive innovation and growth in worldwide manufacturing and resources. It looks like an exciting year ahead. How are the new product launches going to impact on the manufacturing industry? From a product perspective, FY11 will be a very exciting year for us and our technology portfolio has never been stronger. We are really excited about the upcoming product launches, as well as our offerings in the cloud computing area, designed to help customers get real value from their IT investments. Do you have any examples of customers benefiting from these products? In the oil and gas space, for example, subsea services company DeepOcean is now using Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 to bring efficiencies to its sales force and engineers. I remember the company’s IT manager saying that the mobile workforce is now able to quickly and easily connect to the corporate network, resulting in more efficient operations. I think FY11 will be full of examples like this and more. And one of the areas where we will see a significant amount of progress is in the social product development and innovation management space. We believe, particularly with SharePoint Server 2010, we have a lot to offer in the way of providing enterprises with a more connected and integrated experience, catering for the business needs of all employees, as well as consumers. Does this link at all to the Future Social Experiences labs focused on social computing? It does. We are seeing consumers playing an important and a more integral role in the lives of manufacturing companies. So what’s happening in the marketplace is consumers are actually demanding much more tailored levels of service. They want to be online and in touch 24/7; they want immediate responses and faster delivery; and they even want to dictate product design and product quality. All of this will hopefully push companies, particularly in the manufacturing space, to respond to these demands in a positive way, taking it as a great opportunity to connect with consumers in a much better way. So Microsoft has a lot to offer in that space – bringing consumers and enterprises together. And how are developments with the Azure platform going to have an impact on the industry? As far as cloud computing is concerned, we are seeing a world where, from an enterprise perspective, companies are going to have their own data centres in addition to services and data on the cloud. With Windows Azure, which is currently a complementary service, and our Software Plus Services vision, we think we are uniquely positioned to help enterprises make the best of their existing investments, as well as make the best of cloud computing, to create systems that cater for their own particular needs and are implemented in the best way possible. For us, it’s all about choice, and we believe we are offering the best set of choices as far as our cloud computing offerings are concerned. What upcoming projects have you got with Microsoft customers? We are currently working with Coca Cola Enterprises to provide Exchange and e-mail services to their 100,000 users. This is helping Coca Cola to not only achieve greater efficiencies and much better collaboration, but also connect with a certain group of their workforce that would not typically have regular access to computers. Another good example is where we have developed a service for a company in the pharmaceutical industry that allows it and its competitors to exchange their inventories for certain compounds and raw materials. This will speed up everyone’s production processes and time-to-market. So being able to bring together companies in the cloud in a secure and very agile way is now catering to the innovation needs of the pharmaceutical industry. Is there anything else you would like to add? I would just like to reiterate that I am very excited to be a part of this great team with our ecosystem of very valuable partners. We have the opportunity to really be at the forefront of change and we believe we have the ability to add great value to manufacturers’ and energy companies’ technology investments. 17 DrivinG CHanGE Çaglayan arkan, Microsoft’s new general manager of Worldwide Manufacturing and resources, shares his vision of the future As he settles into his new role at Microsoft, Prime catches up with Çağlayan Arkan to find out how he is getting on. Rebecca Lambert reports. So first of all, can you tell me a bit about your background? I moved with my family from Turkey to Redmond to assume my new role as Microsoft’s general manager of Worldwide Manufacturing and Resources about two months ago. Before that, I ran Microsoft in Turkey for six years, the last two years of which I was the leader of the large emerging markets cluster learning circle, which comprises the BRIC countries and Mexico, South Africa and Turkey. I came to Redmond and this new role with 26 years of field leadership, as well as sales and marketing experience. 16 onwindows.com v What do you hope to bring to your new role? The manufacturing and resources industry is currently going through fundamental changes and there are two ways to deal with this. First, wait for the change to happen and then adapt to it. The other is to lead the change. At Microsoft we have always been at the forefront of change and we think we can achieve a great deal together with our partners. My role is to focus on adding value in the way of cost savings, new efficiencies, innovation and growth for manufacturing and resources customers in a scalable way, together with our global alliances. What is Microsoft’s roadmap for FY11? Post-crisis, we have observed our customers’ increasing focus on saving money. While this may be critical, we think it is not a long-term winning strategy. And what we are hearing from our customers supports this perception. They want us to help them become more innovative and grow their businesses. Our excellent line-up of products, including new offerings such as Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, SQL Server 2008 R2, Office 2010, SharePoint Server 2010, Exchange Server 2010 and more, strongly positions us to deal with these new customer demands while still delivering great value. For example, we have recently partnered with Dell, which is improving its operations by rolling out Windows 7 to the 100,000 computers and laptops it has for its workforce. This implementation has already helped it achieve a 25 per cent reduction in support costs and a 50 per cent reduction in software imaging work. We’re also very much focused on innovation. Our customers compete and “We believe, particularly with sharePoint server 2010, we have a lot to offer in the way of providing enterprises with a more connected and integrated experience, catering for the business needs of all employees”
Slide 11: viewpoint erp and plm viewpoint enterprise resource planning plm or erp? ERP and PLM systems implemented together are a winning combination for the modern manufacturer, says Bill Neuman the finer details Bjorn Kuijt explores the value and relevance of tailored solutions for specific industries in today’s manufacturing world he world of business applications and solutions has come a long way in the manufacturing industry. Decades ago we had computer systems that were solely controlled by computer programmers and could only store data and perform a few basic tasks. In the 1980s, business systems began to transform the way in which applications aided processes in manufacturing – the first enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems appeared on the market and this is really when the journey to truly meeting industry needs began. Going into the 21st century, technology has been further developed to address industry needs and offer the flexibility and adaptability enterprises require. Delivering truly industry-relevant solutions tailored to specific sectors as opposed to general ERP systems is becoming the de-facto standard. The problem is, how do we go about defining each industry sector and then developing relevant solutions? In general we are able to identify industry sectors by standard industrial classification (SIC) codes. Codes 20-39, for example, represent manufacturing. Once an industry sector has been clarified we can then go about identifying what kind of business processes and requirements each sector has. Companies with the SIC code 35, which covers industrial and commercial machinery, and computer equipment for example, often have requirements like engineering change management, product lifecycle management (PLM) and ERP integration, project-based manufacturing, aftersales services, engineering-to-order and configure-to-order. Business applications can then be developed and integrated to meet these particular needs. To-Increase has been working closely with Microsoft to offer end-to-end solutions that meet industry-specific requirements across all sectors in M Bill Neuman, director of product management at PTC, has nearly twenty years of experience in engineering, manufacturing and software development. In his current role, Neuman is responsible for architecture and technical direction, as well as the enterprise integration strategy for the Windchill product line. anufacturers around the world seem to struggle with the same few fundamental questions about their enterprise systems, particularly when it comes to choosing between enterprise resource planning (ERP) and product lifecycle management (PLM). Which system should be prioritised for their business? By asking this question though, what they are in effect doing is asking management to choose between developing the best products they can for the market and being able to deliver those products effectively to their customers. Aren’t both equally important to company profitability? For the vast majority of manufacturers the question should not be ERP or PLM, but how they can most effectively implement and integrate these two solutions together. “PLM helps companies develop optimal products,” explains Jim Brown, president of research firm Tech-Clarity. “ERP allows companies to profit from those products through the pursuit of the perfect order – which is the right product, at the right quantity, right time and right price.” Companies can’t choose between optimal products and optimal business execution. Nor should they trade off the enterprise systems that drive them. Choosing the right ERP and PLM systems for the business is crucial, and manufacturers can’t compromise one for the other. Product development and execution processes should also not be implemented as islands. Integrating ERP and PLM allows companies to develop a smooth flow of both big innovations, such as new products, and smaller innovations like continuous cost and quality improvement. Integrated systems help by bringing both types of innovation to market without fear of losing control. This drives nimble manufacturing, allowing manufacturers to act on big and small market opportunities quickly and with confidence. To meet the needs of integrated processes, ERP and PLM providers have been teaming up to offer integrated solutions. PTC, the supplier of market-leading PLM solution Windchill, and Microsoft have done just that. These two companies have developed standard integration between Windchill and the popular Microsoft Dynamics AX ERP system. By offering automated processes for release to manufacturing and engineering change, this solution allows manufacturers to take advantage of a leading PLM solution and a leading ERP system without compromising their product development capability or their ability to bring products to market. If a manufacturer can’t develop the right products, there will be no market. If the manufacturer can’t produce and deliver the product to that market efficiently, then the manufacturer can’t make money from the opportunity. Manufacturers can’t choose between ERP and PLM any more than they can choose between developing a market and capitalising on it. They can, however, choose leading ERP and PLM systems that enable world-class product development and worldclass manufacturing with the comfort that the product integration effort has been taken on by the software vendors themselves. This leaves them free to focus on their products and their customers. Manufacturers can’t afford to sub-optimise any part of their business in today’s difficult environment. ERP and PLM is the winning combination for the modern manufacturer thanks to leading vendors such as PTC and Microsoft. T Bjorn Kuijt is vice president of product management at To-Increase. He joined the company in 2005 with seven years’ experience in the software industry, including work for Concorde XAL. Before his current position, Kuijt led the To-Increase Business Integration and Discrete Manufacturing development teams for Microsoft Dynamics AX. Today, he works with a worldwide network of partners to expand and strengthen the To-Increase portfolio for Microsoft Dynamics AX business solutions “ERP allows companies to profit from those products through the pursuit of the perfect order – which is the right product, at the right quantity, right time and right price” 18 onwindows.com “Delivering truly industryrelevant solutions tailored to specific sectors as opposed to general ERP systems is becoming the de-facto standard” the discrete manufacturing industry. Collaborating with PLM system providers, ERP partners and customers, To-Increase develops Microsoft Dynamics-based vertical solutions that bridge the gap between business requirements and business applications. Areas that used to be covered by best-of-breed subsystems are now available in standard ERP industry solutions, and processes like engineering change management are now available in one system. This formula lets industry experts thrive; they can deliver business expertise backed by a fully functional endto-end business application. Collaboration raises the bar to deliver more effective vertical industry solutions. Working together, partners, solution and software providers, as well as endusers can share their requirements to develop solutions that meet their specific requirements. The next generation of business systems are all about providing tailored solutions, which means they will be more closely aligned with the needs of manufacturers, ultimately leading to faster implementations and better ERP. The end result is integrated enterprise applications that bring engineering closer to operations and production closer to after-sales service. It is clear therefore that today’s industry solutions cannot be one size fits all. Integration and collaboration is key. If a company requires a cross-industry solution, for example, development teams have to be prepared to work together to ensure different needs are met. Nevertheless, industry-specific vertical solutions developed by experts in their field will be far more valuable to manufacturers. Managing all their processes with tailor-made applications on a consolidated system will be both efficient and cost-effective. Industry-specific solutions are driving innovation and are proving to be the best fit for the manufacturing industry. 19
Slide 12: viewpoint product development viewpoint notification software efficiency through teamwork Teamcenter leverages Microsoft SharePoint to resolve product development issues visually, says Bill Boswell o reduce costs and pursue global markets, companies are increasingly dispersing engineering resources, design and manufacturing across their global locations. However, the challenge of driving product development across geographic boundaries is formidable. Many sites, many languages, many time zones and many systems create tremendous complexity, which is a barrier to effective collaboration. When it comes to collaborative problemsolving, product development teams encounter two major hurdles: clearly describing the issue at hand; then tracking its resolution. Consider how top-performing companies enable product collaboration. In the report The top five principles for successful product development, Aberdeen Group analysed the product development practices of best performing companies across industries. Results from its survey showed that firms shared several common characteristics. When compared to industry average organisations they are: 89 per cent more likely to provide centralised access to product information and data to distributed design teams; and 44 per cent more likely to assess the impact of engineering change by a group composed of representatives from many organisations, not just engineering. To bridge the communications gap across functions and geographies, many top-performing companies turn to product lifecycle management (PLM) software. Teamcenter from Siemens PLM Software provides the PLM framework to support global product collaboration. Based on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) technology, it connects people with the essential product knowledge they require to make decisions and coordinates their efforts as a product evolves from design to manufacturing to distribution. Within the community collaboration solution, Teamcenter’s unique ‘visual issues’ capabilities enable engineering and nonengineering team members to collaborate driving operational excellence Notification workflow software has a highly positive impact on today’s pharmaceutical and life sciences industry, says Matthes Derdack T Bill Boswell directs worldwide marketing and the go-to-market strategy for the Teamcenter software product line at Siemens PLM Software. With more than five million licenses sold, Teamcenter is the world’s most widely used PLM solution on and capture design issues in the context of 2D and 3D CAD models (regardless of origin). Issues can then be easily routed and managed through resolution. The entire process is tracked and recorded and can be audited at any time. Until now, there hasn’t been an easy way to share detailed product development documents without giving suppliers, marketing teams and other stakeholders direct access to central data repositories. That’s all changed with Teamcenter. Everyone in the workflow can share visual issues data, working individually or in connected, real-time group sessions over the Internet. Teamcenter’s embedded viewer also enables authorised users to securely search for critical data stored in the system via any standard Internet browser. And thanks to the convenient list rollup feature, users can zero-in on problem areas by checking the status of visual issues from multiple projects and sites through a single interface. Beyond facilitating real-time collaboration, the tight integration between Siemens and Microsoft products enables everyone to use familiar office productivity tools, thereby maximising efficiency and maintaining quality throughout the workflow. The SharePoint picture library automatically creates and displays thumbnail images of JT files so that designers and engineers can identify components quickly and easily. And users can manage Teamcenter PLM items in a shared document library, and control access to those files via the item level security provided by MOSS. Another significant value of the Siemens-Microsoft integration lies in the ability to attach the visual issues history directly to an item in Teamcenter, making that history a permanent, searchable part of the product lifecycle. These rich historical records help to guide future decision-making aiding in closed loop corrective action, driving continuous improvement. A Matthes Derdack is the co-founder and co-owner of Derdack, an independent software company that specialises in mobile messaging platforms and notification workflow software. He founded the company in 1999 and holds the position of managing director. He is responsible for the vision and strategic direction of the company s manufacturing sites around the world produce swine flu vaccines at lightning speeds, the requirement for optimal production continuity is so important in the pharmaceutical and life sciences industry. Enforced by food and drug administration (FDA) regulations, even tiny tolerances and variances in output can trigger a full production stop. The ability for pharmaceutical companies to resolve problems quickly, therefore, is crucial. The level of automation is already high in today’s pharmaceutical and life sciences industry. Manufacturing sites and installations are monitored and managed by production control systems (PCS) and manufacturing execution systems (MES) around the clock. Any disturbances in the manufacturing process are detected and communicated into an operations centre, where they are made visible to the operational staff that monitor production on computer consoles. When a serious problem arises, the operator initiates and follows standard operation procedures (SOP) to inform service technicians and suppliers. However, this is usually a manual process and requires human interaction. This is where notification workflow software can have a big impact. Notification workflow software fully automates notification procedures. It notifies service technicians, managers, any affected staff and operations team members in parallel and via a suitable communication channel, taking into consideration availability and executing a ‘find-me, follow-me’ procedure. This alone saves an enormous amount of time and relieves the operational team from the time-consuming effort of tracking down people. Service technicians are on-site much more quickly and are in a position to solve the problem more swiftly. Alert notifications can contain SOP information and how-to-repair details using channels such as MMS images and video clips. Once the repair has been carried out, the technician then reports back. Such automated closedloop notification processes are far more efficient and reliable than person-toperson communication. The overall repair process is accelerated and downtimes are reduced from one to two hours to just 15-30 minutes. The deployment of notification software in the pharmaceutical and life sciences industry of course puts specific requirements on these products. In addition to meeting the FDA alarm management standards, a notification solution also has to support more than one or two communication channels. It needs to support a multitude of communication options ranging from voice, e-mail, fax and paging to SMS text messaging, MMS and instant messaging. All critical communication channels need to be two-way and have to provide delivery tracking. A system that follows the fire-and-forget principle is as good as no system at all, as it will never be a true part of a business process. Automated escalations, schedules and true workflows have to be proven parts of any notification product to realise notification SOPs. The very basic prerequisite of notification automation is the ability to integrate with PCS and MES systems directly via OPC. And finally, full audit trailing, detailed alert and notification history, real-time tracking and comprehensive reports need to be an integral part of a suitable product. Examples in the pharmaceutical and life sciences industry demonstrate that automating communication processes with the help of notification workflow software has a highly positive impact on production continuity, provides a rapid return on investment and supports the drive for operational excellence. 20 onwindows.com 21
Slide 13: cover story piaggio aero industries keePIng together Piaggio Aero Industries is the only company in the world that is active in the design, manufacturing and maintenance of both aircraft and aircraft engines. Lindsay James finds out how it is working with Dassault Systèmes It F ounded in 1884, Piaggio Aero Industries is one of the world’s oldest aircraft manufacturers. To date, the company has produced more than 50 aircraft models, including the P.180 Avanti II – an aircraft that has gathered a reputation for style, quality and ecofriendly design. The company’s core activities include aircraft design and manufacturing, aero engine and aero structure parts manufacturing, and aircraft and engine maintenance. The company has operations in Italy and the USA and over 1,400 employees. Piaggio Aero Industries is unique in that it is the only company in the world that is active in the design, manufacturing and maintenance of both aircraft and aircraft engines. With a supply chain spanning partners, suppliers and customers across the globe, effective communication is absolutely vital. However, as the company expanded further, it found that its isolated business processes were becoming a hindrance, holding its employees back and taking up valuable time that could be used more productively. 22 onwindows.com 23
Slide 14: cover story piaggio aero industries “Dassault Systèmes’ Enovia V6 PLM solution will enable us to more efficiently compete on a global stage by maximising real-time collaboration to drive sustainable innovation, product development and new initiatives” Antonio Maglione, Piaggio Aero Industries “We found that across our operations a significant amount of data was kept on local machines,” says Dario Dellavalle, project manager at Piaggio Aero Industries. “This was extremely inefficient and led to a duplication of information that wasn’t necessarily accurate. Communication was also uneconomical, with a lot of travelling and e-mails required in order to effectively collaborate.” With this in mind, it’s understandable why the company wanted to transform its isolated business processes into a closely integrated collaborative environment that would provide employees and partners with access to mission-critical intellectual property, including design data. Following a comprehensive tender process, Piaggio Aero Industries chose global PLM provider Dassault Systèmes to implement its Enovia V6 PLM solution running on Microsoft SQL Server 2005. “As the international aerospace industry continues to evolve, our biggest business challenge is ensuring that we have the infrastructure in place to support the transformation of our company from a low volume, niche manufacturer to a bestin-class, global player,” says Antonio Maglione, Piaggio Aero Industries’ chief technology officer. “Dassault Systèmes’ Enovia V6 PLM solution will enable us to more efficiently compete on a global 24 onwindows.com stage by maximising real-time collaboration to drive sustainable innovation, product development and new initiatives.” Enovia V6 is part of Dassault Systèmes’ fully integrated V6 PLM portfolio, a next generation PLM 2.0 environment that enables users to create and collaborate online in real time via an immersive, lifelike experience. The solution offers important advantages to companies like Piaggio Aero Industries because it allows original equipment manufacturers and suppliers to transform isolated business processes into closely integrated, collaborative ones. With Enovia V6, companies can harness the collective intelligence of the extended enterprise. “That is a key point of the Enovia architecture because we needed to share information in real time with different partners around the world in order to leverage their capabilities,” says Maglione. Teamed with SQL Server, the solution provides an easy-to-manage centralised source of data which will speed up the decision-making process, support future expansion and help Piaggio Aero Industries to improve its time to market. “Microsoft technologies are at the foundation of everything we do,” says Dellavalle. “That’s why it was so important for us to use SQL Server with Enovia V6. This combination gives us a scalable solution and provides a common platform across all of the systems that we already have in place.” Following a significant amount of time spent tuning up Piaggio Aero Industries’ database, the solution was installed in just two days. “I must admit that I expected some sort of hitch,” says Dellavalle. “But the implementation went extremely smoothly. We only needed a day’s training each. We did this on a seat-by-seat basis and made sure that we addressed any issues or concerns there and then. The speed at which we’ve been able to use the solution has been remarkable.” The benefits following the implementation have been significant. Enovia V6 allows Piaggio Aero Industries to create and collaborate in real time from remote locations via the Internet. “Online remote authoring enables all of our stakeholders such as Piaggio Aero Industries’ employees, risksharing partners, suppliers and customers to connect and work together simultaneously on the same product,” says Roberto Zuffada, chief information officer at Piaggio Aero Industries. “With only a Web connection, our technology centre in Napoli, for example, and a partner in the USA, can work together in real time in the Enovia V6 environment. They can edit the same model remotely directly over the Internet without sending each other heavy files.” Success built on success The strategic relationship between Dassault Systèmes and Microsoft enables Piaggio Aero Industries to enjoy a number of benefits, including: • Ease of use through integration with the common Microsoft tools and programmes that are universal in the business community, including Excel for extracting, charting and presenting data; Word for documentation of design updates; and Microsoft Unified Communications for video conferencing and IM Chat • Synchronised development between packaging, product, operations, and retail and distribution to reduce critical errors and the associated costs of poor collaboration • The ability to leverage industry-specific PLM best practices and capabilities off the shelf, to speed deployment and cut time to ROI • A solution that can grow alongside any business, as the technologies integrate easily with existing or legacy software and can be used by employees with no programming skills. 25
Slide 15: cover story piaggio aero industries “Microsoft technologies are at the foundation of everything we do. That’s why it was so important for us to use SQL Server with Enovia V6. This combination gives us a scalable solution and provides a common platform across all of the systems that we already have in place” Dario Dellavalle, Piaggio Aero Industries The unified V6 environment provides access to all product-related information or knowledge necessary to design, manufacture and deliver products to market. On a single platform, V6 supports modelling applications for engineering disciplines as well as collaborative business processes that span the entire product lifecycle.“This is important to Piaggio Aero Industries because we have a lot of intellectual property in the company,” says Zuffada. “We need to ensure that it’s available to everyone.” “Enovia V6 will enable us to have a core engineering group in-house that will work in real time with people around the world in India, the US and Canada through a Web-based platform that allows for a real-time updating of the 3D models,” says Maglione. To enhance the real-time component of the implementation, Piaggio Aero Industries also deployed the Enovia 3DLive interface as part of the V6 solution. The environment is extremely userfriendly, enabling both technical and non-technical employees to easily access corporate intellectual property and work together in 3D over the Web. “The V6 interface is very intuitive. Any user, not just engineers, can easily find and search information, communicate, collaborate and experience products in 3D online,” says Zuffada. Michel Tellier, chief executive officer for Enovia at Dassault Systèmes, says: “Piaggio Aero Industries is demonstrating its industry leadership by adopting 26 onwindows.com Dassault Systèmes’ vision and solutions supporting PLM 2.0, or PLM online for all. Whereas other companies are still deploying separate engineering and enterprise solutions, Enovia V6 is the only solution that provides a single, unified collaboration platform for all users. In addition, Enovia delivers production proven applications built on a SOA environment including regulatory compliance/ecodesign, integrated global supply chain management, programme management, and contracts and security management, all on one platform that scales from workgroups to support a global enterprise, delivering low TCO and a platform for innovation. Following the success of this implementation, Piaggio Aero Industries is upgrading the Enovia V6 solution to run on SQL Server 2008 in the months to come. SQL Server 2008 enhances database productivity with new features like policy-based management that will allow Piaggio Aero Industries to create policies that control security, database options, object naming conventions and other settings at a highly granular level. It also simplifies development of data-driven applications with tighter integration of Visual Studio and the .NET Framework. SQL Server 2008 helps deliver richer information to users through advanced visualisation capabilities, detailed reports and integrated analysis. “We’re expecting to experience the benefits right away,” says Dellavalle. “We will be able to even better manage the growth of our data and take collaboration to a whole new level.”
Slide 16: feature corporate control and compliance Conquering CompLiAnCe As the regulatory landscape becomes even more complex for manufacturers, Lindsay James takes a look at the challenges of compliance and the solutions that are giving the most forward-thinking businesses competitive advantage egulations are so entrenched in today’s manufacturing sector that it’s impossible to avoid them. From the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) and The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) through to the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) and environmental regulations, manufacturers face a constantly changing regulatory environment that can be costly for them to adhere to. “Regardless of which business you are in there is no escape,” says Karel Crombach, EMEA industry market development director for Microsoft’s Worldwide Manufacturing and Resources sector. “We now live in a transparent market in which we both sell and source from anywhere in the world. This means that regulatory compliance is having a significant impact on the manufacturing industry in particular.” Thomas Lantermann, technical consultant at Mitsubishi Electric Europe, echoes Crombach’s thoughts, adding that the regulatory landscape is becoming more and more complex as time goes on. “Some of this can be traced to the lead shown by the pharmaceutical industry with the 21 CFR part 11 regulations,” he says. “Other industries such R “ Regardless of which business you are in there is no escape. We now live in a transparent market in which we both sell and source from anywhere in the world. This means that regulatory compliance is having a significant impact on the manufacturing industry in particular” Karel Crombach, Microsoft as water and power have regulatory obligations to ensure they are protecting the environment. The automotive industry requires vehicle component traceability for years after the parts have been installed to ensure the correct delivery of spare parts in the future.” What’s more, as emerging markets such as China and South Korea have developed their own regulations – in some cases going even further than the EU – the situation created can be one of serious confusion for manufacturers. As more and more countries implement different regulations and reporting structures it becomes more difficult to confirm that a product has the right make up to be sold in one country or region, let alone all of them. “Increasingly, manufacturers operate in the global economy, which increases the complexity of compliance,” says Craig Rode, Microsoft’s worldwide industry technology strategist for high tech and electronics. “Companies that sell globally need to ensure that they understand and abide by the regulations for each country or region in which they do business. Furthermore, complex supply chains which often span the globe mean that the responsibility for compliance is shared among many partners.” 29 28 onwindows.com
Slide 17: feature corporate control and compliance “Companies need an integrated solution for requirements management that facilitates faster planning, immediate corrective action and total impact visibility” Andy Kennington, Siemens PLM Software Rode puts this into context: “Imagine a product being sold in Germany,” he says. “This product is designed in the US and assembled in Japan from components manufactured in China and Vietnam. This product would have to abide by the environmental standards WEEE and RoHS. And the manufacturer would be responsible for compliance by its supply chain to these standards. On top of that, if any of the design could conceivably be used for a military application, the control of access of some of the engineering information Focus on mission success ATK is a premier aerospace and defence company with more than 18,000 employees in 22 states throughout the US, Puerto Rico and internationally. To fuel innovation at ATK, the company has fully embraced the Teamcenter solution from Siemens PLM Software. Teamcenter provides all individuals and functional teams with visibility of each requirement and the knowledge behind it, throughout the lifecycle. By aligning decisions with strategy, ATK can deliver compliant products for the customer and markets, achieving revenue, performance and quality targets. Within Teamcenter’s PLM environment, ATK can clearly document and manage requirements through consistent processes and by tracking accountability. Validation checks can be undertaken as part of everyday workflow processes, minimising disruption and maintaining productivity. would be impacted by the US International Traffic in Arms Regulations.” Without the right technologies, manufacturers can spend unprecedented amounts of time collating information to work out whether they are compliant with regulations or not. Much of this information is held in disparate systems that contain silos of information. Lantermann explains: “The problem is, most plants contain an accumulation of technologies assembled over a long period of time. Hence the challenge may not be collecting information, but being able to access it, share it and present it in an understandable way,” he says. Andy Kennington, EMEA product marketing director at Siemens PLM Software concurs: “Requirements management is time-consuming and costly when customer needs and programme targets are spread across too many applications and information silos. In these instances, manual synchronisation is required to stay up to date. Companies need an integrated solution for requirements management that facilitates faster planning, immediate corrective action and total impact visibility,” he says. Despite these challenges, the risks of non-compliance are great and can cost companies millions of pounds through lost market share, recalls and fines. Take the recent case of Mattel and its Fisher-Price subsidiary, for example. The companies were forced to pay a US$2.3 million civil penalty for importing and selling toys that contained excessive levels of lead, a violation of a 30-year-old ban on lead paint in toys. Another example comes from Sony, who last year incurred significant losses when it had to recall six million potentially faulty Dell and Apple PC batteries. The estimated cost was between US$175 million and US$265 million. Sony estimated that the cost of replacing the batteries will deduct between 16 and 24 per cent of its 30 onwindows.com
Slide 18: feature corporate control and compliance “As more manufacturers drive to become global players, and as their supply chains broaden, the complexity of compliance with regulations will continue to increase” Sai Sireesh Pachava, Microsoft predicted operating profit for the financial year. In the food industry, UK chocolate giant Cadbury faced huge recall costs when it withdrew over a million chocolate bars in June 2006, which may have been contaminated with salmonella. As a result of this, Cadbury announced lost sales of £5 million and recall costs amounted to £13 million with a full-year cost estimated at £20 million. More recently, Cadbury faced further recall crises when the warning ‘may contain nuts’ was left off Crème Egg packaging. Fortunately, for large, well-known companies like these it is possible to pay the fine and come out of the other side relatively unscathed. But for the smaller manufacturer, the arduous challenge of turning around a tarnished reputation can be fatal. Because of this, technologies are constantly evolving to aid manufacturers in their quest for compliance. But how do manufacturers know which solutions to choose? “What is needed is a requirements management solution that can manage these risks and influence product decisions as early as possible,” says Kennington. “This should happen ideally while product development is actually happening rather than later in the product lifecycle where change becomes much more expensive.” Lantermann says that the first step is to identify solutions that can communicate to a range of systems, so that all plant systems can be connected. “Secondly, there needs to be a way to take data from any of these systems and share it throughout the company,” he says. “Thirdly, it needs to be presented in a way that best suits the needs of the business so that issues can be identified and acted on immediately. Today, solutions exist that meet all these requirements. However, often the challenge is making them all function together. Hence a final step is to identify vendors who will take overall responsibility for the system, preferably without excessive cost.” Rode says that by deploying the right tools, manufacturers can automate required tasks, collect, retain, and centralise information from disparate systems, and provide dashboards indicating compliance or noncompliance, giving corporate decision-makers the ability to determine if action is required. “The companies that make it easier for their employees to comply with controls, have a much better chance of success in meeting some of the above challenges in terms of buy-in,” he says. Maryanne Steidinger, commercialisation director at Invensys, says that those manufacturers that implement the right compliance technologies can reduce the risk of product breaches and, in some cases, eliminate the chances of them happening altogether. “With much better systems of record, more sophisticated data storage and software applications that allow comprehensive ‘what if’ analysis, manufacturers can avoid many of the situations where a breach would occur,” she says. “If there are breaches then manufacturers can very easily access what happened, when it happened, how it happened and show agencies why it isn’t going to happen again.” Companies that take on compliance efforts are finding that their newly implemented selling, manufacturing and service processes provide a competitive advantage. Properly implemented, these tools can reduce the manufacturing cost of quality and warranty management, while minimising the negative impact that recalls and poor quality have on the brand. The result is improved customer satisfaction and increased profits for the organisation. “The benefits of these systems are manifold,” says Steidinger. “Not only do they require less sophisticated IT support to run reports, but they also allow for complete visibility into an organisation’s compliance status. Reports can be pre-populated and refreshed with real-time data, so these are really iterative solutions that can be run on a weekly, hourly, or even 15 minute basis.” “These technologies provide a true window into all operations for those who need it,” explains Lantermann. “For management, they can get top level information such as production data, efficiencies and quality information, all presented in a way that suits them. Maintenance can track machine faults and plan repairs, ideally from a single desk. The end result is being able to see almost any parameter of the operation from the status of a photoeye to invoices payable, all from a single, unified information system. Moreover, being able to act on this information in a timely manner brings numerous productivity and hence financial and regulatory benefits. Conditions that may lead to substandard products being manufactured are identified as they occur and corrective action is taken. Potential regulatory violations can also be prevented before they happen. Overall, the enterprise runs more productively and within the law. And of course, this information is accessible anywhere in the world at any time.” As time goes on, compliance isn’t going to go away, but with the right technologies in place it may get a little easier. “Complying with regulations will be even more important in the future,” says Microsoft’s Crombach. “More and more off-the-shelf solutions will have regulatory compliance features included and business intelligence will allow manufacturers key insight into their compliance status and enable customers to quickly respond to a changing environment.” “As more manufacturers drive to become global players, and as their supply chains broaden, the complexity of compliance with regulations will continue to increase,” says Sai Sireesh Pachava, director of risk management and compliance industry strategy at Microsoft. “Governments will continue to create regulations around environmental, financial and business issues. Manufacturing firms will therefore have to invest in systems which automate and simplify compliance. Microsoft, with its partners, is well suited to provide affordable, easy-to-use solutions in this area.” Click to comply Here’s a roundup of the Microsoft technologies that are helping manufacturers around the world to meet compliance regulations and to succeed: • Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) This serves as a control and compliance workspace as well as a repository for standard operating procedures. We are seeing more and more companies adopting MOSS as the building block for their enterprise risk management frameworks • Microsoft Exchange 2010 Provides integrated information protection, control, and compliance tools focused on helping you simplify and automate e-mail policy configuration • Active Directory Rights Management Services (AD RMS) An information protection technology that works with AD RMS-enabled applications to help safeguard digital information from unauthorised use. Content owners can define who can open, modify, print, forward, or take other actions with the information • Enterprise performance management A solution area which combines business intelligence, scorecarding and dashboarding, ad-hoc and predictive analysis, providing the capability for instant notification of problems in the enterprise, including compliance issues • Microsoft SQL Server 2008 A secure and reliable platform for protecting data and for building compliance solutions. Conforming to regulatory legislation often impacts how data is stored and how it is accessed. SQL Server 2008 provides the capabilities to address organisational needs around regulations such as HIPAA, SOX and PCI • Microsoft Dynamics ERP Automates and improves financial, customer relationship and supply chain management, while providing the flexibility to respond to compliance standards. Compliance consolidated Global plastics manufacturer Nypro has 37 plants in 17 countries. Until recently, each plant used its own application to capture product quality control information. Michael Kilday, corporate director of quality assurance and regulatory affairs at Nypro, wanted to consolidate the company’s data and standardise the collection process, making it easier for business managers to gain insight into product quality at various locations. He also wanted to ensure regulatory compliance and reduce the amount of paper used. Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Predisys helped Nypro develop a centralised solution based on Predisys Manufacturing Analytical Suite and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. The new solution has the potential to save the company US$8 million annually and makes it easy for employees to gain real-time data. 32 onwindows.com 33
Slide 19: feature the factory of the future forwArd M anufacturers are bouncing back with the biggest monthly rise in factory output for more than seven years. According to recent figures from Reuters, factory activity across the whole of the 16-nation eurozone expanded for the first time in 17 months in October and is showing no signs of stopping. These landmark statistics come in the same month that UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown pledged to make manufacturing a priority as part of the economic recovery. Speaking at the recent Trades Union Congress annual conference, Brown stressed that the sector will be key in helping create jobs and driving the upturn. With all this in mind, it is clear that a bright future lies ahead for the industry. However, this doesn’t automatically guarantee a successful future for manufacturers. With increasing pressure to meet thinking As the sector starts to show glimpses of recovery, Jasmine Yalds takes a look at the future of manufacturing, focusing on the technology that will allow factories to collaborate, innovate and prosper regulations – teamed with rapid globalisation and the demand for faster, cheaper and more bespoke products – manufacturers of today need to invest in innovative technologies in order to succeed tomorrow. “Over the next ten years, the pace of change will only increase,” says Nick Barnett, Microsoft’s director of manufacturing operations for the EMEA region. “This will be met with increasing sophistication, interoperability, security and usability of software, which will enable manufacturers to transition from rigid, process-driven solutions based on costly, custom-developed proprietary technologies to role-based solutions using familiar, centrally managed platforms and applications that give workers more power to configure the interface and the application to fit the way they work.” The rapid spread of networks has changed the 34 onwindows.com 35
Slide 20: feature the factory of the future traditional manufacturing landscape. It is now widely recognised that products, services and processes can come from anywhere inside or outside an organisation – from customers, partners, frontline workers, or outside experts – anywhere in the world. Consequently, manufacturers operate in an increasingly collaborative environment. With this in mind, collaborative technologies will be pivotal to the factory of the future, which will embrace products such as Microsoft SharePoint – a solution that has already established itself as an extremely powerful tool in the manufacturing space. With the upcoming launch of SharePoint 2010, along with Exchange 2010, Office 2010, Visio 2010 and Project 2010, the future certainly looks like a collaborative one. At the recent Microsoft SharePoint Conference in Las Vegas, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer spoke about the benefits of SharePoint Server 2010, explaining that it dramatically improves the way people work. “Businesses and consumers are facing significant challenges in today’s climate with the increase in information across numerous technologies and devices,” he said. “With amplified pressures to control costs, businesses are looking for new ways to harness the increasing amounts of information in a productive and cost-effective way. That is exactly what SharePoint does – it is built as a business collaboration platform to allow people to interact with each other, with content, and with both internal and external data to increase their productivity. As a result, SharePoint helps companies deal with the ever-growing and ever-changing business landscape.” “New tools like SharePoint 2010 will transform the manufacturing industry, allowing businesses to collaborate effectively,” says Barnett. “Innovation is a people-oriented process and effective collaboration is essential. To innovate, operations people may need to collaborate with peers, corporate groups, engineers, partners, customers and others not only in the same country, but at various sites across the world.” Ari Pihlajavesi, the CEO at manufacturing software provider Predisys, echoes Barnett’s thoughts, adding that the manufacturing industry has taken a monolithic view of the world over the last few years. “It got to a stage where manufacturers believed that enterprise resource planning (ERP) was the answer to everything,” he says. “However, they’re now starting to realise that this isn’t the case – that instead they need collaborative analytical solutions that can really add value to their business and existing investments. Those who are looking towards collaboration will have the competitive edge that will help drive them forward.” Barnett elaborates on Pihlajavesi’s point, describing a scenario where a supplier mixes up deliveries between two sites: “Moving feedstock between sites will take 48 hours, but they are needed for a customer order scheduled for production tomorrow,” he says. “In this type of situation ERP technology will show a solution, but it will involve a delay to other orders. Planners need to know if the ERP feedstock records match reality, how critical the orders are according to sales and what the impact is of paying premium prices for additional feedstock 36 onwindows.com “Innovation is a people-oriented process and effective collaboration is essential. To innovate, operations people may need to collaborate with peers, corporate groups, engineers, partners, customers and others not only in the same country, but at various sites across the world” Nick Barnett, Microsoft from an alternative supplier. By using a collaborative environment such as that offered by Microsoft’s next– generation products, planners can review real inventory and plant operations status, discuss priorities with sales and customers, negotiate with suppliers and quickly implement a new optimal plan and schedule.” By surrounding people with collaborative tools, manufacturers will be able to bring innovative new products to market more quickly and mobilise a network of suppliers in deeper, more effective relationships. These manufacturers will drive operational excellence by constantly improving products, streamlining practices and sharing knowledge. And they will work responsively with customers to build high-value relationships and drive business growth. “Collaborative technologies will close the loop between design, planning, production and services, enabling a much more efficient data exchange between different departments,” says Mirko Bäcker, European marketing director for digital manufacturing at Siemens PLM Software. Bill Carrelli, vice president of business development at Siemens PLM Software concurs: “Collaboration will be critical both early on in the process, where designers and developers are making decisions about a product and determining what the implications of that product are on manufacturing processes and resources; as well as decisions made later in manufacturing that have a bearing on requirements for the product or production or local requirements,” he says. “A common information architecture that aids collaboration will not only produce products in a better and faster manner than ever before, but also allow for the production of products that meet the needs of the marketplace as those needs evolve.” Bäcker says that in the future, collaborative technologies will use social networking tools across the product lifecycle. “Manufacturing companies have a unique opportunity to put the power of social computing to work across all aspects of their business, improving engagement and collaboration of employees, partners, distributors and customers,” he says. In line with this, Microsoft has recently announced the Social Enterprise Alliance, a strategic collaboration between Microsoft Gold Certified Partners Telligent Systems and SpeakTech to deliver an integrated social networking solution for customers in the manufacturing and consumer goods sectors. The alliance will launch the Social Enterprise Solution, which includes platform and application products and services that enable companies to connect to and leverage key customer communities through social networking and analytics technologies. In the future, collaboration and workflow will also be integrated into documents, data, workspaces and processes, making it easier for managers and workers across the manufacturing enterprise to have realtime visibility into plant floor activities. In addition, manufacturing decision-makers require visual and responsive tools for analytics based on data from SQL Server and third-party ERP data sources. Current technologies enable analysts to model plant performance past, present and future to drive production efficiency and provide industry-specific key performance indicators and benchmarks. Moving forward, business leaders will be able to gain more vivid and sophisticated views of complex data sets and interactively test new models with greater performance, thanks to advances in processing power and distributed computing. This greater ability to visualise activity in abstract representations will make it easier for managers to spot 37
Slide 21: feature the factorysupply chain rfid in the of the future computing.” service and also the says Xterprise’s Jim ones “Human beings are the most flexible resources, but satisfaction,” most difficult Caudill. The Microsoft On one hand, we want them to be creative and inventive; on thecare RFID platform provides plug and “For example, a leading pharmaceutical and health to manage. play connectivity to RFID devices, much the same as a firm is using our applications to assure the safety of other they must be printers and external hard to the rules the event of an emergency at its production Windows desktop supports consistent and stick employees in and procedures” drives. “Because BizTalk RFID simplifies development Jan Snoeij, MESA and systems integration, you don’t need to integrate that covers PCs and servers, mobile devices and cloud wasteful processes and improve overall customer four or five different pieces of software,” says Hasbe. importantRFID makes it home in on points of failure “BizTalk relationships, much more seamless, which and drive operational performance even higher. allows system integrators and application developers to It’s their customers more quickly.” satisfythis increased operational performance that Pihlajavesi sees important aspect of Microsoft’s Hasbe reckons an as a real focus for future manufacturers.closesays that inhardware and software approach is its He work with this fast–paced manufacturing environment of the future there is partners to create low-cost solutions on top of BizTalk absolutely no room fornow not only have the option of RFID. “Our customers error. Manufacturers are becoming more and Microsoft partner community to leveraging the global more demand driven, and so need to be much more agile,” healso ‘build-their-own’ build RFID applications, but can says. “They need to get products out of the door faster than ever before, on a platform that is supported as part of their existing while at the same time maintaining increasingly high Windows infrastructure. In my view, the RFID vendors levels of quality. Inwill be successful in this are those be and providers that the future, everything needs to that done right first time and that’s the major driver for provide exciting new RFID applications ‘off-the-shelf’ Lean Six Sigma programmes we see morecompany that to address business problems. Xterprise, a and more in the industry.” has built standard applications for high value solution It’s is a that example of this.” areas,here greatwe see perhaps the most dramatic collaboration scenario – proactively responding to issues “Instead of retrenching and retreating in response to that might cause a haltwe are seeing our customers make economic pressures, in production. For example, if backup systems cannot compensate for failure of a smart investments in Microsoft platform technology pumpas SQL ServerconsequencesServer, delay, loss of a such or robot, the and BizTalk can be along with our batch, or perhaps a safety incident triggering extensive Clarity RFID applications to reduce their costs, eliminate investigation. In this scenario, when the on-site or remote monitoring people are automatically informed about emerging problems detected by intelligent systems, they contact a process engineer. The extensive, urgent sequence of collaborations starts here. The key to rapid, RFID puts the crisis is rapid successful resolution ofthings into communication focus for GKB and immediate response of a coordinated extended team that could involve suppliers, local service personnel, GKB Hi-tech Lenses is the first company in process and quality engineers, production management, sourcingIndia to manufacture progressive, hi-index, people, plant maintenance teams and so multicoated and free form lenses. With on. A collaborative environment ensures the team exports to over 40 countries information for has consistent, analytical up-to-date worldwide and a domestic market share of eliminates confusion immediate root cause analysis. This 40 per cent, GKB wanted to make it easier for its customers to and enables everyone to make decisions, act quickly, and gain situation, maintaining records and obtaining deal with the visibility into the order manufacturing process. to address this need, input and authorisations as required. the company Betterchose the s3Edge also allow for better problem simulation will rtVs Work-in-Process solving, solution. solution here also lies in collaboration, and the Based on Microsoft Biztalk server 2006 r2 with Biztalk the real solution as Carrelli explains: “One of rfID, thebenefits of future automates real-time will be more accurate collaborative environmentsand human workflow extensions for work-in-process deployments. simulation capabilities,” he says. “This will include By production processes as well as simulating seamlessly extending the existing simulating legacy order management seeing algorithms virtual commissioning – we’ll be system with an that are automatedbetween product development and common rfID-based infrastructure, GKB improved order visibility, cut costs and design as well as those algorithms that actually run the enhanced customer service. With This automation technologies in the factory.better will create visibility, accuracy can now closely track closer and closer customers in the productive models and manage orders, a task which is much versus the actual manufacturing.” easier now. However, this future, unified environment does also bring challenges. Changing the way manufacturers do business will mean changing the way people work – customer solution facilities, reducing its corporate risk profile; and a global logistics service provider is providing shipment visibility and value-added services with RFID applications to its European and Asian manufacturing customers in its something that isn’t necessarily an easy process. “Changing international already quite complex, technologies isshipping business.” but changing the “Our organisation is staunchly committed to behaviour of people is the real challenge,” says Jan Snoeij, Microsoft technology,” says Frew. “Only Microsoft can EMEA chairman at Manufacturing Enterprise Solutions give us the (MESA). “Human beings are the most flexible Association unique combination of performance and low total cost but also the most difficult ones to manage. On resources, of ownership advantages.” As time goes on RFID will inevitably continue to be one hand, we want them to be creative and inventive; on advanced by must be consistent and stick to the rules the other they new technological breakthroughs that make it more accurate commitment and acceptance and procedures. Getting than ever. Hasbe says that because BizTalk RFID is their role flexible, scalable from people, regardless of based on within the factory, technologies and open standards, it is about their informing them and providing feedbackwell-positioned to adapt to future industry developments. “The performance continuously is key for success.” next generation will be is to make change as simple and he The answer here device-to-cloud applications,” concludes. “One of the biggest challenges for effective as possible. With access to a huge amount of manufacturers today need for more sophisticated information comes theis deploying software across multiple locations – for most this means huge dashboards so that everyone in the manufacturing infrastructure costs. With device-to-cloud need, organisation can access the information they you can run applications across an indefinite number Microsoft’s when they need it. One answer to this lies inof manufacturing sites, all – a collaborative multi-touch prototype of the digidesk from one central location. This drastically reduces takes Surface technology into the screen system whichthe cost of deployment and will most definitely be the way forward for RFID.” manufacturing operation. “Using this system, the user can visualise real-time activities in the plant floor and make necessary decisions quickly and efficiently,” explains Barnett. “Any relevant information such as machine status, ERP-related information, demand or supplier relationship, which are essential Innovation comesprocess, are all made for the decision-making as availablestandardtime iGPSuser. The necessary at the same at to the actions that the manager takes with the help of digidesk cover all Intelligent the supply chain management, which sectors of Global Pooling systems (iGPs), could bebased in orlando, florida, has revolutionised anything from limiting the production to placing an order the pallet-rental business. Its innovative for more raw materials.” plastic may still be a long way off from The digideskpallets offer dramatic economic and environmental improvements over the one becoming a fundamental part of the manufacturing billion platform that is sure the united space, but one wood pallets in use in to make its mark states. But iGPs pallets cost twice as much in the not too distant future is Windows 7. In early as typical wood example, tracking them deployment at Intel, forpallets, so Windows 7 together is crucial. the company and IT cost efficiencies with Intel technologies is deliveringits solution partner, Xterprise, used rfID software from and increased employee productivity via improved Microsoft and other vendors plus rfID manageability, scalability and performance. hardware to build a best-of-breed fingertips, the With these kinds of technologies at theirasset management application. more effective future manufacturer will be much Now iGPs can and manage its pallets across extended customer innovative, and clearly Microsoft is in a great position to supply chains in real time, deploy pallets enable this vision in becoming a reality. “Microsoft has more efficiently, prevent losses and many built a strong set of tools for corporate IT at invoiceof the customers with unprecedented accuracy. world’s largest manufacturers,” says Matthew Littlefield, What’s more, at Aberdeen Group. “Microsoft has senior research analystiGPs customers can track and manage product inventories of many also actively developed a partner networkprecisely of the and with better visibility without directly world’s leading manufacturing IT vendors. Over time, if it implementing rfID technology. can enable these often disparate groups to work more effectively on a common platform, Microsoft will go a long way to enabling the factory of the future.” customer solution 38 onwindows.com 32 onwindows.com
Slide 22: forum automotive forum consumer goods The changing face of car manufacturing Cars are no longer the nuts and bolts engineering projects of old. With more and more computing power onboard, their manufacture now resembles electronics, says Predisys CEO Ari Pihlajavesi utomotive manufacturing, which used to be about steel, welding and paint, is rapidly turning into a hi-tech business. A modern car may contain as much as 50 microprocessors, controlling systems such as the stereo display, anti-lock brakes, traction control, engine control, airbags and even locks. It’s a cliché to say so, but many cars now contain more computing power than the Apollo spacecraft that took Armstrong, Aldrin and co to the moon. Both customer demands for more advanced motoring and legislative requirements are forcing automotive manufacturers to put more electronics into their vehicles. The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, for example, has mandated that all passenger vehicles must be equipped with electronic stability control by 2011, and, only days ago at the time of writing, the EU announced that a similar requirement is likely to be in place for all new heavy goods vehicles within a few months. Naturally, all this onboard computing has a major effect on the way cars are built. Car manufacturing is turning into an electronics plant rather than an old-fashioned machine shop. Of course, the traditional body shops, paint shops and assembly lines still exist, but once you reach final assembly, the plants are very different from those of the past. These parts of the plant have become very complex Redesigning the box Product lifecycle management technology has much to offer to packaging and artwork management companies, says Daniel J Staresinic, senior director of consumer products and life sciences at Siemens PLM Software ackaging and artwork management is generally recognised as one of the more challenging aspects of bringing a new consumer packaged good (CPG) or food and beverage (F&B) product to market. Central to the challenge is that countless diverse actors must collaborate in each phase of the process – from concept, to artwork development, to testing and validation, to launch. A study by Siemens PLM Software held in conjunction with AMR Research showed that of 128 respondents in the CPG and F&B industries, eight different disciplines (marketing, research and development, finance, agency, manufacturing, procurement, sales and supply chain) listed in the survey questionnaire were named as required collaborators in the productto-market process. For example, during the concept phase, every discipline was seen as a key collaborator by a minimum of 34 per cent of the respondents. An even greater degree of minimum collaboration was seen across the other phases of the process, including artwork development, testing and validation, and launch. The degree of collaboration necessary to pull off more than 900 projects per year (the A testing environments. Electric cars and hybrids are effectively no longer traditional automotive engineering, but are instead industrial electronics. It’s a totally different type of assembly process – closer to mobile phones. In mobile phone manufacturing, you download the ‘brain’ to the phone – and now the same is true of cars too. This creates a great deal of complexity for product quality control as well as plant floor operations. Integration between designers and the plant floor is essential for solving highly complex product quality issues quickly enough, and as it is only in recent years that design and plant floor systems have moved beyond the ‘islands of automation’ model, making them work together remains a challenge. Additionally, as in semiconductor plants, the automotive industry is facing a huge explosion of data, mainly created in those automated systems that communicate with in-car electronics. Additionally, systems such as electronic traction and stability controls now use advanced sensor technology across the whole car. This leads to terabyte-scale databases, something wholly new to the car industry. This is a challenging environment, and the advanced IT architecture in Microsoft solutions like SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Edition is helping firms cope with this data explosion. The quantity of data is an issue, but it also raises a key question: what can you do with it? Can you create useful knowledge to improve product design, or do root cause analysis on manufacturing problems? Managers and supervisors need advanced analytical capabilities, much more so than in the past. One of the key words we hear is ‘collaboration’. The issues encountered on the plant floor are so complex they can’t be solved by shopfloor managers alone. Take product quality. If you find a quality issue, you need to be able to collaborate with teams from around the business, not just your immediate colleagues. Tools like Microsoft SharePoint are very important in connecting the business together to make this process feasible. Generally speaking, it’s not going to be quality engineers or statisticians who are doing this analytical work. Instead, the task will fall to team leaders across the business. There are two key challenges in this vision – how to make data easily accessible in real time, and how to make analytical tools easier to use for these team leaders and managers who aren’t specialists in such activities. Here also, SharePoint is so useful, because it enables companies to solve both problems with the same tool. SharePoint is a great way of making data available, but it also enables the integration of analytical tools into an easy to use Web-based solution. Older analytical tools were not browser-based, and thus they were far harder for non-specialists to get to grips with. At Predisys, we see our role as enabling automotive firms to roll out these statistical tools across their businesses, quickly and easily, to give managers and engineers everywhere in the organisation the ability to collaborate, solve problems and make better vehicles more quickly and more costeffectively. The integrated Microsoft Business Intelligence platform we use helps us make both data and tools available to managers, and allows automotive firms to take a holistic look at the data they generate, moving away from the parallel siloed analytic systems that have been dominant in the past. P all-company average from the survey), involving so many disciplines, builds an obvious case for IT-based automation and control. The IT architecture of most CPG and F&B companies today is centred on two pillars: enterprise resource planning systems, which address the needs of the transaction and financial processes of the company; and document-centred office productivity suites, which provide individual workers with flexible communications tools. Neither of these really provides an effective platform for managing all the information that is required in the packaging and artwork management process. The consequences of suboptimal IT support for this critical process are errors, write-offs, delays, recalls and brand equity erosion. Consider what is going on throughout the industry with scrapped packagingrelated materials. According to the research, packaging write-offs as a percentage of revenues are growing over time for most companies. The average value for write-offs in the most recent year among the respondents was 1.4 per cent; an enormous waste number when you consider that the average revenue of responding companies was in the range of US$10 billion. Yet a full 16 per cent of the companies claimed packaging write-offs of above 2.6 per cent. Product lifecycle management (PLM) technology supports improved results by attacking the underlying causes of failure. It addresses information and collaboration challenges by managing all brand and package assets in a single, accessible database; facilitating the aligned creation of creative and technical briefing documents; providing and supporting a variety of tools for accelerated virtual package design and testing; driving the flow of work across the entire packaging and artwork management process; and enabling on-demand rendering of the package plus artwork combination through the entire process. PLM facilitates collaboration and keeps the efforts of each player in sync. Conflicts between the objectives of different disciplines are dealt with early on and at minimal cost. For example, marketing may want a large front panel to convey maximum impact in the store aisle; manufacturing may want a shorter box to enable stability in manufacture; and sales needs the package to stay within the facing guidelines of key retailers to ensure maximum distribution. With all these requirements in the systems and tagged to the same product, the conflict is clear and the negotiating space defined. PLM has so much to offer to companies involved in packaging and artwork management that it is somewhat surprising that only 29 per cent of survey respondents are using this technology today. Fortunately, nearly 40 per cent of respondents plan to implement the kind of PLM technology described above within the next year. And another 26 per cent of respondents plan to evaluate it in that timeframe. Hopefully your company will be among those that move quickly to gain the maximum value from this transformation. 40 onwindows.com 41
Slide 23: forum high tech Summit addresses high-tech realities Microsoft recently hosted a seminar for leaders in the high-tech and electronics sectors in Tokyo. In this article, the first in a series discussing material presented at the Summit, Sanjay Ravi, the company’s worldwide managing director for high-tech, explains the current issues facing the sector igh-tech and electronics is a very complex global outsourced value chain. There are OEMs, contract manufacturers, foundries, fables companies, and many other different business models within the industry. This range of business models drives a high degree of complexity. Business change in high-tech has always been rapid, and that, combined with the short product lifecycles, makes the environment very difficult to operate in. Over the last year, the financial crisis has made the business environment much tougher. Survival is key, but preparing for the return of growth is also very important. McKinsey has done a study analysing the landscape for the high-tech sector over several business cycles. In each cycle, more than half the high-tech and electronics manufacturers fall out of the leadership quadrant. New leaders emerge, and every business cycle has changed the landscape significantly. So the question is: if you are a leader, how do you stay in that position, and if you aren’t, what can you do to get there? There are three main business drivers at the moment. First is uncertainty, which is increasing because of the business environment and the rate of change. We’ve heard from many of our high-tech H customers that dealing with uncertainty is a big issue: how can I improve the speed of decision making? How can I get some visibility of when orders are going to increase? When should I prepare to meet changes in demand? The second driver is cost reduction. When you’re trying to survive in a tough environment, cutting costs, driving productivity and focusing on cashflow is vitally important. Finally, the third driver is the question of market share. In a crisis, strong companies prosper; they continue to innovate, and they grab market share from their weaker rivals when the upturn comes. That’s why we selected ‘Innovation in a Connected World’ as a theme for our Tokyo event. Microsoft is bringing many new solutions to the high-tech sector to help firms address these business drivers. We are ourselves a hightech manufacturer – with Zune and Xbox – and we share many of the same business issues as our customers in the sector. There are several key technology trends in high-tech. The availability of manycore processing means hardware has become much more powerful than was the case a few years back. Natural user interfaces are evolving and changing the way companies interact with their customers and internally. Screens are everywhere, with the ubiquity of mobile solutions and the convergence of devices. And finally, cloud computing, the software plus services model is also making its presence felt. Microsoft’s vast investment in R&D – US$9.5 billion in the 2009 financial year – enables us to drive productivity and business value for our customers in respect of all these trends. Going back ten or 15 years, the typical high-tech firm managed most of its business processes internally. That world has changed. Taking R&D as an example, we have moved into an age of intellectual property alliances. If you are manufacturing a cellphone, you don’t just need voice technology, you also need to integrate GPS, camera functionality, video, media content, in a very short lifecycle, typically less than six months. One report suggested there were more than 200 joint ventures established in the high-tech sector in the last quarter alone. Several partners are involved in this process. OEMs work with original design manufacturers, contract manufacturers and design houses, but we are also seeing consumers becoming active participants in the product development process. Collaboration is hard. Trust is vital: how can you be sure that when you share vital business information with a partner it is secure? You need unified communications to talk with partners that may be located anywhere in the world, at any time. Take Microsoft’s own Xbox production process: when we get increased demand, we use instant messaging to liaise with partners and get decisions in seconds, rather than the days or weeks that would have been taken to raise purchase orders and wait for a response in the past. IT infrastructures must evolve to match these changes. High-tech manufacturers have invested in supply chain, product lifecycle and manufacturing execution systems to meet specific requirements, and these have enabled big improvements in those functions. But our clients are now coming to us and saying: “We still have walls between supply chain, engineering and sales, and that’s having an impact on our ability to collaborate.” So our focus has been on breaking down these walls by providing information across business divisions and providing a role-based productivity solution to leverage investments in functional solutions. Further articles in this series will look in more detail at the themes discussed here. “Going back ten or 15 years, the typical high-tech firm managed most of its business processes internally. That world has changed” 42 onwindows.com
Slide 24: in practice power engineering: energomash group in practice oil and gas: sasol Powerful product management The Russian power engineering company Energomash Group has coordinated its activities with Siemens Teamcenter and NX Dynamic efficiency Dynamic performance measurement system improves energy and electricity consumption at Sasol asol is an integrated energy and chemicals company. It adds value to coal, oil and gas reserves, and uses these feedstocks to produce liquid fuels, fuel components and chemicals. Until recently the profitability strategy of the Sasol steam plants in Sasolburg, South Africa, was to maximise output. Now, as the demand for steam has declined, the plant’s primary goal is to minimise costs. Working with the consulting team at Invensys Operations Management, Sasol personnel developed real-time dynamic performance measurements (DPM) for the plants to determine the underlying real-time performance measures and calculate costs and profits. Management and operator dashboards were also created to provide management, operations and engineering with critical information in real time to enable better and more informed business decisions. Modelled in the DCS, three station-level DPMs were developed: steam cost, steam quality and production rate. Each individual boiler is required to produce the lowest cost steam at the proper pressure and temperature specifications, maintain reliable production, while managing production rates. For each boiler, the variable steam generating cost, including labour, consists of five major components: coal, electricity, fuel, oil and water. Additionally, emissions levels were monitored and improved to enhance Sasol’s environmental footprint. DPM algorithms, real-time financial models and unit levels were implemented in the two DCSs. Using existing plant-level assets for implementation, cost factors on the plant floor can be tracked in real time. The execution of these algorithms typically takes place in the microprocessors in the DCS. These algorithms are executed at a frequency that is in close proximity to the cycle time of the process, with the historical collection performed at a similar frequency. Unit-level metrics are then aggregated at the station and plant levels using the functionality of the historian. The totalisation can be performed at various periods, including the shift, day and month. Real-time financial data with allocated costs are tracked using the ValuMax activity-based costing system and provide an immediate representation of product costs across the portfolio. The same real-time financial data is projected to eventually be integrated into SAP as the fidelity and applicability of the data is better understood. Once the performance measurement models were T he Energomash Group unites several enterprises and engineering centres and is one of Russia’s largest power engineering companies. Its operations cover design, construction and installation of gas turbine generator units for heat stations, and its product line includes electrical equipment, oil and gasrelated technology, metallurgy, heavy engineering and transportation equipment, as well as electric power and heat generation. When Energomash first began establishing its engineering centres, it started looking for a product lifecycle management (PLM) system. The company had numerous requirements, including the need for tight synchronisation between the CAD and data systems to create a unified digital platform, real-time product data exchange between the corporation’s divisions and the ability to extend the functionality of the systems. Energomash’s management also wanted a system that would support concurrent multi-user assembly editing, and minimise design and production planning costs by replacing time-consuming manual workflows with automated ones. A PLM market analysis led to Energomash selecting Siemens PLM Software technology – Teamcenter for digital lifecycle management and NX for digital product development. The deployment began at Energomash’s St Petersburg Engineering Center while the GTTETs 009 lowpower heat and power station was being designed. By developing a standard digital mock-up of the gas turbine engine, the team working on the power station was able to better manage the project at each individual stage. Energomash also reported much improved product quality alongside reduced costs in prototype production and testing. A number of other projects were successfully deployed using NX and Teamcenter, leading to Energomash making the decision to set a company standard for complex product design. NX was configured to meet the construction industry’s requirements related to metallic structures design and documentation layout, and in-house, best-practice design techniques were developed for standard electric units, including design automation using a reference library and model prototypes. Now all production planning processes are supported by downloading the geometric parameters of an NX model into a corresponding Teamcenter entity. Corporate-wide information (Teamcenter) and design (NX) systems enable Energomash to perform the complete array of product lifecycle activities within an integrated information environment. These include client database management, in-house order creation, basic product structure development by the design and production planning departments, and paper design documentation generation from the digital product structure and 3D models. The technologies make extensive use of Siemens PLM’s global alliance with Microsoft – both are tightly integrated with Windows and Office – providing users with a familiar interface to work within. Energomash also created a reference library of materials, standard and original equipment manufacturer parts and units, as well as tooling, to serve as a primary reference resource. To maintain data integrity and to avoid duplication, the library supports special entity naming rules. There are duplication removal and publishing procedures for new entities with multi-site collaboration. Company standards have been established to specify the library’s management, search and data entry procedures. The deployment of Teamcenter and NX has resulted in highly coordinated activities across geographically distributed engineering centres. Manufacturing engineers spend significantly less time on digital mock-up analyses and production feasibility studies for available manufacturing equipment. The Siemens solution represents much more than productive new development and manufacturing technologies for Energomash. According to its management, NX and Teamcenter provide an integrated information environment that enables managing the entire product lifecycle. S installed, they were historicised to provide a performance profile of each unit and station. This baseline enabled an economic comparison of boilers under various conditions. Using better procedures and training, improvement initiatives and projects, operational developments can be financially tracked and validated. Creating this type of baseline enables the development of data for financial and accounting validation. As Sasol’s division continues to improve its operation and drive business value for the company, it will acquire new products and process technologies to help achieve its goals. Sasol Infrachem’s management views development of its employees as one of the company’s most critical tasks. Government regulations and key personnel nearing retirement underscore the importance of skills and knowledge development. The Invensys real-time energy usage monitoring solution was a key tool in helping Sasol achieve positive results on this project. Producing steam in the stations resulted in a six per cent saving in energy and a four per cent saving in electricity costs within the first month, amounting to savings of approximately US$230,000. Energy and electricity savings progressed and improved throughout the second and third months, saving US$400,000 in the first two months from two out of the five targeted plants. In collaboration with Invensys Operations Management, Sasol will incorporate future business information with process data and identify other areas of improvement through advanced multivariate statistical analysis, continuous improvement programmes such as Six Sigma, and other business value-adding activities. Energomash Group www.energomash.ru Industry: Power engineering Country: Russia Solution: PLM system Partner: Siemens PLM Software Technology: NX, Teamcenter Sasol www.sasol.com Industry: Oil and gas Country: South Africa Solution: Dynamic performance measures Partner: Invensys Operations Management Technology: Microsoft Windows Server, SQL Server, Visual Studio 44 onwindows.com 45
Slide 25: in practice general trading: mitsui in practice consumer goods: day-timer & co Virtual trading Mitsui & Co has taken a bold approach to migrating its entire environment to enterprise cloud computing itsui & Co is a leading general trading company in Japan. It operates in a wide variety of industry fields around the world, anchored in the following four areas: mineral resources and energy; logistics networks; consumer business; and infrastructure projects. Earlier this year, Mitsui started rethinking its IT environment. “For a general trading company like us, creating and developing new business is an essential factor in realising incremental growth,” says Kuroda, the trading company’s deputy general manager of the IT promotion division. “When we get new business, we need our technology infrastructure to support us. That said, it is obviously inefficient to set up a new hardware platform each time. As our business situation keeps changing, servers reach their capacity and we are left with an ever-growing number of server units. “Added to that, our IT staff needs to spend a great deal of time performing enormous migration tasks incurred by our ageing hardware infrastructure. So we started looking for a new IT architecture that would allow us to manage the hardware infrastructure and applications with different lifecycles.” Mitsui began a company-wide project to strategically virtualise its entire server infrastructure, which ranges from business-critical to dedicated individual systems. Taking advice from its own subsidiary Mitsui Knowledge Industry Co (MKI), it decided to test the beta version of Microsoft Hyper-V 2.0 as its virtual environment and turned to Fujitsu to provide the server platforms to support it. Based on Fujitsu’s strength in providing high-performance and high-reliability hardware, and its wealth of knowledge and technical capabilities, Mitsui also selected it to evaluate the beta version of Hyper-V 2.0. Explaining why Mitsui decided to go with Microsoft Hyper-V 2.0, Kuroda says: “We believe that Microsoft’s technologies will be a huge help in terms of rebuilding our entire infrastructure in the way we want – to enable total management and further expansion of virtualised servers in the future. As an integrated feature of the well-designed Windows Server 2008 operating system, Hyper-V 2.0 will be a solid and stable virtual environment.” Fujitsu’s industry-standard server Primergy RX300 S5 supports the virtual environment and has been praised by Mitsui for its reliability, performance Moving with the times Using tools from Alchemy Solutions, Day-Timer has successfully migrated its ERP software to Windows Server and .NET Framework and cost effectiveness. The trading company has also been impressed by the support it has received from Fujitsu: “So far, we have been helped a lot. Not only by Fujitsu’s customerdesignated engineers but also its business divisions in charge of server products and Hyper-V support,” says Shimizu, Mitsui’s general manager of the Information and Communication Technology Department, Information Technology Promotion Division. “We really appreciate Fujitsu providing prompt and responsive support.” Mitsui has now finished evaluating its active applications and operations in the Hyper-V based virtual environment and has progressed onto the next stage of the project. “We will begin by putting into production relatively small-sized systems and expand the use of Hyper-V based virtualisation gradually, to ensure stable system operation,” says Kuroda. “At Mitsui, there will be a scheduled replacement of mission-critical systems in 2010 and we are now planning to adopt the virtualisation technology to run these critical systems. “Server consolidation by virtualisation is not our ultimate goal; it’s just our starting point. Mitsui looks to extend its new, standardised IT infrastructure to the entire group, including overseas subsidiaries, to achieve its ambition of realising total groupwide enterprise cloud computing, as quickly and as fully as possible. We hope that Mitsui, MKI and Fujitsu will keep working together, further strengthening our mutual trust and overcoming future challenges.” M F Mitsui & Co www.mitsui.co.jp Industry: General trading Country: Japan Solution: Virtualisation Partner: Fujitsu Technology: Primergy RX300 S5 industry-standard servers, Microsoft Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V 2.0 ounded more than 60 years ago, Day-Timer prides itself on being a pioneer in the field of time management tools. Now a subsidiary of ACCO Brands, the company recently embarked on an enterprise-wide cost-saving effort. Among the targets of that campaign was the company’s mainframe. With running costs of US$725,000 per year, the company’s legacy system was an easy target for cost cutting. And while the system had been state-of-the-art when it was purchased 15 years ago, Day-Timer now wanted to take advantage of capabilities that hadn’t been considered, let alone implemented, in the early 1990s, such as integration with third-party systems and connection to the Internet. “There were some workarounds for communicating with other systems, such as dropping FTP files somewhere and hoping they worked, but it was manual, very awkward, and not very effective,” says Dennis Dorney, Day-Timer’s system manager. Another target for Dorney and his colleagues were the reports that the company used based on the mainframe system. There were hundreds of them, and employees in the mainframe operations group printed those reports whenever they were needed, costing another US$22,000 in paper. Dorney and his colleagues considered their options. They wanted to migrate to a more cost-effective platform, such as the Microsoft Windows Server operating system and .NET Framework, but the question was how to do that without incurring costs high enough to wipe out the benefits. Rewriting the company’s extensive suite of enterprise resource planning applications would have been prohibitively expensive, and commercial applications wouldn’t meet the company’s specialised needs. Some tools existed for migrating CICS/COBOL code, but would require continuing licensing payments. Then they found Fujitsu NetCOBOL, NeoKicks and NeoBatch, all tools distributed by Alchemy Solutions. They would enable Day-Timer to migrate its applications to native Microsoft ASP.NET code to run as Web applications over the company’s intranet. The Alchemy NeoKicks tool processed the 3,270 screen layouts, which were converted to ASP.NET Web pages. The CICS/COBOL source code was processed by NeoKicks to route all CICS calls to the NeoKicks Services class library. Configuration information, such as transaction codes and program mappings, were transferred to the web.config file in ASP.NET. The Alchemy NeoBatch tool supported the batch jobs. The VSAM data was originally migrated to Btrieve and now is being migrated to SQL Server 2008 data management software using NeoData, another Alchemy Solutions tool. The migration included 1,600 applications and 1,300 batch jobs, and was completed over 15 months by a team of six developers. Now, instead of US$725,000 per year, the Windows Server deployment costs Day-Timer just US$48,000 per year, a reduction of 93 per cent. In addition, DayTimer has eliminated the US$22,000 cost of printing reports, as employees now use reports online. The move to Windows Server has also reduced maintenance requirements, enabling Day-Timer to redeploy the resources formerly devoted to a 12 person operations staff. Software development is easier too, enabling the company to redeploy the resources formerly devoted to three programmers. Dorney notes that debugging software using the Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 development system is faster and more efficient than using what he calls “the limited tools” available for the mainframe. Developers can work more effectively, copying files to their desktop quickly to work on their local machines. As a result, he estimates his developers respond to updates requested by the business at least 20 to 25 per cent faster than before. Although Day-Timer didn’t migrate to increase performance, it gained that benefit as well. Batch processes run 10 to 15 per cent faster. The system also now integrates more easily with third party systems and data, such as the company’s electronic data interchange system, and Day-Timer is easily integrating the Internet into its applications, such as a FedEx Web service for calculating shipping rates. Day-Timer www.daytimer.com Industry: Consumer goods Country: USA Solution: Mainframe migration Partner: Alchemy Solutions Technology: Fujitsu NetCobol, NeoKicks, NeoBatch, NeoData, Microsoft Windows Server, .NET Framework, SQL Server, Visual Studio 46 onwindows.com 47
Slide 26: interview jan snoeij Metrics that matter Jan Snoeij, the European chairman of the Manufacturing Enterprise Solutions Association, discusses the importance of relevant metrics and why this year’s MESA European Conference was a success providing information when something happens. The next step will be predictive metrics that warn people when something is expected to go wrong. An important prerequisite to this is completely understanding the production process and knowing how to control it, as processes and technology will then no longer be restricting factors. It will be about how to use the information the system provides, as Alex van Delft from DSM said: “It is up to the people (us) to make it happen.” The presenters and audience agreed that it all starts with a consistent strategy with clear objectives. These objectives have to be communicated continuously to create and maintain sufficient support and involvement. Business processes, organisational and supporting tools must be aligned. Visibility and transparency is also needed. Simon Jacobsen from AMR said: “Organisational alignment is half the battle.” As many people are involved, a multi-perspective view is required. It is about delivering the right information in the right format at the right time to the right person so the right decision can be taken. This must be organised in a thorough and reliable way. Success will not happen overnight. The current crisis has made it clear that agility is also important. Several companies have had to quickly and drastically change their policies and ways of working to stay in business. In the meantime, we have been consulting the many evaluation forms we received. One of the attendees wrote: “This conference is the best opportunity to share experiences and learn from our peers as well as from suppliers and consultants.” A presenter stated: “It was great to see such an engaged crowd and I hope those who attended my session learned as much from me as I did from them.” The actively involved and highly motivated participants made the 2009 European Conference a resounding success. Thank you all. I am already looking forward to the 2010 event, which will take place next October in Germany. This article is the third in a series of subjects based on MESA, its strategic initiatives and the Metrics Research Programme. “For operations excellence to improve and thrive we need to measure performance continuously” A lmost 150 attendees from 17 countries attended this year’s MESA European Conference at the end of October in Utrecht, the Netherlands. About 40 per cent of the participants were manufacturers/producers, university employees and delegates from five industrial analyst companies. This year’s ‘survive to thrive’ theme was reflected by many of the presenters who shared their concerns and thoughts about the way we are pursuing operations excellence to be prepared for the upturn. Two years ago ‘lean manufacturing’ was the recurring theme, but now the keyword is ‘metrics’. This is a great characterisation. For operations excellence to improve and thrive we need to measure performance continuously. Julie Fraser from Cambashi, leader of the MESA Metrics Research project, reported the first results based on input from 70 participants. It is clearly still very important that employees of manufacturing/producing companies gain a better insight into relevant metrics. Companies that provide employees with faster feedback about their key performance indicators perform better. There is, however, still room for improvement with one third of the participants reporting that their metrics are still too slow. Half of participants say their metrics are sometimes, but not always, fast enough. Two thirds of businesses that have reported significant improvements over the last three years have fully or partly automated their data. With other businesses, it is less than 40 per cent. The technology to automatically capture data has been available for many years so it is difficult to understand why many companies still manually capture it. During the ‘Metrics that matter’ workshop, participants discussed the development of metrics. Both business requirements and available technology are influencing this process. In the past, metrics were reported at fixed moments per shift or day. Today they are increasingly event based, Jan Snoeij (left) presenting at the MESA event 48 onwindows.com