Flexware Blog

A while back we wrote a whitepaper that talks about getting the right person for the project at hand.  Today I had a conversation with a partner where we talked about how many services groups are more interested in utilization rates and bench time than they are about doing what is right for the customer.  While I agree keeping people engaged and billable is important, I also believe taking care of the customer has to take priority.  While the prior mindset may work for a while, in the long term, that strategy is not sustainable.

Customers are pretty smart, and when they sense they are the guinea pigs for a person learning the new software, they are only patient for a little while.

Moral is:  Get the right people for the project so the customer gets value quickly.  “Time to Value” is going to be one of the biggest strategic difference-makers in the coming years.  And, if you have the wrong skill-set on the project, the customer is not going to get value quickly.

Last week we went and visited a very nice pet food facility (well, as nice as pet food facilities can get).  Great people, great attitudes, good automation, well run, etc.

We wanted to get a grasp of what all they had in terms of systems, both hardware and software.  At Flexware, we have always drawn what I call the “Plant Nervous System” drawing because it helps everyone visualize the systems relative to the functional footprint of the factory.

It starts with the standard “4-level” Purdue reference model that looks something like this:

We use Microsoft Visio to do our Plant Nervous Systems drawings and include things like:

• All PCs, Servers, Thin Clients, Printers, Scanners, etc. that people interact with.

Some clients actually want routers and switches too, but that is up to you.  If you send me an email, I will send you an example plant nervous system drawing in Microsoft Visio format.   mailto:scott@manufit.com

My father-in-law is a golfer.  He lives and breathes for his kids, grandkids and golf.  He sent me this video to get me thinking about the season that is right around the corner.
As I watched this video, I could not help but envision an IT person talking to the business leader….
Watch and see if catch the parallels.  Imagine a business leader asking the IT person “Why do we need to spend money on that?”

As we launch our IT Services business unit, I am on the lookout for the "best in class" as well as possibly some of the "what not to do" stories.  We run in to both.

For the best, I am looking for small/medium business that utilize technology effectively and drive their business with IT solutions.

For the worst, I want to collect pictures of "bad technology implementations" either in server rooms, on the factory floor, etc.  We have seen a fair share over the years and have rarely stopped to take a photo.   If you know of any bad IT implementations, where a photo will tell the story, please send it to:

scott@manufit.com

I am sure there will be many stories as we start to see inside many more business through this new venture.

Just thought I’d take a few minutes to share some exciting news from Flexware.  We are launching a new segment of business focused on small and medium sized manufacturers in Indiana.  Our goal it to provide information technology solutions, strategy, and consulting to help improve manufacturing operations here in Indiana.  We are extremely excited about this new direction in the business and are looking forward to an exciting year of growth. 

Check out our Press Release:

Flexware Innovation Launches New Business Endeavor

Initiative Aligns with Mission to Provide Solutions that Improve Manufacturing

Fishers, IN – March 5, 2009 – Flexware Innovation, a leading systems integrator for manufacturers, announced today the launch of a new information technology (IT) services unit.  Designed to provide small and medium-sized manufacturers with expertise and solutions for managing IT in their businesses, the company intends to provide significant value and cost savings to its clients.  “We certainly see a niche out there for technology services,” says John Robbins, Sales and Marketing Manager.  “As technology continues to play a bigger role in manufacturing, on the shop floor and in the front office, we want to help manufacturers avoid common pitfalls and get the most out of their technology dollar…”

Read More at flexwareinnovation.com:

http://www.flexwareinnovation.com/news/pr/169

This is my first post now that the BLOG has been moved to flexwareinnovation.com.

We are ready to get going again now that we have a little better strategy for our online services.

-scott

In case anyone out there in the world is reading this - THANK YOU!  in 2008 I committed to learning what the online blogging and social networking world was like and the Manufit blog was my attempt at doing this.

In 2009 we are consolidating our online efforts and so we are going to move the blog over to the corporate website www.flexwareinnovation.com in the first quarter of 2009.

It is still my intent to post relevant experiences and learning opportunities within the manufacturing software world.  After all, that is what we do!

Happy New Year to all!

-scott

I was with a client today who happened to be in the IT organization and he said the new management is considering outsourcing IT.  This is a larger regulated company, with new owners, and new management.  He said they are going to have a very difficult time justifying it because they have traditionally run a very lean IT group, so financially, there was virtually no justification for outsourcing.

This got me thinking though…It is very difficult and sometimes foolish to outsource the manufacturing IT part of IT to traditional IT outsourcing companies.   Let me explain.

There are many facets to “traditional” IT - from infrastructure, help desk, security, applications, communications, etc.  Many of these can be outsourced successfully.  However, for manufacturers, there is also the “manufacturing IT” side of IT, that demands a knowledge of the business, how to integrate with automation and equipment, and the flow of information in the production environment.

Strategically, this is dangerous to outsource because it is so tightly coupled to the business.  Manufacturing IT can be a strategic weapon, and most people don’t treat it that way.  They assume, naively, that IT is just IT.

Last week I saw an example of what not to do when developing manufacturing systems.  The manufacturer hired a programmer to “upgrade” older systems that existed in FileMaker Pro and Excel spreadsheets.  A gov’met agency recommended they move from Excel to a database, so the programmer used Oracle because that is what they knew.

What I would have done:

1. Start with what the business problem is.  What is the real problem and what would be the most efficient way to solve it?  A database might not be the right solution. (Right Kevin?)

2. If because of #1 or because there is a regulatory requirement, a database is required, make it as simple to build and own as possible.  That means starting with software that most people know or that you can get anyone to upgrade in the future.

2a - My opinion is there are way more people that know Microsoft technologies (ASP, .NET, SQL Server, etc.) than do Oracle.  Also, a PHP and MySQL solution would have more worldwide resources available than an Oracle solution.

3.  Get a couple opinions before you start (especially if you do not do this every day.)  Ask some friends, technical advisors, etc. before you start to spend money. 

Unfortunately for this manufacturer they spent about 5x more money than they should have for what they got and now they have something that no one is going to want to touch.  Because they knew the developer and she was only charging them $40/hour, they thought they were getting a deal!

oh, 1a - see if there is a good Commercial-off-the-shelf solution (COTS) that works before you build it.

My passion is to help manufacturing companies make good decisions about manufacturing systems and have those systems provide good value the the company.  I like to refer to it sometimes as “I try to keep people from doing stupid stuff.”  Well today I was too late.

I met with a smaller company today that I have been watching from afar for a while.  They have spent WAY TOO MUCH money on a simple application that they want to help them run manufacturing better.  This application has some functionality that exists in an old FileMaker Pro database application and the task was to bring forward that functionality and add to it.

The developer they hired to write the new application chose Oracle (the free express version) because that is what they knew.  Now the company is between a rock and a hard place because the developer is not done, they are way over budget, the application is not tested yet, and there is more scope they would really like to complete!!!

I was too late!  Tune in next post for what I would have done differently…