Todayβs manufacturer requires an efficient and cost-effective solution for automatically tracking, processing, and analyzing data accumulated from operations. One of the processes by which manufacturing companies can do this is centerlining. Also called run-to-target, centerlining helps reduce variability and increase efficiency.
GE Intelligent Platforms recently announced the Proficy Accelerator for Centerlining, a software solution designed to identify process and product inconsistencies, perform statistical analysis to improve control, and manage operations in real time.
A wide range of manufacturers use point solutions to deal with various production problems. Often, the solutions donβt work or communicate well together, leading to inefficient operations and increased cost. GEβs Proficy Accelerator is the companyβs newest high-impact solution meant to address productivity problems in manufacturing enterprises.
Mike Yost, General Manager of Proficy Software Manufacturing Solutions, and Sheila Kester, GEβs General Manager, Proficy Operations Management Software, recently spoke with Manufacturing Business Technology about the ongoing battle against manufacturing inefficiency, addressing point problems, and whether thereβs still reluctance on the part of some manufacturers to embrace some or all of these technological solutions.
Companies are not all at the same point, as far as the solutions they use to address some of their point problems. Some companies arenβt very far along at all. But are you seeing a good reception from some of these companies that, maybe, for years really put off embracing some of these new technologies and solutions?
Kester: I think we areβ¦I definitely think the thing thatβs popped up in the last couple of years thatβs really made people who are more manually-oriented more likely to take advantage of this are some of those food safety issues and product safety issues that have come up. Maybe they were always there, but theyβre very, very public now and you canβt take those kinds of chances, if you ever could. So weβre working with some folks now that are less automated than a typical customer.
Yost: Iβd certainly say that folks understand, as the speed of markets increase and complexities increase, the need for systems in manufacturing is definitely there and growingβ¦Yes, we are seeing people that are interested in it. But as far as those who break open the checkbook, weβre seeing a lot more drivers through things like food safety and those types of initiatives and regulatory requirements. Things like that.
Are a lot of companies dealing with point solutions that donβt communicate well with one another? In your opinion, is it a big issue that a lot of IT professionals and their companies are dealing with?
Yost: Absolutely. We see that as a huge issue. One of the issues we face a lot when we come into a facility, if weβre walking in as a solution provider, weβre offering another software solution. Somebody might say βHey, I already have 12 solutions, and youβre going to offer me a 13th? Whoβs going to support that?ββ¦The ability to help eliminate those point solutions is a big bonusβ¦
With the economy struggling the way it has, are you still seeing some of your customers have a hard time spending the necessary money to address some of the issues that theyβre dealing with?
Yost: Weβre living with, in 2010, budgets that were set in 2009. So I think thatβs a reality that, whether itβs staffing levels, or itβs budgets for capital spending, or project spending, people expected 2010 to be really bad. And they planned accordingly. Even though weβre seeing an uptick, weβre still seeing people with tight budgets.
Kester: Itβs not just the budgets. Itβs the level of governance and oversight. I think that has permanently changed as a result of what happened in 2008 and 2009. There was sort of this knee-jerk reaction of cutting everythingβ¦But now weβre finding that much smaller levels of capital appropriation are having to go up to the CFO desk, for example. Plant managers just donβt like that. A CFO is far more likely to approve an appropriation when the plant manager says βIβve already done it. Here are the savings in our plant. And if you multiply this by the number of lines we have, this is what the paybackβs going to be.β The accelerator helps to acknowledge that and really helps a plant manager get a project through.
A lot of manufacturers need help right now with product changeovers. Since companies are running more products and offering more options, they need certain solutions to help them over their machinery? What is sparking this product changeover trend?
Yost: To compete in the marketplace, you see people often offering different varieties. So now you get six different packaging types on a bag of chips. People are competingβ¦ We see lots of different customers, time and time again, who are offering some sort of competitive differentiation for them and their marketplace that requires that they be responsive in their manufacturing and their production operations. When thereβs that sort of strategic tie between business goals and the need in manufacturing, thatβs where we really see big things happening. We see a lot more of that happening (in the future).
For more information on GEβs Proficy Accelerator For Centerlining, check out www.ge.com.