PLM and APS creeping up manufacturing SMEs’ agendas

Not only has the software industry shot itself in the foot by hyping aspects of IT like CRM (customer relationship management) and APS (advanced planning and scheduling); it’s also sewn too many seeds of doubt among manufacturing users. The resulting scepticism is holding back even what could be argued is essential investment, and resulting in inefficiency and unnecessarily high costs among manufacturers that can least afford it as they face increasing competition. But that backlash is now being reversed, according to enterprise software (ERP) vendors like Geac (formerly JBA). Marketing director Alastair Middleton says: “It’s feet on the ground time; but if you can show benefit then companies will now invest.” Middleton speaks for Geac’s target middle manufacturing market and, in particular, its specialist markets like fashion goods, textiles and food manufacturing, which he describes as “followers not leaders” in IT terms. But he says, for example, that users are now increasing their take-up of, for example APS. “It’s only about 5% of customers,” he says, “but it’s moving.” And the same applies to SRM (supplier relationship management) systems – “although they don’t call it that!” Biggest activity, he says, is in EAI (enterprise application integration), interfacing to key suppliers and the like. And he makes the point that as ERP systems expose data and processes as XML, it becomes easier and quicker to enable this kind of integration – and gain the benefits that follow. Middleton believes there’s now a “second wave” of manufacturing SMEs seeking to improve their interactions externally in everything from publishing catalogues on the web, to providing web-based order tracking, stock look-ups, RFQ handling and so on. In a sense it’s e-business revisited and packaged according to user requirements rather than vendor hype. System 21’s so-called Aurora replacement, now put back to April this year, will reflect the user wish lists, he says – and indeed functionality developed for and with specific manufacturers. Interestingly, he reflects that product lifecycle management (PLM), or more accurately aspects of it, is also now catching more users’ imaginations. “In fact, there will be some of this in the up-coming release,” he says coyly. “We acquired a fashion goods PLM company.” And he refers to “super-session management, substitution and catalogue functions.” The objective is to help with relevant processes beyond the manufacturing business itself. On the business side, Geac is one of the few still able to report profitability, and Middleton says that during 2003, the firm will be “aggressively” pursuing “acquisitions in our space … like software businesses based on IBM iSeries (AS/400).”