Software start-up myDIALS announced an on-demand operational performance management system that blends manufacturing intelligence and business intelligence — a first in the industry, industry observers say.
The hybrid offering, delivered via the software-as-a-service model, targets companies in the $100 million to $3.5 billion range, the company said. The software is designed to not only calculate metrics and deliver pertinent business and production KPIs to individuals, but also capture best practices and methodologies.
"There have been other systems with the concept of multiple tiers, but I've never seen something that combines real-time plant floor data and management of enterprise systems," said Julie Fraser, principal of Industry Directions, in an interview with Managing Automation.
The new offering is not entirely off-site, officials said. Implementation includes the installation of some software at the customer site that connects to a variety of data sources. Manufacturing and business metrics are collected, encrypted, and sent to the myDIALS hosted site. The software then performs relationship mapping that lets the end user view data based on different parameters — for example, by business unit, sales channel, or key performance indicators.
Instead of seeing the hundreds of KPIs collected by the software, users see an interface consisting of a series of dials — hence the name "myDIALS" — aligned into a ribbon that represents a particular value stream or other aspect of the business.
The myDIALS product is priced on a per-user, per-month basis, with smaller deployments costing about $20,000 to $25,000 per year (plus a one-time implementation fee of $15,000) and larger installations priced from $100,000 (with a $50,000 implementation fee).