SAN FRANCISCO — Oracle Corp. plans major enhancements to the current discrete and process manufacturing modules in its E-Business Suite Release 12 enterprise application platform, including more complete manufacturing execution system (MES) capabilities, improved scheduling and sequencing functionality, and better support for outsourced manufacturing.
As previously reported by Managing Automation, Oracle also plans a new manufacturing intelligence product that the company calls the Manufacturing Operations Hub.
Oracle's plans for enhancing the manufacturing components of the E-Business Suite were outlined in two statements of direction that the company made selectively available at its recent Oracle OpenWorld customer conference here. Officials at Oracle's OpenWorld information booths were distributing the documents to customers who asked for them.
The most significant new element planned for Oracle's manufacturing suite is the Manufacturing Operations Hub, which the statement of direction described as a manufacturing intelligence and integration platform. The Manufacturing Operations Hub would allow Oracle to compete more directly against SAP's XMII business intelligence product (formerly Lighthammer, which SAP acquired in 2005).
In the statement of direction, Oracle said the Manufacturing Operations Hub would allow customers to "acquire manufacturing data in real time, establish the operating context for data, and ensure that it is stored in a manner that makes it accessible at later times for a variety of uses." The statement also said the tool will include "enhanced decision support and role-based display of performance against operating metrics. Events and alarms would notify all who should be informed when important or unforeseen events take place."
"The primary objective of the hub is to bring together data from disparate sources on role-based dashboards," the statement added.
The hub will be built on a generic manufacturing data model that leverages industry standards such as S-95. It will deliver ERP data, such as item costs, released work orders, and material requirements, to plant floor systems. It will also gather transactional data from MES, quality, and other plant floor systems as well as real-time tag data from systems such as PLCs, SCADA, and DCS plant floor systems. The statement said that, in order to support different types of plant floor devices, Oracle has entered into partnerships with Kepware Technologies and Matrikon, providers of integration software based on the OPC standard.
The hub will be targeted at discrete and process manufacturing customers, the Oracle statement said. The statement did not indicate when Oracle plans to roll out the hub. At an OpenWorld session, however, Jon Chorley, vice president for supply chain strategy at Oracle, said the company plans to release the hub sometime in Oracle's fiscal 2008, which ends in May. The hub would be part of E-Business Suite 12.1, Chorley said.
The statements of direction laid out additional plans by Oracle to enhance its solutions for discrete manufacturing, including:
- Support in the Oracle Manufacturing Execution System for Discrete Manufacturing for serialized manufacturing;
- Shop floor device and test equipment integration;
- Electronic records and signatures (required by regulations such as CFR Part 11);
- Labor skill validation for equipment operators;
- Printing of shop floor documentation;
- Tighter integration with time and attendance systems;
- Improvements in Oracle's Flow Manufacturing module, including an enhanced schedule management tool and improved manufacturing sequencing logic;
- Improvements to Oracle's Quality Workbench tool, including tighter integration with the MES for Discrete Manufacturing; and
- Enhancements to Oracle's Cost Management module, including a new iterative periodic cost processor.
The statement also committed Oracle to certain enhancements to its solutions for process manufacturing, including:
- Support directly in MES for Process Manufacturing for serialized manufacturing;
- Additional enhancements in MES for Process Manufacturing for outsourced and "toll" manufacturing, and support for make-to-order and attribute-driven manufacturing and for multiple batch grouping;
- Improvements in Oracle's Process Manufacturing Product Development modules, including better visibility of formulas from the central product definition; and
- Enhancements to the Oracle Manufacturing Process Planning module, including support for resource batching, forward scheduling independent of demand, and lot genealogy enhancements.
The statement of direction did not indicate when the various promised improvements to Oracle Manufacturing would be delivered, and Oracle officials declined to discuss the statements of direction.