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Oracle has announced a partnership with Kepware to build OPC connectivity into their ERP solution.  This will be interesting.

As MES professionals, we are always debating “who will win?”  Is it the ERP companies, or the automation companies that will win the battle for the MES space?  This seems to be a play for Oracle that tells the world, “we are coming down into automation to get the data we want.”

I will be curious what type of data repository, or manufacturing execution system database schema Oracle has, or will, put together to house this information.  How will it be reported?  How will it be presented?  How will this data drive business logic?

I do like the acknowledgement from Oracle that there is valuable data in shop floor systems that needs to be integrated into ERP.  Perhaps one they get into some projects, they will see just how fun shop floor integration projects are!

As a side note, Kepware is an awesome company, and they have the best OPC Servers in the market. (IMHO)

Original news on MBT Magazine….

Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) as defined in wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_planning_and_scheduling

I have always been intrigued with organizations that try to make a difference in people’s lives. After seeing a quick “spot” on Headline News today about Kiva.org, I thought I would post a couple sites I have discovered in my travels.

http://www.kiva.org/

http://www.prosper.com/

WorldVision

Last night at dinner, the topic of unions came up. We discussed how unions were required at the time they were created to achieve fairness and safety for those working in manufacturing.  However, today, fairness in wages, hours, and training are still issues, it seems the modern union exists for other reasons.  We were not really sure about those reasons, but acknowledged that everyone has to change in order the stay relevant and compete.

Our conversation also reminded me of the 2007 MESA Keynote Speaker - Peter Fingar.  Peter reminded us that there are 3 billion new capitalists in the world and if we did not do something everyday to improve, we would quickly be rendered obsolete.

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I grew up in Connersville, Indiana, where there was once a $1B Visteon plant.  This plant just closed its doors because the union and management did not work to make it one of the best plants in the Visteon fleet.  If the plant had been one of the best in the fleet, chances are, it would still be making automotive parts today…

Conclusion - whether we are in automotive manufacturing, healthcare, education, or farming, we all have to work to improve everyday.  If we don’t we might just end up being “mothballed” like the Visteon plant in Connersville.

Today, there are typically 3 flavors of MES systems out there in the world.

• Manual - the manufacturer uses paper to plan, manage, and monitor their manufacturing operations.
• Custom - the manufacturer has developed many custom solutions in Excel, Visual Basic, Access, Web Reports, legacy systems, etc.
• Commercial Product - the manufacturer has leveraged a Commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) product to run their manufacturing operations.

The last flavor, where MES is installed much like ERP in a “big bang” project approach, is slowly going away.  I believe there is a new way of being successful with MES projects:

• Start with a Pilot - define a target business problem with defined ROI or benefits, and start there.
• Work with Users - Users have great ideas.  If they are included in the project, they will be more likely to make the project succeed.
• Celebrate Wins - when the MES solution helps you do something better, celebrate that so you can start building momentum.

We have seen so many projects fail because the scope of the project was just too large for the first phase.  Business value was never created, momentum was never built, and the “Big Bang” approach failed.