by Gary Mintchell | Jan 22, 2015 | Manufacturing IT, News, Operations Management, Software
I no more had outlined the post generated from Tim Sowell’s latest blog post, when an invitation arrived to talk to the General Manager of Scott Fetzer Electrical Group (SFEG) and the CEO of ERP manufacturing software supplier Kenandy about an application based on the salesforce.com platform which is so easily configurable that even the GM can do it.
SFEG produces electrical products, such as motors, blowers, power supplies, transformers, and electromechanical timers, for large and small OEMs and distributors. Its products are used in products such as blenders, commercial printers, consumer appliances, and electrical signs.
Before deploying Kenandy, it had an on-premise ERP system, but the software was very difficult to use and was not agile enough to support their growth objectives.
Encumbered, not enabled
“Our business was encumbered by our ERP system, not enabled by it,” said Rob Goldiez, General Manager at SFEG. “The software was so hard to use that many people simply stopped using it. The data got stale. We wanted the benefits of a modern cloud platform that’s easy to use, has built-in social and mobile capabilities, and is always current with the latest version of the software.”
SFEG wanted to modernize their operations to support business automation and robotics. They also plan to add features to their product that require the support of a cloud-based system. Kenandy enables them to quickly respond to best industry practices and business innovation.
“Moving to Kenandy eliminates legacy challenges and allows us to focus on quickly growing and extending functionality,” said Goldiez. “We’re excited that we’ll be able to use Kenandy to support innovations, such as enabling our products to be connected over the Internet. We’re committed to living and breathing our innovation vision throughout the company, and Kenandy is integral to that vision.”
Since deploying Kenandy in November, SFEG’s operations have become more efficient. With the previous system, SFEG’s controller required physical signatures on purchase orders. With Kenandy, the process is managed through an automated approval process. SFEG also uses Salesforce Chatter to attach conversations to their sales orders and purchase orders, keeping all the related information together for easy reference. The employees enjoy using the system so the data is always current. They also appreciate the real-time visibility into the business, which helps them make decisions more quickly.
“SFEG’s story is not an uncommon one. Because legacy ERP systems are difficult to use, manage and upgrade, they’re written off as a burden by many users,” said Sandra Kurtzig, Chairman and CEO of Kenandy. “Since Kenandy is built native on the cloud, it offers flexibility that just hasn’t been available before. Modern enterprises need an ERP system that helps them adapt to the needs of their business as quickly as possible.”
SFEG was also interested in Kenandy because it’s built on the Salesforce Platform. They were attracted to the ease of customization, the strong reporting tools, and the robust security down to the field level. They also knew they would benefit from the third-party apps available on the Salesforce AppExchange.
“I evaluated other cloud-based ERP systems and Kenandy really stood out. There was nothing else out there that could compete,” said Goldiez. “We also wanted a system that would be easy to implement. We were up and running on Kenandy four months after signing the initial agreement. That’s fast!”
Kenandy met all the key criteria for SFEG’s new ERP system including:
- Ease of use for technical and non-technical staff
- Customizable workflows and approvals
- Real-time, tailored dashboards and reporting
- Customer portal to allow direct access to status and shipping updates
- Collaboration to facilitate communication around orders
- Mobile interface for anytime access to the system
- Business rules enforcement
Goldiez told me in a follow-up interview, that just about everyone in his plant touches the new system. The old system? Well, there were two “experts” who worked with it, but it was so hard to get into that most people didn’t bother. Not only that, SFEG’s system was tied to a paper report system. Another inflexible and cumbersome preventing widespread use.
Using the configurable cloud-based system is so convenient, that when someone needs a new report or feature, Goldiez can configure it with no need for special work orders through IT.
He said that today there are lots of eyes on the system. People are accountable to the data they are supposed to be managing. It is easier to use since it has a familiar interface.
Kurtzig added, “Millennials are coming into the workforce. They need software as easy to use as Amazon. They have higher expectations—and they also expect to use mobile devices.”
Because the application resides in the cloud as Infrastructure as a Service, new business rules and updates can be added without destroying the core and disrupting use.
by Gary Mintchell | Jan 13, 2015 | Automation, Education, Internet of Things, Leadership, News, Operations Management, Software, Technology
Let the debates begin! Jim Pinto has published his 2015 prognostications in the latest JimPintoBlog.
Check out his entire list and enter your thoughts on his blog. I’ll highlight some of his thoughts and add some of my own.
Automation Industry Trends
New inflection points will change the leadership lineup.
GM—I do not expect big changes in the automation leadership lineup. Mitsubishi, Rockwell Automation and Siemens are dominant in their home areas and fighting it out in China and India. Siemens has a bit of an edge having been international for a longer period of time. But as automation commoditizes, perhaps some new entrants will grab some share. If Bedrock Automation can market well, watch out for it. On the process side, Invensys is gone, absorbed by Schneider Electric. So the process automation business becomes even more of a minor part of the overall businesses, like ABB, Emerson Process Management, and Yokogawa. The only interesting situation in that market area is Honeywell Process Solutions. But I don’t really expect any change there.
I think 3D printing (additive manufacturing) is a game changer and one of the most important things from last week’s CES. It’s not strictly automation, though.
From Jim:
- Internet of Things (IoT): The Industrial Internet will transform the next decade. Intelligent sensors and networks will take measurement and control to the next level, dramatically improving productivity and efficiencies in production. Growth in 2015 will be bottom-up, not top-down.
- Smaller, Cheaper Sensors: Everyone is looking for or working on smaller, cheaper sensors for widespread use in IoT. Expect fast growth for sensors this year.
- Cloud Computing: Cloud computing technology reduces capital expenditures and IT labor costs by transferring responsibility to cloud computing providers, allowing secure and fast access for data-driven decisions. The significant gains in efficiency, cost and capability will generate continuing rapid growth in 2015.
- 3D Printing in Manufacturing: Today, do-it-yourself manufacturing is possible without tooling, large assembly lines or multiple supply chains. 3D printing is reshaping product development and manufacturing.
- Mobile Devices in Automation: The use of WiFi-connected tablets, smartphones and mobile devices is spreading quickly. Handheld devices reduce costs, improve operating efficiency, boost productivity and increases throughput. More and more employers are allowing BYOD (bring your own device).
- Robotics: Millions of small and medium-sized businesses that will benefit from cheaper robots that can economically produce a wide variety of products in small numbers. The next generation of robots will be cheaper and easier to set up, and will work with people rather than replace them.
- Control Systems Security: In spite of apprehensions over consumer security breach events, industrial cyber security has mostly been ignored due to lack of understanding of solution costs. Many companies struggle to justify what is seen as added cost to secure their operation. Major security breaches will change this attitude.
Business Technology Trends
Gartner’s top trends for 2015 (3) cover three themes: the merging of the real and virtual worlds, the advent of intelligence everywhere, and the technology impact of the digital business shift. There is a high potential for disruption to the business with the need for a major investment, or the risk of being late to adopt.
Here are the top Gartner trends:
- Computing Everywhere: As mobile devices continue to proliferate, there will be increased emphasis on the needs of the mobile users. Increasingly, the overall environment will need to adapt to the requirements of the mobile user
- 3D Printing: Worldwide shipments of 3D printers are expected to grow 98 percent in 2015, followed by a doubling of unit shipments in 2016, reaching a tipping point over the next three years.
- Advanced, Pervasive and Invisible Analytics: The volume of data generated by embedded systems generates vast pools of structured and unstructured data inside and outside the enterprise. Organizations need to deliver exactly the right information to the right person, at the right time, so analytics will become deeply, but invisibly embedded everywhere.
- Smart Machines: Advanced algorithms will allow systems to understand their environment, learn for themselves, and act autonomously.
- Cloud Computing: The convergence of cloud and mobile computing will continue to promote the growth of centrally coordinated applications that can be delivered to any device. Applications will evolve to support simultaneous use of multiple devices.
- Risk-Based Security and Self-Protection: All roads to the digital future lead through security. Organizations will increasingly recognize that it is not possible to provide a 100 percent secured environment. They will apply more-sophisticated risk assessment and mitigation tools. Every app needs to be self-aware and self-protecting.
GM—My take is that the biggest thing in this area is analytics combined with improved visualizations and dashboards that take advantage of smartphones and tablets. Cloud is here. IoT is here. Security will forever be an important part of business.
2015 Consumer Electronics Show
- Wearable Devices: The time is right for wearable devices.
- Practical green tech.
- Sustainability and transportation: Tesla Model X all-electric SUV with the doors that open like a Delorean. Electric-assisted bike technology; electric scooter with swappable batteries and dashboard analytics.
- Kid-Tech: Apps to help teach children science, math, and tech. Fun little robots that teach kids computer programming concepts. Drawing, design, and color patterns to help kids learn about robotics and computer programming.
GM—as I’ve already written, autonomous vehicles could be a game changer and 3D printing was huge. The outlier is drones. Who knows where that might go?
Future Prognostications 2015-2025
Here are ten prognostications for the next decade, picked from the World Future Society (7) forecasts, plus other readings and discussions with Futurists.
- – Education: A major shift to on-line education and certification is already happening, and will continue steadily.
- – Jobs: Advances in artificial intelligence will eliminate human workers.
- – Robot Work Force
- – Middle Class Impasse: delaying retirement, income stagnating
- – Driverless cars
- – Speak to Computers.
- – Robotic Augmentation (exoskeletons)
- – Health & Well-being: sensors everywhere
- – Brain scanning will replace juries
- -Energy: Futurist Ray Kurzweil notes that solar power has been doubling every two years for the past 30 years while costs have been dropping. He says solar energy is only six doublings (less than 14 years) away from meeting 100% percent of energy needs.
GM-There are going to be some disruptions and huge benefits from a number of these. Autonomous vehicles and health advances are fantastic. I wish education would change more quickly that it does. Even those who wish to disrupt education mainly only have the political agenda of “teachers’ unions” and driving down salaries. (Why is it a political agenda to drive down salaries. Shouldn’t we be trying to improve everyone’s lot in life?)
I’m not a fan of Kurzweil. 100% is not realistic—maybe residential, but not everything. Don’t think there’s enough volts there!
I think we are going to need those labor-saving, productivity-enhancing advancements because we’re actually facing a labor shortage in 10 years. Time to start thinking farther ahead.
Humans have a way of adapting to thrive. I am optimistic about the future!
Yes, Jim, I’m with you there!
by Gary Mintchell | Aug 11, 2014 | Automation, Data Management, Internet of Things, Operations Management, Software, Technology, Wireless
The Gillmor Gang discussed sensors and notifications in smartphones in its latest conversation.
If you’re not familiar with the Gillmor Gang, it’s a long-running podcast/videocast conversation about the technology industry principally around, but not limited to, Silicon Valley. The “Gang” is a fluid group of entrepreneurs, pundits, reporters. Steve Gillmor was an editor at InfoWorld many years ago (when I read it religiously).
I prefer this discussion/argument over Leo LaPorte’s This Week in Tech (TWIT) from which I have unsubscribed. There used to be several more of these, but I’ve settled on Gillmor Gang and Tekzilla right now for tech news.
Early tech blogger and videographer Robert Scoble pointed out that the typical smart phone contains seven sensors. Now mix in the built-in ability to send all that personal data somewhere where software can analyze the data and put it in context. Add in a pinch of context. Then couple to a notification engine. Now you know where tech is going in the consumer world.
The question for us is where that’s going in the industrial/manufacturing world. Can our sophisticated automation systems and information systems take advantage of this?
We call “notifications” “alarms” in our world. But that is primarily for operators. What if we had better notifications in context for every team member from division manager to maintenance tech?
What if we could track movements, history, clicks, location, and serve up useful notifications and data?
What if we could add more sensors about the ambient environment–sounds, smells, chemical composition of the atmosphere? Maybe by adding video, record such things as leaks, pools of liquid? And add all that to the data warehouse?
Why am I sitting here at my favorite little Italian restaurant in Piqua, OH writing this and not writing some apps? Hmm, that’s a good question!
by Gary Mintchell | Jul 30, 2014 | Automation, News, Operations Management
This is just a quick post to call out some recent apps (I have them on iPhone/iPad, not sure about Google Play).
Profibus/PI North America has an app that is news centric. You are greeted with blocks of news content relative to Profibus and Profinet technologies and applications.
ISA has a new magazine app named Intech Plus. I really like the interface. That reminds me of the interface of Productive magazine (which I highly recommend–that’s personal productivity, not production) which is easy to navigate and read. The interactivity embedded in the magazine is excellent.
Automation.Com known basically as a Web Portal for automation news (and also loosely affiliated with Intech) released Pulse, its iPhone (and I presume Android) app, as its venture into the world of online publishing. Once again, the interface is outstanding–not just the old “flip book” replica of a print magazine, but an attempt to make a truly digital product.
Check them out and let me know in the comments what you think. Do you like reading in that format for a “magazine”? Would you pitch print for that format? Or, do you like both? Or still just print?
While I’m asking questions–what do you think about subscription models? This blog is free. My friend Walt Boyes bought the Industrial Automation + Process Control Insider which is pretty much subscription-based. Anything that does go on the Web is posted after the newsletter goes out. What do you think?
