Keith Carey is understandably excited.
After more than 20 years of stalled pilot projects and aborted proof-of-concept initiatives, Carey is convinced that Dow Corning Corp. has finally put together a workable strategy for deploying an electronic work instruction (EWI) application that will use a manufacturing execution system (MES) to automate and streamline the flow of information between plant floor operators and the company's SAP ERP system. The system, based on a tight integration between an MES application from Performix Inc. and the ERP system, will replace paper-based work instructions on the shop floor with electronic records and do things like validate in real time that the right materials have been used for a given order. Tests in three Dow Corning U.S. plants have shown that the system has the potential to reduce scrap by 50% and significantly improve product traceability, consistent quality, and employee safety.
"This will deliver a level of integration between enterprise systems and the plant floor that is unprecedented," says Carey, manufacturing operations automation manager at Dow Corning. "We see this as a sort of automation Holy Grail."
But, for Carey and Dow Corning, finally grasping the prize by rolling out the EWI project across all of the $5 billion company's plants worldwide will have to wait a bit longer. While pilot tests and initial deployment in one plant have lived up to expectations, the severe global recession has, at least temporarily, slowed Dow Corning's global rollout plans.
Originally, Dow Corning had planned to expand deployments in the United States through the second half of 2008 and to launch pilots, followed by production deployments, in Europe beginning in the third quarter of 2008 and in Asia beginning in the fourth quarter of 2008. Now, however, it is likely the company won't launch the EWI system in Europe until mid-2009. And, rather than deploying the system broadly in all plants, Dow Corning will take a much more focused approach, making new deployments conditional on the success of past projects, and targeting processes and product lines where it can get the biggest bang for its bucks.
"In these difficult economic times, we've changed our strategy," Carey says. "Instead of doing entire sites, we'll go after specific families of products where it makes the most sense. It's a much more phased approach."
Dow Corning isn't the only manufacturer scaling back wall-to-wall, enterprise-wide initiatives involving plant-to-enterprise integration. Hemmed in by a slowing economy and uncertain demand, many, if not most, manufacturers are focusing instead on more targeted integration-based projects that can deliver quick returns while serving as the foundation for holistic projects in the future. But, despite the more circumspect, focused approach, many manufacturers are realizing impressive returns from integration-based projects narrowly focused on things such as electronic work instructions, shop floor data capture and analysis, demand-based plant scheduling, inventory management and planning, and just-in-time maintenance.
"Manufacturers are going back to zero-based budgeting, and anything that's a major, broad, SOA-oriented integration-based project is being delayed," says Bob Parker, group vice president at IDC Manufacturing Insights. "Getting through this recession, to a large extent, is about preserving capital, so getting a share of the capital budget for a broad, strategic technology project is going to be tough."
Not that manufacturers have changed their minds about the intrinsic value of integrating plant floor and enterprise systems in order to drive efficiencies and gain better operational visibility. In a recent, exclusive survey of Managing Automation readers, 82% of manufacturers said their company has a goal of interconnecting factory floor devices and systems with enterprise systems. Many said their intent in doing so is to improve operational visibility and reduce inventories (see Reader Poll).