The Evolution of Manufacturing Software Platforms: Past, Present, and Future

Transcription

1 The Evolution of Manufacturing Software Platforms: Past, Present, and With reliance on the global supplier network, pressures on operating margins, and the increasing complexity of products and processes more relevant and challenging than ever, manufacturers require a modern systems architecture to be competitive in today s dynamic environment. In many respects, however, past technology implementation decisions and strategies that provided a quick return or solved a local problem may now be the greatest source of challenges standing in the way of long-term operational success. Fortunately, the manufacturing operations technology space is improving rapidly to meet user needs. While companies may have traditionally and primarily leveraged technologies that touched specific functional areas within each operational level (Figure 1), there have already been significant changes in the market to consolidate and simplify many of these traditionally disparate systems and information levels. This Research Spotlight intends to discuss the evolution of Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM) software platforms, first by focusing on the past and current approaches, and then by diving into the future of manufacturing software platforms. Specifically, this Research Spotlight will cover the following areas: The Expanding Scope of MOM Functionality Current and MOM Technology Trends A Drill-Down into Next Generation MOM Platforms The manufacturing operations technology space is improving rapidly to meet user needs. While companies may have traditionally and primarily leveraged technologies that touched specific functional areas within each operational level, there have already been significant changes in the market to consolidate and simplify many of these traditionally disparate systems and information levels. 1 Page 1

2 The Expanding Scope of MOM Functionality Manufacturing companies have traditionally implemented numerous purposebuilt software systems and applications, generally to resolve a specific set of issues. Accounting for differences in IT visions and strategies, mergers and acquisitions, and across regional, national, and global sites, it is not uncommon for this number to grow exponentially over time. As a consequence, today there are often hundreds of disconnected solutions in a given company, each of which deals with its own specific set of functionalities in areas such as: Scheduling Production Execution Maintenance Quality Performance Management Risk Management Human Capital Management Although this IT diversity is effective in collecting data and managing work processes within most functions in manufacturing, the technologies do not easily interoperate with or across each other. In some cases, having been in place for decades, solutions are rendered virtually obsolete outside of their functional area. Because of the ever-increasing complexity of user needs, combined with the fragility of many of these systems in manufacturing operations, reliance on this broad set of applications is a growing concern. Today, the traditional model of incorporating numerous disparate systems is neither scalable nor sustainable. Accounting for differences in IT visions and strategies, mergers and acquisitions, and across regional, national, and global sites, it is not uncommon for there to be hundreds of disconnected solutions in a given company. MOM Software in the Context of Operational Levels To put the number of applications a single manufacturing organization may have into perspective, LNS created the MOM Software/Application model. This model details many of the applications used at each operational level, ranging in functionality and visibility from the shop floor through the top floor. From this high-level overview, the complexities of varying technologies become easily apparent. When multiple applications are deployed across sites, divisions, and regions, in addition to acquired technologies from M&A activities, the landscape can quickly become overwhelming. 2 Page 2

3 Figure 2: MOM Software/Application View 3 Page 3

4 The difficulties associated with integrating disparate data sources, processes, and systems within and across operational levels, combined with the corresponding duplicative functionality and overhead, have become very costly and time consuming for manufacturing organizations to work with. Similar to the evolving space of quality management software, in which LNS has conducted extensive research, it is likely that manufacturing executives will report major challenges with disconnected IT architectures in the Manufacturing Operations Management Survey. Although organizations are taking steps to consolidate their IT diversity, previous technology implementation decisions have left many with a list of critical roadblocks for performance improvements: Having multiple databases and configuration tools that lack communication with each other A lack of process management and data contextualization tools that can work together to solve manufacturing business issues Difficulty in expanding functionality with the number of separate solutions Inconsistent user interfaces and monitoring tools Difficulty for vendors and users to rapidly evolve software and develop and deploy new functionality The MOM Survey is live and can be taken here. Over the coming year, LNS will be analyzing these survey results, providing a variety of Operational Excellence related reports on people, processes, technology, and metrics to its community. Current and MOM Trends Advancements in technology, in conjunction with the accelerating needs of users, have resulted in manufacturing organizations building out solutions on top of vendors original core offering database architectures. Despite this build-out method s short-term benefits, its inability to meet today s complex data and workflow demands has highlighted many of the weak points of existing architectures. It is prompting the need for next-generation manufacturing software platforms. Where the MOM Software Space Is Heading While full MOM functionality, as alluded to in the LNS MOM Software/Application model above, is not yet available as a single packaged offering, the market seems to be moving in this direction. Vendors are acknowledging market demands, which have emerged in our research and 4 Page 4

5 discussions with industry thought leaders in a list of current MOM IT trends that are likely to impact the future of the space. These include the following: Open-standards based integration and collaboration capabilities, including process management and workflow for people to people, people to systems, as well as systems to systems interactions A common software services approach for all MOM applications to integrate to enterprise and industrial automation applications, greatly easing data and process workflow integration across all software domains in the manufacturing enterprise Compatibility with enterprise service bus technologies that are becoming prevalent in business and IT applications, facilitating end-to-end, business, and manufacturing process management linkages Simplified consumption of future functionality and enhancements to the existing manufacturing IT portfolio The ability to readily scale from small, single plant applications to large, onpremise or cloud-based enterprise applications A Drill-Down on the Next Generation of MOM Software Platforms MOM software platforms will integrate many of the disparate manufacturing information systems that have been discussed, providing new solutions to the traditional information and process gaps that manufacturers currently face. To drill-down into the specific capabilities these nextgeneration platforms will possess, LNS created the : Integration & Collaboration Platforms model. This model details the common application functionalities and services shared by these emerging platforms, along with modular apps that will be created and delivered to run on top of them. The following section will discuss these platforms most important next-generation attributes more in depth. MOM software platforms will integrate many of the disparate manufacturing information systems that have been discussed, providing new solutions to the traditional information and process gaps that manufacturers currently face. 5 Page 5

6 6 Page 6

7 Collaboration Capabilities Collaboration and workflow services support people-to-people, people-tosystems, and systems-to-systems interactions, enforcing procedures and rules while flexibly adapting to real-time situations with alternate workflows and processes. Traditionally, process execution software has been much less flexible and pre-configured, which often did not have the ability to support dynamic people-to-people interactions. Security Services With a variety of point solutions implemented over time, in many organizations there is a growing concern around fractured security and managing roles/access across multiple applications. manufacturing platforms will leverage common security services that determine roles, responsibilities, authorities, and access across all systems and application functions while fitting into corporate IT security schemes. Asset & Production Model manufacturing platforms will have a unified asset and production model that supports all of the interrelationships between physical production equipment, facilities, inventory/materials and people, as well as production definitions such as the manufacturing bill of materials, productions orders, etc. This contrasts with older systems that either had subsets of these interrelationships across multiple databases, or could not effectively deal with federating across multiple systems of record. manufacturing platforms will leverage common security services that determine roles, responsibilities, authorities, and access across all systems and application functions while fitting into corporate IT security schemes. Operations Database & Historians Evolving from older systems that had separate historians and production databases that were difficult to correlate across, service-based platforms will have a unified operations database and historian. This will capture and aggregate all time-series and production event information surrounding everything involved in each product and production run with a full genealogy of components and materials, related performance information, and federation across other systems and devices of record. Visualization and Mobility Today, different MOM applications support different graphical user interfaces, Web interfaces, specific mobile applications, and so on. The future 7 Page 7

8 manufacturing platform will provide common visualization and mobility for a consistent user interface experience across different form factors, supporting dedicated and mobile workers that are orchestrated by consistent workflows and procedures. Of course, different views will be available by security role and responsibility, but the underlying technology platform and visualization development will be the same. Smaller and Focused Apps Today s monolithic systems and applications have too many interdependencies of databases, operate inconsistently, and are not inherently integrated. Being able to take advantage of many of the common software platform services described above, modular apps will be significantly smaller, simpler, and focused. These apps will be much lighter weight in functionality, and, as a result, significantly easier and faster to develop. Final Recommendations For organizations looking to integrate their enterprise, manufacturing, and automation systems to increase performance, investing in an emerging MOM software platform may be an effective way to reach these goals. Whether looking to simply learn more about the MOM space or ready to make an investment, there are several initiatives that organizations can take to ensure they are well informed about next steps: When researching potential vendors, organizations should look for those that are evolving their offerings to deliver a modern, common MOM software services platform that is capable of fitting into existing IT landscapes Organizations should look for areas where manufacturing business processes can be harmonized and standardized across their manufacturing enterprise, and then look for software solutions that enable rapid management and deployment of these processes. When researching potential vendors, organizations should look for those that are evolving their offerings to deliver a modern, common MOM software services platform that is capable of fitting into existing IT landscapes, and over time migrating larger, heavyweight, and more complex point solutions into simpler apps that run on top of the platform. Manufacturing IT landscapes should be consolidated and standardized over time on fewer different applications, and instead built toward a modern platform and apps approach. Organizations should cover integration needs by linking their business platform services bus to a MOM services platform, which should then be connected to their automation system and equipment. 8 Page 8

9 LNS Research provides advisory and benchmarking services to help Line-of-Business, IT, and Industrial Automation executives make critical business and operational decisions. LNS research focuses on providing insights into the key business processes, metrics, and technologies adopted in industrial operations. Author: Mark Davidson, Principal Analyst, 9 Page 9