by Gary Mintchell | Oct 1, 2014 | News, Operations Management, Software
Several executives from Schneider Electric over the past few years and Invensys executives early this year discussed with me their approach to integrating acquired properties. In the distant past Schneider had difficulty integrating new companies leading to much politics and infighting.
Many of us are quite surprised, to be honest, how the integration of Invensys software (Wonderware, Avantis, SimSci) has gone thus far. There is positive energy. Optimism. Investment. Stability of top management.
And a further stroke of genius–the previously divided divisions of software and process control are now reporting into completely separate groups within Schneider. No more infighting between the Foxboro people and software people. (The downside for me is that any discussion of the former Invensys always drove my readership to new highs.)
One highlight of the week is always the announcement of the winners of the customer excellence awards. Customers submit applications and papers describing an application of one or more of the [now] Schneider products. I have judged the papers in the past (not this year) and love to read about the creativity and successes of people using and applying the technology.
2014 Excellence Awards
- Asset Excellence – Shell Chemical using Avantis software
- HMI/Supervisory Control Excellence – Aena for an airport application in Barcelona
- Manufacturing Operations Management Excellence – F&N, Thailand
- Operational Excellence – Campbell Soup
- Optimization Simulation Excellence – Chevron
- Production Information Excellence – Carpenter
- Pinnacle Award (overall winner) – Chevron
Congratulations to all.
by Gary Mintchell | Aug 19, 2014 | Automation, Marketing, News, Operations Management, Security, Software
Unsubscribe
I sometimes do some consulting on digital marketing and have noticed something about the “unsubscribe” feature in distributed email news. Companies provide a number of ways to unsubscribe from newsletters. Some are easy to find. You click, it takes you to a Website, it says “unsubscribed.”
Others hide the unsubscribe link through one of a variety of ways. They may not use the word. The word may not be linked and the link is hard to find, i.e., not underlined or in a different color.
It has been a year since I left Automation World, but they kept my email address alive and forwarded the messages. After a year with an autoreply from my replacement, the only emails I’m getting are newsletters and PR announcements that no longer apply to me.
After leaving day-to-day work at Maintenance Technology, I decided to make a concentrated effort to unsubscribe from everything with the automationworld.com address. I’ve been at it five weeks. My email load is down 75% between that and no more internal communications. What a relief it is!
What do you feel about the unsubscribe process? Or do you ever clean out your inbox occasionally?
Software suppliers expanding footprint
My friend Julie Fraser is an industry analyst specializing in Manufacturing Execution Systems / Manufacturing Operations Management (MES/MOM). Her last blog post looked at companies expanding from MES/MOM and also design into the world of supply chain management.
She rightly considers the major changes that move entails both internally to the supplier and also to the customers.
“Two prominent providers of manufacturing plant floor focused software have recently expanded their scope to include supply chain capabilities. Camstar has developed Omneo, and Dassault DELMIA, which includes Apriso, just announced its intent to buy Quintiq. These are big expansions of footprint, customer base, and markets.
“Expanding the frame of the problem can be very useful for customers and for software developers.
“Yet these moves are also surely going to put these companies out of their traditional comfort zones. The sales model will need to be different, and the marketing as well.
“Expanding the scope of your vision about what constitutes operations is always a good idea. Make everyone part of the solution and your operations can truly become an efficient and effective part of your business.”
Expanding your vision is almost always a good thing. Bringing additional people into the conversation—people who often have been at odds with each other—is an interesting challenge.
ICS CyberSecurity Conference
I missed the news that Joe Weiss sold his industrial control system cyber security conference to Security magazine. Notice of this year’s iteration just reached me. The ICS Cyber Security Conference will be held October 20-23 in Atlanta.
Weiss says, “It has become paramount that critical infrastructures balance the needs of ICS reliability and safety with cyber security.”
MESA welcomes new sponsor
MESA International announced that Stone Technologies Inc., a national systems integration company focused on project delivery, has joined MESA as a Gold Keystone Sponsor.
“We feel that MESA is the definitive voice for our industry and Stone wants to add its voice to the choir,” said Tom Bruhn, vice president, Advanced Manufacturing Solutions, Stone Technologies. “By partnering with MESA as a Keystone Sponsor, we are better positioned to help influence the markets we serve through education and innovation.”
by Gary Mintchell | Jul 25, 2014 | News, Operations Management, Software
There is definitely something interesting brewing in the PLM (product lifecycle management) space. There have been several acquisitions. Here’s another one.
Dassault Systèmes, the self-proclaimed “3DEXPERIENCE” Company, developer of 3D design software, 3D Digital Mock Up and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions, signed a definitive share purchase agreement for Dassault Systèmes to acquire Quintiq, a provider of on-premise and on-cloud supply chain and Operations Planning & Optimization software, for approximately €250 million. With 800 employees, Quintiq, whose offerings include production, logistics and workforce planning applications, is rated as a leader in the market by top industry analysts and its solutions are used today by 250 customers, at 1,000 sites, in more than 90 countries.
The acquisition of Quintiq, headquartered in Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands, extends Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE platform to business operations planning and further enables its longtime goal of harmonizing product, nature and life.
“3DEXPERIENCE is about the entire breadth of a business, beyond design, engineering and production. With today’s acquisition, thanks to Quintiq’s highly talented team, we expand our capacity to provide a strategic business experience platform to our customers.” said Bernard Charlès, President & CEO, Dassault Systèmes. “3DEXPERIENCE provides our customers a comprehensive environment to model, simulate and optimize their business from strategic goals to the delivery of memorable experiences.”
“Quintiq has been central to our business operations planning since 2005. As one of Europe’s largest broadcasters, we have a wide array of resources to optimize, including 3,000 people, 900 different production resources, 30,000 stocked items, across 17 sites,” said Dr. Andreas Bereczky, Production Director and Member of the Board at ZDF, the German television broadcaster. “Quintiq technology and expertise will be a great asset to Dassault Systèmes and we look forward to the new innovation that will emerge.”
Quintiq solutions are also used to plan and schedule the most complex production supply chains at such manufacturers as Novelis, ASML, Lafarge, AkzoNobel, and ArcelorMittal. They also plan and optimize some of the most complex logistics operations, including DHL, Walmart, DB Schenker and TNT. Quintiq is enabling full operations planning at Brussels Airport, KLM, Canadian National and the Federal Aviation Administration. Quintiq is differentiated by leading optimization technology; a platform approach to covering long-term strategic to day-of-operational planning; and capabilities which go beyond supply chain to encompass full operations planning and optimization.
“The Quintiq team is excited and proud to join Dassault Systèmes,” said Dr. Victor Allis, Co-founder and CEO of Quintiq. “Quintiq brings record-breaking decision support and optimization technology to the most complex global business planning challenges. Now, in combination with Dassault Systèmes’ leadership in the Experience Economy, we will bring our customers new levels of innovation, operational efficiency and performance.”
“As one of the leading producers of premium steel in Europe, maximizing efficiency across facilities and meeting high delivery performance expectations of customers is core to our business model at ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe. For nearly a decade, Quintiq has been a trusted partner and our chosen supplier for operations planning and optimization,” said Sudhakar Sivaji, Head of Corporate Planning, Strategy, Markets & Development, ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe. “We hope Quintiq, together with Dassault Systèmes, will be a complete solutions provider in the business operations market and we look forward to the innovations that will follow.”
Quintiq will expand Dassault Systèmes’ DELMIA brand, adding the new product line of Operations Planning and Optimization to the existing ones of Digital Manufacturing and Manufacturing Operations Management. Quintiq provides a new reach into industries such as metals, mining, oil & gas, rail, delivery and freight.
Dassault Systèmes B.V., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dassault Systèmes, and the shareholders of Quintiq have entered into a definitive share purchase agreement on July 23rd, 2014. Completion of the transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including antitrust clearances in Germany and Austria.
by Gary Mintchell | Mar 6, 2014 | Data Management, Operations Management, Software
I have long known the benefits that are possible with the proper implementation of the Layer 3 software commonly known as manufacturing execution software or MES. The ISA 95 framework model calls the application Manufacturing Operations Management, or MOM.
At its best, implementing MOM makes manufacturing professionals think about their processes. The software collects data which managers and engineers can use to find problems that continuous improvement teams can attack. It gives the teams before and after data to show if improvements have been made. MOM should be a servant of operations managers, not the other way around.
The MESA International organization exists to promote such an intelligent application of its supplier-members’ software. This year its “Metrics that Matter” research is being conducted with the help of LNS Research. Although I think you can still participate in the survey, LNS has blogged some preliminary findings. They are interesting.
It notes that over 200 responses to the survey have been evaluated.
“One set of data we’re eager to highlight first is the average annual performance improvements across the eight different high-level KPI categories manufacturing professionals were asked about. These categories include financials, inventory, innovation, responsiveness, efficiency, quality, maintenance, and compliance.”
“The fact that each category below shows improvements is encouraging, and a positive sign for the manufacturing sector in general. In 2014, gaining market share in today’s competitive global economy will be a matter of building on the momentum of these improvements and finding ways to sustain and accelerate them.”
Please visit the blog to read the details, but here are teasers:
- Financial, Average Annual Performance Improvement: 8.6%
- Inventory, Average Annual Performance Improvement: 15.0%
- Innovation, Average Annual Performance Improvement: 7.8%
- Responsiveness, Average Annual Performance Improvement: 10.0%
- Efficiency, Average Annual Performance Improvement: 17.0%
- Quality, Average Annual Performance Improvement: 13.7%
- Maintenance, Average Annual Performance Improvement: 14.9%
- Compliance, Average Annual Performance Improvement: 18.5%
Check it out and let me know what you think.
by Gary Mintchell | Jan 22, 2014 | Operations Management, Software, Standards
I was introduced to the IT/software manufacturing control layer (level 3 of the Purdue model) in 1977. My boss was a VP and wanted to expand his power base. I was his candidate. It was a great early learning experience–in technology as well as corporate politics.
Back then the IT/manufacturing world was transitioning from Material Requirements Planning (MRP) to Manufacturing Resources Planning (MRP II). Then suppliers began referring to their vertical solutions (work routing, batch records, laboratory information, quality, and more) as Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) signifying that one or more of these software solutions would help managers better execute (in the sense of getting it done rather than in the sense of shooting it).
A committee sanctioned by the International Society of Automation (ISA) dubbed “S95” undertook the task of defining all the tasks and intersections and workflows of manufacturing, building a model, and agreeing on common language to describe the lot. The standard is ANSI/ISA95. This standard names the category Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM).
Oh, in the meantime the MES Association (MESA) thought the Execution in the name to limiting, so it has changed to words to Manufacturing Enterprise Solutions.
Back to MRP II. I went off to “IBM school.” Much of what I learned should still be drilled into people today. Such as get your system right before adding information technology. Too often over the past 20 years or so managers have bought a technology (ERP or MES) and then tried to change business processes to fit the “solution.”
Guess what–that didn’t work out all that well. Took years to implement some systems.
Recently on the MESA LinkedIn group (a closed group for MESA members) a discussion sprang up as to whether the industry should standardize on MOM rather than MES (and MESA becomes MOMA???).
Some people don’t see much difference in the terms. I see a lot. You can now join a Webcast next week and see me on a panel with other MESA Technical Committee members discuss the topic. You can register here. The Webcast is live on your streaming Internet connection on Thursday, January 30th at 11:00 AM EST.
My view
Like the automobile advertisement says, “And is better than Or.” MOM actually incorporates and extends MES, so it is the better term and refers to more advanced thinking. This layer 3 stuff is not just about a bunch of vertical solutions. It’s about rationalizing manufacturing business and operations processes and then applying solutions to solve problems.
Meet the Panel
From the MESA press release, “Khris Kammer, MESA’s Technical Committee Chair, will host a panel of four long-time MESA contributors consisting of Dennis Brandl, Gerhard Greeff, Conrad Leiva and Gary Mintchell. We’ll hear opinions from each of the panelists, after which we’ll hold a question and answer session.”
Khris Kammer, Information Partner and Competency Manager
Rockwell Automation.
Dennis Brandl, Chief Consultant, BR&L Consulting, Inc.
Gerhard Greeff, Divisional Manager-Process Management & Control, Bytes Systems Integration Limited.
Conrad Leiva, VP Product Marketing and Alliances, iBASEt.
Gary Mintchell, Founder/Editor, The Manufacturing Connection
