Collaborative E-Manufacturing Strategies.

Business/Technology Editors

DEDHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 23, 2000

You've heard it before: "from sensors to boardroom". Phrases like this are the largely unfulfilled visions of manufacturing technology. The new mantra is collaborative e-manufacturing. It focuses on new ways of leveraging the Internet and technologies to compete, according to the newly released Collaborative E-Manufacturing Strategies report by the ARC Advisory Group.

Though it is enabled by technology, e-manufacturing is much more than connecting the Internet to the plant floor. "It is a fundamental change in the strategic value proposition for manufacturers," according to Greg Gorbach ([e-mail]), ARC's Director of E-Manufacturing and the author of the new report.

The Collaborative Enterprise

Imagine a manufacturing network as interconnected spheres. The spheres are manufacturers or manufacturing nodes. The connectors are material, information, and process flows. Visualize the nodal sphere as hinged open to reveal a central disc where modern applications are arrayed in the collaboration plane with respect to the lifecycle and supply chain axes. Above the disc are business functions. Below it are the production functions. These functions, now performed using a number of manual processes and legacy applications, will be supported by collaborative components capable of orchestrating the designated functions in concert with the business goals of the node and the competitive dynamics of the various Collaborative Partner Networks (CPNs) in which the node or enterprise participates.

The Process of E-Manufacturing

The process starts even before a Web order is placed. It begins with collaboration among value chain members to deliver specified classes of solutions to customers. Such collaboration requires the sharing of information according to agreed rules and mechanisms of revenues, costs, marketing, and business processes involved in creating and delivering solutions. It also involves collaboration in the product and solution design. As orders are received, they must be properly distributed throughout the value network and then driven through the appropriate plants and e-fulfillment processes to deliver them to customers on time. As orders are produced, information about progress and quality must be electronically accessible in a secure way. After order delivery, there has to be support throughout the entire product life cycle.

The Seven Requirements

"E-Manufacturing is a collection of systems, processes, and technologies," that Gorbach sees as "supporting and enabling manufacturers to compete in collaboration with others." This collection has seven fundamental jobs:

-- Synchronize production processes with business processes

-- Orchestrate the upstream flows of work, information, and

material

-- Automate business processes and workflows within the enterprise and across the value chain

-- Give control to managers with plant information and analysis tools

-- Integrate the design process among all collaborating parties

-- Leverage bi-directional downstream information to optimize production for customer satisfaction or other strategic goals

-- Enable collaborative maintenance and support of manufacturing systems

These strategies are part of the topics that will be discussed at ARC's Manufacturing Strategies for the E-World Forum, February 19-20, 2001 in Orlando, Florida. To find out more about these topics, visit ARC at: http://www.arcweb.com/arcweb/Events/Forum0201/forum0201.htm

ARC Advisory Group provides strategic planning and technology assessment services to leading manufacturers, utilities, and global logistics providers, as well as to software and solution suppliers. Further information can be obtained from ARC, Three Allied Drive, Dedham, MA 02026, 781-471-1000, Fax [phone], E-mail [e-mail], Web ARCweb.com.