IT and Process Manufacturing

A question that is being asked increasingly frequently at industry conferences throughout the World, where users and vendors of information technology systems congregate is: "What is the buzz around process manufacturing information technology?" The answer being given by those in the know is that process manufacturing information technology (IT) enables the outsourcing of a manufacturing plant's production processes?

The role of IT and plant strategies as antecedents of process manufacturing as well as the evaluation of production methods and planning of IT investments against plant cost and quality.

Research has shown that production plants that have placed a greater emphasis on Process Manufacturing IT investments are more likely to outsource their production processes. In addition the fact that IT investments and production outsourcing are associated with lower plant cost of goods sold and higher product quality improvement provides an additional and very positive feature.

While some of the early declaimers of the positive aspects of Process Manufacturing IT considered it a meaningless process, in time the positive aspects of working in partnership with major system vendors to hook up plant operations to the front office has proven to bring tremendous results as far as plant efficiency is concerned.

For process manufacturers, a well-chosen and integrated IT system can:


reduce order-through-delivery time,
track products through production,
and increase ROI by reducing cycle times and improving inventory management.

In the process manufacturing industries today, there is much in-house or implementer-provided product integration and many manufacturers are faced with multiple EBA systems, UN -integrated and sometimes incompatible.

The single most important criteria for process manufacturers are the provision of very specific process-related features even at the expense of total ERP integration. The market is growing; especially mid-sized companies in need of advanced, industry- and process-specific IT solutions to gain a competitive stance. These manufacturers need to leave homegrown solutions behind and it is a challenge to find a process-specific, integrated solution to replace them. Other systems which can interact with Process Manufacturing IT include SCADA, as well as human-machine interface. In addition a distributed control system can also be brought into play in order to enable communication within operating systems.

The myth that Process Manufacturing is an extremely technology sensitive process is one that is being increasingly shattered by many of the process manufacturing analysts, emphasizing the fact that human resources continue to play an important aspect in process manufacturing.