Operational excellence in manufacturing to come from leadership and integration

So said Prof Tom Cannon, charismatic CEO of Ideopolis and former head of Manchester Business School, speaking yesterday at WonderWorld UK, part of a 20 city global tour for manufacturing software developer Wonderware, co-sponsored by Microsoft and staged at Wonderware VAR Pantek’s 2006 User Conference in Daventry. Describing the Internet era as the third industrial revolution, he insisted that the huge difference this time is the transformation of the supply and demand equation. “This time it’s about knowledge, the difference is the more you use it, the more you’ve got.” Meaning those that don’t embrace the knowledge revolution lose out faster and fail quicker. “We have to embrace change and become part of it – build it into our people, our systems and our businesses,” he said, “and that’s about convincing people.” Apart from exhorting organisations to look for extraordinary leaders, he warned manufacturers to put ‘good enough’ thinking behind them. “Better than anybody else is the only good enough now,” he said. His message: create urgency and the vision, communicate it, empower and reward your people and consolidate – in a cycle of change harnessing empowering IT. Which in Wonderware talk means thinking holistically about the challenges and opportunities in production itself with modern plant IT. “There is great power in applying knowledge through systems to improve operational excellence,” said Wonderware vice president Edoardo Manicardi. How? Because those systems enable plant operators, for example to take more responsibility and become part of the drive not only for greater productivity, better quality, cost-cutting and the rest, but improved manufacturing responsiveness. From Wonderware and Pantek, the overriding message is that systems to support production automation and continuous improvement remain important, but the smart money is on harnessing those to support slick business decision-making via real-time connected upward information flows, and equally to drive flexible production in automated feedback loops. And with Wonderware parent Invensys spinning its optimised business automation story founded on joined up thinking between ERP and MES (manufacturing execution systems) using its ArchestrA platform – not to mention growing market expectations of the dominance in spending shifting from ERP to MES – the company looks set to grow in importance and influence. To which challenge, it appears to be rising, if Pantek managing director John Bailey’s ethos for the event is anything to go by: “With so many different events out there competing for mindshare, we wanted to make the focus of WonderWorld UK one of networking with others in the industry, a chance for delegates to share real-life experiences and to leave with ideas they could take back to their organisation to make operational excellence a day to day reality.” And note, this was the biggest event ever staged by Wonderware in the UK with 36 break-out sessions themed on management, technology, applications and master classes, covering lean, quality, energy, disaster recovery, industrial ethernet, traceability and process analytical technology.