It cost-effectively eliminates the massive information bottleneck that exists between the plant floor and information systems.
Equally important, e-manufacturing provides direct, easily-configured information exchanges between manufacturing and customer relationship management systems and supply chain management systems. The result is an agile, reconfigurable manufacturing capability that can respond instantly to the changing demands and opportunities characteristic of e-business. e-manufacturing works by replacing traditional, proprietary control devices (such as PLCs and custom controllers) with enterprise-enabled control and realtime information platforms (e-controllers).
e-controllers make effective use of commercial IT technology, integrating both control and information systems on standard platforms, like PCs and embedded Windows CE devices. e-manufacturing is essentially a shrink-wrap manufacturing system infrastructure built on IT standards (including Microsoft Windows, Ethernet and the Internet). With its standard IT technology base, e-manufacturing replaces monolithic, proprietary manufacturing applications with component-based, Internet-enabled solutions.
Leading e-business companies are rapidly developing e-manufacturing solutions to complement their e-commerce systems. As a result, they are able to rapidly respond to customer demand, add value to their e-commerce interaction with customers, and rapidly deploy manufacturing systems on a global basis.
e-manufacturing is a necessary part of e-business strategy for companies making real products to successfully transform themselves into e-business enterprises. Successful implementation of e-manufacturing often bypasses traditional suppliers of proprietary manufacturing systems and devices in favour of hardware and software from a new e-breed of open systems suppliers, many of them with funny-sounding names. Names like Think & Do, DataSweep, Efinity, HotSamba, Bamboo, etc. This new breed of suppliers focuses on standard interfaces, configurable software components, standard hardware platforms and supplier collaboration to rapidly implement e-business solutions for manufacturing and distribution companies. In the process, they are driving the same kind of dramatic changes in customer expectations, supplier base, and distribution systems that PC technology brought to office automation, computer-aided design (CAD) and the Internet. e-control is the foundation of e-manufacturing solutions. e-controllers are hardware/software solutions that integrate control, communication and information technologies on scalable Microsoft-powered platforms.
e-controllers provide high-performance realtime control for machines and processes while simultaneously providing enterprise connectivity and local data processing of production and productivity data. Hardware platforms for e-controllers include commercial PCs and servers, industrial PCs and a host of embedded devices. e-controllers include native Microsoft DNA connectivity through DCOM, OPC and/or XML. Typical e-controller operating systems include Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows NT embedded and Windows CE. Think&Do Studio is the industry's leading e-control software.
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