Enterprise standard plant software must easily accommodate plant-specific extensions and yet remain fully supportable and upgradeable by the vendor. For enterprises with multiple plant sites, the administration and management of remote systems and the flow of information among plant sites is critical to the overall performance of customer order fulfillment. The system must include capabilities to manage information and IT resources across sites including central administration and control of remote configurations, multi-site consolidation and views of plant performance and status information. It must allow both enterprise standardisation and unique plant customisation at the same time. The promise of e-business success is dependent upon the immediacy of the manufacturer and supplier s order fulfillment process, whether they are the same entity or separate operations.
Companies can quickly bring up a web site to attract new customers.
However, those new customers will not remain loyal unless they get their orders as promised. In today s economy, customers expect custom or configured products to be delivered rapidly and reliably. Order fulfillment in e-business requires new levels of visibility, speed, and responsiveness in all parts of the supply chain, but most critically in the manufacturing process. Even companies that outsource manufacturing are critically dependent on tightly integrated subcontract partners for visibility and flexibility in the production process. Go to the Plant Operations conference area to have your say.