A real-time solution for Ford. (WIP).

As Ford struggles to cut costs and increase efficiency in its production facilities, it has turned to GE Fanuc Automation (Charlottesville, VA) to provide a collaborative manufacturing solution for its plants worldwide. The solution includes a manufacturing execution system (MES) that provides automated production scheduling, routing and tracking, but goes beyond MES to include features like supply chain execution, quality management and remote monitoring and diagnostics. It's based on GE Fanuc's CIMPLICITY Collaborative Production Management (CPM) software suite which grew out of the large-scale MES solutions the company has developed for the automotive industry. Kevin Roach, vice president at GE Fanuc, calls Collaborative Production Management "the source of the next great productivity realization." He goes on to say, "With CPM, we can now maximize the return on investment of MRP/ERP systems, which were installed with promises that never fully materialized because of the way they were disconnected from the realities of the plant floor. CIMPLICITY CPM allows information to be shared freely between business and plant floor applications."

One of the key benefits to Ford is that the new solution promises to give the automaker and its suppliers the ability to monitor the production process real-time, and adjust parts delivery and work-in-process inventory accordingly. This means reducing inventory and production costs and facilitating a more accurate application of resources.

GE Fanuc will use web portal and XML technologies to connect Ford's disparate systems via the CPM solution, which includes seamlessly interfacing with about a dozen existing plant and enterprise systems.