GE Fanuc and SAP ink sales and marketing agreement

ControlGlobal.com
12/14/2006

GE Fanuc Automation, a unit of GE Industrial, has announced the completion of a sales and marketing agreement with SAP America, to jointly market GE Fanuc Production Management solutions and SAP applications, jumping on the shop-floor-to-top-floor-integration band wagon.

 

This new relationship allows both companies to leverage each other’s strengths to meet the needs of customers in important Americas markets and in two key industries: automotive and mill products. Other programs that fall under the agreement include the development of specialized professional services in order to support customers with planning, design and implementation of the solutions.

 

	SYNCHRONIZING OPERATIONS
	Greg Gorbach of ARC Advisory Group says the GE Fanuc/SAP relationship will enable manufacturers to implement joint solutions that synchronize plant operations with the supply network.

Smooth data transfer up, down, and across the enterprise in pursuit of actionable, real-time information at every level, is driving various kinds of partnerships between automation and other plant-floor information systems companies and enterprise and supply chain information vendors.

 

The combination of GE Fanuc’s Production Management solutions with SAP’s Production Execution services is a step in this direction, allowing for the gathering, analyzing and transforming of real-time data into information to improve productivity and performance. Tracking and executing production operations through a closed-loop information exchange with the SAP Business Suite enables the development of real-time visibility and intelligence.

“The ‘Perfect Order’ is not attainable without the bidirectional flow of crucial production information, such as production schedules, quality performance, inventory consumption and maintenance status,” said Tom Cruz, GE Fanuc Vice President of Software and Services. “By combining and jointly marketing GE Fanuc Production Management and SAP Adaptive Manufacturing solutions, our customers can overcome the barriers historically restricting contextual information flow between the plant floor and the enterprise, helping manufacturers transform their business through increased visibility and resulting responsiveness.”

Traditionally, integration of production data and business systems has been limited to manual processes, or at best, narrowly defined automated transactions. By eliminating these barriers, the joint GE Fanuc and SAP solution will improve quality and throughput by identifying constraints in real time, ensuring production accuracy, managing production sequences and limiting warranty and recall exposure.

The solutions will provide product genealogy information traced by raw material consumption and production performance data. Additionally, they will drive operational efficiency and quality as well as the ability to respond quickly to manufacturing events and trends.

“Connecting plant floor and business systems in a robust way is a critical business issue for manufacturers today because it is the only way to get the performance and responsiveness they need,” said Greg Gorbach, ARC Advisory Group’s Vice President of Collaborative Manufacturing Research. “The new GE Fanuc and SAP relationship allows manufacturers to implement a joint solution that synchronizes plant operations with the dynamics of the supply network.”