Working to further its vision of marrying shop floor data integration with supply chain management, application network platform provider Omnitrol Networks has announced a strategic partnership with IT service provider British Telecom Global Services, whereby BT’s Supply Chain Solutions group will use the Omnitrol network appliance to facilitate the supply chain optimization services it offers to customers.
“Our partnership with BT started on the shop floor, with the concept that the shop floor is suddenly getting a tremendous amount of information input from various sensors — such as RFID equipment,” said Raj Saksena, Omnitrol president and CEO, in an interview. “The ultimate goal [is] an improvement or optimization of business processes through better visibility into manufacturing operations.”
Through the partnership, BT will use Omnitrol’s network appliance to help manufacturing customers use RFID or real-time location tags to collect shop floor information and track and trace their assets, instead of relying on manual data entry processes. Omnitrol’s appliance integrates the sensor data that is used eventually for business analytics and metrics, Saksena said. The sensor information can be used to provide pedigree and tracking information for product shipments.
Because the integrated data gleaned from a sensor network can be used to foster collaboration between supply chain partners and distribution channels, Saksena said, Omnitrol’s partnership with BT serves “to further Omnitrol’s goal of becoming that platform that provides shop floor visibility integration into the supply chain.”