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by Joshua Greenbaum, Contributing Editor   | Abstract: | ERP vendors use analytics, rather than data, to draw manufacturers to their shop-floor-to-ERP integration capabilities, elbowing out MES-centric vendors. |
Oracle's stealthy announcement of its Manufacturing Transaction Hub in November 2007 signaled more than just one vendor's move to win budget from manufacturers seeing greater value in sharing data between shop floor systems and the ERP suite. With Oracle entering this market and SAP already making waves with its Lighthammer acquisition, the question of whether deep integration between the shop floor and ERP and other back-office systems is coming soon to a plant near you is now resolved. The answer, in case you didn't get it, is a resounding yes. The bigger question lies in figuring out which vendor or vendors will provide this new capability, and therein lies an important strategic issue for many manufacturers. Is shop-floor-to-ERP integration a capability you should get from your ERP vendor or your MES vendor? In other words, is the shop floor an extension of your back office or vice versa? Regardless of relative merit, market trends may give this prize to the ERP side. After all, the forces aligning on the ERP side — SAP, Oracle, and IBM, which dove in by buying Trigo, Cognos, and other enterprise software vendors — hold a lot of sway over the executives who sign on the dotted line for what is a non-trivial integration exercise. [Click to continue] |