Manufacturing software is evolving to support emerging
standards and technologies such as
service oriented
architectures (SOAs) and
Web 2.0, according to a study by
AMR Research.
The analyst firm identified elements that make up a new
generation of manufacturing software, dubbed Manufacturing 2.0,
which is needed to move companies towards a more demand-driven
model.
The challenge for manufacturers, according to AMR Research, is
that they have to deal with short product lifecycles as well as
increasingly complex product configurations produced against short
lead times to meet highly variable demand.
Manufacturing 2.0 also requires manufacturers to support a
dynamic network that includes contract manufacturers and outsourced
design partners, it said.
AMR research director, Colin Masson, said, "The global
manufacturing community needs to recognise that force-fitting
monolithic applications into manufacturing operations is costly,
risky, and ultimately creates systems that hinder agility,
defeating the original intent."
Manufacturing 2.0 requires user-centric interfaces designed to
streamline activities and manufacturing architectures that take
advantage of SOA. Masson said that manufacturing applications were
usually optimised for single-site manufacturing. "They take too
long to configure, deploy and manage change," he said.
To support SOA in manufacturing, Masson said manufacturing SOA
would require an integrated set of tools that allow users to
develop run-time code distributed across multiple platforms.
Manufacturers would need to install, invoke and orchestrate
services that are evolving on different operating systems and
hardware platforms. They must also collect and present data and
tasks on various user interfaces and devices.
Another feature of Manufacturing 2.0 is its use of
Web 2.0 technologies such as instant messaging, mashups,
searches, wikis, low-cost tags and intelligent sensors. "This will
engage younger generations in manufacturing as well as enhance
software usability and collaboration," Masson said.
SOA can light up manufacturing IT >>
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