Lighthammer, supplier of the world’s first and only Operational Excellence platform for manufacturing, and an SAP(R) xApps(TM) Partner, announced today that the Whirlpool appliance company has selected its Manufacturing Performance Improvement (MPI) composite application to deliver real-time insight into operating efficiencies through the SAP NetWeaver(TM) ’04 open integration and application platform.
Manufacturing Performance Improvement
Lighthammer’s real-time Manufacturing Performance Improvement (MPI) is a composite application Powered by the “SAP NetWeaver” platform. MPI allows users of the mySAP(TM) Business Suite family of business solutions to implement manufacturing performance improvement initiatives quickly, through real-time access to the wealth of data in existing systems on the shop floor. With MPI, this data is available in mySAP Business Suite as a data feed for Six-Sigma and other continuous improvement initiatives. MPI leverages Lighthammer’s connectivity to virtually all data sources in manufacturing such as control, historians, maintenance, and quality systems. With MPI’s easy-to-configure wizards, users can easily define metrics and “alert” criteria, along with the corresponding corrective action. Actions may be taken in any other mySAP Business Suite application to resolve an issue rapidly and drive operational excellence across all manufacturing nodes in the supply chain.
Customer Requirements
Whirlpool has made extensive investments in solutions from SAP and Lighthammer as two of its strategic application platforms – SAP solutions for ERP and Lighthammer for its Manufacturing IS platform. Jim Shimp, Director of Global Supply Chain Applications commented “The inclusion of real-time reporting of equipment and production line operating efficiencies through SAP Enterprise Portal will provide additional insight and benefits for plant maintenance managers, operations managers, and division VPs. The Lighthammer MPI xApp brings real-time Manufacturing Performance into our implementation of mySAP Business Suite, allowing business decisions to be made with a consistent, real-time flow of data from plant operator through executive management.”
According to Stephen Cloughley, VP Business Development, “Lighthammer’s SAP xApps Partnership provides tremendous value to manufacturing customers by bringing Lighthammer’s manufacturing performance management expertise into the SAP NetWeaver ’04 platform, enabling customers to improve operations with real-time shop-floor data.”
Background Information:
About Lighthammer(R), a privately held corporation headquartered in Exton, PA., is the leading supplier of Manufacturing Intelligence and Collaborative Manufacturing software products. Lighthammer’s Collaborative Manufacturing Suite, combines Illuminator(TM), the market leading Manufacturing Intelligence Server, with Xacute(TM), its revolutionary Collaborative Execution engine. This unique convergence provides global manufacturers with all of the capabilities required to develop and deploy operational excellence and real-time performance management applications. Lighthammer software is currently in use at hundreds of companies worldwide and has been selected by more than 100 of the Fortune 500 manufacturers as their Collaborative Manufacturing solution.
Further information on Lighthammer and its products can be found at www.lighthammer.com
