EVS Blog

Recently, I did a survey of the EVS executive team on their favorite iPad applications. My first victim was Nathan, a co-founder of EVS and is the main software architect and general brainiac of the firm. Here are his choices:

Zite (www.zite.com). A customizable newspaper. While Flipboard innovated this space, Zite took it to a new level of usefulness and user experience.

MyPad. MyPad is a Facebook app for the iPad. We’ve tried most of the Facebook apps for iPad and this one stands out for it’s user experience.

Thriller. Okay, you won’t find this one on the app store as this is our internal time/billing and expense iPad application. We’ve been experimenting with how database applications should interact with the iPad as a native app. What I’ve seen from this prototype app is pretty impressive.

Fruity Ninja. What’s not to love about ninjas samurai swords? Add to it that Nate is a Fire Ninja and you have the recipe for some real action.

As a side note, if Gold Rush Alaska had an iPad app, it would be on the top of Nate’s list, regardless of content or user experience.

The difference between process manufacturing and discrete manufacturing is most easily expressed by the types of products that they make. Process manufacturers make “goop” – stuff that is usually liquid (like beverages or paint) or goopy (like dough) or is canned/bottled. Ingredients are typically blended together, processed then packaged.

Discrete, like the name implies, assembles discrete parts to make a widget; like a desk, chair or computer.

If you need a catch phrase to remember the difference, here you go: process blends goop, discrete assembles widgets. Blend and assemble are key to the differentiators. You’d think that after 15 years in the industry, my catch phrase would be a little more eloquent, but it seems to work for people.

Another way to think about the differences in products produced is that discretely manufactured products can typically be disassembled back to it’s component parts; i.e. a computer is assembled and can be disassembled back to its component parts. Process manufactured items cannot be disassembled; try to disassemble orange juice or a loaf of bread back to it’s original ingredients.

As a reference, process manufacturing companies are typically classified under SIC 20 (Food) and SIC 28 (Chemical); as a side note, pharmaceutical and life-science is located under SIC 28.

I like to think of process manufacturing as having major categories of food and chemical and under each major category we have many micro categories such as bakery, dairy products, life-science, etc. I segregate the micro-categories by major functional requirements; for example, bakeries require formulation by bakers percentage and batch sizing by dough. Dairy products need to manage milk-fat percentage and micro QC testing and life-sciences needs to manage compliance issues such as systems validation and 21 CFR Part 11.

Maybe next summer I’ll do a series on the 10,000 differences between micro-categories in process manufacturing, but for this purpose just know that micro-categories in process manufacturing have unique requirements and a true process manufacturing system needs to be able to handle most, if not all of the requirements. To miss a major requirement of an industry would preclude the ERP from realistically working in that industry.

For example, a “process manufacturing” ERP software that doesn’t handle least cost solving, it should stay away from the metal melting industry and to a lesser extent some meat manufacturing industries, likewise if the ERP software doesn’t handle laboratory calculations in their R&D module, they should stay way from any process manufacturing company that creates lots of new formulations.

To continue reading this series, see the next article: Process v Discrete Mfg #2: Variable inputs, consistent outputs.

For most of my career I’ve worked in the process manufacturing ERP software industry as a publisher, reseller and consultant. In the beginning of my career, most discrete manufacturing “experts” declared that “manufacturing is manufacturing, you put in raw materials and get out finished good – it’s all the same.”

For over a decade and a half, I’ve been educating resellers, software publishers and end-users on the difference between process and discrete manufacturing as it relates to ERP. I’ve helped multiple-hundreds of people identify the proverbial “wolf in sheep’s clothing” as discrete manufacturers try to mask their systems to look like process systems.

To date, I’ve written dozens of white papers, a bazillion Powerpoint presentations and case studies explaining the differences but there is a seemingly never-ending supply of people who need this information.

So, with the power of social media, my summer project is to provide you with 51 blog posts on this topic. When I decided to embark on this project I easily scribbled 20 characteristics that I normally use to differentiate the manufacturing types. So to make this an interesting challenge, I decided to randomly add 31 more as a requirement for the task.

I hope the next 51 blog posts are educational and enjoyable (in a nerdy way) for you.