Atachi  is exhibiting and speaking at the annual  CBINET MES conference in Philadelphia, PA from August 12 to 13, 2015. Atachi Systems also led a conference workshop at the event that was focused on “Configurable and Simple MES Design and Modeling”.

CBINET MES was attended by 130 MES Life Science professionals that held titles such as Director of MES, MES Project Lead, Director of IT, MES Program Manager, Senior MES Speaclist and many more. 

The cloud based Ngimes MES product by Atachi drew a lot of conference buzz because it’s cost efficiency and scalability features. 

Why Should Manufacturers Consider a Cloud- based Manufacturing Execution System (MES)?

By Mekala S Rao

New  Product Introductions (NPI) have  helped  fuel technological advancement  in  the   manufacturing industry.   As  the  market for  high-quality  compliant products with higher throughputs expands, manufacturers  have   had   to   work   with   reduced margins to keep pace. As a result, manufacturers now depend more   heavily  on  Manufacturing  Execution Systems (MES).

MES  systems  are   difficult  to  evaluate,  and   have been   expensive  to  own  and  maintain. Due  to  the ever-evolving  nature  of  the  IT  landscape and   the technological components involved in MES platforms, it’s often  difficult for manufacturers to see  adequate ROI. Additionally, the  shortage of  skilled  resources necessary to enhance MES applications and business functionalities in an efficient  and  timely manner has burdened manufacturers of all sizes.

This  white  paper   addresses  the   MES  forces and paper-based  processes   that    are   contributing to manufacturing   operations’  loss   of   flexibility  and time-sensitive market  innovations. Atachi  Systems has  proposed how  manufacturers can  leverage the latest disruptive  IT technologies (Cloud, SAP HANA) available in today’s economy.

Continue further reading of the whitepaper ….

The integral transition to cloud platforms has moved the manufacturing industry into a new kind of digital revolution. Much like the dramatic overhaul of industrial processes that occurred with the advent of mechanization and the assembly line centuries ago, the cloud offers a wave of opportunities for manufacturers that integrate their operations accordingly.

The Economist calls this transformation the “third industrial revolution” for its capacity to streamline manufacturing processes from the production floor and throughout the supply chain. However, not all manufacturers are on board just yet, mainly due to their lack of familiarity with how the cloud operates and the perception that moving to the cloud would be costly, time-consuming and potentially open themselves up to cyberattacks.

In fact, a report from Gartner found 30 percent of surveyed organizations planned to keep their Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems on-site for the foreseeable future, while another 17 percent stated they were unsure what their plans were for cloud adoption.

These findings highlight a lingering concern for many, but the logistical benefits of moving to the cloud are too great for manufacturers to fall back on paper-based or manual processes simply out of fear of the unknown. Here’s why the transition to the cloud is so important:

Manage internal resources effectively
Manufacturers rely on real-time updates of products and procedures – items that need to be tracked and accounted for by floor managers and relayed to the appropriate department leaders. While manual data entry, logbooks or excel sheets can aid in this task, these outdated processes are simply too slow to encompass the entire operational capacity of small and mid-sized manufacturers, let alone those of larger companies.

That’s why manufacturers are implementing state-of-the-art Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) to optimize daily operations. MES manage resources, personnel, input, product life cycles and the documentation of important data pertaining to materials. Instead of computing these components by hand, MES track and store this information in the cloud, essentially removing the need for traditional record-keeping. Additionally, resources that were once tied down to these everyday functions can then be freed up for more efficient use elsewhere, such as driving sales growth, reaching new customers or improving workflow.

At the same time, the cost of storing operational data on-site is enormous. Data from Microsoft indicated 11 percent of IT spending goes toward maintaining existing infrastructure. Manufacturers that still use their own software and IT solutions must pay for internal staffing and updates, as well as the cost of fixing any problems that arise.

Moving operations to the cloud, however, means less technical support is required because all updates and maintenance are handled off-site. As a matter of cost-efficiency, fewer IT resources are needed internally, and those that remain can be used to troubleshoot any communication barriers and ensuring other workers and managers are receiving the documents they need in real time.

Manufacturers that delay cloud adoption aren’t able to appropriately manage their resources in an efficient way, especially when compared to their competitors.

Avoid losing out to competitors
As is the case with many business environments, stalled production means ground lost to competitors. In the manufacturing space, this is particularly noteworthy because the industry continuously onboards new technologies that are faster, more efficient and more productive. In a matter of years, older business models can become obsolete.

The advantages of the cloud far outweigh any perceived risks.

Adapting to change is a critical component of manufacturing success, placing a high priority on cloud integration. Roughly 70 percent of the Fortune 1000 companies in existence in 2005 are no longer in business – that’s how quickly the market changes, according to Sand Hill, a provider of business strategy solutions.

In terms of the cloud, competitors aren’t hanging around for slower, less resourceful companies to make a move. As a measure of just how necessary it is to stay on top of the latest technological innovations, Gartner indicated nearly half of organizations will be moving their core operations to the cloud within the next five years.

Cloud-operated MES are faster, cheaper and quicker to deploy than any other system currently in use, and provide the type of speed and efficiency that manufacturers in highly competitive markets need.

Forgoing the cloud at this point in time is accompanied by an inherent risk of losing market share, both now and even more so in the future. As Forbes contributor Joe McKendrick noted, the cloud is inextricably linked to greater flexibility, allowing companies to maneuver with ease. The cloud is an on-demand service that allows new applications, products and solutions to be configured in just minutes, offering manufacturers the ability to make business decisions more quickly and enter new markets with less friction or hesitance.

The key to future manufacturing success lies in the full-scale internalization of how the cloud’s benefits can be used as a tool for greater productivity while mitigating worries over its perceived weaknesses.

Today, I was engaged in a discussion with a client on where the Operational Data Store (ODS) issues get started.  This discussion led to the question if there is a need for a separate ODS to relieve businesses from associated sluggish effects.

Traditional MES systems come with the concept of OLTP (Online Transactional Processing) and OLAP (Online Analytical databases). OLTP databases are used only for the transactional purposes and OLAP is used for reporting purposes.

OLTP data is transferred to the ODS databases by the custom built Extract jobs from MES vendors. OLTP databases are purged upon the data transferred to the ODS by custom jobs from MES vendors. This data transfer and purge process has not been straightforward and robust unlike the traditional ETL (Extract, Transform and Load) tools available in the market.

Now, with SAP HANA, new applications can leverage the merging of OLTP and ODS databases into single database.  This is a reality without compromising on the performance for shop floor users/transactions and analytics users.

Atachi has leveraged this feature into the NGIMES product and has eliminated the need for the ODS. This is a huge advantage from the IT infrastructure perspective. Plus, there is a significant advantage from the business perspective due to the fact that very few companies obtain insights from the ODS or the enterprise data hub where multiple ODS data is rolled into one.

Additional information about this feature of SAP HANA can be read at https://blogs.saphana.com/2012/08/31/hana-as-an-operational-data-store-ods/

Any thoughts or comments on the above discussion are welcome.

NGIMES 1.0 is listed on the SAP HANA marketplace with screenshots and additional information.

Atachi NGIMES 1.0 is now available on the SAP store. NGIMES 1.0 runs on the SAP HANA Cloud Platform SPS 09 (SAP HCP) from SAP.