Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) launched its first Plant in a Box (PIB) offering during the MESA 2013 North American Conference. MESA’s community focuses on best practices for successful software implementation and TCS states that this new offering leverages such models as MESA’s B2MML and ISA 95. TCS says this offering is intended to help manufacturers rapidly set up, operate, optimize, and replicate lean manufacturing plant business systems.
For companies moving production facilities close to their target markets, enabling quick and effective ramp-up of new facilities is critical to success. The offering will initially focus on the Automotive Industry – both OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers, with the intention to extend the solution to other discrete and process industries down the road.
“We are delighted that TCS has chosen MESA’s North American Conference as the venue to launch this new offering,” said MESA President Michael Yost. “Our members need to see new and evolving solutions as they come to market and understand how they can most successfully and reliably leverage them. MESA encourages companies to contribute to the conversations shaping how modern Information Technologies enhance production operations, and that’s what TCS has done here today.”
The PIB offering includes both commercial enterprise software and Process Framework that rests on a set of models specific to automotive needs. The intention of the models is to help optimize the plant and supply chain and better ensure the enterprise software implementation results in the desired business outcomes.
“Implementing the TCS PIB solution will provide customers with better opportunities to enable a performance-driven plant with visibility to performance driven by key performance indicators (KPIs). With that advantage, they can improve on the key metrics that MESA identifies in its Metrics and Performance Management research: time to market, market share, costs, and return on investment,” said Sanjay Karve, Head of the Innovation and Transformation Group at TCS.
At the core of PIB are a plant management model, detailed business processes and KPIs for lean operations realized on an enterprise software platform. PIB also includes interface models for effective interaction with supplier, customer and shop-floor systems. The software included has pre-configured processes, scenarios, reports, collaboration, and integration to select MES and PLM systems. PIB combined with TCS’ Manufacturing Operations Transformation (MOT) methodology is intended to allow customers to rapidly deploy standardized processes and systems in a plant and enable quick value creation.
Watch for the launch of The Manufacturing Connection coming soon. “Connecting things, data and people in a digital world promoting manufacturing excellence.”
