Asset management initiative turns to existing data

Manufacturers are being urged to manage their plant and factory assets more rigorously by getting a grip on information and interactions that are currently unstructured and invisible. Document and ‘content’ management software firm FileNet is leading an initiative that it says will give users the chance to improve operations, plant performance, utilisation, flexibility and product quality, and cut costs – essentially by using existing material. It’s all about managing unstructured data content, information that falls outside the remit of PDM (product data management) and ERP systems. “Documents, reports, emails, multi-media files – it all need to be managed better so that it can be made actionable, so that events can be managed,” says FileNet director of marketing in manufacturing David Brazier. He suggests that the requirement extends right across manufacturing businesses’, from design engineering, through purchasing, facilities management and legal departments. FileNet is partnering initially with McLaren Software to get the ball rolling particularly in process industry plants, utilities and engineering and construction industries, and also large factories. The pair will deliver what they say is “configurable, out-of-the box end-to-end engineering management.” McLaren will provide a new version of its Enterprise Engineer system on FileNet’s P8 platform through a reseller agreement, helping to broaden FileNet’s ‘Asset and Plant Lifecycle Management’ system. Then FileNet and its partner network will develop systems that, for example, integrate engineering drawings and workflow processes, emails and the rest. “Our customers have told us that 80% of their facility information is in the form of unstructured content,” says Brazier. “Their challenge to us is to mobilise that content by linking it to pertinent business processes. To address their needs we have begun this initiative.”