So much good information was generated at the MESA Plant to Enterprise Conference that I'll never be able to report it all. I was given 10 minutes to address the forum and I basically told attendees that if they cannot lead in a collaborative environment, the they will lose. And if the suppliers cannot provide collaborative software, then they will lose. The technology to watch out for--RSS (really simple syndication). It will help break down the silos among applications.
One of the first speakers was Paul Martin, CIO of Rexam, who spoke about how his company implemented manufacturing software systems. The most important thing I noticed was that there was complete executive team commitment to the project. Next, each executive team member led his or her part of the organization in support of the project.
I was curious that the Rexam architecture was information flow directly from PLC to SAP, something considered enterprise software (ERP) rather than manufacturing execution software (MES). Experienced integrator and ISA 95 expert Charlie Gifford, now with GE Fanuc, pointed out that build-to-stock discrete manufacturing can work this way. A build-to-order or engineer-to-order type of manufacturing typically requires execution software in the middle.
Charlie added later that we should consider the different types of manufacturing in the sense of:
Discrete as PLM/MES
Batch as Batch-Recipe/MES
Continuous as Historian/MES
Food for thought.
7:45:32 PM 
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