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by David R. Brousell, MA Editorial Staff   | Abstract: | Focused on such business goals as improving customer service, speeding up product development, and reducing downtime, manufacturers are pressing ahead with greater funding for plant floor to enterprise integration projects, a new MA poll reveals.
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Manufacturers across the U.S. appear to be ready to spend more money this year on plant floor to enterprise integration projects, even as they continue to grapple with often daunting organizational and technological issues in linking the systems in their companies. At the same time, manufacturers are signaling that the tactic of delaying projects as a reaction to organizational and jurisdictional issues, employed widely last year, will be used much less this year as they press ahead with the important work of integrating their operational and strategic systems. These are just some of the most significant findings of the latest Managing Automation reader poll on plant floor to enterprise business system integration, the magazine's fifth such study since 2001. The survey examines the pace, scope, and business and technology issues surrounding the integration in U.S. manufacturing companies of factory floor devices with higher-level systems, including business computer systems and applications such as enterprise resource planning software. More than 330 MA readers weighed in this year on the state of integration in their companies as well as their business and technology goals and the barriers they face in accomplishing the work. [Click to continue] |