协作提高效率

Efficiency is the watchword in today’s manufacturing operations. A growing number of companies feel that increased collaboration between enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and the production floor is the way to efficiently boost production.

As more companies look for ways to share information among these programs, there’s a push to transfer data automatically and seamlessly between the groups involved in management and manufacturing. The automotive industry is among those leading the charge in this emerging trend.

“We’re really concerned with eliminating waste and removing redundancy. If we can avoid transferring production counts and other things manually, we can run with fewer resources,” says Robert Barker, manufacturing monitoring program manager at Ford Motor Co., in Dearborn, Mich.

Ford has been working to link the plant floor to various information technology (IT) departments for more than a decade. But for most companies, this type of collaboration has been possible only in recent years, as a variety of software tools simplify communications. After some false starts, the market is starting to grow.

弗吉尼亚州夏洛茨维尔的GE Fanuc Automation的Plant Intelligence Solutions总监Kevin Bernier说：“我们现在肯定比几年前更多的兴趣。”

Negative perceptions

That’s a welcome change for those who want to improve efficiency by implementing ERP, manufacturing execution system (MES) software and other information sharing techniques. Many early efforts tried to impose rigid ERP structures on production facilities that were moving to lean and/or agile manufacturing models. They forced harried production personnel to manually enter data in ways and terminologies that were often foreign to them, leading to some less-than-flattering descriptions for ERP programs.

“For many manufacturers, ERP has become synonymous with failure,” says Robert Lendvai, vice president of marketing at Activplant Corp., of London, Ontario, Canada.

There are a number of reasons that both vendors and users say this negative view is changing, making it far simpler for front office personnel and their ERP systems to collaborate with manufacturing personnel and programs encompassed within MES. Software and service providers stung by negative comments have made major strides to provide more timely information, while standards have improved communications and cut down on the amount of data operators have to input.

Standards have gained acceptance in commercial packages, and even companies such as Ford that use proprietary systems are moving toward standardization. Barker notes that it’s become easier for groups to talk, based on technology improvements and the emergence of standards such as eXtensible Markup Language (XML). That’s true even though Ford began developing its own ERP and manufacturing resource planning (MRP) software more than a decade ago and has stuck with it. “The technology has matured, which allows for easier interfacing, whether you’re using open standards like XML or file type data exchanges,” notes Barker.

这种标准化消除了困扰早期ERP支持者的关键问题之一。伯尼尔说：“当您具有连接性时，它可以最大限度地提高生产地上可以降低材料和设备成本，从而使ERP系统能够获取信息而不强迫人们输入数据。”

另一个看到更多接受的标准是ISA S95，这是一种仪器，系统和自动化协会标准，它指定了数据模型和最佳实践，以交换制造业企业级应用程序和工厂级别的制造应用程序之间的信息。

The trend to openness now extends to open source software. A growing number of vendors are beginning to employ Eclipse, an open source platform for the software used to build development tools. ERP software provider SAP AG, headquartered in Walldorf, Germany, is on the board of directors, and a number of other companies in factory automation are members of the Eclipse Foundation, which took over future oversight and development from founder IBM Corp. early in 2004.

The Foundation has created 33 projects to add new features and functions. One of them, the Eclipse Communications Framework, could help companies move data among team members. “We intend to let people create groups of interest, using ECF to communicate securely between teams. ECF lets people set up communication structures without licensing anything,” says Scott Lewis, project lead for the Eclipse Communications Framework.

Team players

As it becomes easier to move data around, companies are realizing they have to worry about overloading workers. “You have to make sure the right people are getting the right things. Most people don’t want all the data, just what’s important to them,” says Maria Piazza, automation solution director at GE Fanuc.

只有一个决定谁得到什么信息of the considerations that begin with picking the personnel who will make up the team that implements an enterprise-wide solution. Building a cooperative team and getting everyone on the same page is a key aspect for implementation.

“There are many stakeholders involved,” GE Fanuc’s Bernier says. Along with the IT department and production management team are plant managers and vice presidents, as well as process improvement gurus and quality improvement specialists, he adds.

At Integram-St. Louis Seating, which makes seats for DaimlerChrysler mini vans, creating this team was among the most important steps. At times, these teams do something that doesn’t seem to fit the team concept, such as giving one member control of some information. “It takes a lot of coordination. You have to get everyone together early and meet several times. We’ve moved to a single source of ownership of data,” says Gary Fischer, controls engineer at Integram.

That single source ownership is used by many companies. They feel it reduces the chances that erroneous data will create problems. “When there are two sources of information, there’s a chance things won’t line up,” says Ford’s Barker.

Integram is linking its warehousing and material tracking programs to the ERP software, monitoring performance of workstations and issuing replenishment orders when a workstation operator scans material that will be used during that shift. Managers at various levels can see whether a workstation is being underused or is falling behind, and whether an operator is meeting expectations.

Going forward, the company plans to change the way seats are tracked, tracing them by serial number instead of by time and date. That way, if there’s a problem with a seat’s positioning motor, recalls could be more effective.

菲舍尔说：“我们希望能够进入系统，看看哪些座位有问题，然后为克莱斯勒提供具有这些座位的VIN（车辆识别号）。”这样做将需要第三方公司的大量投入，这些公司了解不同公司内许多团体中复杂通信涉及的许多软件接口。

将团队概念扩展到公司之外是由越来越多的公司广泛研究的。随着产品寿命的收缩，供应商试图提供更广泛的线条，并通过可选的功能和功能来区分产品，因此迅速响应客户的要求变得非常重要。

“In automotive, a lot of Tier 1 companies want to link into what their customer uses,” says Piazza. That helps them become more agile, delivering smaller quantities in a more timely fashion, she adds.

小吃

许多供应商和用户称，成功的另一个关键是将企业分解为更容易管理的较小部件。许多早期计划之所以失败，是因为他们试图立即解决整个操作。虽然这是最终目标，但吞噬较小的叮咬通常会更简单。

“Companies should deliver visible payback immediately, demonstrating tangible results that set the stage for additional phases,” says Matt Bauer, director of business development and marketing at Rockwell Automation Inc., in Milwaukee.

一旦成功实施了一些较小的程序，团队就可以向前迈进。第一步之一是创建一个通用的工厂数据模型，该模型在工厂和ERP系统之间建立链接。

“有了数据模型，可以创建双向集成引擎，该引擎在植物地板和业务系统之间建立实时连接。通用工厂数据模型会自动从整个工厂收集，从而确保数据的准确性，即时性和完整性。” Activplant的Lendvai说。

Throughout each of the steps, team members must be sure to know precisely what’s in the software they’re getting. While this might seem obvious, it’s not always something that gets the amount of effort that’s necessary.

“Manufacturing users should be cautious about assuming that key MES functions are incorporated within their ERP systems. For some, finding out the hard way (during implementation) results in elongated deployment cycles, higher integration costs and negative impacts on productivity—in short, a less than optimal solution,” says Bauer.

有关更多信息，请搜索关键字“ erp”和“ mes”www.myenum.com

See sidebar to this article: ERP-to-MES Link Provides Racer’s Edge