ISO 9001/14001 Updates and Plex Cloud for Automotive [Roundup]

Plex Cloud to service North America Lighting

Plex announced its win with both Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Manufacturing Execution System (MES) with a tier 1 automotive supplier, North America Lighting (NAL). NAL’s goal is to be able to gain the upmost satisfaction amongst customers by achieving the best in class of automotive lighting.The Plex Manufacturing Cloud to control the running functions for its manufacturing operations and ERP across eight facilities.

With integrations like these, we see complex manufacturing operations begin management from a single multi-tenant cloud-based solution that tightly integrates manufacturing operations with quality, supply chain and traditional ERP business processes. This drives cost effective solutions that can be rolled out across eight plants with a single instance of ERP and much of MES in the cloud. Any MES system is only as good as its users. The Plex solution, and licensing model, encourages broad use across all functions from shop floor to top floor. With this level of integration both vertically and horizontally across plants, the customer should be able to achieve a key goal of this program: enterprise-level oversight and accounting for all operations. To learn more about NAL's Plex adoption click here.

Smart Industry 2015 Event

Smart Industry 2015 is taking place in Chicago, IL this year on October 5^th-7^th at the Radisson Blu Aqua Hotel. The forum will cover ways to benefit from the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). Strategies such as building business cases, piloting IIoT applications, and enabling smart connected assets will be discussed in detail. One of the speakers attending the event will be Kevin Miller, the Principle Program Manager at Microsoft. Miller has been a part of Microsoft since 1995, and now leads the development of products and solutions for messaging and the IIoT. To find out more about the event and how to register click here.

CEO of the Year Hails from PTC

Jim Heppelmann, the CEO of PTC was awarded as the CEO of the year. Admiration for his leadership extended to the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council (MassTLC), which administered the title to Heppelmann during the 2015 Technology Leadership Awards ceremony. Upon receiving the award Heppelmann stated, “I am honored to be included with an elite group of companies who are positioning the state as a leader in creating technologies which are changing the world. This award validates PTC’s vision, leadership and product offerings to help our customers deliver value by quickly creating new applications for a smart, connected world in this Internet of Things (IoT) era.”

The organization was particularly impressed with an article he co-wrote with a Harvard professor, Michael Porter. The article explored the IoT industry and the impact it has and can have on organizations by reforming structure, processes, and development. It was published last October’s Harvard Business Review issue. To read more about the award and ceremony click here.

Updated Standards of ISO 9001 and ISO 14001

The final edition of ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 standards have been published. The refined edition starts the transition period, in which organizations have three years to adjust to these improved standards. The updated standards were long overdue, since their last revision over 10 years ago. ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 have been adjusted to better fit the environment of business and operations. When revising the standards, Risk Based Thinking was adopted to model leadership involvement and management systems within organizations.

ISO 9001 includes using the new standard as a fundamental part to the organizations exertions to achieve sustainable development and improving an organizations operational excellence (OpEx). ISO 14001 now contains environmental management system (EMS) requirements. This is presented with consistency to conform management systems standards. To read more about how ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 were adjusted individually click here.