Geoffrey A Moore's book, Crossing the Chasm, is happening now and over the next couple of years for MES or MOM software vendors. Manufacturers are finally spending big IT dollars to install manufacturing operations systems in their plants and integrate them into their enterprise business proceses. This is to meet their global manufacturing need for Lean supply chains. These companies are realizing an optimized supply chain requires an optimized plant to adapt to the supply chains' changing demand. Response is profit.
What is interesting is that these companies are having to make vendor selections based on the hope that the selected vendor (big or small) survives the approaching consolidation. What is interesting about this technology chasm event is that it is not the software's quality or functionality that will make it become space dust in the chasm. It is whether the vendor understands that they are selling a just tool for developing and maintaining an ever-changing engineered MOM solution to a plant's workflows based on what it makes, how it makes, where it makes, and how much it makes.
What is occuring is that many of vendors are simply not able deliver due a large lack of experienced talent so their project become non-scaling, frustrated customers. The good MOM system integrators, who are building the best products out there, have no channel to sell their products and no money to build a channel, to develop the plant modeling and application training, or the mentoring program to scale the software sale. So basically, no vendors or SIs currently have all the functioning parts of a business to be successful, but the manufacturers are still having to make a selection or bet on who and what will still be around in five years. This is complicated even more by the ERP vendors coming into the level-3 solutions space with large dollars, beta product and no operations experience. The whole space is the like the Wild West. Lets start a pool. Bets any one?
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