Smart Manufacturing Blog

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Five Strategies for Streamlining Bidding and Estimating in Aerospace and Defense

Plex Team October 27, 2013

In many aerospace and defense companies, bidding and estimating is part art and part science – and one of the powerful series of strategies for driving profitable revenue growth. Add in how complex and different these workflows are across companies and the challenge of attaining greater accuracy and efficiency becomes clear....

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10 Strategies for Making Compliance a Competitive Advantage in Aerospace and Defense

Plex Team October 17, 2013

We define quality as a product or service that meets and exceeds customers’ expectations on a consistent basis. Accomplishing this in aerospace and defense — an industry known for its complexity and depth of compliance and quality management requirements — is an ongoing challenge....

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Meeting the Challenge of Future Growth Using Two-Tier ERP Strategies

Plex Team October 13, 2013

In speaking with industrial, high tech and commercial aerospace manufacturers, a common theme emerges: None of them have the luxury of waiting on reports created over days or weeks because ERP systems are out of step with strategic priorities. Their customers are demanding more responsiveness, more accuracy, and greater speed of quoting and order completion than ever before....

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Big Questions About Big Data

Plex Team October 8, 2013

Big data is everywhere. It seems everyone is talking about it, but there’s still so much confusion around it. To top it off, more data is coming in every day, faster than before, and in formats not easily synchronized. Businesses need ways to store it, access it and turn it into a competitive edge. But how?...

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Guest Post: The Turning Tide of Acceptance for Cloud ERP in Manufacturing

Nick Castellina October 1, 2013

Even though cloud ERP has been able to gain traction across most industries and company sizes, manufacturers have been notoriously slow to come on board. Manufacturers were first to utilize ERP itself, but have been somewhat reluctant to move away from what has worked for them in the past. I experienced this firsthand last year when I presented some of my research on cloud ERP to a group of…

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In Search of Speed, Stability and Security in Aerospace and Defense Supply Chains

Plex Team September 26, 2013

Staying competitive is often the No. 1 concern for today’s aerospace and defense (A&D) manufacturers. Key components to these efforts include successfully triangulating cost, schedule, security, scope and reliability constraints, all in order to improve supplier orchestration and time to market. But where to start? Many A&D manufacturers agree that the first step in managing these many…

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Record-Breaking Implementation, Made Possible by the Plex Manufacturing Cloud

Plex Team September 24, 2013

What do you say when an ERP solution is implemented in just a third of the time expected to go live? “Awesome!” “Unbelievable!” “Wow!” Or like the CFO, you might say it “exceeded my expectations” and that you’re “extremely satisfied.”...

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Five Strategies for Becoming a Demand-Driven Manufacturer Using Cloud Computing

Plex Team September 19, 2013

It’s time for more manufacturers to question what being demand-driven really means by looking at their businesses the way their customers do. Having accurate forecasting processes, a finely-tuned sales and operations process (S&OP) or being great at new product development and introductions isn’t enough. These are all great attributes, but they must be synchronized into a cohesive strategy…

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Evolution of the IT Department in the Age of the Cloud

Plex Team September 17, 2013

There’s no question that the cloud presents a disruptive technology that inevitably leads to rethinking – and often restructuring – the objectives of internal IT departments. An internal IT department – once considered critical to the success of the business enterprise – has, in many cases, become obsolete....

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Making Cloud Security a Competitive Advantage in Aerospace and Defense

Plex Team September 12, 2013

As aerospace and defense (A&D) manufacturers balance agility and speed with the need for ever-increasing vigilance and security, they are also facing the daunting task of keeping IT systems aligned with their changing business strategies. This conflict of speed versus security is especially challenging in the area of cloud computing....

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