"Integration doesn't simply mean that one system sends information to another. Rather, it means that the required information to make decisions is available when needed -- and in the format needed -- by any user within the enterprise," said Richard Howells, vice president of product marketing for automation software provider Wonderware Corp., Irvine, Calif. Howells, whose company manufactures the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system Protean, repeatedly hears the same three needs voiced by customers throughout the industry. "Manufacturers need to track the details, cost the details and plan the details, which requires real-time intelligent information from the plant floor," he said.
Having such information promises to increase a company's productivity and its IT investment. According to a recent study by Stamford, Conn.- based technology research firm Gartner Group, the return on an ERP investment can be increased by more than 50 percent by integrating the ERP system with accurate, real-time information from plant floor-level supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems or manufacturing execution systems (MES). Just exactly how to accomplish this integration is the question the industry is grappling to answer.