HANNOVER, Germany — At a press conference today to launch Manufacturing Executive, a new pan-European publication for European industry executives, an expert panel said that integrating the enterprise and the plant floor is essential to responding to customer demand, but noted that organizational barriers still stand in the way.
"Technology is not really the key issue in manufacturing enterprise integration," said Andy Chatha, president of the ARC Advisory Group. "You’ve got to get people from all sides of the business working together. Right now, integration is a must for everybody," he said. "Manufacturing companies must have good visibility of the whole manufacturing process if they want to meet today’s customer expectations. But it’s going to be a long journey."
Chatha was addressing a packed audience during an open debate on plant floor to enterprise integration, hosted by Manufacturing Executive magazine, which consists of a print magazine, a new Web site, and, next year, executive-level conferences. The publication is being produced under the auspices of Managing Automation magazine.
Joining Chatha on the panel was Paul Martin, global chief information officer at United Kingdom-based aluminum can maker Rexam plc, who agreed that cultural and people issues pose a huge challenge. He recalled visiting all of Rexam’s plants worldwide to talk in person with manufacturing teams and shop floor employees about integration’s benefits.