Sometimes when using our personal PCs with Microsoft Office, we tend to forget that the global company has a significant interest in manufacturing (including the I&C industry) and that a large part of its annual $6,8 billion in R&D is devoted to this sector, developing new systems and processes to ensure that companies can maximise the efficiency of their IT systems and effectively lower the cost of this expensive infrastructure. Here in South Africa, David Ives, business group manager, Enterprise and Partner Group for Microsoft SA, has been getting this message across to systems integrators and others in the industry through seminars and other presentations and it is expected that articles written by him will be published in future issues of this publication. The purpose of this feature article is to review the content of his message, and that of Microsoft, to industry.
The involvement of Microsoft in industry is confirmed by the fact that virtually all recognised scada applications run on Microsoft, including all the offerings from our own scada developer Adroit, Wonderware, Invensys, Honeywell, and all the other big company names. As examples Adroit and Wonderware both use the powerful Microsoft.NET platform for their latest offerings.
Background and the example of the consumer products industry
David often uses the consumer goods industry as an example in his presentations and here there are some very interesting facts that are available from AMR Research and other sources. If we look at management of the supply chain the following statistics are pertinent
* More than 20% of orders are filled imperfectly.
* There is more than $1,2 trillion currently in the European supply chain alone, this increasing to $3 trillion in the latest figures from AMR when the US is included.
* 78% of merchandise sold is marked down because of inaccurate forecasting.
* Some 75% of new products introduced fail.
* Some 70% of engineering hours are wasted.
The cost of all the above is huge to the industry but AMR benchmarking shows that Demand Masters (who understand the complications and are managing stocks and controlling misconstrued marketing) have 15% less inventory, 17% stronger order fulfilment and 35% shorter cash-to-cash cycle times. All of this can be translated into 60% better profit margins, 65% better earnings per share and two to three times better return on assets managed.
Despite the high failure of new product introductions, there is still a rush to innovate probably in an attempt to capture competitor market share. In terms of new consumer product innovations some examples as to how the number of new product introductions has increased from during 1980 to during 2000 are as follows:
* Cereal product introductions increased from 34 to 192.
* Coffee offerings increased from 11 to 384.
* Deodorisers and air fresheners increased from 53 to 372.
* Ice cream and frozen yoghurt products increased from 57 to 556.
The list goes on and on, but so much for the power of the consumer and the cost to industry when new product introductions fail.
The role of Microsoft
In regard to Microsoft, its development programme has a strategy that is geared up for the manufacturing and mining industries and according to David Ives (who was once a systems integrator himself) has many new and useful things in the pipeline. Today Microsoft can help everyone understand their business and how systems enable the user control their business and increase its efficiency.
In terms of server technology Microsoft sees great opportunities for the consolidation of servers. Within the I&C industry most operations have several servers but with Windows Project Server 2003 these can be consolidated into a single server with significant improvements in management efficiencies. Windows Server 2003 can also display technology much easier than previous Windows versions.
With 2003 there is also Windows Sharepoint Services (WSS) that allows setting up of team/collaborator sites. This is very important from an holistic point of view as this makes it possible to share plant-based data with other selected people in the organisation. Engineers often do not communicate adequately but implementation of WSS allows sharing of knowledge right down to issues such as safety and the environment. This means that sharing of plant issues and risks can be made much more effective with this technology. WSS also handles the standard Microsoft Office tools such as Excel and Word, making sharing of knowledge much easier and more accessible.
On top of WSS it is possible to put the SharePoint Portal Server. This effectively ties all knowledge sites together, including the MES, data from SAP, etc, into a single portal interface. Implementation of Microsoft Office is very powerful here - for example, in the scada world there is still widespread use of dynamic data interchange and this can be pulled into Excel. Using OPC, the data can be transferred directly into Office tools such as Excel or Word and use can be made of smart tags. Clicking on these tags can produce a production report, for example, which is particularly useful for the plant people. Here the best version is Microsoft Office 2003, which comes with a complete set of development tools. David Ives believes that the extension of the capability of Microsoft Office makes it a far more comprehensive platform for development and plant engineers.
As indicated previously under the consumer goods introduction, marketing often comes up with crazy ideas about products and packaging that can severely affect the whole supply chain. Microsoft offers systems that allow for complete supply chain management.
The next area of expertise for Microsoft is database technology with SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 2005, which is scheduled for release later this calendar year. People use databases for transactional and analytical purposes. A major driver for Microsoft is to extend the analytical side and these tools and reporting tools come as part of the total package, being called Analysis and Reporting Services. These allow companies to start building a total understanding of what is going on in their business, in terms of such things as inventory, production, returns and so forth. Typically these tools would have been very expensive to purchase from a third party vendor whereas they are now available straight out of the box with Microsoft. Using these tools it is possible to create a list of key performance indicators (KPIs). As an example it was able to help a large local retailer manage inventory, stock and wholesale, etc, resulting in savings of millions of rand.
SQL Server 2005 is Microsoft's next generation data management and analysis solution and will deliver enhanced security, scalability and availability to enterprise data and analytical applications, while making them easier to create, deploy and manage. It has been created using the strengths of Server 2000 but delivers enhancements in three key areas, namely enterprise data management, developer productivity and business intelligence. As an example in terms of business intelligence advancements offered include an end-to-end business intelligence platform with integrated analytics. These include online analytical processing, data mining; extract, transformation and load tools; data warehousing; and reporting functionality. Together these will provide enterprises with the ability to transform information into better business decisions at all levels of the organisation.
Another new release is Microsoft Office Manager (MOM) 2005 which delivers open and scalable enterprise operational management by providing comprehensive event management, proactive monitoring and alerting, reporting and trend analysis, and system and application specific knowledge and tasks to improve the manageability of Windows Server System environments. MOM helps to:
* Identify IT health issues before they become problems - through built-in application intelligence.
* Helps improve the efficiency of IT operations - through actionable best practices.
* Provides comprehensive reporting capabilities for sharing key service level and performance information.
As for the future, a major technology that will be introduced is RFID with organisations such as Wal-Mart and the US Department of Defence encouraging supplier to move towards the adoption of this technology. Wal-Mart has already urged its top 100 suppliers to start using this security and identification microchip. Gillette is using the chip to stop the shoplifting of razor blades, while Benneton plans to weave chips into all its clothing products. While working with these companies and others following the RFID route, Microsoft in collaboration with some of its partners established the Microsoft RFID Council during 2004 and is assisting in implementing the technology through modifications to existing ERP and other solutions. While RFID is being demanded by leaders in the retail industry, it is expected to impact on more than 200 000 manufacturers and suppliers, fuelling the global market with the need for hardware and software to support the technology.
Conclusion
Microsoft, in conjunction with industry-leading partners, delivers enterprise solutions to a range of manufacturers including those in vertical industries such as automotive, chemical, consumer packaged goods, high technology, and oil and gas. These industry-specific solutions provide a flexible, scalable and reliable platform that enables businesses to be more agile and connected. As a result, manufacturers are empowered to shorten product development cycles, integrate operations with partners and suppliers, acquire and share intelligence in realtime, and communicate more easily with customers.
David Ives stressed that a major Microsoft objective is to drive the cost out of IT systems and to make it easier for staff at all levels in the industry to access and understand operational and other data critical to their activities.
Dr Maurice McDowell has many years' experience as a technical journalist, editor, business manager and research scientist. His third party analyses of world-class companies and processes, as well as his insight into industry and technology trends are well respected.
© Technews Publishing (Pty) Ltd | All Rights Reserved
printer friendly version