The recession-inspired move by many manufacturers to scale back big-bang, plant-to-enterprise integration initiatives in favor of targeted, quick-return projects has not gone unnoticed by technology vendors.
"Many of the largest companies out there have shelved broad-brush integration initiatives," says Mark Sutcliffe, president of CDC Factory, a unit of CDC Software that is focused on manufacturing operations management (MOM) software. "Many had justified spending a lot of money under the assumption that if they gathered a lot of data from the factory and applied analytical tools, that a new truth would emerge. Now they're putting that to one side. They want to address specific problems where integration can help drive down costs."
Vendors have begun tailoring their software to better address industry-specific manufacturing pain points. They are also working to make their products easier and quicker to deploy and, therefore, able to deliver ROI faster.
Plant automation vendors, such as Rockwell Automation and GE Fanuc, for example, are accelerating the rollout of industry-specific applications and templates that sit on top of their broad integration and MES platforms and address specific manufacturing problems. Rockwell earlier this year introduced FactoryTalk Pharma Suite, an application that takes advantage of the plant-to-enterprise integration capabilities of the company's FactoryTalk Integrated Production and Performance Suite but focuses specifically on production management and dispensing processes for pharmaceutical and biotech manufacturers.