Manufacturing Plant Operations solutions
As global expansion, customer demands, and competition reach new levels, the manufacturing industry is undergoing rapid changes that affect how your company does business. You and your people are under extreme pressure to increase operational efficiency, act on new business opportunities, lower operating costs, and boost profits.
Microsoft works closely with a large ecosystem of plant-focused independent software vendors (ISVs) who use innovative Microsoft technology to build integration, collaboration, and analysis solutions for plant operations in the manufacturing industry to help your people perform to their fullest potential. This includes technology infrastructure that offers workflow and knowledge management tools to facilitate smooth collaboration among your people, ensuring that all the actions they take are also in line with your overall corporate goals.
Plant Operations technologies
Microsoft works closely with a large ecosystem of plant-focused ISVs who build on innovative Microsoft technologies to create Manufacturing Plant Operations solutions for integration, collaboration, and analysis that enable your people to perform to their fullest potential. The following core technologies support the three pillars of manufacturing solutions:
| • | Integration. Solutions are built on software including Microsoft SQL Server Integration Services 2005 (SSIS), Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006, and Windows Workflow Foundation, as well as Microsoft Office Business Applications. |
| • | Analytics. Solutions are built on software including Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services, Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services, Microsoft Office Performance Point Server 2007, and Microsoft Office Business ScoreCard Manager 2005. |
| • | Collaboration. Solutions are built on the 2007 version of Microsoft Office Server System (MOSS), which includes Microsoft Office SharePoint Server and Microsoft Office SharePoint Services, Microsoft Office Forms Server, Microsoft Office Excel Services, Windows Workflow Foundation, Microsoft Content Management Server, Microsoft Office Live Communication Server 2005, and Microsoft Office LiveMeeting 2005. |
Office Business Applications
In addition to the technology behind the pillars, Office Business Applications (OBAs) are built mainly using Office 2007 products and technologies. For example, to facilitate collaboration between team members or different teams in a manufacturing environment, an OBA might be built using a combination of Office SharePoint, Office Forms Server, Windows Vista, and several other technologies. This OBA could also allow for advanced analysis, giving insight into the business processes, which enables your people to make the right decisions and to respond to any contingencies in a timely manner. The same application could also enable your people to integrate data between plant-floor applications and manufacturing execution systems (MES) on one side, and enterprise resource planning systems (ERP) on the other, according to open standards, such as business to manufacturing markup language (B2MML).
Infrastructure
All of the technologies mentioned above are built on a solid platform composed of Windows Server System 2003 R2, Microsoft .Net Framework, security products (Microsoft ForeFront and ISA Server), Microsoft Virtual Server, Microsoft Virtual PC, and Microsoft SoftGrid.
Microsoft ASP.NET
Microsoft ASP.NET is a set of Web application development technologies that enables programmers to build dynamic Web sites, Web applications, and XML Web services.
Microsoft BizTalk Server
Microsoft BizTalk Server enables you to integrate various systems into your company's collaborative manufacturing solution. Integration can extend to manufacturing execution systems, ERP systems, and computer-aided design (CAD)/image server systems. Existing systems can be integrated by using Microsoft Host Integration Server in combination with Microsoft BizTalk Server. As a result, your people can consolidate data from all of your plant floor systems into a single repository and enable global access to this data, so your people gain real visibility into business and plant operations.
Microsoft .NET Framework
The Microsoft .NET Framework is a development and execution environment that allows different programming languages and libraries to work together smoothly to create Windows-based applications that are easier to build, manage, deploy, and integrate with other networked systems.
Microsoft Office Business Scorecard Manager 2005
Microsoft Office Business Scorecard Manager 2005 is a new, server-based business performance management scorecard application. Previously code-named "Maestro," the new application takes advantage of the power of the Microsoft Office system to help the people in your organization perform deep analysis by allowing them to build, manage, and use scorecards and key performance indicators—all within an intuitive and collaborative environment.
Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005
Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 supports collaborative manufacturing by enabling your people to effectively communicate through presence information in portals, team sites, and document templates, or integrating presence information directly into any line-of-business application. This connectivity allows for real-time communication through Instant Messaging or Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)-based voice and video communications. In addition, Live Communications Server 2005 can be used as an effective channel to deliver alerts and other system messages.
Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007
Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 is an integrated performance management application that allows you, as a business decision-maker, to monitor, analyze, and plan your business, as well as to drive alignment, accountability, and actionable insight with your people across the entire organization. It also enables your IT people to drive better adoption and compliance by enabling your organization to better associate business intelligence and corporate performance.
Microsoft Office Server System (MOSS)
The Microsoft Office Server System (MOSS) includes the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, an integrated suite of server capabilities that can help improve your organizational effectiveness by providing comprehensive content management and enterprise search, accelerating shared business processes, and facilitating information-sharing across boundaries for better business insight for you and your people.
Microsoft Office system
The Microsoft Office system includes Microsoft Office 2007 Professional, a comprehensive, smart client environment for collaborative manufacturing with Microsoft Office Word 2007, Microsoft Office Excel 2007, and Microsoft Office Outlook 2007. The system also contains Microsoft Office Live Meeting 2007 and Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007.
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services provides a unified and integrated view of your business data to serve as the foundation for all of your traditional reporting, online analytical processing (OLAP) analysis, key performance indicator (KPI) scorecards, and data mining.
Microsoft Silverlight
Microsoft Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of Microsoft .NET Framework–based media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web.
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Integration Services
Microsoft SQL Server Integration Services is a robust, enterprise-class data integration application that can help your people create process flow for data through your organization.
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services
Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services enables you and your people to transform valuable enterprise data into shared information for insightful, timely decisions at a lower total cost of ownership. Extending your information beyond the walls of your organization to smoothly interact with customers, partners, and suppliers in real time helps you drive success in today's competitive marketplace.
Microsoft Windows SharePoint products and technologies
Microsoft Windows SharePoint products and technologies help you connect people, processes, and information.The products include Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services, and Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007.
Microsoft Visual Studio
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 is a complete set of development tools for building ASP.NET Web applications, XML Web Services, desktop applications, and mobile applications.
Overview
Technologies
