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Data that flows in context: workflow and other new tools weave data collection into a better business context. (deliver).

Article Excerpt
Immediately upon implementing a new real-time data collection system simultaneously with its new enterprise resources planning (ERP) system, Oki Data Americas, a Mt. Laurel, N.J.-based manufacturer of computer printers and fax machines, increased sales by $6 million in the first month.

A central objective of Oki Data's deployment of the R/3 ERP package from Walldorf, Germany-based SAP was to be able to handle increased business without a hiccup, but a surprise benefit was the more efficient flow of bar-coded data passing into R/3. That benefit stemmed from the deployment of FlexNet, a manufacturing and warehouse execution software package from Long Beach, Calif.-based Apriso. Specifically, FlexNet's ability to validate and manage bar-code data streamlined the integration of execution-related information that Oki Data needed.

Both key benefits continue now, more than three years later, according to Steve Cummings, senior systems analyst for Oki Data, and the implementation project manager. "We were one of the first companies to bring up SAP and bar-code scanning simultaneously, says Cummings. "FlexNet [then named CIM+] allowed us to get better utilization of our now-automated production facilities."

Today's factories depend upon a rapid, steady flow of both materials and information. Lack of the latter impedes efficient and profitable use of both materials and capacity.

The challenge for manufacturers is not only to find automated means such as bar-code scanning to collect data, but also to collect only data that is needed, and to find a way to integrate that data with business add production management software systems. This is where technologies such as workflow enter the picture. Manufacturers such as Oki Data are benefiting from execution-oriented management applications that have the right tools to marry data collection with the business processes supported by the software.

A workflow-savvy approach to data collection can result in more proactive operations. As Nelson Nones, senior director of product management with Apriso, puts it, "Data collection is a passive activity. In a factory, a good data collection system waits for events to happen, and then provides a very convenient means...

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