Leading manufacturing companies today are searching for any competitive advantage they can get to gain ground in the increasingly tight global manufacturing marketplace. Costs need to be reduced, risks lowered, customer responsiveness improved, quality sustained, etc.—wherever possible.
One way that manufacturers are achieving these and other goals is through leveraging the latest in software solutions, in this case the broad category of Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM) applications. MOM applications facilitate greater visibility into operations by enabling real-time access to information and the interrelationships of shop-floor assets, production activities and related enterprise / business systems. Through MOM software applications, manufacturers are able to view the full set of end-to-end business and manufacturing processes and optimize efficiency in operations.
The market for MOM has been established over the past decade, but it is still a space that benefits from clarification and education. Based on briefings with 20 of the top MOM vendors in the space, LNS Research has published its MOM Solution Selection Guide. With detailed analysis of each of these vendors, the guide aims to educate manufacturing decision makers considering an implementation using a set of key criteria to whittle down to a short list based on their individual company needs.
Each week, we’ve been highlighting a different vendor from the guide; this week it’s iBASEt, a Foothill Ranch, CA-based provider of high-tech software solutions since 1986 with a European office in France.
The company’s Solumina software capabilities are self-described as Operations Process Management Suite, and it includes: Manufacturing Execution System (MES), Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO), Supplier Quality Management, Manufacturing Quality Management, Tooling Management, and integration capabilities for plant floor, ERP, and PLM software. Solumina is targeted at complex discrete industries like aerospace & defense, nuclear, industrial equipment, electronics, and medical devices, and has many large and well-known customers in the A&D space, in particular.
As part of Solumina G8, the iBASEt recently released an integration package for PTC’s PLM offerings in an effort to better support the life-cycle of design to paperless shop-floor execution. This package supports closed-loop integration of engineering change processes between PTC and Solumina, which is intended to greatly streamline the management of design changes between customers’ design departments and production operations. This PLM-to-execution integration includes drag-and-drop authoring that leverages 3D design models and master data from PTC software. iBASEt also supports integrations with other popular PLM offerings - including Dassault Systemes’ ENOVIA/DELMIA and Siemens’ Teamcenter Manufacturing.
LNS Research sees this type of PLM integration as becoming more and more of a requirement for MOM vendors targeting the complex discrete industries, as it is critical to speeding product launches while maintaining high levels of productivity, quality, and compliance.
The company’s Solumina G8 release also includes a new manufacturing intelligence module that enables users to mine data from across the suite in order to reveal new insights into areas for continuous improvement.
Overall, LNS believes iBASEt has strong capabilities in both flow-based and cell-based discrete manufacturing processes, and a solution well designed for its current customers and industry focus. The company has a number of delivery and strategic integration partners, but still has challenges around gaining greater visibility in the marketplace, which will be important in expanding into other industries where the offering has a technical fit.
For a more detailed look at iBASEt’s software, capabilities, industry focus, and strategic positioning, click below to access LNS Research’s MOM Solution Selection Guide. The guide provides an overview of the MOM vendor landscape based on criteria such as specific functionalities, company sizes served, industry strengths, geographic footprint, technology delivery platforms and models, and time to solution value. The guide also breaks down iBASEt’s core attributes by current and emerging strengths and total coverage areas.
The solution selection guide and its full comparative analysis of 20 of the top MOM software vendors are accessible here.
LNS Research Principal Analyst Andrew Hughes recaps the recent iBASEt event around MOM, MES, and PLM.
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