Augmenting the Value of ERP with MOM

Transcription

1 Augmenting the Value of ERP with MOM APRIL 2009

2 Table of Contents Executive Summary... 3 Introduction... 4 Achievements of ERP... 5 The Challenge of Integrating Production... 6 Supporting an Always On Production Environment... 6 A Core Deployment for Manufacturing Operations Enterprise Deployment vs. Plant by Plant...11 Key Ingredients for a Successful Integration...11 Conclusion About Apriso , 2010 Apriso Corporation This white paper, the software described in it, and other program materials are copyrighted works of Apriso Corporation, with all rights reserved. Trademark Information Apriso and FlexNet are registered trademarks of Apriso Corporation. Limitation of Liability The information in this document represents to the best of our ability the product functionality of Manufacturing Execution, Manufacturing Operations Management and other software products. These materials are subject to change without notice. These materials are provided by Apriso Corporation for informational purposes only, without representation or warranty of any kind. Apriso Corporation shall not be liable for errors or omissions with respect to the materials. The only warranties for Apriso Corporation products and services are those that are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services, if any. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. Version Augmenting the Value of ERP with MOM

3 Executive Summary It s well known that Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems were originally designed to automate and support administrative, financial and inventory processes. These systems have become the de-facto standard to support traditional corporate functions, including purchasing, HR and financial management. According to Gartner, a leading IT Analyst firm, packaged ERP systems such as SAP s offer good architecture, data management and platform choices, however, ERP s integration to other core enterprise applications can be very complex, necessitating the use of enterprise information management and master data management strategies to implement. With these limitations, challenges are steep when applying ERP s corporate applications to the needs of Manufacturing Operations. Flaws in integrating disparate systems can lead to delays in developing ERP-based manufacturing applications, or when deploying Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) or Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) across several sites when really designed for a single location. Often these issues can cost millions of dollars, and possibly the career of aspiring IT managers and executives. Fortunately, a solution now exists specifically focused on manufacturing operations management and execution. These solutions leverage the value of ERP without removing any of the previously attained, hard fought and paid for benefits of a unified data infrastructure by adding an operations execution layer to achieve ERP s goal of a single source of the truth. This white paper reviews the history behind ERP deployments and why today s business requirements necessitate direct, real-time integration between corporate planning applications and the shop floor, across manufacturing operations including production, quality and the supply chain network. Manufacturers who embrace these new solutions can position themselves to respond faster to changing market conditions for expanded market share, while at the same time lowered costs and improved efficiency of their business processes. We were heavily exposed to client pressure to contain costs and improve logistics excellence. In fact, our customers asked that we reduce prices by six percent while simultaneously delivering 10 percent improvements in productivity. This necessitated a radical change in both our ERP and supply network solutions. Pascal Ober Competence Centers Director Saint-Gobain Sekurit, an Apriso customer 3 Augmenting the Value of ERP with MOM

4 Introduction The reasons why organizations have endured the deployment of ERP are numerous, ranging from addressing Y2K challenges back in the 1990s, to achieving a lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), to attaining standardized corporate visibility throughout the enterprise. ERP products have been a successful catalyst for driving change throughout an enterprise by: Linking employees of various business units and countries after successive mergers and acquisitions Defining the same version of the truth with a unified data model Communicating and sharing consistent performance metrics, aligned to corporate objectives Establishing and maintaining best practices, enforced company wide Addressing industry specific regulatory compliance and Sarbanes Oxley adherence across the enterprise Converting corporate processes into customer-centric programs, cutting across traditionally silo departments For those who have successfully implemented ERP to support of back-office operations, attention has now turned to incorporating this enterprise architecture with the plant floor to better manage production, sales, planning, purchasing and inventory. With the increasing challenges of a global economy, accelerating competition and the need to combine cost reduction with product innovation, top management is striving to apply a global IT solution down to new layers of plant operations across multiple geographies. Corporate IT leaders are looking to expand ERP down to the shop floor to achieve this vision. This new wave of ERP expansion is now elevating the difficulty and challenges posed to IT teams supporting ERP. As Gartner states, the complexities now facing these integration projects is heightened, causing considerable grief for IT departments worldwide. SAP hadn't built any significant capabilities for the shop floor.at the end of the day, the MES model doesn't fit with the ERP model and it [is] best for SAP to play the role of enterprise orchestrator. Colin Masson Research Director AMR Research; SAP Loses Key Manufacturing Leader ; Managing Automation, August 2007 While accounting, sales, payroll and logistics processes are relatively standard in their respective industries, plant level requirements are much more specific with regards to production, quality and maintenance processes. The difficulties of a global IT solution becomes extreme when using business process knowledge developed over long periods of time across many plants, each with different histories of practices, experiences, machines and cultures. Complicating matters further, the long tradition of having each plant independently select its IT system, leading to highly customized local programming, has only exacerbated the challenge, removing any chance of a corporate, standardized solution. In today s globally competitive environment, plants often require 24x7 availability to compete a requirement reinforced when production is globally distributed across multiple time zones. 4 Augmenting the Value of ERP with MOM

5 Alternatively, accounting systems may only require 8x5 availability at one corporate headquarters location. It is simply unacceptable to shut down a shop floor operations execution system for 12 hours for routine maintenance when operations run continuously. User interfaces must also be considered when reaching down to the plant level. For example, shop floor operators or warehouse forklift drivers may not be able to use a mouse to click on a drop down menu, requiring instead a user interface with touch screens or mobile devices to maintain productivity. See Figure 1. In addition, production and quality data is best collected automatically by shop-floor systems to avoid costly and error-prone manual data input. Huge volumes of detailed production and quality data must be stored and organized for future retrieval to then be used with lean manufacturing or six sigma optimization initiatives, as well as to achieve regulatory compliance. When it comes to the shop floor, Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) cover many different production activities, requiring different methods for assimilating the knowledge within corporate decision modeling programs. Achievements of ERP Prior to the advent of ERP systems, departments within an organization such as Sales or Operations would have their own IT systems with proprietary data and applications. The Manufacturing department typically calculated and stored production planning information, while Sales might store and manage customer data, including sales order transactions with timeframes for renewals and upgrades. The Finance department may elect to store financial transactions for the organization, tying directly into the billing system. The challenge is that each system relies on the same set of common data in order to provide meaningful reporting and forecasting. Obtaining this data often required separate isolated tasks, ranging from manual input to the use of rudimentary centralized databases, each of which could be queried at set times during the month to achieve consistent reporting. What is MES, and How Does it Compare to MOM? A Manufacturing Execution System (MES) is a dynamic information system that drives effective execution of manufacturing operations. Using current and accurate data, MES guides, triggers, and reports on plant activities as events occur from point of order release into manufacturing to point of product delivery into finished goods according to Manufacturing Enterprise Solutions Association International (MESA). Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM) is a new term, and has a wider scope of meaning, including each of the operational areas of manufacturing, from production to warehouse, quality, maintenance and labor processes. And, a MOM system can be deployed across multiple locations for a more comprehensive, enterprise-class solution. This systems evolution resulted in a preponderance of interfaces, not to mention the risk of inconsistencies between systems, with little chance to organize consistent corporate processes oriented towards the customer. Figure 1: Sample Touch Screen 5 Augmenting the Value of ERP with MOM

6 However, during long periods of learning and sometimes costly implementations, leading ERP vendors such as SAP and Oracle have proven their capacity to deliver several key benefits: One shared database, for a single version of the truth Cross functional and cross departmental corporate processes Enterprise wide standardization for business units or geographies, within select departments The Challenge of Integrating Production Supporting an Always On Production Environment Plant level requirements in manufacturing go far beyond generating a production plan with process orders or calculating purchase orders based on forecast or actual demand. Regardless of how optimized a Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP) or Advanced Planning Systems (APS) production plan may be, it still must be properly executed. Production, quality, engineering, Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and equipment maintenance processes must be defined and executed at the execution layer in order to be adaptable to changing market, customer and industry trends. For example, today a growing requirement facing manufacturers is an intensive level of traceability to satisfy regulatory compliance initiatives, further complicated by extended supply chains and globally distributed production facilities. This evolution warrants new business processes at the execution layer, changes that are not easily accomplished from static systems designed for planning 1, 3 or 5 year forecasts. Let s now see what operations execution actually means, and how it differs from planning and accounting processes. Detailed visibility When establishing a manufacturing plan it is necessary to first generate a list of tasks, activities or process orders, ranging from handling materials, performing various mechanical or chemical transformations or following a quality control program culminating with final assembly and packaging. These tasks must then be synchronized to avoid wasting time or resources, not only between the production lines or cells, but also between various production, quality and maintenance teams. Production operators need to receive material on time from warehouse forklift drivers; quality control operators need to sample, control and evaluate products with a minimum impact on cycle times; technicians must execute their maintenance operations to minimize resource downtime. SAP R/3 could only be used to plan what to produce per day, but was inadequate for Mitsuba s shop floor operations. We use FlexNet as our Operations Execution System to plan and dispatch production orders with the detail of which machine and production line to use, as well as the production sequence. Actual results against plan are then fed back to R/3 in real-time. The detailed container inventory levels are stored in FlexNet, allowing real-time inventory visibility at the shop floor. Mr. Shimada SAP R/3 Project Executive at Mitsuba Corporation 6 Augmenting the Value of ERP with MOM

7 The difference between a best-in-class production floor and a laggard performer comes from optimizing the manufacturing workflow with considerable granularity. This requires a sophisticated level of detailed information on individual critical resources, such as machines and tooling status. Work in Progress (WIP) levels, including the status of intermediate products and containers, as well as the location within the warehouse or the production area are needed to support intelligent, dynamic decision making as unexpected events occur. ERP systems were designed for global resource and supply chain planning, as well as for accounting processes, so they generally do not have the capacity, data model or transactional ability to handle incredibly large volumes of detailed information associated with manufacturing activities. Of course, customization is always possible to extend functionality ( With enough man-hours, we can build anything! ) but when process changes take months to complete, this inability to quickly adapt allows serious competitive challenges to arise, including lost customers or the opportunity cost of a lost sale. If your competitor can adapt a business process in hours when it takes you months, you have a problem. Availability Due to high fixed costs, manufacturers strive to keep their facilities optimized with maximum throughput. Coupled with global production requirements, the perfect plant never shuts down. To support these processes, information systems must adhere to the same level of continuous availability. While an ERP system is often designed to support high availability with a redundant architecture and / or dual rooms in case of fire or similar threatening event, at times there may not be real-time visibility down to the shop floor. Providing high availability for a global data network, while incorporating a recurring maintenance schedule for IT systems is challenging and costly. Complex administration of central ERP systems creates a strong incentive to use locally based manufacturing execution systems. In addition, globally distributed plants make the planning of maintenance activities within a centralized ERP very complex to accommodate, especially when dealing with multiple time zones. Processing capabilities can be overloaded during peak hours of ERP batch processing, planning calculations or month-end accounting. This slow down can generate data locking, which reduces performance and blocks access by plant operations. The solution is to provide a distributed systems architecture that combines a centralized ERP system with a local operations execution system, enabling each system to perform autonomously as needed, providing acceptable availability while optimizing your total cost of ownership. At the same time, sufficient integration must exist between the two systems so that 7 Augmenting the Value of ERP with MOM

8 corporate ERP users have real-time visibility down to the operations layer. Additionally, integration must exist between each operations execution task to collectively perform as a whole, further leveraging the vertical integration into ERP with horizontal integration across manufacturing production, quality, warehouse, maintenance and time & labor systems. This paper shall refer to these systems collectively as an Operations Execution System, or OES. Support for Real-time Unplanned & Exceptional Events An Operations Execution System must accommodate both planned and unplanned, or unexpected events as they occur. Even as predictive maintenance processes are more actively applied, unexpected machine downtime still occurs. In these situations, a quick decision enabled by real-time visibility minimizes the impact. Even with the sophisticated logic of a demand driven supply chain leveraged to prevent material shortages, some material, component or ingredient will inevitably be unavailable at a specified location or quantity level at the time of production. The same applies to quality a process or supplier s raw material may be gauged as out of spec, necessitating appropriate controls to be in place for detection and immediate corrective action. And, for those manufacturers selling directly to end users, varying customer demand creates enormous scheduling challenges, best addressed with real-time visibility to perform production changes on the fly. Paperless User Interface Supports Dynamic Information Flow When working in a dynamic world with continually changing processes, paper is obviously a less than optimal format. It is difficult to use when continuous change is the rule and inefficient for distributed operations. Information about product changes, improved procedures and controls must be delivered to all operators as soon as validated. An electronic format works best, one that can be supported for efficient delivery of instructions while saving clerical workers the time of paper delivery, providing the most up to date information. Automated data collection When traceability requirements lead to multiple production and process data recordings, automatic collection of data is needed to maintain productivity. Recording information manually for traceability or machine efficiency typically adds hours of work per day for paperbased recording and manual entry within a spreadsheet or any other database. Production data such as product reference, lot or serial number, supplier, customer or quantity can now be automatically collected using bar codes or RFID technology. Systems designed with open, standard connectivity to various other types of equipment interfaces, such as RS- 232c, OPC, various file and XML formats, ease automated data collection processes needed to eliminate paper-based systems. Product characteristics are collected through measurement device interfaces; process and production data are collected by interfacing to machines, PLCs or SCADA systems. 8 Augmenting the Value of ERP with MOM

9 Automated data collection prevents production delays, due to delayed or outdated manual inputs, delaying time required to take corrective action. With on-line information delivered in real-time, problems are detected earlier while there is still time to take corrective action. Actionable Data Beyond KPI Calculations One way to empower an operations staff is to provide them with a dynamic user screen showing on-line information and metrics about the current performance of their production and supply chain processes. Such empowerment contributes directly to continuous improvement methodologies, including Lean manufacturing and Six Sigma. See Figure 2. Key Performances Indicators (KPIs) can be automatically calculated and updated in real-time, to be available at any time, not just at the end of the day, week or month. Performance dashboards sought by management tend to display static graphic indicators in a portal view, updated hourly or at the end of a shift. Some EMI (Enterprise Manufacturing Intelligence) tools can be refreshed in real-time, say to the minute. Most EMIs are designed as one way or bottom up, efficiently reading information from the process control or MES level, feeding KPI calculations, formulas and other gauges and charts. This data may then be sent into an ERP system, but lacks two-way communications for supporting real time queries and actionable inquiries. Stated differently, this type of tool does not provide the capability to actually drive business processes. Sending commands or driving step-by-step processes and recipes still needs execution technology. Operations Execution Systems go further than EMI and middleware connectivity software, by providing actionable data that gives operators the capability to drive their manufacturing workflow, not just collect data. This misunderstanding often comes from the capability of EMI solutions to manage Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE). This commonly used KPI and related Availability, Performance and Quality terms are often the starting point for MES projects. Figure 2: Sample KPI Dashboard 9 Augmenting the Value of ERP with MOM

10 Figure 3: Generic activity model of manufacturing operations management In many minds MES = OEE + reporting production to ERP, such as in process industries like Refining and Chemicals where process automation and task execution is mostly implemented in DCS (Digital Control Systems) such as Foxboro, Honeywell or ABB. In batch and discrete industries, however, important functions such as sequencing tasks, interlocking traceability, event-based material flow routings and step-by-step execution are needed to match shop floor requirements. Manufacturing business logic can not be restricted within process control and SCADA, as product and process changes are too frequent. Widely adopted as the standard for defining Operations Execution, ISA S95 is supported by most ERP products. In its 3rd standard document published in 2005, the generic activity reference model of Manufacturing Operations Management has a descriptive summary of the main functions. This schema clearly shows what EMI covers: Data Collection and Analysis, and what makes a complete execution system: Data Collection, Detailed Scheduling, Resource Management, Definition Management, Dispatching, Execution Management and Tracking. Please see Figure 3. Local Autonomy a Standard Before discovering the benefits of an integrated and cross functional ERP, manufacturing companies often used local plant level MRP systems, largely customized to cope with specific models of production, local processes and best practices. Enterprises are now challenged to combine the benefits of standardizing global processes while preserving local autonomy. The ideal solution combines centrally planned ERP focused on supporting Core business processes that apply to all business units, augmented by an Operations Execution System, or OES capable of supporting plant floor Core processes and customized local plant processes necessary to complete the production process. Let s take a look now to see how such a system could be designed and implemented. 10 Augmenting the Value of ERP with MOM

11 A Core Deployment for Manufacturing Operations Enterprise Deployment vs. Plant by Plant Merger and acquisition activity is never ending. As a result, many organizations struggle with integrating a newly acquired division or company system while providing accurate, aggregate performance metrics to senior management. In addition to M&A, the completion of new facilities, launching new business units or just upgrading existing ERP systems leads companies to seriously consider how to best optimize their information systems architecture to achieve difficult integration objectives in a cost effective manner. One such approach that effectively addresses these systems integration challenges is to complement an ERP deployment with that of a Manufacturing Operations Management and execution system, now referred to as a MOM solution, capable of embracing a Core systems implementation approach. The focus now becomes how to best identify the approximate 80% of business processes common to each plant, which can then be supported using a standardized configuration of the ERP and MOM software at each location. Execution systems have traditionally been considered a local solution. Since the days of CIM (Computer Integrated Manufacturing) in the 1980s, even with more packaged solutions, Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) projects in the 1990s were typically evaluated locally by a plant production director, with the help of the process automation team. Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) were decided by the logistic director. Quality Management Systems (QMS) by the quality director. In some cases vendor selection was performed by corporate IT, particularly when global pricing conditions were negotiated by corporate purchasing departments. It was rare when a decision was made to go through a corporate rollout with a focused timeframe. And, until recently, execution solutions were typically silo systems that had to be connected individually to the ERP system. Key Ingredients for a Successful Integration Cross-enterprise Manufacturing Operations Processes Some benefits of deploying ERP include having a common platform for cross-enterprise processes, achieving a single version of the truth and leveraging a single technology and software supplier. Manufacturers engaged in ERP rollouts recognize a MOM implementation could be approached in much the same way, bringing the same advantages of an enterprise platform, but with a solution offering the key features needed for operations execution. No single facility is going to be absolutely perfect. Yet each facility may have some unique way of doing things that could benefit other plants. Working with the Apriso implementation team, we identified best practices and incorporated those within a Core profile, to then deploy across the enterprise at each location. The template is flexible enough, however, that it can be easily modified to meet local conditions, as well as be updated to reflect new process improvements. Pascal Ober Competence Centers Director, Saint-Gobain Sekurit 11 Augmenting the Value of ERP with MOM

12 Defining a Core system for manufacturing operations execution requires the capability to design and configure a wide scope of business processes globally, while supporting local execution for the remaining manufacturing processes unique at each plant. Looking at operations taking place at manufacturing sites, these can be classified into 6 key activities: Production adding value by transforming material into products Warehousing supplying material to production; delivering finished goods to the distribution network Quality ensuring consistency of customer specifications Maintenance maintaining production, warehouse and handling equipment in working condition Labor managing human resources Supply Chain Visibility establishing and maintaining visibility into raw materials and other supplier value chains The widely accepted ISA S95 standard recognizes a wider scope of operations as a Generic activity model of manufacturing operations management, thus extending the initially limited scope defined by MESA in the early days of MES. Examples of operations execution / MOM processes include: Manufacturing processes like machining, mixing, heating, assembling, packaging Receiving, put away, inventory counting, picking, line replenishment, palletizing, shipping Sampling, measuring Cleaning, calibrating, testing, inspecting, maintaining, repairing, replacing parts Clocking in, clocking out, direct or indirect labor tracking, time sheet validation This category of applications is referred to as Operations Management by ARC Advisory Group. According to Gartner, Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM) is an integrative approach to production management that requires greater business context than the plant-contained Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) of the previous generation. With this functional scope, MOM allows the configuration of business processes using the same modeling and configuration methodologies to manage all execution related data within a unified data infrastructure, without the limitations of traditional silo execution systems. Such scope complements ERP modules used for production planning and accounting, as well as those relating to material management, quality management, plant maintenance or human resource management. This unified approach gives corporate IT the capability to use a single technology for configuring any application or manufacturing execution process that goes beyond the back office comfort zone of ERP. 12 Augmenting the Value of ERP with MOM

13 Global Process Management In addition to a larger functional scope, an operations management platform needs global execution capability. This simply means that as processes are defined, configured and tested in various locations, they should then be stored in a central repository. It must be possible to transfer these processes to each plant location to perform the required local execution. Surprisingly, this transfer capability based on strict versioning and configuration management is not offered as a standard feature in most MES products. It would appear few vendors have considered the challenges of a global rollout. These capabilities need to include not only the entities as processes and operations, but also all possible linked entities that are part of an execution task. Such a system must be capable of transporting various formats of configuration objects, such as database entities, XML files, program files, etc. BPM and SOA as Enablers In addition to global administration of business processes, another requirement to make a MOM solution flexible is an ability to streamline business processes and perform ad hoc changes as often as needed. It is not enough to just accept processes you must have the capability to accept and improve processes, which can be created or changed by process owners or functional staff. The benefit of empowering process owners with enhanced agility to make an improvement means change is swift, relevant and isn t delayed while waiting for IT staff involvement with significant recoding, testing, approvals and finally a release of the new code. New SOA platforms for MOM solutions let key end users assemble predefined business components which perform the tasks of automatic data collection, data base transactions and Figure 4: Sample graphic depiction of a manufacturing process flow. 13 Augmenting the Value of ERP with MOM

14 ERP synchronization. Since the business logic is added graphically within the definition of the business processes, and not hard coded in the transactions or the automation layer, the system is highly dynamic. See Figure 4. Before this important breakthrough, it was necessary to chart processes, document in Visio or another drawing tool, and then create code as stored procedures or C code, or on the client side, Java or VB programming by developers. When business people author their own processes, IT staff can concentrate on other tasks. As operations are managed on the same platform, there is a declining need to support rogue custom applications at each plant. And, it s possible for a small corporate team to perform systems maintenance remotely. Some manufacturers use an internal skill center, while others subcontract to global systems integrators, such as CapGemini, Accenture, Tata Consulting Services (TCS) and others. 14 Augmenting the Value of ERP with MOM

15 Conclusion In order to remain globally competitive, implement continuous improvement initiatives and adhere to complex traceability requirements for regulatory compliance, corporate IT leaders are testing the boundaries of what role ERP can play to extend their vision down to the shop floor. This new wave of ERP expansion is now elevating the difficulty and challenges posed to IT teams supporting ERP. And, with the substantial investment already committed to ERP systems, prudent IT professionals recognize that a nominal investment in a MOM system can pay handsome rewards and incremental ROI on heavy investments already applied to ERP deployments. This paper has reviewed multiple compelling issues of establishing and maintaining connectivity to manufacturing operations through an existing ERP system. Several challenges were presented that suggest a supplemental program to ERP might be the best approach. A Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM) system cost effectively provides the following functionalities, while complementing the strengths and benefits of an ERP system, delivering optimized performance and visibility within a manufacturing operations environment: Detailed visibility / traceability 24x7x365 availability Support for real time unplanned and exceptional events Paperless user interfaces Automated data collection Actionable data beyond KPI calculations The long tradition of plants independently selecting IT systems while performing highly customized local programming has only exacerbated the problem. Apriso s FlexNet is a solution based on recent breakthroughs in Business Process Management (BPM) and Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) technologies, specifically focused on integrating operations execution throughout the manufacturing environment. Apriso s MOM was designed to maximize the value and benefits of ERP without removing any of the previously attained, hard fought and paid for benefits of a unified data infrastructure enabling a single source of the truth. By adapting a Core enterprise methodology to implement Apriso FlexNet as an integrated MOM ERP system, it is possible to establish a consistent profile of typical business processes performed at a plant, while enabling the necessary local autonomy to complete operations execution down to the shop floor. Augmenting an ERP system with MOM supports the need for spreading global best practices with tight integration to corporate planning, while also providing detailed visibility and KPI tracking, enabling the flexibility needed to adapt to unplanned events in production and the supply chain. 15 Augmenting the Value of ERP with MOM

16 About Apriso Apriso Corporation is a software company dedicated to providing competitive advantage for its customers. It does so by enabling organizations to adapt quickly and easily to market changes and unexpected events. Since 1992, Apriso has been helping companies improve manufacturing performance by providing visibility into, control over and synchronization across manufacturing operations both within and in coordination across plants and the product supply network. Some of the world s largest and most successful manufacturers have leveraged Apriso s unique combination of software solutions and expertise to transform their manufacturing operations to achieve and sustain manufacturing excellence. As an adaptive platform for manufacturing operations management, FlexNet manages production, quality, warehouse, maintenance and labor processes to provide visibility into, control over and synchronization across global manufacturing operations. Built with a native Business Process Management (BPM) framework that incorporates a unified data model, FlexNet applications enable continuous improvement and rapid response to market changes. FlexNet delivers a global view of manufacturing operations by utilizing a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) to ease integration with enterprise applications, such as ERP and PLM, while interfacing with the shop floor and automation equipment. Apriso serves 180+ customers in 40+ countries across the Americas, Europe and Asia. Its customers include General Motors, Lear, Honeywell, L'Oréal, Trixell, Lockheed Martin, Becton Dickinson, Saint-Gobain, Novelis and Essilor. For more information, please go to 16 Augmenting the Value of ERP with MOM