ARC's New Discrete Industry Automation Architecture for the Future Market Study.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

DEDHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 2, 2003

Around $115 Billion in existing discrete automation systems remain in use today and a significant portion of this is rapidly reaching the end of its usable lifetime. One of the primary functions of the Collaborative Discrete Automation System (CDAS) Study is to define the vision for the factory of the future and to provide an architectural roadmap based on the prevailing business drivers and emerging technologies for discrete manufacturing.

Information Is Driving Manufacturing's Future

The engine that runs the production line is becoming the information itself and this shift is taking place across all of the discrete industries. From the factory floor to product development groups and extended supply chains, information is shared throughout the manufacturing enterprise. Production schedules are often based on equipment capability and capacity. Now, they are optimizing manufacturing processes using market intelligence in-formation. Also, product design used to consider just production machinery, but now is based on information exchanged across the business enterprise. Companies are moving from solely manufacturing-focused methods and processes to a more extended production environment that involves much more than automated equipment, machinery, and production lines.

"It has become increasingly evident that the manufacturing enterprise can-not continue to operate as a group of independent functional organizations that have separate goals, processes, methods, technologies, applications, and systems," said Senior Analyst Dick Slansky ([e-mail]), the principal author of ARC's Collaborative Discrete Automation Systems (CDAS) Study. Dick continued, "Managers with vision understand the necessity of a comprehensive architecture that interprets and defines their manufacturing enterprise and core competitive advantage."

Real-time Information Driven Factory

The capability to have access to events as they happen in real-time will be-come essential to running the factory of the future. As this change occurs, discrete manufacturing will have the capability to move to an event-driven, real-time system. Information originating from the factory floor will drive performance management to become holistic and "real-time". Manufacturing intelligence and visibility enables better management of the assets, the supply chain, quality, productivity and customer satisfaction.

CDAS Unifies the Discrete Manufacturing Environment

The vision of CDAS architecture provides a framework that spans from the production processes at the equipment level to the business systems at the enterprise level. It leverages interoperability and common standards. CDAS presents a view that is both strategic and tactical. Previously, manufacturers struggled to unify their business and factory operations. Early Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) applications offered a top-down approach that failed to deliver on this promise. Outsourcing, globalization, lean manufacturing, and time-to-market pressures are the principal factors in continuing the convergence of IT with production systems.

Further information on this study can be found at: http://www.arcweb.com/research/auto/cdas.asp

Note to Editors: This document can be used with attribution to ARC Advisory Group. For a graphic describing the CDAS Functional Model, please contact Maryanne Flynn at [e-mail] .

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