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by Stephanie Neil, MA Editorial Staff Posted on Tuesday, April 08, 2008 10:27:06 AM   An update on MESA International's Web site explores "The Changing Face of Manufacturing," highlighting visibility and collaboration across the supply chain and in production.
The brief summary, posted in MESA's Knowledge Base, is based on information extracted from a study conducted by Atos Origins, an international technology services firm, in conjunction with industry analyst firm IDC.
The Atos Origins study, titled "Collaborative Excellence in the Consumer Products Value Chain," says that in order to build collaborative relationships, manufacturers must first focus on internal capability and effectiveness. Only then can they align service offerings, business rules, organizational design, processes, and IT with their surrounding supply chain partners.
MESA's summary states: "Visibility is essential to collaboration across the supply chain. Players in the manufacturing industry may be facing their greatest challenge yet. Global competition is only increasing, innovation has become the byword of success, and issues around sustainability are being taken much more seriously than in the past. Companies in this sector must meet the demands that all these challenges bring and at the same time increase flexibility and efficiency to fulfill the desires of ever more demanding consumers.
"Although manufacturers have invested heavily in ERP solutions with the hope of gaining much-needed visibility in production, many still suffer disparate data sources and a lack of cohesion. Indeed, many businesses have failed to integrate Web-based channels effectively and connect them to legacy systems, and are striving for adaptive cross-functional processes to unite the silos created by their ERP systems. Visibility is not only important for internal efficiency, but also essential to collaboration across the supply chain, now seen as providing real value to the manufacturing business."
The full study includes information on Atos Origin's partnerships with leading companies in this sector, including ChemChina, Philips, and L'Oreal. [Click to continue] |