The recent Epicor Insights 2013 conference highlighted how the 2012 Solarsoft acquisition strengthens Epicor’s presence in the lumber and building materials, wholesale distribution, print and packaging, and automotive sectors. In addition, Solarsoft gives Epicor new presence in process manufacturing (i.e., food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, mills, metals, and chemicals), whereas Epicor has traditionally focused on discrete manufacturing.

One byproduct of Solarsoft’s acquisition was Epicor Mattec, a standalone manufacturing execution system (MES), for which there reportedly is growing customer demand among manufacturing organizations worldwide. The product is also creating new opportunities for Epicor as an integrated solution with its next-generation enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, Epicor ERP (a.k.a., Epicor 9).

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Siemens PLM Software has announced the release of the latest version of its widely used digital manufacturing solution for manufacturing engineering, Tecnomatix 11. The latest release offers a more advanced digital manufacturing solution that promises to deliver smart, fast, and lean manufacturing, including Manufacturing Process Management (MPM).

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Apriso, a provider of global manufacturing software solutions, has introduced a Packaging Solution for Global Manufacturers to better manage complex packaging operations and conversion processes. Manufacturers in the consumer goods, food and beverage, and consumer electronics industries who implement this solution should have up-to-the-minute visibility into and control over plant floor systems, processes, and performance to enable better informed decisions and respond faster to change with accuracy, while still retaining the operations intelligence necessary for world-class product traceability and regulatory compliance adherence.

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IQMS, a manufacturing enterprise resource planning (ERP) and manufacturing execution system (MES) software provider for the repetitive, process, and discrete industries (automotive, medical, packaging, consumer goods, etc.), announced that Rebling Power Connectors has selected IQMS EnterpriseIQ as its new unified manufacturing solution. For more than four decades, Rebling Power Connectors has been manufacturing high current battery receptacles and disconnectors for the aviation sector and defense land vehicles, in addition to its custom thermoplastic and thermoset moldings for the medical, consumer products, and automotive industries.

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Apriso, a provider of global manufacturing software solutions that has recently celebrated its 20th birthday, announced the launch of Apriso Global EMI (Enterprise Manufacturing Intelligence) solution—that provides a truly global and consistent platform. The solution gathers and reports up-to-the-minute information—wherever and whenever it is needed across an enterprise—tailored and presented in a way that is right for each individual decision maker.

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While some analysts may question the true revenue figure that can be attributed solely to SAP HANA (i.e., whether SAP is intentionally crediting HANA with revenues that might be attributable to other SAP offerings), the fact remains that businesses have currently only just scratched the surface of SAP HANA’s potential. For example, SAP recently announced that HANA would underpin new releases of manufacturing solutions as well as updates for existing solutions covering engineering, manufacturing, and sustainable operations. The announcement was made at Hannover Messe 2013, held April 8-12 in Hannover, Germany.

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Plex Systems Inc., provider of Plex Online, a cloud enterprise resource planning (ERP) offering for manufacturers, recently announced the results of the survey entitled “2012 ERP Study: Implementation and Usage Trends for SaaS/Cloud vs. Traditional Systems.” Conducted by the Manufacturing Performance Institute (MPI) on behalf of Plex Systems, the study assessed implementations of ERP systems, satisfaction with those implementations, and the extent to which ERP systems have benefitted organizations.

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IQMS is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) and manufacturing execution systems (MES) vendor that tries to deliver as much native functionality as possible. But computer-aided design (CAD) and product data management (PDM) are highly specialist capabilities. To that end, IQMS has just released its SolidWorks PDM add-in. With more than two million license on the market, SolidWorks is an established 3D CAD application owned by Dassault Systèmes. Manufacturers use SolidWorks rendering tools to create, simulate, publish, and manage product data, parts, and tools. Read the rest of this entry »

C.W. Thomas, Philadelphia-based manufacturer of vacuum/pressure formed products, and IQMS, vendor of enterprise resource planning (ERP) and manufacturing execution system (MES) software, announced today that they have signed an agreement to implement several IQMS solutions: ERP software EnterpriseIQ and MES offerings that include, among other things, the shop floor control solution ShopData and production monitoring module RealTime.

This packaged solution from a recognized manufacturing software vendor is supposed to replace an archaic DOS-based homegrown system combined with Excel spreadsheets. The existing tool requires many duplicate manual efforts to sustain production and is obviously not fully capable of supporting the business. Read the rest of this entry »

On March 10, 2013, Apriso, a global provider of manufacturing software solutions, celebrated its 20th anniversary. Apriso has established itself as a leader in the manufacturing operations management (MOM) industry, having accomplished 20 industry firsts during its first two decades of existence. This industry leadership has translated into substantial business value creation by Apriso’s customers, supporting Apriso’s significant revenue growth and global expansion to more than 45 countries.

It is indeed impressive that Apriso has survived for 20 years, given that a few manufacturing execution system (MES) software companies make it even for even 10 years (other than power houses like Rockwell, Siemens, Invensys, Honeywell, etc.). For more details, see the press release announcing the 20th anniversary, and the figure below, which illustrates the aforementioned “20 industry firsts” that Apriso has accomplished over those two decades.

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Yet another of our weekly news round-ups from the world of supply chain. This week, we bring you some brief (and not so brief) news from SAP, TradeCard, Apriso, TECSYS, Epic Data, Waterloo Software, and Fishbowl Inventory. His Eminence, Pope Benedict XVI, may be going off duty to hide from the world, but we aren’t. The office is open, the phones are working, and the Wifi is running. We are ready to talk supply chain.

SAP announced this week the general availability of v9.0 of the SAP Transportation Management (SAP TM) application. Read the rest of this entry »

After a very good 2012, IQMS, a manufacturing enterprise resource planning (ERP) software and manufacturing execution systems (MES) developer with an ongoing and proactive commitment to its product and relationships, continues 2013 with new customer wins—most recently, Airlite Plastics Co. has selected IQMS.

Airlite Plastics’ legacy software was a combination of commercial and custom-built applications that were creating numerous challenges. Difficulties supporting custom-built applications and integrating many different versions of the software encouraged Airlite Plastics to seek out a new ERP system. According to the press release, Airlite reviewed 10 to 12 ERP packages, but it would seem that many of them were not robust enough to make the final cut. Read the rest of this entry »

Last week Bombardier Aerospace announced that it will expand its agreement with Apriso by standardizing on Apriso’s FlexNet as its enterprise solution for manufacturing operations management (MOM). Bombardier will work with Apriso to support production of both CSeries and Learjet 85 aircraft at its facilities in Canada and Mexico, demonstrating FlexNet’s ability to manage highly complex production, quality, maintenance, and material synchronization processes within a multiple-site aerospace manufacturing environment. Read the rest of this entry »

Recently, Apriso announced general availability of FlexNet 9.6, its next generation manufacturing software platform that offers much more than traditional manufacturing execution systems (MES) in terms of digital manufacturing. Namely, FlexNet 9.6 more readily supports conversion to paperless manufacturing environments, whereby enhanced role-based electronic work instructions (eWI) can more easily be updated by business users, without the need for IT staff to be involved. Read the rest of this entry »

ARINC reportedly considered several different manufacturing execution system (MES) options, including “standalone” product offerings specifically designed for maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO)-type environments. The company also considered custom solutions, as well as upgrades to its existing legacy systems. In the end, however, the company found that Deltek Costpoint MES met its needs better than any other product offering that they considered. Read the rest of this entry »