Tuesday, December 30, 2014

B2MML Topic Floods MESA’s Top 50 Resources of 2014

By Dave Emerson, MESA XML Committee Chair

Business to Manufacturing Markup Language (B2MML) showed up in several spots on MESA’s Top 50 Downloads of 2014. But why?


A company’s operational IT landscape usually consists of many different systems with each one serving one or more functions. These systems were often purchased by different groups, at different times, from different suppliers, using similar data in different formats for different purposes, some may be managed by a manufacturing operations group with others managed by corporate IT. Taken together these systems are critical for a company’s manufacturing operations.


Monday, December 22, 2014

Climb Out of Project Pitfalls

By John Clemons, International Board Member at Large, Americas Board Member, and Marketing Committee Chair of MESA International

There’s a lot of factors that can derail a manufacturing IT project. Simply being aware of these factors can help you avoid a pitfall. However, if you find yourself in a pitfall, here are some steps you can take to climb out:


Tuesday, December 16, 2014

#44 Download in 2014: The Future of Manufacturing in a Connected World



By Conrad Leiva, International Board Member of MESA International and member of MESA’s Technical Committee
 
In a 2010 presentation called "The Future of Manufacturing in a Connected World ", Rick Bullotta from BurningSky Software, shared his thoughts on the future of manufacturing and many of those insights are still holding true today. Following are some points from that presentation:

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Top 50 MESA Downloads of 2014: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Manufacturing Operations Management, and More…

By Maryanne Steidinger, Americas Board Member of MESA and volunteer on MESA’s Marketing Committee

Over the past 25+ years, MESA International has produced an incredible amount of information covering real issues and real needs of the manufacturing community. From Guidebooks to Best Practices to Reporting Methodologies, if you have a question on what/why/how for manufacturing solutions, MESA likely has the answer. We wanted to share this wealth of work with our blogging community, and with that in mind, show you the top 50 downloads from the MESA.org website over the past year:

Thursday, December 4, 2014

Save the date! MESA North American Conference: May 4-6, 2015


Mark your calendar now and plan to attend MESA's 2015 North American Conference.

Our event will be co-located with the IndustryWeek Best Plants (IWBP) Conference & Expo and will highlight the business value of solving plant and enterprise-level manufacturing challenges with Information Technology (IT)-based solutions. 


Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Press Release: MESA International Announces Event Plans for North America in 2015

Annual North American Conference to be co-located with IndustryWeek Best Plants
Conference & Expo

CHANDLER, ARIZ., December 2, 2014 - The Americas Board-of-Directors for MESA International announces its North America events plans for 2015, including plans to co-locate its annual conference within the IndustryWeek Best Plants (IWBP) Conference & Expo. The MESA conference will be held at the Charlotte Convention Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA, May 4 - 6, 2015. Registration for the MESA community will open mid-December 2014.

Monday, December 1, 2014

2015 First Call for Papers: Advancing.Manufacturing.IT




MESA International is making the first call-for-papers to support our 2015 theme, “Advancing. Manufacturing. IT. We will focus on highlighting the business value of solving plant and enterprise-level manufacturing challenges with Information Technology (IT)-based solutions in 2015 and are looking for contributors willing and able to share their experiences.

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Digitization’s Impact on Collaboration across Manufacturing

By Gordon Benzie,  International Board Member of MESA and Keystone Sponsor Member

Ever since a young age, we have been told the importance of sharing. I’m sure most of you have heard of the phrase “All I Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.” In this poem, the first line is to share. As a grown up, this philosophy is still true – in fact, the world might just be a better place if more people held to this standard. In manufacturing, Elon Musk recently made the news with his open letter dated June 12, 2014, where he proclaimed “All our Patents Belong to You.” Sharing best practices and working together to solve common problems are two other examples.

Friday, November 21, 2014

XML Schemas from MESA Technical Committee for KPI-ML

By Gary Mintchell, member of MESA and volunteer on MESA’s Technical Committee and Marketing Committee


The MESA Technical Committee plans to release in January a paper detailing XML schemas as an implementation of KPI-ML (key performance indicator markup language). 

These schemas are based on the standards ISO 22400-1 "Automation Systems and Integration - Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for Manufacturing Operations Management - Part 1 Overview" concepts and terminology and ANSI/ISA-95.00.05-2006 Enterprise-Control System Integration Part 5: Business to Manufacturing Transactions.

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Press Release: MESA International Introduces InfinityQS as Platinum Keystone Sponsor

Solution provider brings deep Manufacturing Intelligence expertise to MESA to help manufacturers realize the full potential in their quality data

CHANDLER, ARIZ., Nov. 18, 2014 - Manufacturing Enterprise Solutions Association (MESA) International announces InfinityQS International as a Platinum Keystone Sponsor. A global authority on Manufacturing Intelligence and enterprise quality, InfinityQS joins MESA to help manufacturers realize the full potential of data while supporting MESA’s mission to educate professionals about the role and value of IT in Manufacturing Enterprises.

Thursday, November 13, 2014

Press Release: MESA International Signs Memorandum of Understanding with Open Applications Group, Inc.


Agreement promotes collaboration among industry thought leaders

CHANDLER, ARIZ., November 13, 2014 - Manufacturing Enterprise Solutions Association (MESA) International announced that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Open Applications Group, Inc. (OAGi). This agreement will make it easier for both organizations to work together and bring value to their common set of stakeholders, and formalizes the ways in which each organization can contribute to the other's committees and working groups to bring specific expertise to key initiatives.

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

The future of manufacturing: agility, digital factory and knowledge workers

by Pierfrancesco Manenti, Vice President, Research and MESA Member


Over the past 20 years globalisation has dramatically changed the face of manufacturing. The rise of offshoring opportunities enabled developed world manufacturers to use low-cost labour countries – notably China – as a workshop. 

Press Release: MESA International Introduces iBASEt as Gold Keystone Sponsor

iBASEt joins MESA to help tackle the challenges in today's manufacturing enterprise and value chain.

CHANDLER, ARIZ., November 12, 2014 - Manufacturing Enterprise Solutions Association (MESA) International announces iBASEt as a Gold Keystone Sponsor. iBASEt offers software for manufacturers that replace a myriad of disparate shop floor and supply chain solutions - such as manual paper and email processes - with one integrated suite of software systems that synchronize data and foster collaboration between internal and external teams.

Monday, November 10, 2014

How to Improve Quality Management with Manufacturing Systems

By Conrad Leiva, International Board Member of MESA International and member of MESA’s Technical Committee

In today’s progressive organizations, quality assurance is no longer viewed as a silo department verifying product quality at the end of the manufacturing process. Best practices are to integrate and build quality management into the production process. The MESA association has published the Quality and Regulatory Compliance Strategic Guidebook to give examples of how an organization can leverage manufacturing information technology to improve efficiencies in quality management. 

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

The emperor's clothes, not fully dressed yet, but not completely naked - Big Data in Manufacturing

By Gerhard Greeff, MES/MOM Proponent and Facilitator, MESA GEP Contributor and Trainer, Chairman - MESA Southern Africa.

This post is in response to a post from Patrick Weber, MBA PMP regarding Big Data. I suggest you read it here http://www.linkedin.com/pulse/article/20141028204312-11146365-big-data-in-manufacturing-is-the-emperor-wearing-clothes? Patrick attempts to look through the hype at the real issues and try to see if business benefit can in fact be derived from Big Data in Manufacturing.

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Big Data in Manufacturing: Is the Emperor wearing clothes?

By Patrick Weber, MBA PMP, MESA Member

Today I attended LNS Research’s “Global State of MOM” webinar; quite a bit of good information that I’m still digesting (kudos to Matt Littlefield & company). There is a bit I find hard to swallow though – Big Data in manufacturing. Perhaps I’m just so far out of the loop on this that I’m just not comprehending the obvious, but I can’t see a real business case for Big Data in the manufacturing environment, nor can I see plants investing in the infrastructure required to support Big Data solutions.

Monday, October 27, 2014

13 Questions Reveal the Benefits of Manufacturing Execution Systems

By Conrad Leiva, International Board Member of MESA International and member of MESA’s Technical Committee

Doubting the potential benefits of a new Manufacturing Execution System (MES)? Perhaps you need to take another tour of your facility and interview people with some of these questions in hand. Here are seven key questions:

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Business Value and the HMI

By Patrick Weber, MESA International Technical and Education Committee member

This blog post may be sailing into stormy waters, but today I’m putting on my bean-counter hat and challenging conventional wisdom with regards to human-machine interfaces, or HMI for short. This post is somewhat in response to the LinkedIn article “Look at all them pretty pictures” by Gerhard Greeff of MESA International. (As a side note, if you are in the manufacturing automation industry and are not following Gerhard on LinkedIn, you are the poorer for it!) But my hope is that we can start a conversation about the true business value of graphical user interfaces in today’s manufacturing environment.

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Look at all them pretty pictures


By Gerhard Greeff, MES/MOM Proponent and Facilitator, MESA GEP Contributor and Trainer, Chairman - MESA Southern Africa.
With Dr Kobus van der Merwe


The increased graphical abilities of software resulted in automation vendors developing increasingly advanced graphics capabilities in their products. Users were quick to adopt and use the “pretty pictures”. SCADA/HMI graphics today can be identified by the colorful graphics, sometimes even in 3-D. Is this a good thing?




Wednesday, October 1, 2014

How to Build ROI Analysis for Manufacturing Systems

By Conrad Leiva, International Board Member of MESA International and member of MESA’s Technical Committee

The economy is recovering, but we are still facing a very conservative spending environment in our manufacturing organizations. Increased scrutiny on process improvement projects requiring investment, means that Return on Investment (ROI) analysis is not optional for information technology (IT) related projects.

Thursday, September 25, 2014

Two Links You Need to Justify Investment in Manufacturing Systems

By John Dyck, Chairman of the Board at MESA International

Few people doubt that investing in manufacturing systems will lead to significant, necessary transformation and benefits, but for a variety of reasons, manufacturers – for the past decade - have chosen to invest more heavily in their IT, business and logistics systems instead of in their plants.

But that’s changing, and as we emerge from several years of post-recession doldrums, it’s become clear that an economy based on service industries alone can’t survive in the long run. Manufacturers are returning back to their manufacturing roots, putting a renewed premium on production knowledge, and moving from being a ‘neglected’ industry to once again being the engine of a wealthy economy.

Monday, September 15, 2014

Dream It – Make It at IMTS



http://www.imts.com/
By Julie Fraser, Lifetime Member of MESA International


What can you imagine designing and making? Dream as big or small or complex as you’d like…Someone can probably make it, and quickly. At least that’s the big impression I came back with after visiting the International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) last week.

Seven Contributors to Change Management Success


By John Clemons, International Board Member at Large, Americas Board Member, and Marketing Committee Chair of MESA International

I was talking to several people recently and I mentioned the importance of change management to them and they didn’t know what I was talking about.  It seems that most people still haven’t heard about change management, or behavioral change management as some call it.  

And even the people who have heard about don’t really know much about it or why it’s important.  Maybe it’s one of those things that people talk about but never do.  Anyway, I thought I’d spend a little bit of time discussing change management and explaining what it is and why it’s important.

To start, if you do projects in the engineering space or in the IT space like with PLCs, DCSes, HMI/SCADA, MES, or even ERP -- you are probably doing a lot of things which are supposed to have a significant impact on the way the company does business.  If the project goes well, you hope to boost the bottom line for the company.

But, realize that your project will impact the way the company does business and will affect a lot of people and the way they do their jobs. If you’re putting in a new DCS, HMI/SCADA, MES, or ERP then you’re going to affect a lot of people.  In some cases you might be affecting every single person that works on the shop floor.  That’s huge influence.  

You need to plan to handle that change.  Change management is all about managing these kinds of changes proactively, not reactively.  

Said another way, everyone knows about the importance of project management to keep the project on track with scope, schedule, budget, and so forth. Well, change management is all about the people side of the project.  

It’s about making sure people know what’s happening, why it’s happening, and how it affects them.  And getting them on board with the changes. Whatever you’re doing there’s a good chance that it will be met with resistance at many different levels. Change management is about proactively managing the change and managing the resistance.

Based on research, and my personal experience, change management is the number one success factor for shop floor projects of all shapes and sizes.

Here’s seven contributors to change management success:

1.  Active and visible sponsorship – get the key sponsors on board with the project and make sure everyone sees that they’re committed to the project.

2.   Buy-in from front-line managers and employees – get these people on board and let them know that what they’re doing is going to have a big impact on the company.

3.   Exceptional project team – if it’s worth doing it’s worth doing right – make sure you have a good project team that knows how to work with people on the shop floor and knows how to make these projects successful.

4.   Continuous and targeted communications – the communications needs to come from the sponsors, the executives, and the project. These communications need to be targeted at every single person being affected.

5.   Well planned and organized approach – the change isn’t going to just happen by itself.  You need a well organized approach to proactively manage the change.

6.   Solid knowledge transfer plan – call it training, knowledge transfer, or what you will, but make sure everyone thoroughly and completely knows what to do and how to do it.

7.   Entrenchment – you need follow-up, long-term metrics, ongoing training, and support – in short you have to keep it all going for the long term.

So, in a small nutshell that’s change management.  It’s like project management but it’s the people side of projects.  It’s proactively managing people for change to achieve desired business results.  And, it really is the number one success factor for shop floor projects. 
I hope all this makes sense.  I’ve covered a lot of materials in a short space.  If you’ve got some questions or comments, let me know.  I also welcome any and all feedback.  Good luck!


John Clemons is the Director of Manufacturing IT for Maverick Technologies.  He is on the MESA Americas Board of Directors and is Chair of the MESA Marketing Committee.  John has been working in the field of Manufacturing IT for over thirty years.  He is the co-author of the book Information Technology for Manufacturing:  Reducing Costs and Expanding Capabilities.



CSIA introduces new online community, “the Exchange”

http://csiaexchange.com/
The Control System Integrators Association (CSIA) recently introduced a new online community to help end-user clients find the right system integrator and industry supplier to meet their industrial automation needs. The Industrial Automation Exchange (the Exchange, for short) combines features of an online buyers guide with social networking to create a “town center” for the industrial automation industry. 

The Exchange replaces CSIA’s popular Find an Integrator with a platform that includes Find an Integrator, Find a Product and Find an Answer. Networking between suppliers and integrators allows end users from various industry sectors to quickly find products and the integrators with the experience to implement them. End users can complete a form to contact up to five integrators at a time. 

Anyone can create a profile and explore the site. System integrators and suppliers do not need to be members of CSIA to receive a free, basic profile. Upgrading to bronze, silver or gold profiles allows them to unlock more features, such as the ability to display video, screen shots of their websites, profiles of sales contacts, white papers, video, links to companies they are affiliated with, and much more. 

CSIA is a not-for-profit, global trade association that seeks to advance the industry of control system integration. The advantage of an association is that members can combine resources and efforts to accomplish that which, individually, would be impossible. The collective support has helped CSIA raise awareness of control system integration as a profession, promote best practices for the industry, and grow into a recognized, credible source of information and connections. 

The Industrial Automation Exchange is the latest manifestation of the association’s efforts to be the “go-to” resource for control system integration. Learn more by visiting the CSIA website and the Industrial Automation Exchange.

Friday, July 11, 2014

What value do YOU achieve from MES/MOM?

Are you achieving 60% or more of planned benefits from your Manufacturing Execution System (MES) or Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM)? If so, you are best-in-class! According to last year's study, few can claim more than 75% of anticipated benefits. With a mission to educate the market about manufacturing solutions, MESA has work to do.

Now is the time to participate in our 2014 survey to gain access to the new research, scheduled to be published this summer. Take 10 minutes now to gain free access to significant market insights that can be used to help improve your MES effectiveness, as well as a contribution/your contribution to the broader MES community.

Click here to take the survey now. 
Deadline July 14, 2014. 

As a survey respondent, you will get the following special reports:

1. The Business Value of MES Study 2013 - this Gartner / MESA report was previously only available for MESA members

2. The Business Value of MES Study 2014 - gain access to this year's full report by completing the survey

PLEASE NOTE: ALL SURVEY RESPONSES WILL BE KEPT CONFIDENTIAL. We respect your privacy. Only aggregated results are published. No data from your responses will ever be shared.

Participate today in this survey from not-for-profit Manufacturing Enterprise Solutions Association (MESA) and world-leading IT industry analyst firm Gartner.

Feel free to e-mail this survey invitation to colleagues, suppliers or customers. The more input we receive, the more extensive the information we can provide. Help the MESA and broader manufacturing community and participate today. We look forward to sharing the results with you.

Please respond by July 14, 2014.

We appreciate your time and input.

Sincerely,

John Dyck
International Board Chairman
MESA International

www.gartner.com
www.mesa.org



Thursday, July 10, 2014

CoC in B2MML September 19 in San Francisco, California


Get a Certificate of Competency in B2MML

September 19 in San Francisco, California


Where:

Click this link to download a Logistics sheet with additional information about this program


This program will be taught by Dennis Brandl, MESA Approved Instructor (MAI).

Premium Member Fee:  1,250 USD
Basic/Non-Member Fee: 1,875 USD
 

Register today.



Did you know that premium manufacturing/producer members of MESA International can use their membership dues as credit towards GEP training? That can mean up to $10,000 in savings for large-sized enterprise members. Contact us to learn more.

Need help convincing your boss? Here's a sales sheet that talks about the benefits of knowing what MESA knows...

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

CoA October 2-3 in Porto, Portugal

 

Get a Certificate of Awareness in MES/MOM Methodologies 

October 2-3 in Porto, Portugal


Details:
Hosted and endorsed by Critical Manufacturing

TecMaia - Critical Manufacturing
Rua Engº Frederico Ulrich, nº 2650,
4470-605 Moreira da Maia (Porto), Portugal

Logistics information coming soon!


This program will be taught by Jan Snoeij, MESA Approved Instructor (MAI).

Premium Member Fee:  1,200 EU
Basic/Non-Member Fee: 1,800 EU
 

 Register Today



Did you know that premium manufacturing/producer members of MESA International can use their membership dues as credit towards GEP training? That can mean up to $10,000 in savings for large-sized enterprise members. Contact us to learn more.

Need help convincing your boss? Here's a sales sheet that talks about the benefits of knowing what MESA knows...

Monday, July 7, 2014

CoC September 15-18 in San Francisco, California


Get a Certificate of Competency in MES/MOM Methodologies 

September 15-18 in San Francisco, California


Details:

Click this link to download a Logistics sheet with additional information about this program


This program will be taught by Charlie Gifford, MESA Approved Instructor (MAI).


Premium Member Fee:   2,500 USD
Basic/Non-Member Fee: 3,750 USD 

Register today.



Did you know that premium manufacturing/producer members of MESA International can use their membership dues as credit towards GEP training? That can mean up to $10,000 in savings for large-sized enterprise members. Contact us to learn more.

Need help convincing your boss? Here's a sales sheet that talks about the benefits of knowing what MESA knows...

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

CoC September 8-11 in Rotterdam, The Netherlands


Get a Certificate of Competency in MES/MOM Methodologies 

September 8-11 in Rotterdam, The Netherlands


Where:
Hosted and endorsed by CGI
CGI
Demoruimte Meeting Room
George Hintzenweg 89
3068 AX Rotterdam
The Netherlands

Click this link to download a Logistics sheet with additional information about this program.
This program will be taught by Jan Snoeij, MESA Approved Instructor (MAI).
Premium Member Fee:   2,000 EU
Basic/Non-Member Fee: 3,000 EU

Register today.



Did you know that premium manufacturing/producer members of MESA International can use their membership dues as credit towards GEP training? That can mean up to $10,000 in savings for large-sized enterprise members. Contact us to learn more.

Need help convincing your boss? Here's a sales sheet that talks about the benefits of knowing what MESA knows...

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

CoC July 14-17 in Dublin, Ireland


Get a Certificate of Competency in MES/MOM Methodologies 

July 14-17 in Dublin, Ireland



Where:
Stillorgan Park Hotel
Priory Suite
Stillorgan Road
Blackrock Co Dublin
Ireland

Click this link to download a Logistics sheet with additional information about this program.

This program will be taught jointly by MESA Approved Instructors (MAIs) Michael Hoppe and Michael James.

Premium Member Fee:   2,000 EU
Basic/Non-Member Fee:  3,000 EU

Register today.


Did you know that premium manufacturing/producer members of MESA International can use their membership dues as credit towards GEP training? That can mean up to $10,000 in savings for large-sized enterprise members. Contact us to learn more.

Need help convincing your boss? Here's a sales sheet that talks about the benefits of knowing what MESA knows...

Friday, February 21, 2014

Need a good read on MES, Lean, Quality, or Six-Sigma?

Browse a selection recommended by the MESA community in MESA’s bookstore on Amazon: http://bit.ly/YWdoRp.

Featured Items:
  • The Hitchhiker's Guide to Manufacturing Operations Management: ISA-95 Best Practices Book 1.0

    By Paresh Dalwalla, Em Delahostria, David Noller, Lorenzo Childress, Alan Boyd, Bianca Scholten, Matthew Schneider, Jean Vieille, Costantino Pipero
  • MES Guide for Executives: Why and How to Select, Implement, and Maintain a Manufacturing Execution System

    By Bianca Scholten
  • The Real-Time Enterprise : Competing on Time with the Revolutionary Business S-Ex Machine

    By Peter Fingar, Joe Bellini
Link here to browse through more selections and to purchase directly from MESA's bookstore.


Feel we are missing a good book for this space? Email your recommendations to books@mesa.org.