IEN: Are we entering a new era of e-manufacturing?
Smidler: This isn''t necessarily a new era, but certainly one where more and more manufacturers are adopting e-manufacturing strategies. The core of an e-manufacturing strategy is the technology roadmap for information transparency between the customer, manufacturing operations, and suppliers. The era of e-manufacturing is here. The e-manufacturing term, in fact, is much like the phrase "e-business" in that technology and information are the latest enablers to help manufacturers do what they always do, only faster, more accurately, and more efficiently. Eventually, the "e" will be so common it''s no longer needed. It will be manufacturing as usual.
IEN: How are manufacturers using existing technologies in new ways?
Smidler: The plant floor is the starting point for greater information connectivity. Computer-based plant floor controls for manufacturing machinery, material handling systems, and related equipment generate a wealth of information about productivity, product design, quality, and delivery. And contemporary automation architecture is the key to unleashing this information in a cost-effective manner.
But this is only where the plant floor possibilities begin. A company today can now have a single, complete set of operational capabilities including rapid plant design and deployment, real-time ERP connectivity, comprehensive asset management (of people, products, and processes), and a seamless coupling to the entire supply chain via the Web.
IEN: What are the major concerns facing this sector in the next few years?
Smidler: Manufacturing was at one time isolated from the rest of the enterprise, operating autonomously and virtually out of sight from the rest of the company and, in particular, from the scrutiny of a company''s shareholders. This is far from true today. Companies today are driven by shareholders and financial analysts to improve bottom-line performance. All areas from planning to logistics fall under scrutiny for cost savings, with many companies, for the first time, trying to grasp the true capacity of the plant floor, as well as how to make it more efficient. Manufacturers are also driven by ever increasing customer expectations. Customers today expect to be able to order custom products and services over the Web, visualize capacity, and compress time to delivery. Manufacturers will thus be concerned in the coming years with speed, efficiency, productivity, conservation, and time-to-market.
IEN: What innovations are in store for users?
Smidler: Manufacturers are increasingly optimizing asset management as a strategy to improve process efficiency and enhance their return on assets (ROA). Predicting the reliability of a single piece of machinery on the plant floor, and making that information available throughout the manufacturing enterprise, can be the difference between a few minutes of preventive maintenance and hours of downtime to repair a failure. This requires integration of existing condition monitoring and predictive maintenance tools throughout the enterprise and the integration of seamless data.
IEN: How are software, materials, and equipment being improved?
Smidler: Quite often, plant floor engineers search to find "best-of-breed" components for particular control applications in the factory -- and then work to link the systems together. In the era of the Internet, however, automated control systems must better leverage commercial information technologies, including Microsoft operating systems and Ethernet networks, not only to integrate plant floor operations to work seamlessly throughout a typical plant environment, but also to make that control information transparent throughout the enterprise. These "open" technologies present a strategic advantage to address the control needs of the plant and the connectivity to achieve that transparency. They allow a manufacturer to rapidly deploy and reconfigure its own processes more quickly, thanks to an information-rich automation architecture. Another major improvement to software is a system that allows manufacturers to go from simulation to design to build in an integrated environment.
IEN: How will the drive toward lean manufacturing impact this sector?
Smidler: For today''s manufacturers, what matters most is not only growing sales. It''s how efficiently a company can operate. Whether it''s Lean, Six Sigma, or any variety of homegrown initiative, successful companies today leave no stone unturned to squeeze the excess. By cutting the "fat," streamlining internal processes, and leveraging technologies like the Internet, a company can overall be better, faster, and cheaper than the competition.
Traditionally, the plant was the root of every manufacturing enterprise, the place where value was created. This remains the case today, but as industries consolidate and restructure, some companies are choosing to remain as the marketers of goods while outsourcing manufacturing to other partners. In almost every industry, tightly integrated supply chain models are emerging. In these new models, connection of the plant floor to the broader supply chain is essential, and information access is more critical than ever. The Internet and e-commerce have made this possible.