An understanding of software categories, as well as models for evaluating current systems, can help guide information technology decisions

Business Goals, End-Users Must Drive Information Systems Selection

By Jay Galasso

Paper manufacturers who are looking to integrate business software and millwide systems are faced with some daunting challenges. There is a large array of different software system types, many of which seem to be addressing similar problems. Will an integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP) system provide the paper industry specific functionality needed to keep the mill running smoothly? Will millwide systems address paper-specific requirements at the expense of enterprise integration?

Unfortunately, there is no easy answer. Each situation must be viewed from the perspective of what business processes and systems are in place, as well as the directional goals of the organization-and sometimes these goals are lost under the weight of terminology.

Like most specialized fields, information technology abounds with its own terminology. For those within the field itself, these terms facilitate communications by using familiar shortcuts. For those outside this inner circle, the terms can create confusion and the appearance of complexity. A structured approach to defining the types of software modules, along with the interaction between these modules, provides a framework for understanding. With this framework in place, solutions can be compared and decisions become clearer.

CATEGORIES OF SOFTWARE APPLICATIONS. There are many different types of software applications targeted at manufacturing industries, and there are also just as many different models for representing them. The model in Figure 1 shows the relationship among six major categories of software applications: supply chain management, sales and service management, enterprise resource planning, manufacturing execution systems, product/process engineering, and control software.

FIGURE 1: In practice, software product categories overlap each other. Application packages do not always fit neatly into one category or another, since individual software products differ in the features they offer.

One interesting element of this model is that individual categories overlap with one another. In practice, application packages do not fit neatly into one category or another. Individual software products differ in the features they offer. For example, what one supplier may view as a separate package, another may include as standard. This model acknowledges this phenomenon and actually highlights it.

Table 1 provides a listing of software product categories. When viewed as a discrete list, each product area supports a particular department or group. As part of a manufacturing organization, each of these groups needs to work together. Information can't be restricted to one area-often the same information is needed across many different departments.

An example will help illustrate the interdependence of information. A customer orders paper from a salesperson and receives a commitment date for delivery. This transaction is supported by a supply chain management (SCM) package, which verifies the order and books the required material and manufacturing capacity with the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.

Next, the ERP system downloads the order to the selected mill where the production planning module from a manufacturing execution system (MES) schedules the order to be filled. At the proper time, grade change information is sent to the paper machine control system. The control software ensures that the product is made according to specification. This is verified by online quality measurements and documented by the laboratory information management system (LIMS).

The real-time information from the paper machine is next passed to the roll tracking system, which now takes over monitoring, converting, and finishing processes. The product is then cut and packaged according to the order, and moved either directly to the loading dock or to the warehouse. There, the warehouse management system (WMS) takes over.

This example only scratches the surface of the process, and yet eight separate systems are involved. In some cases the transfer of information is automatic. In most cases today, it isn't. Much of the information is transferred, transcribed, or otherwise moved from one place to another manually. The natural conclusion is that these systems should be integrated in some way. But where do you start?

EVOLUTION OF INTEGRATED SYSTEMS. The software category that has received the most attention in the last five years is ERP systems. Many paper manufacturers have or are in the process of installing an ERP system. Given its importance, some background on its legacy is warranted.

How did ERP systems evolve? One of the first specialized information technology applications for manufacturing was material requirements planning (MRP). MRP systems aided purchasing agents and other managers in translating sales forecasts and customer orders into the requisite materials to meet the expected customer demand for product. At the heart of the MRP concept was the bill of materials (BOM). Armed with an order forecast and BOM for the forecasted products, purchasing could now supposedly acquire all the material needed with confidence.

Unfortunately, there are constraints beyond the purchase of materials in the manufacturing process. Manufacturing resource planning (MRP II) systems addressed the added complexities of labor and factory capacity. Detailed part numbering schemes were translated into individual BOMs that would tie exactly to a product's specifications.

Both MRP and MRP II were beneficial to manufacturing industries. They allowed manufacturing companies to view increasingly larger elements of their business in an integrated way. Standards organizations were created, and MRP software companies and their products enjoyed dramatic introductions, growth, and eventual decline.

One of the key lessons learned during the MRP II era is that creating and maintaining interfaces between disparate systems is expensive. The costs for users to maintain ties between their MRP II and financial systems were significant. Other key integration points were customer order entry systems, personnel administration systems, customer service, and more.

In the late 1980s, the Gartner Group, an information technology research company, introduced a new concept: enterprise resource planning. The vision for ERP unified the planning aspects of human resources, financial resources, and plant and equipment resources. Further, the concept supported that these aspects address the entire enterprise simultaneously. The scope of ERP expanded both the functional coverage and geographical coverage of the application.

MILLWIDE SYSTEMS: A PARALLEL PATH. While the discrete manufacturing world was busy with MRP, the paper industry applied computers to the task of tracking and planning the production of paper products with millwide systems.

Table 1: This list of software product categories illustrates how each product area supports a particular department or group.

Modern millwide systems can provide end-to-end solutions from stock preparation to shipping. Individual application modules may handle online measurement data, laboratory analysis, roll tracking, and warehouse inventory. Essentially, from this definition, millwide systems are paper-industry specific MES implementations.

In many ways, the millwide initiatives in the pulp and paper industry were mirrored in other industries. The oil refining industry focused on advanced control, optimization, and yield accounting with great financial success. Within the pharmaceutical industry, systems were developed to document and track the use of material in the manufacturing process to assist with U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulatory requirements.

Just as ERP systems address the integrated planning activities for the enterprise, MES involves executing that plan within the four walls of the manufacturing facility. An MES addresses all aspects of production planning, material handling, and operations management.

CURRENT MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS. AMR Research, an information technology research company, developed the concept of "manufacturing execution systems" in 1990. The Manufacturing Execution System Association International (MESA) has since taken this work and continued to refine and shape the definition of MES. The "MES model" is intended to serve as a framework for all manufacturing industries. It defines 11 MES functional areas:

• Data acquisition
• Dispatching production units
• Document control
• Labor management
• Maintenance management
• Operations/detailed scheduling
• Performance analysis
• Process management
• Product tracking and genealogy
• Quality management
• Resource allocation and status

Data acquisition and process management systems are better known as mill information systems and data historians. They may be embedded as part of a distributed control system used to control process parameters, or they may be a separate third-party application package.

FIGURE 2: This MES model defined by MESA International describes 11 functional areas. In the maintenance management scenario described here, the total information activity involves a core maintenance module and integration with the control system, a document management system, and the purchasing module in an ERP system.

Roll tracking systems capture information about how the paper reels and rolls were produced. In generic MES terminology, this is product tracking and genealogy. Roll tracking systems may also provide production planning support, covering the operations/detailed scheduling and resource allocation and status functions of the MES model.

Quality management in paper manufacturing includes both online measurements used for control purposes and off-line laboratory measurements.

The remaining aspects of MES, namely labor, document, and maintenance management, are also used within paper manufacturing systems. Overall, the functions defined as part of the MES model translate well into the requirements for an integrated millwide system. This is important given the body of knowledge and availability of comparative information on features, functions, and suppliers of MES solutions. The model can be used to define the relationship between ERP, MES, controls, and other manufacturing-related software applications. In this way, the functions provided by the individual packages can be mapped and the requirements for integration between packages exposed.

EXAMPLE: MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT. Computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS) are one of the specialized application markets that have grown rapidly. Using this area as an example highlights the kinds of trade-offs involved in purchasing applications today, and can offer some insight into the solution.

Justifying a maintenance system. The business case for updating to a modern maintenance system can be made on several levels. Mills may have had their own "home grown" solutions, and the cost of adding features or addressing Year 2000 compliance may be too expensive to continue with the existing system. A modern CMMS can offer improved visibility of spare parts inventories, enabling several departments or mills to share expensive equipment.

An even more compelling argument is to increase the reliability of the mill operating equipment through the use of proactive maintenance strategies. This can involve integrating real-time information from control systems for preventive and predictive maintenance. Scheduling can be done based on actual equipment usage and calendar time, as opposed to calendar time alone. Predictive strategies involve more advanced techniques using analysis of vibration or other diagnostic measurements to predict when equipment will fail. The result is reductions in unplanned downtime through a more productive, less costly maintenance program.

An example system. Figure 2 highlights an example of maintenance management integrated with controls, document management, and an ERP system. In this case, controls and maintenance management are used together to monitor equipment usage and trigger preventive maintenance work orders automatically when needed. A document management function is used to electronically store maintenance procedures and drawings. Finally, the purchasing module of an ERP system is used to order spare parts from various suppliers.

Figure 2 helps to identify the functions that are needed, and outlines what the relationship between the functions should be. The functions do not translate directly into individual software packages, since differences from one supplier to another make it difficult to compare.

Faced with many options, it is difficult to know where to start. The business goals must define the functional requirements, and the application needs to follow. In the example in Figure 2, a proactive maintenance program was being put in place to reduce unscheduled downtime.

Regardless of the motivation, the drive to install a new CMMS can lead to three alternatives:

• "Best of Breed" maintenance management system
• Maintenance management module from an integrated ERP suite
• A pre-integrated maintenance solution

There are several excellent maintenance management systems on the market. Each of these packages is designed with one thing in mind: helping companies get a better return on their maintenance expenditures.

One leading CMMS package offers document management as an integral component. This eliminates the need for a separate document management package and the associated interface. Another package offers the ability to integrate with several popular document management packages instead of forcing the use of its own. In both cases, however, the CMMS would require interfaces to the ERP purchasing module and to the control system for equipment operating information.

Another relatively new alternative is to purchase a pre-integrated solution that includes control, maintenance, and document management packages. In this type of solution, the control systems supplier has already developed robust interfaces between best-of-breed suppliers. All of the applications can be purchased from the control supplier, and interfaces between packages remain the responsibility of the control supplier acting as a systems integrator. This has the added advantage of making the maintenance information and electronic documents available to mill operators and engineers. With this integrated system, an operator could investigate the maintenance history of a piece of equipment simply by selecting it from the screen.

BALANCING THE TRADE-OFFS. Paper manufacturers are faced with some difficult choices today. Should the user choose application suites that provide a broad set of functions integrated together? Or, is it better to select the best-of-breed solution for a given need?

There are clear benefits to installing integrated suites of applications, but costs associated with creating and maintaining interfaces between systems can be prohibitive. An integrated application suite will have fewer external interfaces, and fewer separate administrative tasks. The overall price is lower than purchasing individual products for each area. Each of these elements tends to lower the total cost of ownership.

Another advantage of the all-in-one approach is that all components come from the same supplier.

Chances are that you will be required to integrate multiple applications to support your business processes. It is important to determine ahead of time which interfaces are necessary.

On the other hand, all-in-one solutions are likely to have functional gaps when compared to specialized packages. The buyer has to be careful that the solution will support the business processes needed.

The increased scope of large, integrated applications drives costs up and installation cycles out. Another drawback is that the user may not need or want all of the modules. They may overlap the functionality of existing applications, or just may not apply to the paper industry. The user can feel that they purchased things they do not need.

Specialized application packages will usually have a better functional fit with the business problem at hand. Since the company providing the software is focused on the needs of one area, they are likely to have better expertise.

Best-of-breed applications can also be faster to get up and running. It just stands to reason that if the implementation is focused in one area, it will take less time than changing out a system that covers multiple areas.

Chances are that you will be required to integrate multiple applications to support your business processes. In the case of individual specialized applications, that means there will be more interfaces to support. It is important to determine ahead of time which interfaces are necessary. Make sure that the interfaces you need are available with your selected suppliers' products. In addition, going the specialized application route also means that there will be more suppliers to deal with.

A third purchasing option of pre-integrated software was mentioned as part of the maintenance scenario presented earlier. A growing trend among both control and ERP suppliers is to develop partnerships with related software package suppliers. The control and ERP suppliers are larger than most MES and SCM suppliers, and can offer a significant advantage to customers.

In a sense, this alternative can offer the best of both worlds. Highly functional best-of-breed applications are combined to offer an integrated suite, and the user gets the benefits of dealing with one supplier for several applications. Since the supplier provides the packages pre-integrated, there are fewer interfaces for the user to maintain.

Again, there are some drawbacks to this approach. It is likely that the software administration and licensing practices are still done on an individual application package basis. The upgrades to the various packages are not coordinated by one supplier, so keeping all applications and associated interfaces current will present some challenges. Still, taken as a whole, this approach has some significant benefits. In addition,technology trends are pointing the way to reducing the cost and complexity of maintaining interfaces.

TRENDS IN APPLICATION SOFTWARE. As everyone remotely involved with computer technology knows, things change quickly today. In the area of business and manufacturing software, the big shift is in the underlying technology-object technology.

A need for flexibility. In today's applications, databases are more sophisticated, with stored procedures and embedded business logic. Software must run on a variety of operating systems and/or hardware and networking environments. And users expect a graphical, menu, or tool bar driven interface. online, context sensitive help screens are essential as training, and, because of them, retraining has been reduced. However, the result is that software systems are more complex than ever before.

If applications had to be built from the ground up each time, they would be completely unreliable. The level of complexity involved in the modern graphical user interface alone would be enough to overcome any software quality testing process. Yet, today's user expects easy-to-use, bug-free software.

Fortunately, modern software applications and systems are built using reusable pieces. Platform suppliers provide these pieces to facilitate the use of their technology. In the case of Microsoft, the Microsoft Foundation Class Library is provided in a variety of programming language environments. Developers using Microsoft's class library are able to quickly provide graphical interfaces for applications on their Windows operating systems. In this way, developers are able to reuse large pieces of tested, proven software.

Importance of object technology. Increasing the quality and reusability of software are important goals of object oriented technology. This can be explained using the graphical user interface (GUI) as an example.

Modern GUI screens consist of a window title, some messages to the user, and several buttons. There may also be special portions of the window that can be used to adjust the size of the window and its position on the screen. While the exact definition of this user screen may be unique, all of the elements just mentioned will appear on most any screen. The developer defines how many buttons are needed, and what should happen when they are selected. The mechanics of creating and maintaining the window itself is handled by the "reusable" code.

Another important aspect of object oriented technology is the ability for software objects to interact with one another through standardized interfaces. Through these interfaces, systems from different suppliers can communicate with one another seamlessly. The approach hides much of the complexity of one software application from the other, making the interfaces easier to create and maintain.

Today, there are two competing approaches for standardized object communications. Microsoft has the Distributed Common Object Model (DCOM). The other approach was created by a consortium of most other major computer software companies, and is called the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA). The goal of each of these technologies is to simplify the development of applications that need to integrate with each other. The object request broker shields the application developer from the internal details of a remote application.

The trend towards object oriented software means that software will be created in smaller, more modular components. The components will be easier to test individually, and software quality should therefore increase. Larger, more complex applications will be built up from these smaller components.

Suppliers of control and ERP systems are rapidly moving towards object oriented component designs. The use of object technology reduces the dependencies between major application components, and enables better management of the development process. Ironically, it enables the integrated software supplier to develop applications individually and still bring them together into a cohesive suite.

The advantages of object technology are just as applicable to specialized application software suppliers. In some ways, this is the kind of innovation smaller software developers needed to compete with large integrated suppliers. In an ideal setting, users would be able to substitute a best-of-breed application in the place of the default offered as part of a suite. This would be analogous to purchasing a new car stereo to replace the one that came with the automobile. Just drive in, and plug in a new one.

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS. This article has provided some insight into the various manufacturing software applications available. The software categories described here can serve as a guide to the functions provided by an application. Remember, it is difficult to determine a one-to-one relationship between the software products available and a given list of product categories, since the features and functions overlap between and among the definitions.

The MESA model, or similar approach, can serve as a foundation for mapping the relationship between the functions provided by individual application packages.

There are inherent trade-offs between buying an integrated suite and buying individual packages. The cost of creating and maintaining interfaces between disparate systems has been a major factor favoring integrated suites. However, recent technology trends are aimed at reducing these costs, and will make software more interoperable.

The best place to start with any system integration discussion is with business goals. The focus of this article is products and product categories, but it's the people using the software that accomplish the business results. Knowing those users, and what they need should define where to concentrate your efforts. In the maintenance example cited earlier, the solution revolved around providing better information to the maintenance department.

It may seem obvious to concentrate on the user, but other priorities often can shift this focus. If an integrated suite includes a module for a given function, it is still important to make sure that module meets the functional requirements of the primary users.

From a practical standpoint, major suppliers such as those for control and ERP solutions have the size and support capabilities required to take on larger tasks. Control suppliers can provide a solution backbone for the real-time mill information systems. ERP suppliers provide a backbone for enterprise level applications. Such large suppliers may offer a pre-integrated solution that provides the functions you need, but with lower overall cost and project risk.

Finally, there are other places to turn for help. There are a variety of information system research companies to assist with supplier and application comparisons. Some will also help you to define and evaluate your needs. And, importantly, assistance at the front end of a major decision is less expensive than an uninformed choice.

Jay Galasso is managing director of intelligent software for Foxboro Co., Foxboro, Mass.