SAP PlantFloor Integration: Supports SixSigma Efforts

GE Fanuc and SAP partner to integrate SAP ERP business system with the plant floor automation system. The systems integration supports visibility to manufacturing operations in order to drive operational efficiency and continuous improvement. ...

... "The combination of GE Fanuc's Production Management solutions with SAP's Production Execution services allows for the gathering, analyzing and transforming of real-time data into information to continuously improve a company's level of productivity and performance. The real-time visibility and intelligence facilitated by the combined solution translates into improved agility, quality and efficiency by tracking and executing production operations through a closed-loop information exchange with the SAP Business Suite.

The solutions will provide product genealogy information traced by raw material consumption and production performance data. Additionally, they will drive operational efficiency and quality as well as the ability to respond quickly to manufacturing events and trends. These flexible, capable production systems will also meet the needs of companies that typically manufacture many variants of their products and require exceptional agility." ...

Via GE Fanuc Automation: GE Fanuc Teams with SAP to Ease Enterprise Integration, Improve Quality and Drive Productivity ...

Six Sigma Process Redesign: Media Opportunity Agility

NBC leverages Six Sigma expertise to bring agility to its business processes in order to take advantage of new business opportunities. Ben Grossman explores the TV industry and how they are evolving their markets to drive growth, through new electronic channels of distribution. ...

... "The company has also hired an engineer trained in Six-Sigma, a quality-measurement and improvement program, whose job it is to redesign processes within the organization to deal with new-media opportunities. " ...

Six Sigma Process Redesign: Media Opportunity Agility: Via Broadcasting & Cable: The Business of Television: The New Deal: How TV executives will find digital dollars in the coming year ...

Software Supports Manufacturing Agility ...

Newest release of manufacturing execution software (MES) supports agile and adaptable manufacturing models where market requirements are in a constant state of change. ...

... "FlexNet is a highly pliable execution software that can be deployed stand-alone or to extend the value of an organization's ERP, CRM, PLM or other business systems. The software is both a broad strategic operations execution platform that ties together the diverse activities of a manufacturer's operations, as well as a modular suite of applications that can be deployed as needed to provide a tightly coordinated manufacturing solution. Built for Adaptability, Agility: FlexNet 9.3 has been built for adaptive manufacturing, an emerging strategy driven by operations execution systems that provide the flexibility, visibility and integration required to support constantly changing business requirements. The results are optimal efficiency, quality and responsiveness, which can translate into higher profitability and customer satisfaction. " ...

Software Supports Manufacturing Agility: Via Apriso Corporation: APRISO CORPORATION ANNOUNCES FLEXNET VERSION 9.3: Newest Version of Widely Used Software Provides Greater Manufacturing Agility, Adaptability ...

Additional resources on manufacturing agility:

Via Control Engineering - Role of Controls in Product Lifecycle Management: "Moreover, as an enabler for working collaboratively in the early stages of product development, digital manufacturing enables design and automation engineers to work together to quickly develop designs that can be manufactured most readily and economically within the available production facilities. Such integrated systems also support greater manufacturing agility, giving companies greater flexibility in changing operations according to shifting demands of competition and customer preference."

OUTLOOK 2005: Integration & Data Master: Via Managing Automation: "The goal for every commercial offering is to simplify the integration effort, lower cost and enable business and manufacturing agility. And everywhere you turn a vendor has an integrated solution sell for you. "

Via NEMI: GenRad Product Commercializes Technologies from NEMI’s Plug And Play Factory Project: "The adoption of NEMI's FIS standards could greatly reduce the amount of time it takes to integrate new equipment and software systems into the manufacturing supply chain. This capability is critical for maintaining manufacturing agility as well as for increasing the efficiency of shop floor operations, stated John Cartwright, co-chair of the NEMI FIS TIG and manager of Factory Information Systems at Intel."

Kaizen Philosophy: Principle Perpetual Improvement ...

Kaizen Philosophy: Principle Perpetual Improvement: Wholesale Changes at Stapletons: Japanese investors show confidence in UK distribution ...

... "Confused? You have to understand Kaizen philosophy, the principle of perpetual improvement, Mr Murai explains. For Stapletons, one example of this is reducing the number of stock keeping units (SKUs) the company holds from 3500 to 2500 in order to move with more agility in an oversupplied market. " ...

Agile Manufacturing: Profit Velocity ...

Agile manufacturers focus visibility on the profit velocity of the product being produced. Adoption of lean manufacturing principles can be leveraged for agile performance ...

Via Innovation in Canada: The Canadian Manufacturing Processes Sector

... "The proponents of agile state that the goal of manufacturing is to drive as much profit as possible through the facility in the least amount of time. This concept has been termed Profit Velocity. It incorporates the idea that the goal of Customer Relations Management is win-win success, with a higher value to end customers and strong profits throughout the supply chain. Although phrased differently, it emphasizes some of the same basic concepts as lean, which include innovation, creativity, alignment, focus, collaboration, speed and change. " ...

Reference material on the use of profit velocity in agile manufacturing:

... "Agile Manufacturing: Activities are described both financial and non-financial measures. It makes distinctions between absolute profitability and profitability per unit of time.This is achieved through using profit velocity. Profit velocity is based on the observation that company profitability is a function of the absolute profitability and the number of products that can be produced during a period of time. " ...

... "Journey towards agility: Flexible assets and systems refer to facilities, systems and software. This includes buildings, services, production layout, technologies, IT, equipment and control systems. Assets and systems need to be lean – having a minimum of waste with an organisation designed to improve the effectiveness of all aspects of the operations ... " ...

Agile Lean Manufacturing Principles Through Better Planning

Agile Lean Manufacturing Principles Through Better Planning: Nissan North America Selects i2 Solutions to Help Enable Business Agility ...

i2's planning software selected by Nissan to drive agile business processes based on lean manufacturing principles ...

... "NNA selected i2 Factory Planner and i2 Master Data Management with a goal of gaining greater business agility through improved planning and data management. NNA goals include developing an improved scheduling process and inventory management capabilities. i2 Factory Planner is designed to allow companies to more precisely manage key manufacturing variables, from work center capacity and setup times to materials and labor availability, due dates and corporate production policies. It is built on the principles of lean manufacturing and constraint-based planning, to get the best throughput and customer service levels at the lowest inventory level and cost. i2 Master Data Management is designed to create a single enterprise thesaurus that can ensure data is consistently described, used, and stored within an organization. This approach can create a framework through which data is authored, monitored and maintained, and ensure the coordination of business systems that touch the data. " ...

Nissan North America is a separate corporation whose operations include automotive styling, engineering, consumer and corporate financing, sales and marketing, distribution and manufacturing.

i2 is a leading provider of demand-driven supply chain solutions designed to enable business agility. i2's flexible solutions can synchronize demand and supply across an ever-changing global supply network. Nineteen of the AMR Research Top 25 Global Supply Chains belong to companies who are i2 customers. Seven of the Fortune global top 10 are also customers of i2. Founded in 1988 with a commitment to customer success and supply chain innovation, i2 has a history of delivering value by implementing solutions designed to provide a rapid return on investment.

Lean Manufacturing Best Practices: Supply Chain Agility ...

i2 and Microsoft Form Strategic Alliance; i2 to Deliver Supply Chain Agility on Microsoft Platform ...

i2 and Microsoft combine expertise to drive lean manufacturing principles through the supply chain ...

... "Today's supply chain requires global, real-time insight across the value chain. Manufacturers are pressured to adopt lean manufacturing best practices, but struggle to justify the hefty investment that typically accompanies such initiatives. Microsoft and i2 are committed to helping their industry partners and customers get the most out of legacy investments and extend their capabilities to optimize supply chain performance. " ...

i2 (OTC: ITWH) is a leading provider of demand-driven supply chain solutions designed to enable business agility. i2’s flexible solutions can synchronize demand and supply across an ever-changing global supply network. Nineteen of the AMR Research Top 25 Global Supply Chains belong to companies who are i2 customers. Seven of the Fortune global top 10 are also customers of i2. Founded in 1988 with a commitment to customer success and supply chain innovation, i2 has a history of delivering value by implementing solutions designed to provide a rapid return on investment.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Six Sigma Methodology: EDS and Xerox Sign Workplace Management Services Contract With ...

Six Sigma Methodology: EDS and Xerox Sign Workplace Management Services Contract With ...

From PR Newswire (press release) ... Output Services, a co-branded EDS and Xerox offering that integrates advanced IT and document management tools and expertise with a Six Sigma-based methodology ...

... EDS (NYSE: EDS) and Xerox Corporation (NYSE: XRX) today announced a $40 million contract with Barclays Plc to supply its Workplace Management Services solution, which will deliver fully managed office document services for print, copy and fax on a price-per-page basis. ...

EDS provides a broad portfolio of business and technology solutions to help its clients worldwide improve their business performance. EDS' core portfolio comprises information technology, applications and business process services, as well as information-technology transformation services. EDS' A.T. Kearney subsidiary is one of the world's leading high-value management consultancies. With more than $20 billion in annual revenue, EDS is ranked 87th on the Fortune 500. The company's stock is traded on the New York and London stock exchanges. The EDS Agility Alliance: A federation of market-leading infrastructure, application, BPO and industry providers collaborating to innovate, develop and deliver the EDS Agile Enterprise Platform -- EDS' next generation global delivery system. Current EDS Agility Alliance partners include Cisco, Dell, EMC, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems and Xerox.

Six Sigma Executive Career Path: Equitant Names Two Key Executives; Former GE, Capgemini Executives ...

Six Sigma Executive Career Path: Equitant Names Two Key Executives; Former GE, Capgemini Executives ...

From Business Wire (press release), CA ... the European Sheet and Film Business, production sales and inventory director for GE Plastics Europe and European quality director for Six Sigma, driving both ...

... Equitant, the premier provider of Order-to-Cash* (O2C(TM)) outsourcing services, announced today the appointment of two key executives. The company named Sangeetha Perumbeti as Director of Operations, India, and Dermot Ainsworth as Director of Operations, Europe. Prior to joining Equitant, Ms. Perumbeti spent more than 10 years in various consulting, sales and executive operations positions throughout India and the United States. At Capgemini as a SAP Consultant, she served as design lead, test manager, global delivery center liaison, and offshore ERP support lead for various Capgemini client projects. ...

Equitant is the leading provider of business transformation outsourcing solutions, focused exclusively on managing and optimizing the Order-to-Cash (O2C(TM)) cycle for Global 1000 companies. Equitant takes over all or part of the company's Order-to-Cash (O2C(TM)) Cycle, from customer records and management of orders to application of payments. We provide quantum improvements in process execution that deliver significant financial and operational benefits - reduced operating costs, profit leakage, and working capital plus increased customer satisfaction, business flexibility, visibility and control. We enable rapid transformation, completing transition in less than six months, and sustain improvements with our management platform for Six Sigma. Equitant's solution helps clients better understand their customers, which improves their competitive advantage, and offers greater flexibility, which enhances their business agility. Equitant serves the Global 1000, including companies such as Microsoft, Lucent, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, and Visteon among others. Today, Equitant manages over $44 billion of revenues for its clients. Equitant is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut.

Lean Initiatives: Enterprise Agility - What Is It?

From EnergyPulse - Insight Analysis and Commentary on the Global Power Industry, Rick Dove, Chairman, Paradigm Shift International, writes ...

... "Agility is the mantra in the manufacturing sector today. That industry got the wakeup call in the nineties when Japan's Lean manufacturing initiatives raised the bar with higher quality and lower costs simultaneously." ...

Six Sigma BPM Software: Metastorm Completes Software Suite for Full 'Roundtrip' Business ...

From PR Newswire (press release) ... analysis tools that help organizations understand, analyze, and optimize their processes for key corporate initiatives including Six Sigma, Lean, Business ...

... Metastorm, a leading provider ofBusiness Process Management (BPM) software for automating, managing and controlling processes today announced the completion of its full "roundtrip"business process management platform suite strategy with the introduction ofan advanced process modeling and simulation capability for Metastorm e-Work. Based on customer and partner demand, Metastorm will leverage proven technology from iGrafx, a leading provider of business process analysis solutions. Through the partnership, Metastorm will embed the iGrafx(R)Process(TM) software into its e-Work BPM software suite to deliver advancedmodeling and simulation capabilities to its 700+ and growing global customerbase. ...

iGrafx provides a comprehensive suite of business process analysis tools that help organizations understand, analyze, and optimize their processes forkey corporate initiatives including Six Sigma, Lean, Business ProcessManagement (BPM), ISO and Sarbanes-Oxley. iGrafx solutions create a team-based collaborative process visualization and analysis environment that enablescompanies to achieve and sustain process excellence while increasing theirreturn on investment. The iGrafx process management solution assists in reducing costs, increasing resource utilization, and determining how best toallocate and deploy resources. iGrafx is a division of Corel Corporation.

As the leading provider of business process management software for automating, managing, and controlling processes, Metastorm is the only companyhelping organizations achieve Enterprise Process Advantage(R) -- a heightened level of business performance resulting from increased process efficiency,control, and agility. With a focus on complex, human-centric processes that are unique to their organizations, Metastorm's 700+ global client base in manufacturing, financial services, business services, healthcare andgovernment are achieving rapid ROI and unique process advantage in customer service, supply chain operations, risk management, and internal operations.

Six Sigma Aerospace: Aerospace, Defense Leaders to Review More Than $500 Billion in ...

From Yahoo News (press release) ... There are those who contend the lean enterprise and Six Sigma tools that created enormous efficiencies have resulted in companies that lack the agility and ...

Discussion of Six Sigma and its impact on business agility should be interesting ...

... Executives, program managers, engineers and planners from commercial and military aerospace and defense organizations will gather November 16 & 17 in Phoenix for Aviation Week's "Aerospace & Defense Programs and Productivity Conference." The conference is a vital link to obtain first-hand information on more than $500 billion-worth of current and future programs.
The conference will open with a special session that includes an overview of the industry's top 10 programs in terms of value and technical challenge as compiled by Forecast International. Presented by Anthony J. Velocci, editor- in-chief for Aviation Week & Space Technology, this session will include an analysis of the programs in terms of the industry's future from Jon Kutler, founder and president of Quarterdeck Investments. ...

A&D Programs and Productivity is produced by Aviation Week in association with IBM. It is sponsored by PerkinElmer Fluid Sciences, and is supported by the Aerospace Industries Association, Forecast International, and Satellite Industry Association. Aviation Week Conferences & Exhibitions is the professional education and events arm of Aviation Week, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies. With nearly 50 products and services, including Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine and a core audience of some 1 million professionals and enthusiasts, Aviation Week is the world's largest multimedia information and service provider to the aviation and aerospace market. Founded in 1888, The McGraw-Hill Companies is a leading global information services provider meeting worldwide needs in the financial services, education and business information markets through leading brands such as Standard & Poor's, BusinessWeek and McGraw-Hill Education. The Corporation has more than 280 offices in 40 countries. Sales in 2003 were $4.8 billion.

Lean: Attaining Agility At The Enterprise Level

From Proceedings of The Annual International Conference on Industrial Engineering Theory, Applications and Practice ... An agile enterprise is an enterprise which can rapidly adapt to tomorrow’s unpredicted and unexpected changes. However, there is no consensus on the meaning of agility. People often misunderstand that lean, flexible and agile are interchangeable terms. The objective of this paper is to present an understanding of the concepts of agility, leanness and flexibility. This paper presents a methodology to help any company attain agility at the enterprise level. Issues considered in the model include the strategic plan, training, product development, interaction among people and technology, and enterprise integration and improvement.

Enterprise Engineering may be viewed as the process of designing, analyzing, and implementing change from the perspective of corporate culture, enterprise, processes, and technology. In a more formal definition, Enterprise Engineering is an integrated set of disciplines for building and changing an enterprise, its processes, and system. ...

Lean: Attaining Agility At The Enterprise Level

From Proceedings of The Annual International Conference on Industrial Engineering Theory, Applications and Practice ... An agile enterprise is an enterprise which can rapidly adapt to tomorrow’s unpredicted and unexpected changes. However, there is no consensus on the meaning of agility. People often misunderstand that lean, flexible and agile are interchangeable terms. The objective of this paper is to present an understanding of the concepts of agility, leanness and flexibility. This paper presents a methodology to help any company attain agility at the enterprise level. Issues considered in the model include the strategic plan, training, product development, interaction among people and technology, and enterprise integration and improvement.

Enterprise Engineering may be viewed as the process of designing, analyzing, and implementing change from the perspective of corporate culture, enterprise, processes, and technology. In a more formal definition, Enterprise Engineering is an integrated set of disciplines for building and changing an enterprise, its processes, and system. ...

Lean Manufacturing: Agile Enterprise Strategy...

From Cheshire Henbury ... Most of what of the things presented as agile practices, are in fact lean production practices. Agile enterprise is concerned with a post lean production paradigm. Lean production is one of yesterday's success stories, although because ideas diffuse very slowly, many companies are still in the process of implementing lean production. And because lean is so popular and easy to understand, a common mistake is to assume that lean and agile are the same. They are not...

Arrow Electronics' Experts Share Real World Experiences at 2004 ...

From PRNewswire (press release) ... of the high-tech industry and clearly illustrate the connection between building mechanisms for greater agility and achieving lean supply chain objectives. ...

Lean Success: Arrow Electronics' Experts Share Real World Experiences at 2004 ...

From PRNewswire (press release) - Mar 23, 2004 ... of the high-tech industry and clearly illustrate the connection between building mechanisms for greater agility and achieving lean supply chain objectives. ...