ng manufacturing. "Overlaying some Internet technology is not enough. Strategic errors are being made if the presumption is that the business impact of the Internet stops with buying raw materials, collaborating with business partners, and delivering customer products and services," adds Metcalf. 2.3.1.1 Serving the customer eManufacturing is driven by the new prominence of the customer, says analyst Leif Erikson, research director, manufacturing/e-business, AMR Research Inc., Boston. "The customer is still king, but manufacturers need to realize that in e-business the king has far more power and [providing satisfaction] requires much greater responsiveness from the production floor. For example, there's got to be some way of determining instantaneously, in real time, the ability to fulfill an order profitably. In eManufacturing, capacity and inventories need to be visible to the supply chain. Manufacturers need systems that can reveal available capacity, status of orders, and quality of a product -- not just after it comes off the line, but while it is in process." "Since e-business is really about connecting more closely with customers, operations across the enterprise, including the plant floor, must be synchronized," says Dick Hill, vice president of ARC Advisory Group, Dedham, Mass. "Due to the collaborative nature of e-business strategies, the plant floor has to be a full collaborative partner in the entire e-business architecture. Otherwise, ineffective plant controls quickly become the visible bottleneck," he adds. Metcalf emphasizes eManufacturing's competitive significance: "An e-enabled plant has as much or more strategic potential to cut costs and improve efficiencies as any innovation in purchasing or sales. Making that possible is a new generation of Internet-compatible equipment, including everything from PLCs with embedded Web servers to power-monitoring systems that can identify cost-effective...
