Manufacturers gather at the Visiprise Executive Forum

During the Forum, leading technology companies, including SAP and Visiprise, will meet with key manufacturing executives to discuss the issues facing global manufacturers. The Forum, taking place in Prague, Czech Republic, will provide a unique venue for manufacturing information exchange, as manufacturing executives from France, The Netherlands, Finland, Norway, Italy, Belgium, the United Kingdom and the United States will be in attendance to share their experiences. The Forum will cover the following topics: - The Global Manufacturing Platform: A True Integrated Shop Floor - The Importance of Global Lean Initiatives - Adaptive Manufacturing in the High-Tech Sector - Executive-Led Global Manufacturing Success Stories - Manufacturing Technology Direction and Roadmap “The Visiprise Executive Forum will provide a unique setting for attendees to discuss the common drivers that global manufacturers face today,” said Sean McCloskey, president and chief executive officer of Visiprise. ”The group will explore possible business strategies and technological solutions that will overcome these challenges.” During the Visiprise Executive Forum, Visiprise will also sponsor an IndustryWeek-hosted online event titled Achieving Operational Visibility From the Shop Floor to the Boardroom, featuring speakers from Philips Lighting Electronics, SAP and Visiprise. Presented in a case-study format, the online broadcast will take place on Tuesday, April 12, 2005 at 11:00 a.m. EDT and is free and open to anyone. The discussion will focus on what Philips Lighting Electronics, with the help of SAP and Visiprise, is doing to effectively deploy business and operational systems across its entire enterprise. Integrating all systems while still extracting the full value of each is often a daunting challenge, but Philips Lighting Electronics was able to leverage its enterprise resource planning (ERP) investment by implementing a manufacturing execution system (MES) that provides the missing piece in the shop-floor-control puzzle. Presenters include Frank Bouw, manager of Philips Lighting Electronics’ Global Competence Center; Kevin Flynn, solution manager for SAP Labs; and Carter Johnson, vice president of strategy and business development for Visiprise. To participate in the broadcast, visit http://www.visiprise.com. "Complete business visibility is an issue that is very important to all manufacturers," said Tom Duggan, associate publisher of IndustryWeek. "Hearing how one manufacturer has tackled and succeeded at addressing an issue as important as traceability from the shop floor up within a global enterprise can be extremely helpful to companies on their journey to world-class manufacturing status." Proceedings from the Forum are expected to be published later this year.