Ask the Experts: Manufacturing Execution System (MES) Trends and Strategies with AMR Research

Diane Himes

Diane Himes joined the editorial staff of Managing Automation in 2006 as online senior editor overseeing the magazine's software and technology directories, and contributes regularly to MA's news, feature, and Web Exclusive coverage. Prior to MA, she spent two years as managing editor of the peer-reviewed technical journal Spectroscopy, an Advanstar publication. Diane began her editorial career with Reed Business Information, where her most recent post was editor of Fiberoptic Product News.

Carter Johnson

Carter Johnson has been with the company since 2000 and as Senior Vice President of Corporate Development manages corporate, market and product strategy for Visiprise. Ensuring that the Visiprise corporate strategy is aligned with field execution, Mr. Johnson is also responsible for worldwide sales and business development. Prior to Visiprise, Mr. Johnson was a member of the supply chain strategy practice of Ernst & Young management consulting, where he optimized supply chain networks for Fortune 1000 manufacturing companies. Mr. Johnson has a degree in Industrial Engineering, is an ISO 9000 certified lead assessor, an active member of APICS and the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, and a former board member for the Manufacturing Enterprise Solutions Association (MESA).

Alison Smith

Alison Smith brings more than 25 years of manufacturing software development, support, marketing, and sales experience to her role as senior research analyst at AMR Research. As a senior analyst in AMR Research's Market Services group, Alison is dedicated to the detailed study of the productive application of information technology to the challenges faced by global producers as they seek to implement and evolve demand-driven manufacturing strategies.

Alison's current research focus is manufacturing operations. She publishes frequently on the application of manufacturing operations software, including manufacturing execution systems, enterprise manufacturing intelligence, and asset performance management across a range of vertical industry manufacturing scenarios. She is currently investigating global specification management for process industry manufacturers.

Prior to joining AMR Research, Alison was a founding officer and marketing vice president of Framework Technologies Corporation. In this role, she focused primarily on commercialization, packaging, positioning, and the initial launch of the company's collaborative manufacturing process design application.

Alison has also held various management positions with several software companies, including Mainstream Software Corporation, Decision Software Company, Microtouch Systems, and Cyborg, a provider of data acquisition and chromatography workstations sold to the laboratory R&D environment.

Throughout her career, Alison has developed, installed, and supported supervisory control and manufacturing execution systems in a number of Fortune 500 manufacturing environments.

Alison graduated summa cum laude with a BA from the University of Wisconsin.

Jeff Hojlo

As a research analyst, Jeff Hojlo is responsible for research and analysis on trends and developments in product innovation and the product lifecycle management (PLM) market. Drawing on 15 years of professional experience, he also works with business and technology executives on developing product and marketing plans, and strategic business initiatives. Jeff joined AMR Research in 2004 as a client research analyst, where he was responsible for research and analysis on industry trends and developments in enterprise infrastructure software and PLM. Before joining AMR Research, Jeff worked in product marketing for Performaworks (now part of Workscape), where he managed the product and go-to-market planning for the companies? performance management software suite in addition to directing sales operations. Prior to this role, Jeff was a product marketing manager for RSA Security, where he led the international marketing and positioning of the RSA SecurID product line including SecurID authentication tokens, ACE/Server, and software agents. Jeff was also a product marketing manager for Engage Media, where he directed the positioning, market segmentation, and pricing of products and services, and was a senior media planner for Carat Freeman, a high tech marketing agency. There, he worked with such clients as Bay Networks, Infinium Software and Sybase to research and implement marketing plans. Jeff began his career in consumer products sales and marketing with Diageo, the beverage manufacturer. Jeff is a member of the Product Development Management Association (PDMA), and writes on topics such as global product development and launch, integrated product and process development, and the front end of innovation. Jeff received a BA from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.