Getting the right information at the right time in the right context to the right person is the recipe for success in today’s manufacturing environment.
What is a more valuable resource today - time or money? Considering that you can find more money if you must, but the only place you will find a broker of time is in the science fiction section of your local bookstore, the answer is fairly obvious. You just cannot add minutes to an hour or hours to a day.
Companies today need to squeeze as much time as possible out of their business processes in order to increase productivity and keep costs at a minimum. Engineering and production departments, for example, need instantaneous communications for change management. The same is true in the supply chain, where demand, inventory and distribution solutions cross and can be made to connect.
To achieve this higher operational velocity, companies everywhere are developing strategies built around up-to-the-moment and accurate information delivery to management, partners and suppliers in a value chain. The realtime enterprise (RTE) technology is taking root.
"The realtime enterprise is an enterprise that exploits the immediate exchange of business process-based information across geographical, technical, and organisation boundaries to achieve business benefit," says Mike le Plastrier, director of Futuristix Advanced Control Systems, a member of the EOH group of companies. "It enables the 'resource revolution' in an enterprise by optimising the use of natural and human capital, capital assets and time."
On further reflection, of course, the realtime enterprise strategy means different things to different people. For some, up-to-the-second information delivery simply is not needed and, probably, not possible given current information technology infrastructure. "But in certain areas, such as in customer relationship management, it is really important," comments le Plastrier. "Customer service representatives and knowledge workers need access to the right and relevant data associated with a specific customer. Or look at supply chain management. If you are in a build-to-order, custom-manufacturing or just-in-time manufacturing environment, having data available to you as milestones are met is crucial for continuing support or tactical control."
In the end, RTE technology is used to pursue a strategy that stresses velocity - whether measured in seconds, hours or days - in making business decisions. It is all about getting the right information at the right time in the right context to the right person.
The realtime enterprise framework
Unfortunately, many organisations are not in the position to facilitate the exchange of information between divisions and/or enterprises. Most have the applications they need to run their distinct business processes, such as shop floor management, engineering, production, supply chain, product life cycle and supply chain management, but those solutions reside within the organisation's four walls.
"Companies have invested a lot of money in disparate software applications, and the software applications have traditionally been developed along areas of expertise or silos that map into organisational silos of customers," says le Plastrier. "Most of the problems within these silos have been solved, so the low-hanging fruit has been picked. The challenge now is to get to the next level of productivity, which requires new solutions that cut across the traditional silos."
In response to this market demand, Invensys has invested in its RTE solution capabilities drawing on existing Invensys products, technologies, frameworks, domain expertise, and service capabilities. The RTE solutions provide a route to linking disparate software applications to make their information available more broadly and in realtime.
For many, the elements of an effective RTE solution are already in place. For years, Invensys has provided enterprise-level application technologies, such as dynamic enterprise modelling, business intelligence, supply chain, customer relationship and product life cycle management. At the production management level, tools such as Wonderware's InBatch recipe management software and SuiteVoyager plant information portal technology, Avantis' asset management solutions and SimSci-Esscor's plant optimisation solutions keep plants running effectively and efficiently.
The Invensys ArchestrA framework connects these solutions - as well as disparate enterprise systems - together. ArchestrA allows events and workflows to be visualised through a common user environment, providing a working window across a wide range of supply chain linkages and relationships.
Invensys technologies also dominate the scada and control layer of the plant. Solutions from Wonderware are commonly found in the mining, chemical, food and beverage and power generation industries as well as in virtually all discrete and hybrid manufacturing environments.
ArchestrA is the framework designed to make the most of these control-layer investments, whether they carry the Invensys brand or not. It is a comprehensive plant automation and information architecture designed from the outset to extend the life of legacy systems by making good use of the latest software technologies. In the ArchestrA environment, software applications can be rapidly assembled rather than programmed. New applications also can be created simply through the reassembly of existing applications. "All people have legacy issues at the scada/control, production management, and business system layers. The problem they have is getting their data and putting it into the right context so that it makes business sense to the customer that uses it," says le Plastrier. "With an RTE solution, we can present one seamless process for those customers."
RTE benefits
Who might benefit from an RTE solution? Let us look at some examples. One manufacturer's product line-up has more than a billion possible configurations. The need for speed and accuracy in connecting customer demand, parts and product inventories, shipping, distribution and change management is abundantly clear. Realtime access to information is already a reality within these departments at this company. Enabling such realtime access across the enterprise is the next logical step for companies with a business model like this.
A second manufacturer is not as well connected. This company has a warehouse management system in place and uses it to track products shipped to customers. When a product recall is announced, the manufacturer knows where the products in question were shipped, but the company cannot identify the supplier of the faulty components. An RTE solution capable of generating a complete product genealogy can assist in avoiding these gaps in information.
Another company rates distribution as its most crucial business process. It does not manufacture; it sells and ships carloads of consumer items every day. Accurate, up-to-the-second transaction and distribution figures are at the heart of its success. All of its other business activities, including boardroom strategy, rely on this information. Time is money, and if you can see something that is happening out in the business world faster than your competitor, it creates a real competitive advantage.
In summary, here is a partial checklist of the tactical competitive advantages delivered by an RTE approach:
* Visibility, timeliness, and accuracy of information.
* Agility in responding to customer demands and changes in the marketplace.
* Smoother workflow.
* Lower transaction costs.
* Unassisted business-to-business communication.
* Return on investment in enterprise solutions through information access, automation and extension of the capabilities of the user's applications.
Real solutions
Implementing aspects of an RTE strategy should not be confused with a call for massive hardware and software investment. Like the frameworks developed by Invensys, these realtime solutions are meant to make the most of current infrastructure investments and solve basic business problems. "It all starts with understanding the business problem," says le Plastrier. "This requires an understanding of the customer's business, understanding the specific domain, understanding what the problems are and being able to quantify the value of solving the problems. Once you do that, Invensys has the many different assets that can be applied to solving that problem."
In today's competitive times, efficiency and productivity achieved through more effective use of information may well determine which companies succeed. The realtime enterprise - the convergence of applications from all different domains to solve the real business problems, in real enough time - may help those companies do just that. For global business, realtime is an idea whose time has come.
For more information contact Mike le Plastrier, Futuristix Advanced Control Systems, 011 723 9900, mike@futuristix.co.za, www.futuristix.co.za
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