Shop talk

Factories look for network answers.

Envision a modern-day manufacturing plant and chances are you conjure up images of large robotic arms and other automated machines.

Ever since Henry Ford introduced the production line manufacturing has been about pursuing efficiencies, and for years now computers have been behind some of the greatest advances.

Today manufacturers are turning to a wealth of network-based tools for the next step forward, everything from radio frequency ID (RFID) tags for sophisticated inventory control and supply chain management capabilities to online business-to-business e-commerce exchanges.

But manufacturers need to face an age-old network problem on the shop floor before they can take advantage of some of these sexy new options: swapping out a plethora of incompatible network technologies for corporate-standard Ethernet and IP.

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Envision a modern-day manufacturing plant and chances are you conjure up images of large robotic arms and other automated machines.

Ever since Henry Ford introduced the production line manufacturing has been about pursuing efficiencies, and for years now computers have been behind some of the greatest advances.

Today manufacturers are turning to a wealth of network-based tools for the next step forward, everything from radio frequency ID (RFID) tags for sophisticated inventory control and supply chain management capabilities to online business-to-business e-commerce exchanges.

But manufacturers need to face an age-old network problem on the shop floor before they can take advantage of some of these sexy new options: swapping out a plethora of incompatible network technologies for corporate-standard Ethernet and IP.

The goal is a network that blurs the lines between carpeted company offices and tiled shop floors. Companies that achieve such integration then more easily can take advantage of innovations such as product life-cycle management (PLM) software to manage products from creation all the way through to retirement, potentially saving millions of dollars in the process.

"The basic lesson of networking in manufacturing is follow the infrastructure. Once it's in place the manufacturing plant will take advantage," says Bill Swanton, an analyst with AMR, who cites the adoption of Ethernet and wireless as examples.

MANUFACTURING What else is hot? A recent study by the National Association of Manufacturers and Ernst & Young LLP shows that 33% of manufacturing companies increased their spending on e-business projects this year. Of those, 6% increased spending by more than 15%. The initial drivers for investment are productivity increases and cost savings in the sales/service chain and elsewhere in production systems, the study said. The greatest process improvements occurred in customer service, with 36% of respondents citing increases in the effectiveness of their order-management process. The study attributed a portion of the spending increases to the post-Y2K drop in IT costs.

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Tangled factory floors

Today factories use many types of networks to control machinery, and those networks support an alphabet soup of proprietary and industry-specific protocols - such as the Manufacturing Automation Protocol, and the Control Information Protocol and Modbus.

The disparity increases maintenance costs and makes it difficult to harvest factory floor data, such as real-time statistics on production, for use in corporate planning.

As such, many manufacturers now are pursuing an all-Ethernet strategy, with office PCs plugging into the same infrastructure as the programmable logic controllers (PLC) that run factory equipment.

One such company is Newell Rubbermaid, the manufacturing conglomerate in Freeport, Ill., which produces industrial and home plastic goods, Calphalon cookware and Irwin power tools. The firm has had a range of network technologies in its factories over the years, including Ethernet and token-ring, and a number of proprietary control protocols. But Ethernet and IP slowly are taking over, says Dick Emford, the firm's lead network analyst.