Provia Tackles RFID in a Twofold Manner Part Four: Global Availability

These days when radio frequency identification (RFID) is constantly on everyone's lips, and when every relevant enterprise application vendor is hedging its bets towards becoming RFID-ready or is even convincing the market that its RFID-compliant solution is exactly what the doctor (such as Wal-Mart, Target, Albertsons, and the US Department of Defense [DoD]) ordered, the typically quiet Provia Software (www.provia.com), a privately-held provider of supply chain execution (SCE) software solutions, naturally feels the time has come for it to be more vocal about its RFID endeavors, albeit after it has already put so much effort in terms of the proof of concept in the field.

Most recently, at the end of May, Provia announced at the Distribution/Computer Expo 2004 in Chicago, Illinois (US) that its ViaView event/alert management and decision support product plays a key role in offering visibility to supply chain data for companies supplying RFID-tagged products to Wal-Mart and other retailers.

Moreover, at the end of March, Provia announced that it has aligned itself with its parent company of over fifteen years, Viastore Systems, a leading provider of automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS), and material handling control systems, with over 3,000 cranes installed worldwide.

However, RFID has not been the only focus in Provia's recent partnership and product enhancements endeavors. Provia might also stand apart from its peers in the enterprise applications industry by claiming that behind every one of its installations is a satisfied client. The company touts that its number one asset is that it keeps its commitments and delivers on time and within budget, and thus, 98 percent of its clients renew their 24/7 support contracts with the vendor every year. Aiding Provia on the implementation front are several integration partners, including general consulting houses like former PricewaterhouseCoopers (now IBM Global Services), Deloitte Consulting, and smaller system integration services firms like former Digiterra (now ciber), St. Onge, and Q4 Logistics.

Equipped with a direct sales force in North America supported by regional teams, Provia also reports strong presence and sales in South America. It has particularly been successful selling in South America's third party logistics (3PL) market, through its partnership with system integrator Tecsys Latin America (TLA), with offices in Chile, Colombia, and Venezuela. At the beginning of 2004, Provia further announced that its SCE solutions ViaWare and FourSite are now available as logistics software solutions to leading Caribbean companies through an expanded relationship with Provia's Latin American distributor, TLA. The initiative into the Caribbean region involved the collaboration and support of Provia, TLA, and also Roger Marshall, a supply chain service provider with over nineteen years of supply chain experience in the Caribbean region.

Discrete ERP 101

Process manufacturers (AKA continuous manufacturers), on the other hand, make products that cannot be disassembled into their component elements (ex: spray paint, whiskey, talcum powder…).

Both process and discrete ERP software aim at full integration of management, staff, and equipment. This integration provides a way for information from any area of the enterprise to be communicated to any other area, in real time.

However, a discrete manufacturer who decides to select a process ERP solution to run the business is headed for a world of workaround pain.

TEC analyst Alex Hankewicz, in his recent article on ERP solutions for “mixed-mode” manufacturers, summed up some of the differences nicely:

“[In general,] discrete manufacturing uses bills of materials (BOMs); process manufacturing uses formulations, also known as recipes.

A discrete manufacturer assembles products along a production sequence routing, whereas a process manufacturer blends in a batch.

In discrete manufacturing, a multi-level BOM is used to produce a finished good, indicating the base unit of measure with all the lower level assemblies and subassemblies featured below. In process manufacturing, all sequential steps are held within the product formula, including all relative secondary products. Batch sizes are based on specific units of measure and vary according to the formula and product yields.”

Discrete ERP software also focuses on the automation of such business processes as materials sourcing, resource scheduling, and customer order management. Potential benefits include improved workstation use and scheduling (leading to reduction of assembly line downtime), just-in-time (JIT) inventory management (thus reducing carrying costs), and a reduction in overtime. (Note, however, that JIT can be applied to process manufacturing as well.)

See TEC’s Discrete ERP Evaluation Center for more on the business benefits of discrete ERP applications.

If you are a discrete manufacturer burdened with a process ERP solution, you will be unable to properly allocate items to specific orders. Traceability thus becomes a major headache.

Furthermore, the overriding consideration for process manufacturers is quality. For discrete manufacturers, it’s quantity (with, naturally, a measure of quality control). A discrete manufacturer with a process ERP system will run into difficulties when trying to determine work station (resource) scheduling.