One of the fun things about my job as VP of Strategy is that I get to brag about what we are doing at Plex to friends and acquaintances and occasionally total strangers. But inevitably they will…
There was a major brouhaha when word leaked out that SAP was finally burying its ill-fated cloud-based ERP system, Business ByDesign. I assume it must have been a slow news week because no one could…
I recently had the pleasure of traveling to Times Square in New York City to attend Saugatuck Technology’s one-day executive event, the Cloud Business Summit. The event brought together more than…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
The paradox of how much to spend on national defense and security versus social programs is a challenge all nations are facing today. Emerging economies are projected to be the most adept at…
It’s time for manufacturers to quit using analytics like a rearview mirror and more like a compass that points them in a more profitable direction. Analytics and business intelligence (BI) are the…
Bottom line: Security, suppliers’ ability to scale production quickly, and an intense focus on the cost of quality will dominate aerospace and defense in 2014. Deloitte is forecasting the global…
Synchronizing new product development, supply chain, production and Maintenance, Repair & Overhaul (MRO) strategies across Aerospace and Defense (A&D) manufacturers while reducing costs…
Business analytics is often the next evolutionary step after business intelligence (BI), which is all about convenient access to enterprise information in a form that is useful to executives and…
Automotive manufacturers don’t succeed by standing in place. In an industry focused on motion, today’s suppliers need to apply the same speed and agility to their manufacturing operations that they…