ERP Selection Series: Requirements for an FDA-regulated Environment

The FDA imposes strict process controls on food and pharmaceutical manufacturers for good reason. Consequences of mistakes are hefty—ranging from costly recalls and lawsuits to illness and death. Food and pharmaceutical manufacturers need to keep profitability high while maintaining strict quality-control standards. See how your ERP software can make the difference between process control and business-crippling process instability.

Overview

The task of evaluating and selecting a business system that will essentially run your business and help you meet U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requirements can be a daunting project. The purpose of this white paper is to provide you with an helping manufacturing companies choose an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, including 100+ Life Science customers whose manufacturing must meet FDA requirements.

To continue reading, click here.

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Manufacturing Strategies that Win: IT’s New Role in the Cloud

Executive Summary

 

With acceptance of cloud-based strategies growing among manufacturers of all types and sizes, it’s easier than ever to make the business case for transitioning to the cloud. But beyond the cost savings and responsiveness of cloud solutions, this transition also provides new opportunities for the IT department to grow into a key role as strategic business advisor.

 

Also in this report:

 

• why manufacturers are moving to the cloud

• the advantages that cloud solutions offer manufacturers

• the new opportunities that moving to the cloud opens up for IT

• advice on how IT can help manufacturers realize the full benefits of cloud-based solutions

 

New Opportunities for IT

 

Today more than ever, small and mid-sized manufacturers are adopting cloud-based enterprise software solutions. Driving this newfound interest is an emerging manufacturing model that relies heavily on outsourcing. This model allows companies to keep costs low and stay nimble in the face of stiff competition. It’s also well suited to take advantage of cloud-based enterprise software.

 

A New Manufacturing Model

 

Outsourced manufacturers, or “brand owners” as they’re often called, tend to be fast-growing, small to mid-sized multinational companies that take full advantage of the global information economy to bring products to market. Instead of investing in in-house manufacturing infrastructure, these companies focus on leveraging their intellectual property to design products that are then manufactured—and often warehoused, transported, and shipped—by international networks of partners.

 

To continue reading, click here.

 

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SolidWorks and IQMS Form Joint Venture

IQMS’ manufacturing ERP software, EnterpriseIQ, can now be easily accessed from within SolidWorks for data consistency and secure document control

PASO ROBLES, CALIF. – April 2, 2013 – IQMS, a manufacturing ERP software and MES developer with an ongoing, proactive commitment to its product and relationships, today announced the release of its SolidWorks^® product data management add-in. From within the SolidWorks menu, users can link parts, tools and other assembly file details and configurations to create engineering change orders (ECOs) and cross-populate the inventory, bills of material (BOMs), project management and preventative maintenance modules in EnterpriseIQ for increased productivity and elimination of data inconsistency.

SolidWorks is an established CAD application with powerful 3D design capabilities. With more than two million SolidWorks licenses on the market today, manufacturers around the globe are utilizing the SolidWorks 3D rendering tools to create, simulate, publish and manage product data, parts and tools.

EnterpriseIQ’s interface with SolidWorks is unique: Unlike many other offerings that attempt to synchronize the CAD platform with ERP software (eliminating redundant data entry, but still requiring a separate linking program and its associated challenges), IQMS actually works from within the CAD software. IQMS is not interfacing with the SolidWorks program, it is the program.

Additionally, IQMS is delivering a higher level of discipline into SolidWorks’ document control by incorporating the secure document and revision control system features already developed in EnterpriseIQ. Now, from inside SolidWorks, users can use the EnterpriseIQ document control system to check documents in and out to avoid overwriting changes, create workflows to ensure that sign-offs occur in a timely manner, manage document libraries, view and print SolidWorks PDFs from within EnterpriseIQ and track document history.

To continue reading, click here.

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How Technology is Inspiring a New Breed of CIO in Manufacturing – Part 3 of a 5 Part Series

03 Apr 2013 |  Posted by acontinelli |  0 Comment.

Introduction – Executive SummaryThe office of the CIO, first proposed in 1980, has finally come of age.

But why has it taken so long, and what particular demands does modern manufacturing place on those in the vanguard of re-imagining technology’s role?  In this executive briefing, we examine the role of the Chief Information Officer, touching briefly on the key steps of what should be their journey from the computer suite to the boardroom.  Over five sections, we look at Improvers, Transformers and Inspirers, mapping their skills, talents and experience against the needs of industry.  We discuss the place and purpose of technology in the fiercely competitive global market.  Lastly, we propose a 5-point plan to help the business meet its goals–and to help the CIO mature into a new form of business leader.

Cre8tive Technology & Design (www.ctnd.com) will be posting a five part series on How Technology is Inspiring a New Breed of CIO in Manufacturing

 

Part 3 – “The best way to predict the future is to invent it” 

That quotation, attributed to Alan Kay, the noted computer scientist, neatly summarizes the extent of the opportunity available to the modern CIO.

It also serves as a guide to what is expected of the CIO

Because in a nutshell, that’s the CIOs job–to help ensure that the company has the best possible future. The CIO doesn’t stop being an Improver; instead a CIO increasingly drives new and better ways to empower others with that responsibility.  That gives them the time and opportunity to focus on transformer activities; the innovation to move the business forward.

The business is the technology:

The technology is the business

With the understanding of both the Improver and Transformer sides of the role and the ability to harness technology to serve the needs of the business, the CIO can begin to determine what kind of organization his will become. A CIO has it in his grasp to be a deciding influence on the future success of the company–not as a technologist, but as a business leader with a hugely powerful portfolio of skills and resources at his disposal.

From Improver to Inspirer

Clearly, this is a journey of critical importance, to the CIO and to the immediate IT organization, and to the business as a whole.  In the next section, we offer a five-point plan to chart progress.  Every manufacturer is different, so of necessity this will be a template rather than a definitive map, but it’s a good starting point.

Read more: http://ctnd.com/how-technology-is-inspiring-a-new-breed-of-cio-in-manufacturing-part-3-of-a-5-part-series/#ixzz2PQlWqYkR

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Can ERP Software Help Save American Manufacturing Jobs?

All Articles From Eric Kimberling | April 3, 2013

Much has been said about the demise of American manufacturing. There is a general sense that manufacturing jobs are being moved overseas to China, India, and other developing markets, yet from what we can tell, U.S. companies and other developed multi-nationals are still looking for ways to leverage ERP systems. In fact, a majority of our clients – most of whom are investing in some sort of new ERP software – are in the manufacturing and distribution industry or one of its many sub-verticals, so it doesn’t appear to us as though our US-based clients going out of business. So where is the disconnect?

There is truth to the fact that some manufacturing processes, supply chains and jobs are being relocated to emerging economies. Even in industries as diverse as professional services, financial services and technology, mobile workforces and business processes dispersed throughout the world is a very real trend that is showing little to no sign of changing anytime soon. Rising labor costs and an increasingly global economy are just two of the reasons why some work is being shifted overseas.

While these changes do not appear to be eliminating jobs, they do appear to be changing the nature of those jobs and are introducing additional challenges and complexities that haven’t had to be addressed until recently. For example, for each company that moves jobs from the U.S. to another part of the world, there are additional opportunities to replace these typically less-complex commodity manufacturing activities with higher-value products and services that are less likely to be handled outside developed countries such as the U.S.

To continue reading, click here.

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What does Apple’s technology solution have to do with ERP?

Published March 27, 2013

In the 1990’s, ERP purchasers were wary of solutions offering their own database. There were concerns about importing and exporting data to third party systems, data integrity and security.  Consequently, there was a rush to have ERP software integrate with a multitude of off the shelf database solutions: MS SQL, Oracle, Sybase, Informix, etc.

Later, many of these databases disappeared from the market. Others were moved off the “supported database” list as ERP vendors began to realize the costs of updating and supporting multiple databases, and instead decided to focus on just one or two solutions.  Further, the more disparate components you add to the ‘core’ ERP functionality, the higher the risk for breaks in the overall system functionality.  Concerns about data availability have also become irrelevant as standard import/export tools like ODBC, XML, COM and ActiveX become standard and widely availability.

More and more providers are going back to their roots, when they supported only their own internally developed database solution. Interestingly these database solutions are often called “proprietary”, when in fact, all off the shelf database solutions, except those that are truly open source, are equally proprietary.

Now, what does this have to do with Apple? Well, from the beginning Apple blazed their own path, designing, developing and manufacturing their own operating system, applications and hardware. This was a very different strategy than Microsoft, who focused exclusively on OS first, and then built an application business, notably their productivity solutions in the MS Office Suite.

Apple’s strategy was based on a belief that owning the technology stack would allow them to control their destiny. By designing solutions that they were certain were compatible across the OS, application, and hardware layers, they were able to  ensure the quality of any product with their brand on it. The Apple success was built not just on one layer in the technology stack, but on everything that comprises the user experience, from the feel of the iPhone, to the design of the icons on the screens of complimentary Apple devices. And, consequently, the Apple upgrade path is easy and, primarily, seamless.

Now we can see other technology giants understanding the value of owning the technology stack and adopting the Apple model. The new Microsoft tablet, the Surface, is their total hardware, software, and operating system solution. We also see that Microsoft SQL Server is the only database software that Microsoft Dynamics AX will run on. This past summer, Google announced that it would acquire Motorola Mobility Holdings, the cellphone business that was split from Motorola in their move to owning the technology stack.

To continue reading, click here.

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10 Battle-tested Take-aways from Panorama’s ERP Boot Camp

Mar 27 2013 7:13 AM

Thanks again to the Panorama Consulting team for a powerful, provocative 3-day, ERP Boot Camp in Denver last week! It was exciting for frank (@elissa4frank and @john4frank) to be among the newest Boot Camp grads and join such an elite group of ERP practitioners sharing strategies on improving ERP ROI – especially alongside our OCM / ERP Comms Panorama co-presenters, Rick Platz and Brevard Neely.

So here’s the question: With the billions of dollars invested in ERPs every year, why is that Panorama’s 2013 ERP Report still shows that 60% of companies receive less than half of the of ERP business benefits they expected? (With an average ERP tech spend of $7.3 MM, that’s a tough ROI!)

Panorama’s expert ERP team and other SMEs speaking at Boot Camp had a lot of answers. Here are the perspectives that hit home with us:

1. Elevate your ERP from a standard, IT implementation project to a strategic, business transformation. Perception is reality – and a strategic, business transformation will attract senior business leaders to the table. Get this high-level executive alignment and commitment locked in early. Then hold these stakeholders accountable throughout the project. Also take the opportunity to get your business-story straight and repeat it over and over again to your organization (Panorama’s Managing Partner, @EricKimberling, put it this way: “Once you get tired of hearing the message, you’ll realize your colleagues are just starting to get it!”)

2. Take your vacation before your implementation! Accept the fact that the mythical 40-hour, work-week evaporates during ERP implementations. That’s just the way it is, so set expectations up front: working on an ERP implementation does not neatly fit into a 40-hour work week. That’s not a biggie to a lot of folks, but consider that different team members will have different feelings about this, for example, technical people are more used to working nights, weekends and holidays – functional people may be less willing to do so.

To continue reading, click here.

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How Technology is Inspiring a New Breed of CIO in Manufacturing – Part 2 of a 5 Part Series

27 Mar 2013 |  Posted by acontinelli |  0 Comment.

The office of the CIO, first proposed in 1980, has finally come of age.But why has it taken so long, and what particular demands does modern manufacturing place on those in the vanguard of re-imagining technology’s role?  In this executive briefing, we examine the role of the Chief Information Officer, touching briefly on the key steps of what should be their journey from the computer suite to the boardroom.  Over five sections, we look at Improvers, Transformers and Inspirers, mapping their skills, talents and experience against the needs of industry.  We discuss the place and purpose of technology in the fiercely competitive global market.  Lastly, we propose a 5-point plan to help the business meet its goals–and to help the CIO mature into a new form of business leader.

Cre8tive Technology & Design (www.ctnd.com) will be posting a five part series on How Technology is Inspiring a New Breed of CIO in Manufacturing

Part 2 – Doing things better, or doing better things?

Knowing your starting point is an advantage on any journey, so before we envisage the changes a new breed is likely to bring about, it’s worth looking at the two types of CIO currently holding sway in the manufacturing sector.

Improvers and Transformers

Improvers are highly valuable to their organizations.  They concentrate on the traditional IT virtues of controlling costs, increasing efficiency, optimizing processes, and making sure the business gets the IT that it needs.

Their focus is on doing things better.

Transformers are a very different proposition.  When doing things better is just not enough, it’s time to harness the energy and talents of a Transformer.

They’re the ones who do better things–bringing the power of technology to bear on business problems.   For Transformers, technology is the means, not the end.

So should every CIO now become a Transformer?

Is it time for the Improver to emerge, blinking, from the dark chrysalis of the server room to become a beautiful butterfly?

Not exactly

There’s still a significant overlap, in both role and responsibility, between the two. The Improver looks at today and tomorrow, while the Transformer looks at tomorrow and beyond.

In other words, you need to be a solid Improver before you can truly be a Transformer.

Only if you’re able to improve your manufacturing processes (productivity, profitability, efficiency and quality), can you make time for and dedicate your resources to innovation.

For some CIOs, this is a natural progression.  It allows them a much freer rein to act decisively and to demonstrate their worth to the business.

For others, it is a step too far outside their comfort zone.

For them, there’s an uncomfortable truth to be faced; while in the past manufacturing had need of Improvers, the time for cutting a way out of trouble has been and gone.

Indeed, it could be argued that such a limited approach is itself flawed in strategy and execution.  The hanging question is: “If you’ve been as efficient as you claim, why is there still something to cut?”

But that is almost irrelevant, given the vastly redrawn landscape of recent years.

New business models, new challenges

Never before has there been such an explosion of manufacturing business models.

Never before have manufacturers had to embrace so many different ways to source and manage suppliers, produce products, and reach customers.

Never before has there been such a demand for speed, re-invention, agility, and innovation.

Faced with these challenges, the successful CIO knows that if the business is to remain competitive, the CIO needs to shift the focus from Improver to Transformer–and, crucially, take others with him on the journey.

Again, there are three key questions for any CIO pondering the future–and, arguably, for any organization contemplating change:

What is your strategy to reconcile cost savings and innovation?

As a CIO, how do you persuade others to embrace risk and initiate change?

What kind of leader do you want to be?

Read more: http://ctnd.com/how-technology-is-inspiring-a-new-breed-of-cio-in-manufacturing-part-2-of-a-5-part-series/#ixzz2OqLuR5Q9

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How Technology is Inspiring a New Breed of CIO in Manufacturing – Part 1 of a 5 Part Series

20 Mar 2013 |  Posted by acontinelli |  0 Comment.

Introduction – Executive SummaryThe office of the CIO, first proposed in 1980, has finally come of age.

But why has it taken so long, and what particular demands does modern manufacturing place on those in the vanguard of re-imagining technology’s role?  In this executive briefing, we examine the role of the Chief Information Officer, touching briefly on the key steps of what should be their journey from the computer suite to the boardroom.  Over five sections, we look at Improvers, Transformers and Inspirers, mapping their skills, talents and experience against the needs of industry.  We discuss the place and purpose of technology in the fiercely competitive global market.  Lastly, we propose a 5-point plan to help the business meet its goals–and to help the CIO mature into a new form of business leader.

Cre8tive Technology & Design (www.ctnd.com) will be posting a five part series on How Technology is Inspiring a New Breed of CIO in Manufacturing

Part One – The Rise of the Modern CIO

Things happen fast in tech. New technologies, models, processes and roles emerge in months–and get superseded just as quickly.

Why, then, has the genesis of the modern CIO been such a long–and at times, painful–process?

The first reference to a CIO was in 1980 at the Information Management Exposition and Conference:   “The manager of information systems in the 1980s has to be Superman—retaining his technology cap, but doffing the technical suit for a business suit and becoming one of the chief executives of the firm.  The job of chief information officer does not exist today, but the CIO will identify, collect, and manage information as a resource, set corporate information policy, and affect all office and distributed systems.”

William Synott, Senior Vice President of the First National Bank of Boston, was very much ahead of his time.  For the next twenty years, technology remained the CIO’s primary responsibility.  Innovation drove greater throughput, more complex infrastructure, and faster adoption.  There was little understanding of the wider commercial considerations.

Read more: http://ctnd.com/how-technology-is-inspiring-a-new-breed-of-cio-in-manufacturing-part-1-of-a-5-part-series/#ixzz2OfCU45MW

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Myths and Realities of “Top to Shop” in Manufacturing – Part 2 of Series

13 Mar 2013 |  Posted by acontinelli |  0 Comment.

For nearly two decades analysts, journalists, and industry experts have warned manufacturers about the consequences of a disconnect between the shop floor (the production line) and the top floor (senior management up to C-suite).  With all that has been written on the subject, it’s surprising that few manufacturers have even tried to connect the shop floor to the top floor to enhance the extended supply chain.Those that have taken action without success failed to address the fundamental requirements of connecting the top floor with the shop floor in a manufacturing business:

Use one set of data—a single, real-time version of the truth;

Make the corporate strategic plan actionable for everyone in the organization;

Deliver production and operations insight into the hands of the people who define the strategy;

Close the loop on the extended supply chain; and,

Use enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, a manufacturing execution system (MES) and enterprise manufacturing intelligence (EMI) software in harmony to facilitate a flow of accurate information throughout the organization.

 

Making the connection from top floor to shop floor, and back again, can seem overwhelming.  Like any strategic goal, it requires senior management commitment, together with motivating and mobilizing everyone and everything throughout the organization in the same direction.  Without this level of commitment, information silos flourish and the disconnect becomes a chasm, placing business goals in jeopardy.

 

 

Part Two – The Realities of “Top to Shop” in Manufacturing

Reality: The plant is disconnected from the extended supply chain

The more a company can simplify the business processes needed to support their complex supply chain and complex manufacturing, the more time and money they will have to focus on what they’re good at—making things.  Unfortunately, a lot of companies have inadvertently built in complexity by creating processes or acquiring systems to tackle very specific problems. Most of the time, these processes and systems don’t work together.

Let’s examine a common scenario.  The typical production facility feels like an island, where no one knows how to get where senior leadership wants to be, and is disconnected from the extended supply chain of suppliers and customers.  How can that be?  Consider what ERP is designed to do—look ahead weeks and months to come up with a plan.  But, what the factory really cares about is the here and now— what am I supposed to be making, and do I have what I need to make it?  Line workers don’t have time to wait for a plan from the back office.  They need the plan for this moment in order to react in real-time.

To make things a little easier for the production team, companies have put processes in place for planning, scheduling, design, execution, manufacturing and reporting.  The number of hands and systems that touch the plan from order to ship continues to grow. Instead of making things easier or more efficient, the result is more lag time to communicate production plans and changes, and a much higher risk of error.  The complexity grows exponentially with each new system or process.  It’s a rare occasion when inbound supply, production, and outbound goods all align with demand and plan.

Reality: Businesses are data rich and information poor

How many pieces of paper does it take to run a manufacturing plant?  For some, it’s not a number they’d be glad to share.  Typically, once the plan is set by the ERP, plants print out work orders, which are attached to work centers and given to each person running the equipment.  Line workers see it and know, “these are the orders I need to fill today.”  Production begins, and workers manually record what’s happening on the line.  Often factories use preprinted forms or pads:

• How many parts did we make?
• How much did we scrap?
• Was the machine on or off?
• If it was off, why was it off?

 

Even if plant managers are highly successful in gaining support from all the line workers throughout the facility, at the end of each run, shift or day, someone has to collect all that paper, and enter it in the ERP or planning system.

Because recording and data entry are manual processes, many workers feel a sense of optimism. In other words, people record their perceptions, rather than what actually happened. The result is perhaps overestimating the number of good items made, or underestimating the amount of scrap.  Workers may record that a machine was down for 45 minutes for setup, when in reality setup took 55 or 60 minutes.  It’s not a question of honest reporting. Instead, workers focus on their job—making product—rather than on reporting.

Many times there’s a long reconciliation exercise at the end of each shift and an attempt to make reality fit the plan—adjusting the numbers and reporting.  Without accurate information, the disconnect grows, and it becomes impossible to accurately analyze and explain the discrepancy between plan and reality.  Ultimately, there is no valid insight to make either strategic or tactical decisions, and decision making is based on faulty data and anecdotal incidents. Even then, there is significant lag time from what happens on the production line to reacting and decision making.

Reality: Manufacturers throw away money and much more

Read more: http://ctnd.com/myths-and-realities-of-top-to-shop-in-manufacturing-part-2-of-series/#ixzz2OYy2kz9Q

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