Manufacturing All-Stars

Manufacturers continue to push the boundaries of the extended enterprise. As these five winners show, they are establishing real-time connections through hefty 3-D modeling applications, collaboration tools, sophisticated online parts catalogs or secure wireless networks.

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Team players

Emerson Process Management bridges the gap between 40,000 users on three continents with a highly collaborative extranet.

Introduction WINNERS BY INDUSTRY Education | Financial services | Government | Healthcare | Manufacturing | Transportation | Hospitality | More WINNERS BY TECHNOLOGY Applications | Convergence | E-commerce | Management | Security | Servers | Storage | WAN | Wireless Download complete list of winners John Gallant on being an All-Star

Emerson Process Management, a global supplier of factory automation equipment and optimization services, is an expert at making things work better. Its Enterprise All-Star project, an example of the extended enterprise, is a case in point. Spread across more than 600 locations in 85 countries, the company uses the latest in collaboration and content management technology to span company boundaries, connecting its remote design engineers, suppliers, manufacturing partners, marketing teams and customers. As a result, Emerson saves $20,000 per year for each supplier extranet, enabling a three-year ROI and net savings of more than $550,000.

Mark Heindselman, manager of knowledge network and information services at Emerson, launched the platform in 1998, the nascent days of content management, by implementing Stellent's Universal Content Management software. Since then, the system has undergone continuing enhancements to become a complete collaboration platform for Emerson's 40,000 users - including customers, employees and suppliers - who require access to product information. The crowning achievement of its extended enterprise occurred earlier this year when Emerson released its first product that was wholly designed within the Stellent system.

Content management in action

The Universal Content Management platform was fully leveraged for the launch of the GX Control Valve, a product of Emerson's Fisher division. The valve's design process began in 2002, and the valve was introduced to the market early in 2005. The development teams capitalized on the system's unified collaboration, document control and Web content management capabilities.

Five design teams in four countries were involved in the initial stages of the GX Control Valve project. In the past, multiple engineering departments would e-mail or mail drawings, specifications and supporting documents to all necessary parties, Heindselman says. Version control, workflow, document access and productivity were all suffering. "It just wasn't effective," he recounts.

The Stellent system was a virtual revolution in the way Emerson designs and manufactures products. Using the system required several steps. First, Emerson's design teams used Stellent as a Web-based, common repository for product design specifications, competitive data and other critical information. Every time a document was revised, team members received an e-mail notification, enabling immediate collaboration and feedback.