Business applications makers PeopleSoft and SAP have
unveiled new technologies to further consolidate their respective
positions in the manufacturing market.
PeopleSoft announced that it is pushing out new collaboration
and flow-manufacturing tools as part of its EnterpriseOne 8.11
launch. EnterpriseOne software comprises the former JD Edwards
portfolio PeopleSoft acquired a year ago.
Included is a sales and operations planning application that
ties together financial and transactional data and allows relevant
sales, manufacturing, engineering and other personnel to more
easily collaborate.
PeopleSoft has also embedded tools to help customers support
industry best practices using key performance indicators.
Ultimately, customers will be able to more quickly respond to
market changes, plan new scenarios as needed and better anticipate
customer demand, PeopleSoft said.
Among the supplier's other announcements was a
flow-manufacturing application to help companies build a product at
any given time while maximising the use of plant resources without
overstocking on inventory.
Also coming is a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag tool
that can follow any piece of inventory, whether it is in a
warehouse, in transit or at the manufacturing plant.
PeopleSoft has added support for manufacturing-specific sales
and service processes in its EnterpriseOne CRM application as
well.
SAP also annouced plans to embed capabilities into its SAP ERP
application to enable end users, using optimised dashboard
interfaces, to get improved visibility into relevant data and more
easily permit lean manufacturing processes and track and trace
operations and Six Sigma software quality processes.
Marc L Songini writes for Computerworld
