Roadblock ahead

It's not every day that a conversation about IT strategy begins with a quotation from Victorian writer Charles Dickens. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times," muses Kevin Luxton, founder and chief executive of QiSOFT, a specialist provider of a suite of factory-floor productivity and quality solutions.. But take a look at many manufacturers' IT landscapes, he points out, and Dickens' immortal encapsulation of contrasting situations is as appropriate now as when A Tale of Two Cities was published back in 1859. Simply put, Luxton is referring to the growing gulf that is opening up between the capabilities that QiSOFT and other cutting edge software development companies are delivering, and the installed base of manufacturers' IT systems and factory-floor desktops. "As a software developer, we have to keep up with the changing landscape of operating systems, server systems, databases and hardware capabilities," he points out. "It's what our customers expect." Marooned on aged IT equipment and systems Or rather, what some of QiSOFT's customers expect. Because others, he frankly concedes, are marooned on aged IT equipment and systems which simply can't take advantage of the latest capabilities that QiSOFT has brought to the market. "For instance, we are no longer supporting SQL Server 2000 in terms of our products," says Luxton. "You have to be on SQL Server 2005 to take advantage of the latest releases of our software and, inevitably, not every customer has that." Likewise, he adds, just as some manufacturers continue to use a 14-year-old database, it turns out that, in many manufacturers, huge numbers of factory-floor desktops are still running Windows XP despite the fact that support ends in April 2014, after which Microsoft will publish no further security fixes and updates. "The result is that a lot of customers just can't upgrade to our newer systems and get the benefit of them, either because they're not on the right operating system, or they're not running the right back-office database or server version," says Luxton. "We've still got customers locked into leases on computers running Windows XP Service Pack 2, for instance, which has long since reached end-of-life." The problem that this causes is easily stated. Down on the factory-floor and in the manufacturing, quality and manufacturing engineering functions, QiSOFT's latest functionality is eagerly sought. There's a ready appreciation that QiSOFT's QIS system provides concrete practical assistance in meeting manufacturing challenges. Whether it's quality improvement or productivity improvement, or real-time process monitoring or advanced data analysis, QiSOFT's QIS system is a practical toolset focused on solving real-life factory-floor issues and problems. Raw materials quality, real time operations and process monitoring, product quality assurance, document control, product release, customer reporting and certification, environmental records, 21 CFR Part 11 compliance and more: with QIS, what was once a disconnected collection of independent, data generating systems can now be brought together to achieve a more complete view of operations through a single source. And this is functionality with a high and readily measurable ROI, stresses Luxton. "Improve productivity, and the benefit flows straight through to the bottom line," he points out. "Likewise, that's true of quality improvements, it's true of improvements through overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) initiatives and it's true of eliminating sources of waste such as overfill and underfill. These are measurable improvements with a measurable ROI." So it's ironic, notes Luxton, that the reason why so many customers' systems are marooned in legacy operating systems, server systems and databases is said to be a lack of IT budget and IT resource. Which, he adds, can be a lack that is more apparent than real – what often happens, in short, is that manufacturers make choices about IT expenditure, and simply choose to prioritise other areas of expenditure. Expenditure, bizarrely, which often has a lower ROI than manufacturing improvement initiatives – as is the case with most ERP implementations, for instance. "The cash outlay is rarely the problem," he explains. "It's the supposed impact on IT resources and IT management time and attention that is cited as the stumbling block. People say: 'Let's focus on one thing at a time' and then prioritise low-ROI ERP systems over high-ROI quality or productivity initiatives." Which is a decision, he stresses, that is often supposedly taken for 'strategic' reasons, but one which in practice is anything but strategic. "Old hardware, old operating systems, and old databases aren't just a direct drain on productivity as well as more costly to maintain, but they also impact on the rate of manufacturing improvement. Compared to the bottom-line impact of a quality or productivity improvement, the cost of a new desktop computer on the factory floor should be an irrelevance," says Luxton. So what can be done? IT-based fixes and workarounds are possible, he concedes, but aren't always appropriate or achievable. Cloud-based systems offer another option "Virtualisation helps, but adds a degree of complexity with which the IT people in manufacturing aren't always comfortable" he notes. "Cloud-based systems offer another option, but aren't always appropriate for manufacturing. While moving from desktop-based Microsoft Office to cloud-based Office 365 isn't a problem – because it's not critical to manufacturing – the closer you get to manufacturing applications, the more these things matter." Instead, he urges manufacturers to be more open to the real opportunity costs of decisions made with regards to IT infrastructure – the ROI not gained as opposed to the upgrade cost avoided. "To a manufacturer, there's nothing more fundamental than manufacturing, so don't let the IT tail wag the manufacturing dog," warns Luxton. "So try to hold some budget – in cash and resources – in reserve, ring-fenced for factory-floor IT initiatives. Have targets for manufacturing-specific IT initiatives and ask searching questions if they're not met. To a manufacturer, manufacturing matters – so invest in it." But the bigger picture, he believes, calls for thinking that isn't just strategic in name, but is also genuinely strategic in scope and breadth. At a time when QiSOFT's developers are writing code to support the touchscreen technology that comes with Windows 8 – a technology ideal for factory environments, where even ruggedized keyboards can have a short life – it will be years, Luxton accepts, before that code is 'live' among QiSOFT's entire customer base. But there is an alternative concept worth considering, suggests Luxton: An 'industrial operating system' compatible with the Windows architecture upon which so many businesses rely, but also offering long-term support and stability, where change would be fed through gradually. Major step changes in design and functionality would be phased in over time, providing developers and users alike with a more stable and consistent interface and architecture, and permitting the sort of longer-term technology lifecycles which manufacturers clearly find appealing. Think of it as 'Windows Industrial', he says. Will it happen? Luxton freely admits he has no idea. But that doesn't mean that the idea is without merit, he insists. "The present situation isn't really satisfactory," he sums up. "No one wins, and everyone loses. Manufacturers deserve a better deal."