Plant Operations solutions for manufacturing
To stay competitive, manufacturers today must operate within tight profit margins, tight engineering specifications, and tight time frames. Each step in the manufacturing process must be efficient, precise, and fast.
Microsoft and its independent software partners can provide manufacturers with the very best tools to monitor, control, and manage each aspect of the business: the plant floor, the manufacturing control and execution systems, the back-office enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. The best manufacturing solutions today—whether for petrochemicals, electronics, automobiles, or other products—are built by industry experts on reliable, scalable Microsoft platforms.
What makes Microsoft-based solutions especially powerful is their capacity to integrate data—from the plant floor to the warehouse to the control room to the back office—into a single view. This comprehensive snapshot of the business enables manufacturers to analyze events in real-time, and empowers them to make and implement sound business decisions for higher quality, lower costs, and happier customers. It also helps drive business performance.
On This Page
Benefits
The application solutions provided by Microsoft partners, and built on Microsoft technology platforms, enable manufacturers to optimize each part of the business. With Microsoft-based solutions, manufacturers can:
| • | Leverage installed technologies while gathering the information required to run the plant. Microsoft provides a unique set of tools for integrating the heterogeneous applications manufacturers have in place today, so they can better capitalize on those investments. |
| • | Develop, implement, and integrate powerful control system architectures from a variety of leading suppliers—including Invensys, GE Fanuc, Siemens, and many others—for controlling and streamlining each step of the manufacturing process. |
| • | Utilize industry standards (including OPC and Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) 88, 95, and 99) to integrate real-time plant floor systems into ERP and other business systems. Having easy access to this critical data enables manufacturers to respond more rapidly to problems, opportunities, and customer needs. |
| • | Eliminate waste and manage excess capacity with material requirements planning (MRP) and lean manufacturing implementations. With an end-to-end view of the manufacturing process, from supply chain to distribution systems, companies can now adopt lean, flexible plant operations and plant processes that keep costs low and can easily evolve with business needs. |
| • | Create a connected community of stakeholders, from suppliers and customers all the way to the plant floor. Managers can expand the visibility of plant operations with easy to use, familiar, and well-known desktop tools; they are therefore better positioned to gather informed input and take appropriate actions to meet business objectives. |
Case studies
To learn how manufacturing companies have benefited from fully integrated solutions delivered by Microsoft technologies and Microsoft partner solutions, read these recent case studies:
Technologies
The following Microsoft technologies form the foundation for secure, scalable product data management solutions in manufacturing:
| • | Windows Vista, Microsoft’s new operating system, provides the platform for tomorrow’s state-of-the-art applications and services. |
| • | Microsoft .NET establishes an integrated infrastructure to quickly build, deploy, and manage connected, security-enhanced solutions with Web services. |
| • | Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007 extends the power of the world’s most popular desktop productivity suite to help people collaborate and work with information efficiently, regardless of location or network status. |
| • | Microsoft SQL Server provides the database engine for highly scalable, cost-effective solutions. |
| • | Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 comprise an integrated portfolio of collaboration and communication services to connect people, information, processes, and systems. |
| • | Windows Workflow Foundation, integrated into both Windows SharePoint Services and the 2007 Microsoft Office system, helps to support and automate business processes through custom forms and workflows. |
| • | Microsoft Excel Services, a shared service included in Office SharePoint Server 2007, enables users to load, calculate, and display Microsoft Office Excel workbooks in a secure environment. |
| • | Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 provides out-of-the-box business scorecarding, analytics, and planning to help companies more effectively manage their operations using the familiar Microsoft Office environment. |
| • | Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 is a business process management server that enables companies to automate and optimize business processes. |
Partners
Microsoft partners provide tailored solutions to support management of plant operations for all sectors of the manufacturing industry. Examples of our world-class partners include:
Invensys
ArchestrA from Invensys helps companies create products, applications, and services to operate both old and new manufacturing plants more efficiently and profitably.
GE Fanuc
GE Fanuc supplies industrial automation solutions that collect, distribute, control, and visually present information from the plant floor throughout the enterprise.
McLaren Software
McLaren Software developes engineering-centric content management applications for the oil & gas, process manufacturing, utilities, life sciences, and engineering, design and construction sectors.
Siemens
Siemens offers a wide range of process automation and industrial control solutions for the plant floor that can now be integrated with customer relationship management (CRM) and ERP platforms for comprehensive business management.
Next steps
